*Does love know Religious boundaries?*
Ram Puniyani
Communal politics, communal violence all over used women’s bodies as the
site of contestation and community honor. This is the worst expression of
patriarchal values inherent in the communal politics. We recall that it was
the presentation of a road accident between boys of two religious
communities that was propagated as an issue of the honor of ‘our girl’
being violated by the ‘other’. The Panchayats were mobilized; openly
flaunting the arms, and Muzzafarnagar violence was orchestrated. And that’s
not the end of the abuse of ‘our women-their women’ mind set. Post
Muzzafarnagar violence, UP is abuzz with various activities aimed at
polarizing the communities using this issue.
A Madarassa teacher stated that she was abducted and raped, by Muslim men.
She kept changing her versions and later said that she had eloped with her
lover. This Raksha Bandhan day (August 2014) hordes of RSS volunteers
spread in different parts of Western UP, tying Rakhi (sacred thread,
traditionally tied by sister on brothers wrist) to the people and warning
them of the threat of the Muslim youth wooing away their ‘girls’ for love
jihad. ‘Muslim youth teasing and luring Hindu girls’ has been made the
central part of propaganda in Western UP currently. While the Prime
minister states from the ramparts of Red Fort that there should be a
moratorium on communalism-casteism for ten years, his party colleague,
Chandramohan, a BJP spokesperson from UP says that “incident like that of
the madrassa teacher are a part of ‘global love jihad’, which targets
vulnerable Hindu girls.” In BJP’s parent organization, RSS, after the
shakhas are dispersed the volunteers go from house to house and tell the
people about ‘dangers of love jihad’ and need to protect ‘our girls’! ANHAD
report on Muzzafarnagar violence, ‘Evil stalks the land’ exposes the
falsehood of ‘Muslim boy talking to Hindu girls to lure them to marry and
so to convert to Islam’. Incidentally this was the major concoction around
which the riot was engineered. One Baba Rijakdas has come up in Saharanpur
in Western UP. He is supposed to cure the love smitten girls, if the boy
happens to be a Muslim!
The word “love Jihad’ which played a major role in mobilizing the Hindu
community for violence, has a strange history. As such the two components
of this word Love and Jihad, who so ever manufactured it, have a very
different meaning. Since 9/11 2001 the word Jihad has been employed in the
popular media in a very negative way and that meaning has by now become
part of the ‘social common sense’. Contrary to the meaning of the word
Jihad in Koran, which means striving, it came be projected as killing of
non-Muslims. The word Love Jihad must be a creation of an evil genius and
it has come to be used to further demonize the Muslim community. The
propaganda has been that some Muslim organizations are funding Muslim
youth, to lure the non Muslim girls, to marry them and to increase the
Muslim population. The rumor is being spread that youth are given money to
buy motorbike, mobile etc and lure the non Muslim girls.
While doing Google search, if you type, ‘why Hindu Girls are’, the other
sentence which pops up on the search engine is ‘are attracted to Muslim
boys”! Recently in Maharashtra, a group “Hindu Raksha Samiti” has been
claiming to save Hindu religion by breaking up the Hindu Muslim couples, if
the girl happens to be a Hindu girl. Not that there are too many such
couples, just a suspicion and these self appointed guardians of Hinduism
pounce on the boy. A booklet in Marathi on Love Jihad shows a Muslim boy
riding the Motor bike, with Hindu girl riding pillion. The word has been so
popularized that even a Christian group in Kerala allied with the Sangh
progeny, VHP to stop this non existing phenomenon.
In India the word began to be used in coastal Karnataka, Mangalore couple
of years ago, and in parts of Kerala. It was Sri Ram Sene founded by RSS
trained Swayam Sevak, Pramod Mutalik, which started attack on Hindu
girl-Muslim boy couples. The marriages of such combinations started being
looked at with suspicion and if parents were opposed to the marriage, Sri
Ram Sene would help to take the matter to the court also. The pretext was
that the girl has been forced to marry the Muslim boy. Funnily in the case
of Sijalraj and Azghar the judge of Karnatak High Court, went on to give
the ruling, that the facts (Love Jihad) had “national ramifications…
concern security, besides the question of unlawful trafficking of women,”!
