Team Clarion 

NEW DELHI — Hindutva volunteers who are part of gangs that target interfaith couples vow to kill Muslim men if they indulge in the practice of “love Jihad”, a new documentary released by TRT World titled “Love Jihad in Uttar Pradesh” reveals.

They term the Muslim men marrying Hindu women as “Jihadi dogs” and say that they will shoot, thrash and cut them down to pieces and also kill their children.

The 14-minute-plus film uses telling visuals to show how Hindu men being given arms training including use of swords to prepare them for launching violence against Muslim men who they allege are waging a “Jihad” by marrying Hindu women.

These Hindutva men believe that by going after interfaith couples, they are doing a religious duty of rescuing Hindu women from being “exploited” by Muslim men.

“Love Jihad” is a bogus term advanced by Hindu right-wing as a conspiracy theory that Muslim men hoodwink Hindu women into love and marry for conversion to Islam.

The main character in the documentary is 34-year-old Pawan Rastogi, a leader of Bajrang Dal, a Hindu far-right extremist outfit that has become increasingly emboldened under the rule of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He boasts as to how his group is working to stop the practice of “love Jihad” by indulging in vigilante acts.  Interestingly years ago Rastogi himself married a Muslim Woman.

In November last year, Uttar Pradesh, the most populous state in India, enacted the law making religious conversion for marriage a punishable offense, with imprisonment for up to 10 years. The objective of the law was to put a curb on interfaith marriages involving Muslim men and Hindu women.

Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has stated that the law will bring an end to what he calls the menace.

Men like Pawan say they have access to police and get cases registered against Muslim men who attempt to “forcefully marry Hindu women and convert them to Islam.”
A Hindu woman Sheetal who has been separated from his Muslim partner said she had eloped with him on her own and that she was never forced to convert to Islam. She said she was forced by her family and police to separate from her partner.

In another instance, Owais Ahmad, the first man to be arrested under the new UP law that sparked huge controversy and international uproar, said that he was falsely accused of having posed as a Hindu. “I go to prayers wearing a skull cap.The girl’s house is 100 meters from my house. It is not possible for me to pretend to be a  Hindu.” Owais has since been granted bail by the court.

Even though the the Yogi government brought in law against interfaith marriages after a brash campaign and it is followed by several other BJP ruled states, investigations into such alleged incidents have found that in most cases, the decisions of Hindu women to marry Muslim men were consensual.

This article first appeared on clarionindia.net