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Islamophobic conspiracy theory: India's fight against the alleged "love jihad"

2020-12-24T07:49:51.321Z


Indian politicians are fueling fears of an alleged new threat: Muslim men are supposed to seduce young women into Islam. Now the first state has passed a law against it.


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Protest against the new law in Bangalore

Photo: JAGADEESH NV / EPA-EFE / Shutterstock

The police in the north Indian city of Uttar Pradesh have recently decided whether love between two people is allowed or a crime.

In late November, the state passed a law officially preventing illegal conversions.

Unofficially, however, it has a completely different purpose: it is supposed to protect women from the danger of "love jihad".

Behind the term is a conspiracy theory of the Hindu nationalists: Muslim men are supposed to lure Hindu women into marriage in droves in order to convert them to Islam.

The fairy tale of the blue-eyed Hindu girl and the predatory Muslim is nothing new.

But what once only radical factions took seriously has now made it into the Indian mainstream under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Hindu nationalist BJP.

Members of his party, including a state head of government known as a chief minister, have claimed in the past that Indian Muslims receive money from abroad to seduce women with expensive gifts.

Their goal: to convert non-Muslim women en masse in order to make India's Hindu majority a minority.

Up to ten years imprisonment

So far, they have not provided any evidence for this claim.

The allegation has already been investigated several times by the official side, and the result has always been the same: an organized "love jihad" does not exist in India.

Just as marriages across religious borders are extremely rare in India.

It could be even more difficult in the future.

Uttar Pradesh, where the law has now come into effect, is not just any Indian state;

it is the most populous in the country: more than 200 million people live here, roughly as many as Brazil has inhabitants.

Four other large BJP-led states have announced plans to pass similar laws.

Thereafter, a conversion must be reported 60 days prior to the marriage to the authorities who will review the case.

If it turns out that things were not right, they face up to ten years imprisonment or a heavy fine.

The burden of proof lies with the couple.

"The portrayal of Hindu women as victims of false love shows not so much a desire to protect them as a desire to discipline and control them."

Charu Gupta, historian

Proponents of the law argue that interfaith marriages are still allowed.

The law only prohibits conversions that involve deception or coercion.

It protects women.

At no point does it name Islam, but treat all religions equally.

That's true.

Netflix is ​​also in the pillory

But it is noticeable that the police have so far only acted against Muslim men.

The officials blew up weddings.

Women who testified to have married of their own free will were ignored and their husbands were taken away.

BJP politicians have never made a secret of who the law is targeting.

Uttar Pradesh's Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath promised in October that he would take action against the evil of "love jihad".

He warned those who "play with the honor of our sisters".

Yogi Adityanath is no stranger to India, but a political star.

He is controversial and popular;

so much so that some say that he has what it takes to succeed Premier Modi one day.

The law that was his idea is therefore anything but obscure in the eyes of the critics.

It's an essential part of the

BJP Reshaping India Program:

After the democratic institutions, public life should also be subjected to increased political control.

In fact, the Hindu nationalists currently seem to be of little more interest than the question: Who is allowed to love whom in India?

In the fall, a well-known jeweler pulled out a commercial in which a Hindu and a Muslim were married.

Users were outraged on social media.

Shortly thereafter, Hindu nationalists called for legal action against Netflix because, in a series on the streaming service, a Muslim and a Hindu kiss against the background of a temple.

"For radical Hindu groups it is impossible to understand that women would run away with a man of their own free will or convert for him," says the historian Charu Gupta, who has investigated the origins of the conspiracy theory.

It contradicts their image of a society in which everything follows its rules, even love.

"The portrayal of Hindu women as victims of false love shows not so much a desire to protect them as a desire to discipline and control them," says Gupta.

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Source: spiegel

All news articles on 2020-12-24

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