Love jihad (orRomeo jihad)[5] is anIslamophobic[11]conspiracy theory[22] promoted by right-wingHindutva activists.[25] The conspiracy theory purports thatMuslim men targetHindu women forconversion to Islam by means such as seduction,[28] feigning love,[30] deception,[31]kidnapping,[34] and marriage,[37] as part of a broader demographic "war" by Muslims against India,[39] and an organised international conspiracy,[42] for domination throughdemographic growth and replacement.[46]
The conspiracy theory relies ondisinformation to conduct its hate campaign,[15] and is noted for its similarities to other historic hate campaigns as well as contemporarywhite nationalist conspiracy theories and Euro-American Islamophobia.[43][15][6] It featuresOrientalist portrayals of Muslims as barbaric andhypersexual,[29] and carries thepaternalistic andpatriarchal notions that Hindu women are passive and victimized, while "any possibility of women exercising their legitimate right to love and their right to choice is ignored".[2] It has consequently been the cause ofvigilante assaults, murders and other violent incidents,[48] including the2013 Muzaffarnagar riots.[49]
Created in 2009[50] as part of a campaign to foster fear and paranoia, the conspiracy theory was disseminated by Hindutva publications, such as theSanatan Prabhat and theHindu Janajagruti Samiti website, calling Hindus to protect their women from Muslim men who were simultaneously depicted to be attractive seducers and lecherous rapists.[51] Organisations including theRashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and theVishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) have since been credited for its proliferation in India and abroad, respectively.[52] The conspiracy theory was noted to have become a significant belief in the state ofUttar Pradesh by 2014 and contributed to the success of theBharatiya Janata Party (BJP) campaign in the state.[14]
The concept was institutionalised in India after the election of the Bharatiya Janata Party led by Prime MinisterNarendra Modi.[53]Right-wing pro-government television media, such asTimes Now andRepublic TV, and social media disinformation campaigns are generally held responsible for the growth of its popularity.[6] Legislation against the purported conspiracy has been initiated in a number of states ruled by the party and implemented in the state of Uttar Pradesh by theYogi Adityanath government, where it has been used as a means ofstate repression on Muslims and crackdown oninterfaith marriages.[56]
InMyanmar, the conspiracy theory has been adopted by the969 Movement as an allegation of Islamisation of Buddhist women and used by theTatmadaw as justification formilitary operations against Rohingya civilians.[58] It has extended among the non-MuslimIndian diaspora and led to formation of alliances between Hindutva groups and Westernfar-right organisations such as theEnglish Defence League.[6] It has also been adopted in part by the clergy of theCatholic Church inKerala to dissuadeinterfaith marriage among Christians.[59][60]
In a piece picked up by theChicago Tribune,Foreign Policy correspondent Siddhartha Mahanta reports that the modern Love Jihad conspiracy has roots in the 1947partition of India.[61] This partition led to the creation of India and Pakistan. The creation of two countries with different majority religions led to large-scale migration, with millions of people moving between the countries and rampant reports of sexual predation and forced conversions of women by men of both faiths.[61][62][63] Women on both sides of the conflict were impacted, leading to "recovery operations" by both the Indian and Pakistani governments of these women, with over 20,000 Muslim and 9,000 non-Muslim women being recovered between 1947 and 1956.[63] This tense history caused repeated clashes between the faiths in the decades that followed as well, according to Mahanta, as cultural pressure against interfaith marriage for either side.[61]
As of 2011, Hindus were the leading religious majority in India, at 80%, with Muslims at 14% an increase from 9% from 1951 while the Hindu population of Pakistan has remained at 2% and that of Bangladesh fallen to 8%.[64][65][66] In the 1951 census,West Pakistan (nowPakistan) had 1.3% Hindu population, whileEast Pakistan (nowBangladesh) had 22.05%.[67][68][69]
