Unmasking 'Love Jihad': The dangerous impact of an Indian conspiracy theory

India’s Muslims have been accused of land jihad, population jihad, corona jihad… but the “love jihad” conspiracy theory is perhaps the most salient and divisive accusation to have become ingrained in Indian society, fuelling ongoing culture wars. 

The love jihad theory posits that the Muslim community strategically targets vulnerable Hindu women, seducing them and subsequently coercing them to convert. This baseless narrative has led to widespread suspicion of Muslim men who dare to interact with Hindu women. 

Beaten for speaking to a Hindu classmate or threatened for marrying a Hindu woman

Shahbaz Khan is a Master’s student in Computer Science from Khandwa in the state of Madhya Pradesh. A video where he is being beaten up has gone viral on social networks. The group beating him in this video had accused Shahbaz of accosting a girl and threatening to kill her if she didn’t marry him. 

Shahbaz said he knew the girl from his village, and that they were only talking about books.

We spoke to one of Shahbaz’s attackers, who belongs to a group called the “Hindu Student Army”. He confirmed that the group suspected Shahbaz of love jihad, described as “an Islamic conspiracy”. 

According to Raqib Hameed Naik, who runs the website Hindutva Watch documenting instances of hate and violence from the Hindu far right, Muslim men in India are being attacked and threatened for even walking or having coffee with a Hindu friend.

The consequences can be even worse for those who are in relationships with Hindu women.

Asif Khan and Sakshi Sahu have been friends since high school. Their friendship turned into a relationship and the two decided to marry in 2022. But the girl’s family didn’t approve of the pairing. They tried to stop Asif and Sakshi from seeing one another, even attempting to arrange another marriage for her.

When they eloped, Sakshi’s family accused Asif of kidnapping her. The accusation set off a manhunt in their town, carried out by police, local political leaders and members of Hindu nationalist vigilante groups.

Asif and Sakshi were able to get to a safe place and eventually got a court order for protection when a judge ruled their marriage as valid and consensual. But things back home took a turn for the worse.

Officials from the municipality demolished Asif’s family’s electronics business and tea stand, alleging that they were illegal constructions. Local members of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) demanded that the young man’s home be demolished too. Officials acquiesced the next day.

Asif and Sakshi are still living in hiding and fear for their lives. Asif’s family has been rendered homeless; they’re staying with another relative and are hardly able to make a living.

These two stories are not unique in India, where the bogey of “love jihad” has far-reaching impacts on Muslim men who have friendships or relationships with Hindu women. The theory is widely promoted by members of the Hindu national far right. 

‘Love jihad is one of the core pillars of their anti-Muslim rhetoric’

At the heart of India's political landscape lies an organisation wielding significant influence – the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). Founded in 1925 and inspired by European fascist movements, the RSS is a Hindu nationalist volunteer organisation with a sprawling network of affiliated organisations around the country. 

These organisations operate in all aspects of Indian life, from labour to agriculture to gender and politics. The RSS’s political wing is the country’s ruling party, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

The organisation follows an ideology known as Hindutva, or Hindu nationalism, emphasising unity among the Hindu population. But Hindutva has also been criticised as a supremacist ideology that serves to exclude Muslims and Christians.

Many influential leaders of the BJP have a background in the RSS, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah. The RSS's ideological guidance is evident in the BJP's policy agenda, which often aligns with Hindutva principles – such as the protection of Hindu interests, promotion of Hindu culture, and providing pathways to citizenship for non-Muslims coming from Pakistan, Bangladesh or Afghanistan – despite India’s status as a secular country since its independence in 1947. 

The BJP took power in India in 2014 with the election of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who was reelected in 2019. Today, 10 of India’s 28 states are also ruled by the party. 

The website Hindutva Watch has been recording and documenting the rise in violence and discrimination as Hindu nationalist ideologies take hold in India.

Its founder, Raqib Hameed Naik, explained:

Just in the last five months, we have documented more than 100 events and rallies attended by hundreds of thousands of people against love jihad in states like Maharashtra, which is currently ruled by the BJP. Love jihad is one of the core pillars of their anti-Muslim rhetoric.

BJP leaders have routinely been accused of inciting violence against religious minorities. And police have acted in turn.