So it ordered the Director-General and Inspector-General of Police to hold
a thorough investigation into to ‘love jihad’. Pending that, the girl was
asked to stay with her parents. The case was that of a simple Hindu Muslim
marriage and the girl stood to her version and refused to bow to the social
pressures. The police investigation showed that the notion of ‘love Jihad’
is a cooked up one with no substance whatsoever.
In a similar case earlier the Kerala High court while hearing the appeal
from two parents passed a similar order. Two Hindu girls had eloped and got
converted to Islam and planned to get married. Kerala court also ordered
the police authorities to investigate this phenomenon. The police
investigation again showed that there is no such phenomenon as Love Jihad.
The organizational promotion of such marriages is a hoax but has become
part of social understanding.
Shri Ram Sene propaganda stated that over 4000 Hindu girls have been lured
into conversions. This concoction was aggressively put across through
various mechanisms. This laughable, figment of imagination spread like wild
fire and frightened the parents. The trajectory of many of these girls who
initially state about their love for the boy and voluntary conversion,
changes many a times after they are forced to stay with their parents.
Under a sort of emotional blackmail, some girls give in and later say that
they were brain washed, shown a Jihadi CD and what not.
We have witnessed such acts in the form of propaganda in Gujarat in the
wake of carnage, that ‘Muslim boys are luring Adivasi girls’. There Babu
Bajarangi, a VHP-Bajrang Dal activist, who was also a major participant in
Gujarat carnage (2002), formed a goon-gang. This gang attacked couples and
forced them to separate if they belonged to different religions. All this
is presented as defense of religion! As such inter-caste, inter-religious
marriages are a normal natural part of a plural society. With rise of the
communal politics, these inter-religious marriages are being opposed very
dangerously. We have also the case of Rijwan Ur Rehman married to Priyanka
Todi, daughter of an affluent and powerful business magnate of Kolkata. She
was forced to turn around under emotional blackmail from parents and
relatives. The details were not known, what is known is that later Rijwan
Ur Rehman was forced to commit suicide. In all such cases the role of
police, state machinery, has been totally against the spirit and provisions
of law, the protectors of law acting to support the things totally against
the law.
Such campaigns against inter-religion, inter-caste marriages are not only
against the spirit of national integration they also aim to control the
lives of girls in the patriarchal mode. Women’s bodies are made symbols of
community honor. In addition the bogey against a minority is whipped up to
aid the divisive politics. It is a double bonus for sectarian politics.
Since in patriarchal norms women are regarded as property of man and are
made to live under the control structure defined by men, such an issue
rouses high emotions. The agenda of communal politics targets minorities,
Muslims at one level and promotes patriarchal norms at another.
Over a period of time, from being just a mechanism to control the lives of
Hindu girls, a tool to ensure that girls don’t have the right to choose
their own life partners, this phrase has been used to instigate violence as
witnessed in Muzaffarnagar. Most of the pretexts of communal violence are
cooked up, gradually manufactured. This term ‘Love Jihad’ by now is being
used as a dangerous weapon. Lot of messages on whatsApp and face book are
flying and relating the phenomenon as an international conspiracy of the
Muslims. On other side Jodha Akabar is being cited as the initial incident
of this phenomenon. Clearly one knows that kings used to have such
marriages as a part of political alliances, cutting across other
boundaries. How cleverly the popular legend of Jodha Akbar is being
manipulated!
The politics in the name of religion, the politics of Sangh Parivar here in
India or that of Taliban’s in Afghanistan, Islamic fundamentalists, or even
Christian fundamentalists all operate on the same wavelength as far as
crushing the rights of women is concerned. In line with this starting from
Sri Ram Sene, to Babu Bajrangi to those orchestrating violence in
Muzzafarnager, they all operate on the premise, that women are the property
of men and their lives have to be controlled. The truth is not the issue
here; the myth has been drilled in to the thinking of society. This social
thinking is being stepped up by the activities of RSS and affiliates who
are having door to door campaign to spread the venom of communal hatred.
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