India has a long tradition ofarranged marriages, wherein the bride and groom do not choose their partners. Through the 2000s and 2010s, India witnessed a rise inlove marriages, although tensions continue around interfaith marriages, along with other traditionally discouraged unions.[70][71] In 2012,The Hindu reported that illegal intimidation against consenting couples engaging in such discouraged unions, including inter-religious marriage, had surged.[72] That year, Uttar Pradesh saw the proposal of an amendment to remove the requirement to declare religion from the marriage law in hopes of encouraging those who were hiding their interfaith marriage due to social norms to register.[70]
One of the tensions surrounding interfaith marriage relates to concerns of required, evenforced,marital conversion.[71][73]Marriage in Islam is a legal contract with requirements around the religions of the participants. While Muslim women are only permitted within the contract to marry Muslim men, Muslim men may marry "People of the Book", interpreted by most to includeJews andChristians, with the inclusion ofHindus disputed.[74] According to a 2014 article in theMumbai Mirror, some non-Muslim brides in Muslim-Hindu marriages convert, while other couples choose acivil marriage under theSpecial Marriage Act of 1954.[71] Marriage between Muslim women and Hindu men (including Sikh, Jaina, and Buddhist) is legal civil marriage under The Special Marriage Act of 1954.
Love jihad in politics has been closely tied to Hindu nationalism, particularly the more extremist form hindutva associated withBJPPrime Minister of IndiaNarendra Modi.[75] The anti-Islamic stances of many right wing hindutva groups likeVishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) are usually hostile to inter-religious marriage and religious pluralism, which can sometimes result in mob violence motivated by allegations of love jihad.[76]
Similar controversies over inter religious marriage were relatively common in India from the 1920s until independence in 1947, when allegations of forced marriage were typically called "abductions".[77] They were more common in religiously diverse areas, including campaigns against both Muslims and Christians, and were tied to fears over religious demographics and political power in the newly emerging Indian nation. Fears of women converting was also a catalyst of theviolence against women that occurred during that period. However, allegations of Love Jihad first rose to national awareness in September 2009.[78]
According to the Kerala Catholic Bishops Council, by October 2009 up to 4,500 girls in Kerala had been targeted, whereasHindu Janajagruti Samiti claimed that 30,000 girls had beenconverted in Karnataka alone.[79][80]Sree Narayana Dharma Paripalana general secretary Vellapally Natesan said that there had been reports in Narayaneeya communities of "Love Jihad" attempts.[81][82] Following the controversy's initial flare-up in 2009, it flared again in 2010, 2011 and 2014.[83][84][85] On 25 June 2014, Kerala Chief MinisterOommen Chandy informed the state legislature that 2,667 young women converted to Islam in the state between 2006 and 2014. However, he stated that there was no evidence for any of them being forced to convert, and that fears of Love Jihad were "baseless."[85] Muslim organizations such as thePopular Front of India and theCampus Front have been accused of promoting this activity.[86] In Kerala, some movies have been accused of promoting Love Jihad, a charge which has been denied by the filmmakers.[87] Bollywood filmsPK andBajrangi Bhaijaan were accused of promoting Love jihad by Hindu outfits.[88][89][90] The actors and directors denied that their films promoted Love jihad.[91][92]
Around the same time that the conspiracy theory was beginning to spread, accounts of Love Jihad also began becoming prevalent inMyanmar.[93]Wirathu, the leader of969 Movement, has said that Muslim men pretend to be Buddhists and then the Buddhist women are lured into Islam in Myanmar.[94][95] He has urged to "protect our Buddhist women from the Muslim love-jihad" by introducing further legislation.[96] Reports of similar activities also began emerging from the United Kingdom's Sikh diaspora.[97][98] In 2014, The Sikh Council alleged that it had received reports that girls fromBritish Sikh families were becoming victims of Love Jihad. Furthermore, these reports alleged that these girls were being exploited by their husbands, some of whom afterwards abandoned them in Pakistan. According to the Takht jathedar, he alleged that "The Sikh council has rescued some of the victims (girls) and brought them back to their parents."[99]
