ENGLISH WEEKLY www.swapnilsansar.org Simultaneously Published In Hindi Daily & Weekly VOL.24, ISSUE 08,LUCKNOW, 14, FEBRUARY 2019, PAGE 08,PRICE :1/- Is love jihad really happening in India Agency.Love Jihad, also called Muslim organisations offering Government of India has banned both faiths. Women on both sides interpreted by most to include Romeo Jihad, is an money to Muslim youths for triple talaaq in India to avoid of the conflict were impacted, Jews and Christians, with the unsubstantiated campaign luring and trapping women were muslim men from abusing it and leading to "recovery operations" inclusion of Hindus disputed. defined as an activity under found. Uttar Pradesh Police in According to a 2014 article in the which Muslim men target September 2014 found no Mumbai Mirror, some non- women belonging to non- evidence of attempted or forced Muslim brides in Muslim-Hindu Muslim communities for conversion in five of six reported marriages convert, while other conversion to Islam by feigning cases" of love jihad reported to couples choose a civil marriage love. Reporters have repeatedly them in past three months. Police under the Special Marriage Act exposed claims of "love jihad" as said sporadic cases of trickery by of 1954. Marriage between at best fevered fantasies and unscrupulous men are not Muslim women Hindu men frenzy objections about interfaith evidence of a broader conspiracy. (including Sikh, Jaina and marriages and at worst, In 2017, after the Kerala High Buddhist) is legal civil marriage deliberate election-time Court ruled that a marriage of a under The Special Marriage Act inventions and a campaign to Hindu woman to a Muslim man of 1954. spread religious hatred and false was invalid on the basis of love Allegations of Love Jihad first anti-religious propaganda.The jihad, and an appeal was filed in rose to national awareness in origin of the word is unknown the Supreme Court of India by the September 2009. Love Jihad was but attributed to the far-right Muslim husband where court, initially alleged to be conducted groups. There is no official based on the "unbiased and in Kerala and Mangalore in the evidence supporting these independent" evidence requested coastal Karnataka region. claims.The concept rose to by the court from NIA, instructed According to the Kerala Catholic national attention in India in NIA to investigate all similar Bishops Council, by October 2009 with alleged conversions in cases for establishing the pattern 2009 up to 4,500 girls in Kerala Kerala and Karnataka. of love jihad. It allowed NIA to giving their wives, irrespective of by both the Indian and Pakistani had been targeted, whereas In November 2009, DGP Jacob explore all similar suspicious the wife's religion, instant governments of these women, Hindu Janajagruti Samiti claimed Punnoose stated there was no incidences to find whether divorce - it is being seen as a with over 20,000 Muslim and that 30,000 girls had been organisation whose members banned organisations, such as mechanism to avoid muslim men 9,000 non-Muslim women being converted in Karnataka alone. lured girls in Kerala by feigning SIMI, are preying on vulnerable from abusing it for "love jihad". recovered between 1947 and Alleged incidents spread. Sree love with the intention of Hindu women to recruit them as India has been religiously 1956. This tense history caused Narayana Dharma Paripalana Kerala and Karnataka. of love jihad. It allowed NIA to giving their wives, irrespective of by both the Indian and Pakistani had been targeted, whereas In November 2009, DGP Jacob explore all similar suspicious the wife's religion, instant governments of these women, Hindu Janajagruti Samiti claimed Punnoose stated there was no incidences to find whether divorce - it is being seen as a with over 20,000 Muslim and that 30,000 girls had been organisation whose members banned organisations, such as mechanism to avoid muslim men 9,000 non-Muslim women being converted in Karnataka alone. lured girls in Kerala by feigning SIMI, are preying on vulnerable from abusing it for "love jihad". recovered between 1947 and Alleged incidents spread. Sree love with the intention of Hindu women to recruit them as India has been religiously 1956. This tense history caused Narayana Dharma Paripalana converting. He told the Kerala terrorists. NIA had earlier pluralistic for centuries. This map repeated clashes between the general secretary Vellapally High Court that 3 out of 18 reports submitted before the court that from 1909 shows Muslim regions faiths in the decades that Natesan said that there had been he received expressed some the case wasn't an "isolated" in the northwest in green mixing followed as well, according to reports in Narayaneeya doubts about the tendency. incident and it had detected a with Hindu regions stretching Mahanta, as cultural pressure communities of "Love Jihad" However, in absence of solid pattern emerging in the state, across most of the region into against interfaith marriage for attempts.Reports of similar