A Critique of the ' Love Jihad' Law Enacted in numerous Indian States

 The Prohibition of Unlawful Religious Conversion Ordinance or the law against ‘Love Jihad’ is a piece of legislation that has either been passed or tabled in the legislative assemblies of close to a dozen BJP-ruled states. The verbatim text of the anti-conversion ordinance which has been passed in Uttar Pradesh reads as follows: “to provide freedom of religion by prohibition of conversion from one religion to another by misrepresentation, force, undue influence, coercion, allurement or by any fraudulent means or by marriage and for the matters connected therewith or incidental thereto.”

The nature of this ordinance indicates a marked departure from the normal procedure established by law, in that the burden of proof falls on the accused instead of the prosecution. In layman’s terms, one could term this scenario as ‘guilty until proven innocent’. The law also empowers anyone, including members of the family to level these kind of accusations against a person in an inter-faith marriage, further compounding the pre-existent stigma attached to such relationships in India. Multiple Muslim men in consensual relationships with Hindu women have been falsely framed and imprisoned in Love Jihad cases due to the government’s negligence while drafting this law.

Secondly, this law is in gross violation of Article 25 of the Indian Constitution which guarantees to every citizen the freedom of conscience and the right to freely profess, practice, and propagate any religion. The law curtails the right of an Indian citizen to consensually marry the person of their choice and seek conversion to another religion if they so desire. There are several factors which might explain one’s inclination towards converting to another religion. For example, a lower caste Hindu who has been deprived of basic amenities his entire life and ostracized for his social standing may consider converting to Islam or Christianity in hopes of a relatively improved standard of living. According to the rationale behind this law, a Muslim man who marries a lower-caste Hindu woman would be offering her the ‘allure’ of an improved life. Perhaps an expensive wedding gift could also be misconstrued as an allurement for marriage, leading to his ultimate imprisonment!

 

Anirudh Maniktala FYBA068

maniktala20@gmail.com