The initial formations of the conspiracy theory were solidified when various organisations began joining. Christian groups, such as the Christian Association for Social Action, and theVishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) banded against it, with the VHP establishing the "Hindu Helpline" that it started answered 1,500 calls in three months related to "Love Jihad".[100] TheUnion of Catholic Asian News (UCAN) has reported that theCatholic Church was concerned about this alleged phenomenon.[101] In September, posters of right-wing groupShri Ram Sena warning against "Love Jihad" appeared inThiruvananthapuram,Kerala.[102] The group announced in December that it would launch a nationwide "Save our daughters, save India" campaign to combat "Love Jihad".[103] Muslim organizations in Kerala called it a malicious misinformation campaign.[104]Popular Front of India (PFI) committee-member Naseeruddin Elamaram denied that the PFI was involved in any "Love Jihad", stating that people convert to Hinduism and Christianity as well and that religious conversion is not a crime.[101] Members of the Muslim Central Committee ofDakshina Kannada andUdupi districts responded by claiming that Hindus and Christians have fabricated these claims to undermine Muslims.[105]
In July 2010, the "Love Jihad" controversy resurfaced in the press when Kerala Chief MinisterV. S. Achuthanandan referenced the alleged matrimonial conversion of non-Muslim girls as part of an effort to make Kerala a Muslim majority state.[83][106] PFI dismissed his statements due to the findings of the Kerala probe,[106] but the president of the BJP Mahila Morcha, the women's wing of the conservativeBharatiya Janata Party, called for anNIA investigation, alleging that the Kerala state probe was closed prematurely due to a tacit understanding with PFI.[107] TheCongress Party in Kerala responded strongly to the Chief Minister's comments, which they described as deplorable and dangerous.[83]
In December 2011, the controversy erupted again in Karnataka legislative assembly, whenmember Mallika Prasad of theBharatiya Janata Party asserted that the problem was ongoing and unaddressed – with, according to her, 69 of 84 Hindu girls who had gone missing between January and November of that year confessing after their recovery that "they'd been lured by Muslim youths who professed love."[84] According toThe Times of India, response was divided, with Deputy Speaker N. Yogish Bhat and House LeaderS. Suresh Kumar supporting governmental intervention, whileCongress membersB. Ramanath Rai andAbhay Chandra Jain argued that "the issue was being raised todisrupt communal harmony in the district."[84]
During the resurgence of the controversy in 2014, protests turned violent at growing concern, even though, according toReuters, the concept was considered "an absurd conspiracy theory by mainstream, moderate Indians."[26] Then BJP MPYogi Adityanath alleged that Love Jihad was an international conspiracy targeting India,[108] announcing on television that the Muslims "can't do what they want by force in India, so they are using the love jihad method here."[64] Conservative Hindu activists cautioned women inUttar Pradesh to avoid Muslims and not to befriend them.[64] In Uttar Pradesh, the influential committee Akhil Bharitiya Vaishya Ekta Parishad announced their intention to push to restrict the use of cell phones among young women to prevent their being vulnerable to such activities.[109]
Following this announcement,The Times of India reported that theSenior Superintendent of Police in UP, Shalabh Mathur, "said the term 'love jihad' had been coined only to create fear and divide society along communal lines."[109] Muslim leaders referred to the 2014 rhetoric around the alleged conspiracy as a campaign of hate.[64]Feminists voiced concerns that efforts to protect women against the alleged activities would negatively impactwomen's rights, depriving them of free choice and agency.[71][110][111][112]
In September 2014, BJP MPSakshi Maharaj claimed that Muslim boys inmadrasas are being motivated for Love Jihad with proposals of rewards of "Rs 11 lakh for an 'affair' with a Sikh girl, Rs 10 lakh for a Hindu girl and Rs 7 lakh for a Jain girl." He claimed to know this through reports to him by Muslims and by the experiences of men in his service who had converted for access.[113] Abdul Razzaq Khan, the vice-president of Jamiat Ulama Hind, responded by denying such activities, labeling the comments "part of conspiracy aimed at disturbing the peace of the nation" and demanding action against Maharaj.[114] Uttar Pradesh minister MohdAzam Khan indicated the statement was "trying to break the country".[115] In January,Vishwa Hindu Parishad's women's wing,Durga Vahini used actorKareena Kapoor's morphed picture half covered withburqa issue of their magazine, on the theme of Love Jihad.[116] The caption underneath read: "conversion of nationality through religious conversion".[117] In June 2018, Jharkhand High Court granted a divorce in an alleged love jihad case in which the accused lied about his religion and forcing the victim to convert to Islam after marriage.[118]
