‘Love’ ‘Jihad’… Can These Two Things Happen Together?

GG News Bureau
New Delhi, 19th Jan. Love jihad… Can these two things happen together? The dilemma lies in whether this is a form of love-driven jihad or jihad-driven love. Throughout history, the world has often been unkind to lovers. However, the situation of Love Jihad is not simply a matter of love. Love happens naturally, without any ulterior motives. There is a heated debate surrounding whether Love Jihad cases should be considered as crimes or if they are being wrongly portrayed as such. This topic, like many others, has become a battleground between secularism and communalism.

This is not a political matter

Yogi Adityanath’s government has taken its first action against Love Jihad. His government exhibited courage by taking the initiative to pass legislation prohibiting Love Jihad. Courage had hitherto only been discussed. For the first time, it has been made lawful. The Yogi Cabinet has adopted the ordinance relating to this statute. However, no reference of Love Jihad appears in the entire law. The law’s drafters and the government have both stated that this is not a political issue. The Allahabad High Court ruled in a case of alleged love jihad that the freedom of two adults to choose their life partner is tied to the right to life and liberty provided by Article 21 of the Constitution. The court further stated that it does not recognize the two adults as Hindu Muslims. They have the freedom to choose their life partner and live according to their own desires. The High Court had already declared that the previous decision barring religious conversion for marriage was bad law.

There is no restriction on interreligious marriage

This verdict of the Allahabad High Court should be accepted without question. However, one question remained unresolved. Is it necessary to give up one’s right to choose one’s religion in order to have the right to select a life partner? If you love each other and want to spend your life together, where does the issue of religious conversion stem from? The Uttar Pradesh government has issued this ordinance to put an end to the tendency of religious conversion and make interfaith weddings more convenient. There is no prohibition on interreligious marriage.

Where the purpose is not marriage but religious conversion

The governments of Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, Uttarakhand, and Karnataka are preparing legislation to combat love jihad. Those who support this law claim that under the name of Love Jihad, non-Muslim ladies are being drawn into the trap of love and marriage, and their religion is being converted. According to him, the goal of these weddings is not interreligious marriage, but religious conversion disguised as such. As a result, legislation has been enacted to put an end to this practice.

Arguments from the ‘Liberal’ Community

Those who oppose this rule argue that love jihad is a fictitious notion. Its objective is to deny people the constitutional freedom to choose their life partner. These people are questioning whether the government will now dictate who should marry whom. m Because, in their opinion, everything the BJP does is done with the intention of fanning communal animosity. Overall, the main issue has been overlooked. Alternatively, we can argue that Yogi has assumed a new form. So the debate has shifted to whether you support or oppose the BJP. If you favour it, you are certainly communal, and if you oppose it, you are definitely secular. People in the ‘Liberal’ community are furious right now.

Where did it originate?

So let’s start at the very beginning. This issue was not raised for the first time by the BJP or any of its supporters, nor did it begin in any BJP-ruled state. In September 2009, the Catholic Bishops Council of Kerala said that four and a half thousand non-Muslim females were targeted and converted. The Kerala High Court stated on December 10, the same year, which this pattern has been ongoing since 1996. This includes some Muslim groups. They target Hindu and Christian females from affluent households. The court ruled that the government should enact legislation prohibiting love jihad. Following that, in July 2010, the then-Chief Minister of Kerala and top leader of the Marxist Communist Party, VS Achuthanandan, made an allegation that no BJP official has since repeated. He stated that efforts are underway to convert non-Muslim ladies to Islam in the name of marriage in order to make Kerala a Muslim majority state. Following this comment, the BJP asked that the NIA investigate the entire incident, while the Congress questioned the Chief Minister’s statement. In December 2011, the Karnataka Assembly discussed the subject of eighty-four missing females. After the girls’ recovery, 69 claimed that they were duped and forced to convert.

Why isn’t this law talked about?

Inter-religious or inter-caste marriages are regarded as beneficial for fostering harmony in any culture. That is why, for the convenience of such people, the Indian Constitution includes a provision for a Special Marriage Act. This law has a provision stating that if two people of different religions want to marry, none of them must alter their religion. Get the numbers for the number of inter-religious marriages that have occurred in the country since the passage of this law. After that, determine how many of these marriages were performed under the Special Marriage Act.  This law is a boon for people who do not intend to convert. Extracting both figures is frustrating. That is why no ‘liberal’ discusses the law.

Religion and secularism

Indeed, those who left a legacy of Ganga-Jamuni culture in Bharat have damaged the atmosphere even further. Vikram Sood, former leader of the spy organization RAW, has produced a book titled ‘The Ultimate Goal’ after extensive investigation. He wrote that “religion and secularism in Bharat has been a flawed discourse.” To be secular, the government should refrain from promoting any religion. Nor should it allow any religion to govern in accordance with its beliefs.’