“The police routinely arrested Muslims for allegedly 'promoting enmity between groups' and 'outraging religious feelings' for acts including offering namaz (prayers), conducting legitimate business transactions, consensually marrying Hindu women and eating beef,” reports Amnesty International.

India’s National Crime Records Bureau has recorded nearly 3,000 cases of religious rioting between 2017 and 2021. While the Bureau does not keep statistics on mob lynchings or vigilante violence, rights groups have condemned rising cases of Islamophobic hate crimes.

The RSS-affiliated youth militia Bajrang Dal is known for carrying out vigilante justice against Muslims accused of love jihad, cow slaughter or other “anti-Hindu” acts.

Naik continues: 

[Bajrang Dal is] involved in almost every act of violence committed against religious minorities in India. In the span of the last nine years, these groups have expanded their reach, influence and operations. 

Lately, they have been working on a campaign to arm Hindus by distributing swords and spears. They also hold firearms training camps and military-style street marches brandishing guns and swords.

The disinformation war

The myth of “love jihad” has been propagated online on Indian social media networks and messaging apps. False stories spread the narrative that Muslim men are forcing or tricking Hindu women into love or marriage by concealing their identities and then inflicting violence on them.

Some of the posts shared online fall cleanly under the category of propaganda. Cartoons depict Muslim men as extremists with impressionable Hindu women in their sights.

Other posts are clear disinformation, taking photos or videos out of context to push the false narrative of love jihad.

We spoke to Archis Chowdhury, a fact-checker for Boom Live.

As a journalist, I have seen love jihad claims pretty much everywhere, from social media apps to messaging apps. Lately, we have seen a surge in love jihad claims following the release of the film "The Kerala Story", which claimed that tens of thousands of Hindu women have been trafficked from India into ISIS [group] as sex slaves. And this is a completely unsubstantiated, unreported number.

There is no evidence of a ‘love jihad’ operation in India

The term love jihad first gained traction in 2009 when Christian and Hindu groups alleged a covert and well-financed campaign to convert girls to Islam in southern Kerala state. 

The Kerala High Court heard the cases of 2 college-aged girls, a Hindu and a Christian, who were allegedly forced to convert to Islam after marrying Muslim men. The court ordered police to investigate the allegations, but dropped the case after police determined that “there is no clear evidence regarding the operation of such an organisation.”

In 2017, India’s National Investigation Agency launched another probe into love jihad cases. Here again, the agency found no evidence of a campaign of forced conversions. One year later, the Indian Supreme Court also rejected the theory.

The Pew Research Center carried out an intensive study on religion, tolerance and segregation in India in 2021. The study found that fewer than 1% of Indian marriages are between people of different faiths. People of all religions tend to oppose religious intermarriage – particularly Muslims. Between 76 and 80% of Muslims said it was important to stop men and women in their community from marrying outside their faith – more than any other religious group.

Finally, the Pew study determined that there have been no significant changes in India’s Hindu population due to conversions. And there’s still no evidence that there is a widespread operation to carry out conversions through marriage – by any religious group.

According to Naik, the theory of love jihad is nothing more than “a fear-mongering tool” which contributes to the promulgation of violence against the Muslim community.

‘Muslims are being portrayed as a threat to the Hindu community’

The people we spoke to for this report are currently living in fear after being accused of love jihad. While Shahbaz was beaten and arrested, Asif saw his family’s home and businesses destroyed. 

There are no reliable statistics on the number of assaults that happen each year as Muslims are accused of love jihad. But being accused of love jihad can also be deadly. 

That was the case for Arbaaz Aftab Mullah in September, 2021. The 24-year-old Muslim from Karnataka was found stabbed and dismembered, with his hands tied. He had started a relationship with his neighbour, a Hindu girl. Members of a far-right Hindu group, as well as the girl’s father, were arrested after he was found dead.

Naik says that claims of love jihad are serving to further divide Hindu and Muslim communities:

In modern India, love jihad is one of the most dangerous tools used by the Hindu far right to stoke fear, mistrust, create animosity and normalise the acts of violence against Muslims.

Muslims are being portrayed as a threat to the Hindu community and it is being done so as to demonise, dehumanise and criminalise their entire existence.

The FRANCE 24 Observers team would like to thank Sarah Khan for providing additional reporting, research and translation for this investigation.