In May 2017, theKerala High Court annulled a marriage of a converted Hindu woman Akhila alias Hadiya to a Muslim man Shafeen Jahan on the grounds that the bride's parents were not present, nor gave consent for the marriage, after allegations by her father of conversion and marriage at the behest of theIslamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).[119] Hadiya's father had claimed that his daughter had been influenced to marry a Muslim man by some organisations so she no longer remained in her parents' custody.[120] However, Hadiya claimed that she had been following Islam since 2012 and had left her home of her own will. Akhila was married to Shafeen by the time her father's petition was taken up by the court, following which her marriage was annulled.[119][120]
The decision of the court was challenged by Shafeen in theSupreme Court of India in July 2017.[120][121][122] The Supreme Court sought the response from theNational Investigating Agency (NIA) and the Kerala government,[123] ordering an NIA probe headed by former SC JudgeR. V. Raveendran on 16 August. The NIA had earlier submitted that the woman's conversion and marriage was not "isolated" and it had detected a pattern emerging in the state.[124][125]
The Supreme Court on 8 March 2018 overturned the annulment of Hadiya's marriage by the Kerala High Court and held that the she had married of her own free will. However, it allowed NIA to continue investigation into the allegations of a terror dimension.[126] The NIA examined 11 interfaith marriages in Kerala and completed its investigation in October 2018, concluding that "the agency has not found any evidence to suggest that in any of these cases either the man or the woman was coerced to convert".[127]
Despite drawing severe criticisms[by whom?], theSyro Malabar Church continued to repeat its stand on "love jihad". According to the church, Christian women are being targeted, recruited to terrorist outfit Islamic State, making themsex slaves and even killed. Detailing this, a circular, issued by Church chiefCardinal Mar George Alencherry, was read out in many parishes at theSunday mass.[128][129] In the circular (dated 15 January 2020) that was read out inchurches on Sunday, it is stated thatChristian women are being targeted under a conspiracy through inter-religious relationships, which often grow as a threat to religious harmony. "Christian women from Kerala are even being recruited toIslamic State through this," the circular read.[130] Further, Kerala Catholic Bishops Conference's (KCBC) Commission for Social Harmony and Vigilance, claimed that there were 4,000 instances of "love jihad" between 2005 and 2012.[131]
On 27 September 2020, protests occurred after a young Muslim man attempted to kidnap a 21-year-old Hindu woman near her college campus, and fatally shot her when she resisted. Her family said that he had tried to force her to convert to Islam and marry him.[132][133]
Many BJP-ruled states, such asUttar Pradesh,Madhya Pradesh,Haryana andKarnataka, then began mulling over laws designed to prevent "forcible conversions" through marriage, commonly referred to as "love jihad" laws.[47][54] In September 2020, Uttar Pradesh Chief MinisterYogi Adityanath asked his government to come up with a strategy to prevent "religious conversions in the name of love".[134][135] On 31 October, he announced that a law to curb "love jihad"[a] would be passed by his government. The law in Uttar Pradesh, which also includes provisions against "unlawful religious conversion," declares a marriage null and void if the sole intention was to "change a girl's religion" and both it and the one in Madhya Pradesh imposed sentences of up to 10 years in prison for those who broke the law.[137][138] The ordinance came into effect on 28 November 2020[139][140] as theProhibition of Unlawful Religious Conversion Ordinance. In December 2020,Madhya Pradesh approved an anti-conversion law similar to the Uttar Pradesh one.[141][142][143][144][145][146] As of 25 November 2020, Haryana and Karnataka were still in discussion over similar ordinances.[47][54] In April 2021, the Gujarat Assembly amended the Freedom of Religion Act, 2003, bringing in stringent provisions against forcible conversion through marriage or allurement, with the intention of targeting "love jihad".[147][148] The Karnataka state cabinet also approved an anti-conversion ‘love jihad’ bill, making it a law in December 2021.[149][150] The Congress-led government scrapped the law in June 2023.[151]
