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Weekly, Vol. 44, No. 51 (DECEMBER 19-25, 2009), pp. 13-15 Published by: Economic and Political Weekly Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25663907 . Accessed: 31/03/2013 01:49
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COMMENTARY
issue and its language to similar "abduc tion"and conversion campaigns launched by Arya Samaj and otherHindu revivalist bodies in the 1920s innorth India, todraw sharper lines between Hindus and Mus lims.Seen throughtheprismof a historical perspective, the dichotomy and falseness
The fakeclaim by theHindu rightthatthere isa "Love Jihad" which is forcing organisation
Hindu women to convert to Islam
Hindu right of theallegationsof the appear more It also starkly. points to how certain Inter-religious troupeshave been deployed repeatedly in They challenge various trickyterrain. norms and customs circumstancesby Hindu groups, different and arouse pas sions of religious fundamentalists.The where the body of theHindu woman has both claims to communi has oftenresulted become a site for "threat" of such intimacies and in "constructed" the honour,as well as for tyhomogeneity campaigns, expressing
anxieties and fears of conservative forces. In cracks within its articulation.
1920s Events In the 1920s, militant Hindu assertion reached new heights,especially in thecon movement to textof shuddhi (purification
notions appear deeply entrenched in such campaigns: imagesof Hindu women passive victimised at thehands of inscrutable
abound, and any
Muslims
Hindu rightis the alleged "Love Jihad"or "Romeo Jihad" organisation, supposed to
romance,posing themas one of thebiggest threats to cohesive community identities reclaim those who had converted from Hinduism to other religions)and sangath and boundaries. The latest in such constructs by the an (organisationindefence ofHindu inter ests)movements launchedby the Arya Sa
There were unprecedented communal maj.
have been launchedbyMuslim fundamen Muslim men to convert talists and youthful Hindu and Christian women to Islam and expressions of false throughtrickery
love. In Kerala, Kamataka and Delhi, or
clashes inUttar Pradesh.What is signifi cant in the present context is that in this period theHindu woman's body became a
marker
ganisations like the Rashtriya Swayams evak Sangh, Vishwa Hindu Parishad, Sri Ram Sene, Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad and Hindu Janjagruthi Samiti
in ways more aggressive thanbefore.The of orchestrated period witnessed a flurry propaganda campaigns and popular and demagogic appeals by a inflammatory sectionofHindu publicistsand Arya Samaj
to sharpen
communal
boundaries
have been holdingmeetings, distributing against abductions and conversions of Hin court cases, de du women by Muslim goondas, ranging pamphlets and even filing as an that the of from allegations of rape, abduction and part claring organisation,
Islamist conspiracy, has devised plans for elopement, forced sources to luring, conversion, Drawing on love and diverse meet ru compulsive and deceitful religious conver over young women. from clothes, abroad for marriages.
pamphlets,
novels, myths,
woo mobile phones and expensive giftsto olise the fieldof everyday representation. women Hindu and lure them away. The Abductions and conversions of Hinduwom a ramifications of such main de campaign for en byMuslims became one of the
fostering tones and hate, for its anti-women panic, over abound. for creating been
purchasing
and gossip, the campaign was able to operate in a public domain, and monop
terminants of Hindu identity and conscious ness in theperiod, providing Hindu publi
cists with a common reference point. The
human rights groups, student organisa tions and secular bodies have voiced
their concerns Hindu Cham Gupta {charu7@h0tmail.com) history at the University of Delhi. weekly Economic& Political DBS3 teaches At over this hate campaign one of organisations. the same time, as a historian, is
December
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COMMENTARY e
Muslim male abductor.They had extreme One was calledHindu ly provocative titles.
