What the right wing propaganda on 'love jihad' is really against: Humanity

While the right wing propaganda on ‘love-jihad’, the alleged Muslim project of luring Hindu girls into marriage and religious conversion, rages in UP and elsewhere in India, in the distant land of Kerala, a group of films makers are immortalising a legendary Hindu-Muslim love story. The story of the film, titled “Ennu Ninte Moideen” (Yours truly Moideen), originated in the 1960s in northern Kerala and continues even today. It’s an inter-faith love story that several generations of people celebrated in Malabar, which they do it even today because it was pristine and defied conventions and religious barriers. The lovers, Moideen, a Muslim and Kanchanamala, a Hindu, could never marry, but that didn’t prevent them from expressing and celebrating their love for each other. Moideen died at the age of 42, in an accident while trying to save people from a boat tragedy while a heart-broken Kanchanamala continued to live with his memories as the driving force in her life. When Moideen and Kanchanamala were in love, their families were opposed to a marriage, but local people knew that they were in love. Instead of decrying their relationship as Moideen’s ‘love-jihad’ project, people around them - both Muslims and Hindus - celebrated it. They were the love-birds that people aspired to emulate. Today, one of Kerala’s top actors, incidentally a Hindu, is enacting the role of Moideen and the movie has created enormous pre-production hype across the state. [caption id=“attachment_1759595” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representational image. Reuters.[/caption] I’m bringing Kerala into the love-jihad controversy yet again because it’s a state where Muslims constitute about 24 per cent of the population and four districts have more than 30 per cent Muslims. It’s a state where inter-religious and inter-caste marriages are very common and it’s also a state where allegations of ‘love-jihad’ first appeared, but was defeated by the people as well as the judiciary. That between 2006 and 2012, about 2600 Hindu girls and about 440 Christian girls were converted into Islam is not an indication of a ‘love-jihad’, but the increasing acceptance of inter-religious marriages. Although data on the number of Hindu-Christian marriages are not available, anecdotal information shows that it’s only on the increase. Interestingly, it has even led to a new cultural practice of two weddings (Hindu as well as Christian) for the same couple so that the communities and families stay happy. It’s a sign of increasing religious tolerance. If Kerala, with a substantial Muslim population, could defeat the ‘love-jihad’ propaganda, the rest of India too should be able to do it with a little improvement in the tolerance of other faiths. Kerala too has its share of bigots from all religions, but the progressive socio-cultural environment trumped their hate speech and propaganda. On Wednesday, two events brought the issue of ‘love-jihad’ into the main pages of the media - the stopping of a court wedding of a Muslim boy and Hindu girl by right wing activists in Madhya Pradesh and film actor Saif Ali Khan’s article on the alleged practice. The right wing activists in Bhopal alleged that the Muslim boy was uneducated and had lured the girl into marriage for possible conversion. Shockingly, they could stop the wedding and hand over the girl to the police. Writing from elsewhere, Saif called the term a “complication created in India”. He nailed it when he said, “Intermarriage is not jihad. Intermarriage is India. India is a mix. Ambedkar said the only way to annihilate caste is intermarriage.” Saif, although his elite urban class protects him from religious bigotry and the influence of clerics, recalled that he himself was a product of a Muslim-Hindu marriage. His marriage with actor Kareena Kapoor had generated considerable hatred on the internet with people referring to ‘love-jihad’. “When Kareena and I married, there were similar death threats, with people on the Net saying ridiculous things about ‘love jihad’. We follow whatever religion or spiritual practice we believe in. We talk about them and respect each other’s views. I hope our children will do the same,” he said. Saif has an advice for people who prefer interfaith marriages to dispel allegations of religious conversion - a wedding under the Special Marriages Act. As he says, one doesn’t need to stick to any religion or convert to marry a person of another religion, but can opt for a legal wedding under this Act. It’s very simple and requires only a notice period of one month. “The good news is that no one needs to convert from their religion to get married. The Special Marriage Act, when applicable, is the paramount law of the land. If you marry under this, it is upheld over any religious law. It is truly secular.” Besides intense suspicion and religious hatred, what the religious fanatics had been able to do with their propaganda is straining and even destroying human relationships. As Saif said, “we grew up on real-life romantic stories about our elders marrying for love and not worrying too much about tradition. And we were brought up to believe that god is one, with many names.” It’s time that we looked at traditions and relationships differently. The bogey of love-jihad really kills immortal love stories.