While campaigning for the2021 Kerala Legislative Assembly election[152][153] and the2021 Assam Legislative Assembly election,[154][155] the BJP promised that if it won the elections, it would enact a law that would ban "love jihad" in these states.[156][157][158]
The conspiracy theory is noted for its similarities to other historic hate campaigns and instances Euro-American Islamophobia.[159][6] It featuresOrientalist portrayals of Muslims as barbaric andhypersexual,[29] and carries thepaternalistic andpatriarchal notions that Hindu women are passive and victimized, while "any possibility of women exercising their legitimate right to love and their right to choice is ignored".[2][162] It has consequently been the cause ofvigilante assaults, murders and other violent incidents,[163] including the2013 Muzaffarnagar riots.[49]
In August 2017, theNational Investigation Agency (NIA) stated that it had found a common "mentor" in some love jihad cases, "a woman associated with the radical groupPopular Front of India", in August 2017.[164] According to a later article inThe Economist, "Repeated police investigations have failed to find evidence of any organised plan of conversion. Reporters have repeatedly exposed claims of 'love jihad' as at best fevered fantasies and at worst, deliberate election-time inventions."[165] According to the same report, the common theme regarding many claims of "love jihad" has been the frenzied objection to an interfaith marriage while "Indian law erects no barriers to marriages between faiths, or against conversion by willing and informed consent. Yet the idea still sticks, even when the supposed 'victims' dismiss it as nonsense."[165]
In 2022, theObserver Research Foundation and Indian government stated that no more than 100-200 Indians had joined Islamic State, a figure so low that one researcher remarked that "academics and experts often ask the question ‘What had prevented Indian Muslims from joining the Islamic State?'."[166]
In October 2009, the Karnataka government announced its intention to counter "love jihad", which "appeared to be a serious issue".[167] A week after the announcement, the government ordered a probe into the situation by theCID to determine if an organised effort existed to convert these girls and, if so, by whom it was being funded.[168] One woman, whose conversion to Islam came under scrutiny as a result of the probe, was temporarily ordered to the custody of her parents, but eventually was permitted to return to her new husband after she appeared in court, denying pressure to convert.[169][170] In April 2010, police used the term to characterize the alleged kidnapping, forced conversion and marriage of a 17-year-old college girl inMysore.[171]
In late 2009, The KarnatakaCID (Criminal Investigation Department) reported that although it was continuing to investigate, it had found no evidence that a "love jihad" existed.[172] In late 2009,Director general of police Jacob Punnoose reported that although the investigation would continue, there was no evidence of any organised attempt by any group or individual using men "feigning love" to lure women to convert to Islam.[172][173] Investigators did indicate that many Hindu girls had converted to Islam of their own will.[174] In early 2010, theState Government reported to theKarnataka High Court that, although many young Hindu women had converted to Islam, there was no organized attempt to convince them to do so.[174] According toThe Indian Express, JusticeK. T. Sankaran's conclusion that "such incidents under the pretext of love were rampant in certain parts of the state" ran contrary to Central and state government reports.[175] A petition was also put before Sankaran to prevent the use of the terms "love jihad" and "romeo jihad", but Sankaran declined to overrule an earlier decision not to restrain media usage.[175] Subsequently, the High Courtstayed further police investigation, both because no organised efforts had been disclosed by police probes and because the investigation was specifically targeted against a single community.[176][177] In early 2010, the state government reported to the Karnataka High Court that although many young Hindu women had converted to Islam, there was no organized attempt to convince them to do so.[174]