proof the investigations were still stating that another case Buddhist Burma. either side. activities have also emerged from continuing.In December 2009, involved the same people who The Oxford Handbook of As of 2014, Hindus were the Pakistan and the United Justice K.T. Sankaran who acted as instigators. Religious Conversion notes that leading religious majority in Kingdom.According to an refused to accept Punnoose's The concept first rose to national the effectiveness of emotional India, at 81%, with Muslims at opinion piece by Liberal Politics report concluded from a case attention in India in 2009, with appeals in converting people 13%. blogger Sunny Hundal, "In the diary that there were indications claims of widespread from one faith to another is well India has a long tradition of 90s, an anonymous leaflet of forceful conversions and conversions in Kerala and known and often exploited by arranged marriages, wherein the (suspected to be by Hizb ut-Tahrir stated it was clear from police Karnataka, but claims have religious leaders. Religious bride and groom do not self- followers) urged Muslim men to reports there was a "concerted subsequently spread throughout groups have utilized techniques select their partners. Through the seduce Sikh girls to convert them effort" to convert women with India and beyond, into Pakistan like love bombing and Flirty 2000s and 2010s, India to Islam." "blessings of some outfits". The and the United Kingdom. With Fishing to interest potential witnessed a rise in love In 2014, reports have originated court while hearing bail plea of waves of publicity in 2009, 2010, recruits. Love Jihad is an alleged marriages, although tensions from diverse regions, including two accused in "love jihad" cases 2011 and 2014, the allegations activity wherein Muslim youth continue around interfaith Bihar,Kanpur, Gwalior, and stated that there had been 3,000- of Love Jihad in India have raised utilize such emotional appeals, marriages, along with other England. 4,000 such conversions in past concerns in various Hindu, Sikh using charm to entice girls into traditionally discouraged unions. The Sikh Council received four years. The Kerala High Court and Christian organizations, conversion by feigning love – in In 2012, The Hindu reported that reports in 2014 that girls from in December 2009 stayed while Muslim organisations have some reports, as an organized, illegal intimidation against British Sikh families were investigations in the case, denied the allegations. The funded behavior. consenting couples engaging in becoming victims of Love Jihad. granting relief to the two accused concept has remained a source of In a piece picked up by the such discouraged unions, Furthermore, these reports stated though it criticised police political contention and social Chicago Tribune, Foreign Policy including inter-religious that these girls were being investigations. The investigation concern for many, although as of correspondent Siddhartha marriage, had surged. That year, exploited by their husbands, was closed by Justice M. 2014 the idea of an organized Mahanta reports that the modern Uttar Pradesh saw the proposal of some of whom afterwards Sasidharan Nambiar following Love Jihad was still widely Love Jihad conspiracy has roots an amendment to remove the abandoned them in Pakistan. Punnoose's statements that no regarded as a conspiracy theory in the 1947 partition of India. requirement to declare religion According to the Takht jathedar, conclusive evidence could be by the Indian mainstream, This partition led to the creation from the marriage law in hopes "The Sikh council has rescued found for existence of "love according to Reuters. In August of the sovereign states of the of encouraging those who were some of the victims (girls) and jihad". 2017 the National Investigation Dominion of Pakistan (it later hiding their interfaith marriage brought them back to their The Karnataka government Agency (NIA) stated that it had split into the Islamic Republic of due to social norms to register. parents." stated in 2010 that although a found a common mentor in some Pakistan and the People's One of the tensions surrounding The fundamentalist Muslim large number of women had love jihad cases in August Republic of Bangladesh) and the interfaith marriage relates to organization Popular Front of converted to Islam, there was no 2017.According to a later article Union of India (later Republic of concerns of required, even forced, India and the Campus Front have organized attempt to convince in The Economist, "Repeated India). The creation of two marital conversion. Marriage in been accused of promoting this them to do so.In 2012, after two police investigations have failed countries with different majority Islam is a legal contract with activity.In Kerala, some movies years of investigation into the to find evidence of any organised religions led to large-scale requirements around the have been accused of promoting alleged love jihad, Kerala Police plan of conversion.