the campaigns
Hindu women were being circulated.The while focusingitsan presentcampaign too, on the receives itsemotional ger Muslims, It from victim. the is bonding impossiblefor
Hindu groups to conceive elope that Hindu or convert. wom Thus en can voluntarily every romance,
theOther.The luringofHindu women by Muslim men is stated to demonstrate the "lack of character"of the sexuallycharged, lustful Muslimmen, violating thepure body
of Hindu dus came women. In the 1920s, many abductions and Hin con to perceive
rage of familyorder and religious senti ment, strengtheningthe drive forHindu mobilisation. Allegations of abductions caused a number of localised affrays, and
even occasional
riagebetween a Hindu woman and a Mus man isrewritten lim byHindu organisations
as forcible conversion. It is also assumed
love, elopement
and mar
mere act ofmarryingand staying that the with a Muslim ensures that thewoman is leadinga dreadful lifeand her unhappiness
is ensured. Behind it are also grave anxieties
March Mathura in pur inJune 1924 and in was a it where that Muslim 1928, reported
in Kan
versions
of Hindu women
as a characteristic
Muslim activity. Such constructs had deeper historical roots. Even noted Hindi writers likeBharatenduHarishchandra (1850-85), Pratap Narain Misra (1856-94) and Radha Charan Goswami (1859-1923) often por medieval Muslim ruleas a chronicle trayed
Striking Similarities, False Claims In the unfoldingof the tales in the 1920s
and in 2009, there are certain common
ofHinduwomen adapting to Muslim ways. Hindu organisations are deeply troubled with fantasies about possible relations between Hindu women and Muslim men. ofHinduwomen as victims of false Portrayal not somuch topro love shows theneed felt
by restricting their movement, as various
Hindu groups has been that the conver sions ofHindu women are linked with en
hancing Humara Muslim numbers. A tract pub
of rape and abduction of Hindu women. The first generationof popular novelists in Hindi - Devakinandan Khatri, Kishorilal
Goswami and
started writing in the 1890s, depicted simi lar prejudices. Lecherous behaviour,high
sexual gious appetites, a life of luxury, and characters. These reli fanaticism were seen as the dominant stereo
Gangaprasad
Gupta
who
strophicdecline ofHindus due to increas It claimed thata number ofAryanwomen were entering the homes ofyavanas and mlecchas (termsused for Muslims in such
writings), and reading nikah with them, pro numbers. later banned, A ing conversions of Hindu women to Islam.
traits of Muslim
Muslims were strength typesof licentious ened, with new contours added in the
1920s. It was claimed that now
virility
and
prowess
to reas
and all Muslims were indulging in such Raza Ali, the deputy collector of Kanpur, was accused of abducting, seducing and Hindi press launched a virulentcampaign
against duction him, using the case to argue that ab to activities were not just confined concerting a Hindu girl. The vernacular practices. In 1924 there was a case inwhich
ordinary
honour.
of meetings
themselves
volunteer
crease their make people population and to Muslims. They roam with carts incitiesand put under theveil andmade Muslim). Pro Hindu organisations in 2009 too, have claimed that forcedconversionsof Hindu
women in the name of love are part of an to increase Mus issues at stake here are a picture of numerical international lim population. conspiracy The villages and take away women, who are
kon ko gali gaon mein lekar ghumate hain, parde ko dal Muslim aurat bethate hain (Muslims are making new schemes to in
to prevent Hindu women from eloping but covered were with Muslim men. Theywere particularly held against all of them.Meetings at railway stations. In Allahabad active Raza Ali. In 2009 too,Shahan Sha ofKerala con was charged forforcibly notices and appeals and Jaunpur, various abductingand Methula, a Hindu girl,and similar were addressed to Hindu men, asking verting women and them tokeep a watch on their charges were made against him.
low caste or loutish Muslims,
men.