Following the launching of a poster campaign inThiruvananthapuram, Kerala, purportedly by the organisationShri Ram Sena, state police began investigating the presence of that organisation in the area.[102] In late October 2009, police addressed the question of "love jihad" itself, indicating that while they had not located an organisation called "Love Jihad", "there are reasons to suspect 'concentrated attempts' to persuade girls to convert to Islam after they fall in love with Muslim boys".[178][179]
In November 2009,DGPJacob Punnoose stated there was no organisation whose members lured girls inKerala by feigning love with the intention of converting. He told theKerala High Court that three out of 18 reports he received questioned the tendency. However, in absence of solid proof, the investigations were still continuing.[173] In December 2009, Justice K.T. Sankaran, who had refused to accept Punnoose's report, concluded from a case diary that there were indications of forceful conversions and stated it was clear from police reports there was a "concerted effort" to convert women with "blessings of some outfits". The court, while hearing the bail plea of two individuals accused in "love jihad" cases, stated that there had been 3,000-4,000 such conversions in the past four years.[180] The Kerala High Court in December 2009 stayed investigations in the case, granting relief to the two accused, though it criticised the police investigation.[181] The investigation was closed by Justice M. Sasidharan Nambiar following Punnoose's statements that no conclusive evidence could be found for the existence of "love jihad".[176]
On 9 December 2009, Justice K T Sankaran for the Kerala High Court weighed in on the matter while hearing bail for a Muslim youth arrested for allegedly forcibly converting two female students. According to Sankaran, police reports revealed the "blessings of some outfits" for a "concerted" effort for religious conversions, some 3,000 to 4,000 incidences of which had taken place after love affairs within a four-year period.[180] Sankaran "found indications of 'forceful' religious conversions under the garb of 'love'", suggesting that "such 'deceptive' acts" might require legislative intervention to prevent them.[180]
In January 2012, Kerala police declared that "love jihad" was "[a] campaign with no substance", bringing legal proceedings instead against the website hindujagruti.org for "spreadingreligious hatred and false propaganda."[176] In 2012, after two years of investigation into the alleged "love jihad",Kerala Police declared it as a "campaign with no substance". Subsequently, a case was initiated against the hindujagruti website, where counterfeit posters of Muslim organisations offering money to Muslim youths for luring and trapping women were found.[176]
In 2017, after the Kerala High Court had ruled that a marriage of a Hindu woman to a Muslim man was invalid on the basis of"'love jihad", and an appeal was filed in theSupreme Court of India by the Muslim husband. The court, based on the "unbiased and independent" evidence requested by the court from theNIA, instructed the NIA to investigate all similar cases to establish whether there was any "love jihad". It allowed the NIA to explore all similar suspicious cases to find whether banned organisations, such asSIMI, were preying on vulnerable Hindu women to recruit them as terrorists.[182][183][184][185] The NIA had earlier submitted before the court that the case was not an "isolated" incident and it had detected a pattern emerging in the state, stating that another case involved the same individuals who had previously acted as instigators.[124] In 2018, the NIA concluded its probe, after investigating 11 interfaith marriages in Kerala without finding proof of coercion, and an NIA official concluded that "we didn't find any prosecutable evidence to bring formal charges against these persons under any of the scheduled offences of the NIA", adding that "Conversion is not a crime in Kerala and also helping these men and women convert is also within the ambit of theconstitution of the country."[127]
In 2021, Kerala Chief MinisterPinarayi Vijayan stated that "no complaints or clear information were received regarding forced conversion", and that, of the data available to the ministry, "none of the figures validate the propaganda that girls are being lured into conversion and terrorist organizations".[186]
