How Is 'Love Jihad' Connected to Caste? A New Book Explains

(Disclaimer: These are some bits — published as is, with permission — from professor and writer Sameena Dalwai's new book 'Love Jihad: A Feminist Retelling.' This only provides a glimpse into the book which has these full chapters).The love jihad trope uses Hindu women to reinforce the enemy figure of Muslim men. These two identities are hyper-visible in this discourse. Hindu women are presented as pure, protected and cherished by family until they are lured away. Muslim men are represented as dishonest, vile and dangerous, plotting to take away Hindu women.The Muslim community as a whole is seen as archaic and anti-women. Hence the discourse is that if they married a Muslim, Hindu women would be destined to live a life of bondage and regret.This book challenges these assumptions.For Indian women, crossing over the line, the Lakshman Rekha, is a jihad. They must live out their lives within the space marked out for them by a society severely prejudiced stifling and unfair, even against them. Those boundaries are cruel. However, they are known by benign terms of family honour, community tradition and Indian culture. Patriarchy is a cunning system. It makes women carry their shackles like ornaments. Then any woman trying to disregard them can be seen as being rebellious, a jihadi.FIR Filed After Assault On Muslim Man Over ‘Love Jihad’ In BhopalFollowing love is just one type of jihad. Being out on the streets or in pubs, wearing different types of clothes, earning more than the husbands, asking for property shares from brothers could all be construed as jihad. All these actions are utterly normal for men, as mobility, property rights, career and ambition are all 'natural' for them. For women those same things are extraordinary and rebellious. Being a woman, and expecting self-determination, is jihad indeed.Why a chapter on caste in a book on love jihad? How are they connected?The violent rejection of pratiloma unions and honour killing in inter-caste or intra-gotra marriages existed long before the inception of the love jihad trope. As caste was maintained through women, their subordination and refusal of their autonomy is key in all these discourses.Two things are new in the love jihad propaganda. One, the replacement of the abhorred Dalit man by the feared Muslim man. Two, the denial of the existence of caste.The lack of internal strife then unites all Hindus against the external enemy, the Muslim. In this new paradigm, all Hindus unite in their anger towards Muslims. Fear of the outsider obliterates the internal age-old conflict over resources and dignity inherent to the caste system.The love jihad discourse is an extension of the honour killing mentality. At the core of both is the high-caste Hindu woman, who must carry the burden of caste purity. Her deviation from the strictures of caste, her relations to men of other castes and the possibility of a mixed-caste progeny will blur caste lines. In a society where caste honour is more fundamental than filial love, killing a daughter or a sister along with her chosen partner is justified.To the orthodox Hindu, inter-caste marriage leads to caste contamination and hence is unacceptable. This can be a point of departure between Hindutva and Hindu orthodoxy. For the purpose of the Hindutva project, however, a singular Hindu identity can be created through inter-caste marriages. Dalits and OBCs bring the demographic strength to eradicate the 'outsiders' such as Muslims and Christians. As the lower-caste populations get increasingly sucked into the pan-Hindu identity, their votes tilt the elections results in the favour of Hindutva parties and Muslims replace Dalits at the bottom of the political hierarchy. Economically and socially too, while a small percentage of Muslims retain their higher-or middle-class status, the majority of Indian Muslims have sunk lower and lower during the past half-century. While Politics Chases ‘Love Jihad’, Indian Women Keep DyingYet, as this book shows from the start, the matter is not between Hindus and Muslims. While love jihad can be seemingly between Hindu women and Muslim men, the consequences of it fall squarely on Hindu women vis-a-vis their family and clan. Their mobility, education and employment, their claims to inheritance and property, and their chances of having a loving marriage union are all dependent on their family. A family that may treat them as errant, deviant and offending if they dare cross the restraints placed on them from birth but drastically tightened at puberty. As a girl turns into a woman and becomes aware of her body and sexuality, boundaries become shackles. Society takes disproportionate notice of adolescent female flowering, and the fear of that makes families hide, protect and restrict her severely. The possibility of a lover and all that will ensue, creates a panic in the minds of parents. So does the constant lurking fear of sexual assault. The virginity of an unmarried girl has material value in the marriage market and the loss of virginity is a severe blot. Hence, marriages are arranged in late teenage years and child marriage remains a major social problem.In this already played-out tune, love jihad is the new song. Currently on the most popular list, it is going in loops.The special status of J&K under Article 370 included autonomy in state governance, passing of laws and ban on outsiders buying land in the state. After the decision to read down the Article was taken, communication in the Kashmir valley was cut off-mobile phones, internet, cable TV-for eighteen months.Most active politicians were held under house arrest, including former chief ministers, and active-duty troops surpassed 5 lakh.While this heavy-handed operation was underway in Kashmir, men across the country were leaders were seen making statements claiming that those overjoyed. Political who were bachelors could now get married to Kashmiri girls.Internet searches on 'Kashmiri girls' went up rapidly. Twitter posts said, 'Congrats India. Now unmarried boys can marry girls from Kashmir after 370 removal,' and 'Every Indian boy's dream right now: 1. Plot in Kashmir 2. Job in Kashmir 3. Marriage with Kashmiri girl.Women, even when they were from the BIP, could not perhaps celebrate it the way their male counterparts could. The problem is not religion. The problem is 'our women, their men'. The reverse is perfectly acceptable. Our men marrying beautiful, fair Kashmiri girls is a triumph. Our women marrying handsome, fair Kashmiri men is a defeat.The worry about this defeat eats into the Hindutva psyche. Muslim men are already the macho characters in this imagination. Historically, Muslim armies rode on their Arab horses across the Sindhu river, they plundered the land took our women and even destroyed temples. They are evil but attractive. They are the anti-heroes. Even today, they ride their bikes recklessly through traffic, with the top buttons of their shirts undone. No wonder our girls are attracted. But little do they know of their evil designs.This is patriarchy in the times of Hindutva.'Love Jihad', Parks and Moral Panic: What Explains Fear of Intimacy in India?

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How Is 'Love Jihad' Connected to Caste? A New Book Explains

These are some excerpts from professor and writer Sameena Dalwai's new book: 'Love Jihad: A Feminist Retelling.'

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Topics: Hindutva Caste Love Jihad