of the
increase in Muslims but also to lamentthe nored. In Meerut during June 1924, hand supposed decline inHindu numbersand to bills,meetings and rumoursdealing with mourn the potential loss of child-bearing the alleged kidnapping and conversionof
December 14 19, 2009
Hindu women at thehands sivevictimised Muslims abound, and any of inscrutable ofwomen exercisingtheirlegiti possibility mate rightto love and rightto choice is ig
Hindu
man,
safeguarding
her virtue
fied. What
is a self-image
of a community
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Many Culprits It is ironical that the State and even the Muslim, additionalanxietieshave been cre were such generalisations hand in the conversions, 1920s, made, judiciaryseem tohave oftenbeen complicit ated of a foreign and almost everyday theHindu publicists and colludedwith Hindu communalists in and the Muslim youth receiving fundsfrom concrete todelegitimisesuch love. In the abroad to lure without Hinduwomen. Itappears that statements, published attempting with thephenomenon of proof, of abductions and conversions of 1920s, not only did local newspapers start when confronted sto Hindu women. The newspaperPratap of 28 to Islam, espe conversion from Hinduism giving more and more space to alleged of the ries of abductions law Hindus of Hindu women, kindofHin May 1923called theattention ciallybyHinduwomen, certain ofFyzabad to the seductionofHindu wom The politicsof yers and courts too provided additional dus lose theirlogicalfaculties.
venomous
Mohan
Kumar was
arrested, who
confessed
new dimensionsto the lovejihad significant fear, campaign. In the wake of terrorist threatofMuslim fundamentalism and in creasing images of a violent and virulent
en, generally byMuhammadans of thedis trict. And again, a pamphlet releasedby the
is inevitably shadowedby a space inwhich abduction and conversion cultural virginity a ranting be In could of with combined present innocence, produced. spectacles myth
times too, the campaign tions against "love of Hindu has organisa takers of violation, invasion, seduction and rape. jihad" some
Jawaharlal Nehru University,claims that 4,000 girls have been converted tillnow.
marry
vestigated. had
The
and
which illuminatescertain ruptures in the can now due to "false" love and marriages the besides of unlawful Hindu logic.They are expressionsof trans curity, question be made openlyoftenlegitimises their women". nation of of Questions pub trafficking gressive love.These cases belie the ideal of lic expressionand increases the threshold al security are thusbeingmixed up with a theHindu family and draw attentionto the case a a of public acceptance for them; this also of choice woman's simple girl exercising sexuality, needs and desires. The to makes are them "true". such women her under the law of the here Propagating guaranteed perhaps "using" the instru stories through pamphlets, meetings, land.The State and judiciarythus seem to ments of conversion and elopement as a rumours and everyday conversations fed by be aiding inbuildinga rangeof stereotypes mode of coping with, challenging and,
"national ramifications them, and sustains this as an active cultural, which, mar to an extent provide of Hindu the basic women. gram They therefore political, issue. of conversions
The concrete examples and storiesalso given in both cases have oftenbeen imag
ined, and there is sometimes tasy involved. Thus, 1927, Hindus converted spread immediate evi
have takenon a Hindu patriarchalrole for which is indifferent and even themselves,
intolerant to choices made that by a woman. more such ide Rep have It appears communication, has created and conversions. and events
polarisation. elopements
speech
crowds to inspect the alleged pervertand foundthatthegirlhad always been a Mus to thepolice, a Hindu youth accusedMus limvolunteersof kidnappingHindu wom en. This led to a search of theMuslim women, League officeto findthekidnapped which yieldedno traceof them. And inJune 2009,when AnithaofBantwal talukinKar
lim. In Kanpur in 1939, in a statement given
is always
phenomenon. to appear
a narrative of luring byMuslim male in the name of loveand Hindu female victimhood. In repetition lies itsstrength, and one of the
primary sources of communal power: its
order of rationality to abilityperpetually to renew itselfthrough ferent against efforts nataka went missing, several Sangh parivar as and its a and reiteration, authority supposed categorise, classify project homoge nised community identity. organisationsclaimed thatshewas forcibly truth and "common sense". Women, who converted to Islam by a Pakistan-backed were oftenperceived as victims Hin by the du communalists, professional"jihadist lover".On 4 October A Far More Complex Reality may actually be actors were held on the same. there are crucial continuities be and subjects in their own right protest meetings Though by choosing
on 21 October 2009, uitiH a serial killer tween the two campaigns, there are also elopements and conversions. weekly Economic& Political December 19, 2009 vol xliv no 51 15
sionsdue to loveormaterial and emotional needs posit a different world. They high the and light messy complexitiesof reality a the inchoate of ways life,suggesting dif
However,
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