In September 2014, following the resurgence of national attention,[85]Reuters reported that police in Uttar Pradesh had found no credence in the five or six recent allegations of "love jihad" that had been brought before them, with state police chief A.L. Banerjee stating that, "In most cases we found that a Hindu girl and Muslim boy were in love and had married against their parents' will."[26] The police stated that occasional cases of trickery by dishonest men are not evidence of a broader conspiracy.[26]
That same month, theAllahabad High Court gave the government and election commission of Uttar Pradesh ten days to respond to a petition to restrain the use of the word "love jihad" and to take action againstYogi Adityanath.[61][108][187]
In 2018, a report by the fundamentalist Sikh activist organisation,Sikh Youth UK, entitled "The Religiously Aggravated Sexual Exploitation of Young Sikh Women Across the UK" (RASE report) made similar allegations of Muslim men targeting Sikh girls for the purposes of conversion.[188] The report was severely criticised in 2019 by academic researchers and by an official UK government report, led by two Sikh academics, for false and misleading information.[189][190] It noted:"The RASE report lacks solid data, methodological transparency and rigour. It is filled instead with sweeping generalisations and poorly substantiated claims around the nature and scale of abuse of Sikh girls and causal factors driving it. It appealed heavily to historical tensions between Sikhs and Muslims and narratives of honour in a way that seemed designed to whip up fear and hate".[190]
Previously, in 2011, Sikh academic Katy Sian had conducted research into the matter, exploring how "forced conversion narratives" arose within theSikh diaspora in the United Kingdom and why they became so widespread.[191] Sian, who reports that claims of conversion through courtship on campuses are widespread in the UK, says that rather than relying on actual evidence, the Sikh community primarily rest their beliefs on the word of "a friend of a friend" or personalanecdotes. According to Sian, the narrative is similar to accusations of "white slavery" lodged against the Jewish community and foreigners to the UK and the US, with the former having ties toanti-semitism that mirror theIslamophobia displayed by the modern narrative. Sian expanded on these views in her 2013 book,Mistaken Identities, Forced Conversions, and Postcolonial Formations.[192]
In response to a flurry of sensational news stories on the subject, ten Hindu academics in the UK signed anopen letter wherein they argued that claims of Hindu and Sikh girls being forcefully converted in the UK were "part of an arsenal of myths propagated by right-wingHindu supremacist organisations in India".[193] TheMuslim Council of Britain issued a press release pointing out there was a lack of evidence of any forced conversions, and suggested it was an underhanded attempt to smear the British Muslim population.[194]
In response to the purported conspiracy of love jihad, affiliates of theRashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh have stated that they have launched aReverse Love Jihad campaign to marry Hindu men with Muslim women.[195] Cases related to the campaign were reported from various parts ofUttar Pradesh (U.P.), where rape and abduction of Muslim women have taken place. The perpetrators of these incidents are alleged to be the members of these affiliates who are being rewarded by the affiliates for their activities. Between 2014 and October 2016, 389 cases of underage girls missing or kidnapped were registered by the police inKushinagar district, and a similar trend was found in a number of districts in eastern Uttar Pradesh, in areas with high communal tensions.[196][197]
The termReverse Love Jihad has also been used by theBajrang Dal to refer to the Love Jihad conspiracy theory where the purported victim is a Hindu man being "lured" to Islam with the prospects of a job and marriage to a Muslim woman.[198]
The Bhagwa Love Trap conspiracy theory, which alleges that Hindu men lure Muslim women into relationships with the intention of converting them to Hinduism, has been popularized on social media.[199]
The masterplot of love jihad is not just literary imaginings but also a potent brew of Islamophobia and patriarchy that harms Muslims and women. Akin to some of the post-9/11 rhetoric in the United States, contemporary Hindu nationalists propagate "a mythical history of medieval Muslim tyranny and present-day existential threat, demanding mobilization and revenge."
