The Bogey of Love Jihad

The term Love Jihad has been frequently used in the mainstream Indian media in the last one week and continues to be so. This term first made its appearance in the Indian media discourse in the year 2009 when some right wing Hindu organisations in Karnataka claimed that Muslim youngsters were luring Hindu girls into marriage with the sole purpose of converting them to Islam. These right wing organisations like Sri Ram Sene and many others tried to vitiate the atmosphere in coastal Karnataka by raising the bogey of Love Jihad. The media, in its never ending desire to catch more eyeballs found this term irresistible. Since then this term has been loosely used in the media especially whenever such allegations have been leveled by these right wing Hindu parties.

Communal tensions were tried to be flared up in Kerala also on charges of Love Jihad, but most of these tactics did not catch the imagination of people. But of late, these organisations are trying to whip up communal passions by using the same ploy. In the latest case of love jihad, Tara Sahdev, the 23 year old national champion shooter alleged that her husband deceived her into marriage, and then forcibly converted her to Islam. She also alleged that he kept her captive for a month. Tara Sahdev, who won the gold medal in the 2009 Eastern Zone championship, says that when she married in July in her home state of Jharkand, she believed that her 30-year-old husband was Ranjeet Singh Kohli. However, she says that during the month of Ramadan, invitation cards to Iftar parties received by her husband addressed him as Rakib ul Hussain. She says that her mother-in-law and spouse then forced her to convert, warned her not to share her experience with anybody, and kept her hostage for a month in their home. She claims that in August, when her husband was away to Delhi, she managed to send SOS text messages to her family who then rescued her. But her husband claimed that he is a Hindu and her allegations are false.

Now with her husband having been arrested, it is a matter of time before facts about this case will come out. Whatever the merits of these charges ,the disturbing trend of overplaying this issue in the mainstream Indian media has only gone on to help create more frenzy and allowed the right wing Hindu parties, most of them fringe groups to be gaining centre stage. With the recent victory of BJP in the general elections, these groups have got anew found vigor and have used all tactics to polarize the Indian society. Some of this can also be attributed to the coming by- elections in UP, where NJP scored a thumping victory in the parliamentary elections and it wants to repeat that performance in the coming elections. This is also one among various recent controversies created by the right wing parties in India to demonize Indian Muslims and create a sense of paranoia among the Hindus vis a vis Indian Muslims. Such tactics by these groups, clearly backed by the media also try to reinforce the image of the Indian Muslim as someone who is only interested in growing their numbers. This discourse is also about using the body of Hindu women as a battleground to further the bigoted right-wing politics in India.

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