The fake claim by the Hindu right-wing that love jihad forces Hindu women to love and marry a Muslim man and convert to Islam is perpetuating an already existing anti-Muslim narrative in the country. The love jihad phenomenon has thus become a tool of hate and anger towards Muslims. Afrazul's killing by Raigher is an extreme demonstration of this form of hate and anger towards Muslims.
Heterosexual couples who defy caste and religious structures often face violence, some of which results in death through honor killings and lynching targeting specifically Muslim and Dalit men. For instance, the Hindutva campaign against what it calls the "love jihad" is an attempt to protect Hindu women from Muslim men, as the latter are imagined/blamed to convert Hindu women to Islam through trickery and marriage (Gupta 2018b, 85). Needless to say, these claims are unfounded and Islamophobic imaginations of the Hindu Right.
Muslims form about 15% of India's population and have suffered severe marginalization in education and employment, since the partition of Hindu-majority India and Muslim-majority Pakistan in 1947 (Alam, 2010). They have since faced recurrent riots (Varshney, 2003). Other hostilities include false accusations of love jihad (a conspiracy theory claiming Muslim men feign love with non-Muslim women to convert them to Islam) and attempts to convert Muslims to Hinduism by Hindu fundamentalist organizations (Gupta, 2009).
Vigilante action is targeted against what right-wing attackers describe as "love jihad," finding cause in the conspiracy theory of conniving Muslim men seducing gullible Hindu women into marriage and submission. "Love jihad" is a violent expression of the broader politics of regulating female sexuality—a core element of online Hindu nationalism manifest variously as shaming and abuse (Udupa 2017).
A Muslim migrant worker was bludgeoned to death and his dead body set on fire, with all this being recorded on video, while his attacker blamed him for "love jihad" — a phrase used by the extremist members of Hindu right-wing organizations to refer to a conspiracy theory that Muslims are forcibly or fraudulently converting Hindu women on the pretext of marriage.
One popular conspiracy theory shared by the Hindu right is "Love Jihad". This is the idea that Muslim men target women belonging to non-Muslim communities to convert them to Islam by feigning love. It is an invention to incite suspicion and hatred against Muslims in India.
They see themselves as warriors against what they call "Love Jihad," a conspiracy theory floated by Hindutva groups like the Hindu Janjagruti Samiti which claims that Muslim men lure Hindu women into marriage with the aim of increasing their own population.
This includes Jew, Christians and Sabeans (a sect that most Muslims believe no longer exists). Zoroastrians, certain types of Hindus, and Buddhists are accepted by some Muslims as 'People of the Book' as well, but this is a matter of dispute.
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:Dear Ian Blair, :As academics teaching at British universities, we are disturbed by your recent announcement reported in the Daily Mail (22 February), Metro (23 February) and elsewhere, that the police and universities are working together to target extremist Muslims who force vulnerable teenage Hindu and Sikh girls to convert to Islam. Your statements appear to have been made on the basis of claims by the Hindu Forum of Britain who have not presented any evidence that such forced conversions are taking place. In fact the notion of forced conversions of young Hindu women to Islam is part of an arsenal of myths propagated by right-wing Hindu supremacist organisations in India and used to incite violence against minorities. For example, inflammatory leaflets referring to such conversions were in circulation before the massacres of the Muslim minority in Gujarat exactly five years ago which left approximately 2,000 dead and over 200,000 displaced :In our view, it is highly irresponsible to treat such allegations at face value or as representative of the views of Hindus in general. While we would condemn any type of pressure on young women to conform to religious beliefs or practices (whether of their own community or another) we can only see statements such as yours as contributing to the further stigmatising of the Muslim community as a whole and as a pretext for further assaults on civil liberties in Britain.
Quotations related toLove jihad conspiracy theory at Wikiquote