Indian state outlaws religious conversion by marriage | religion

The ruling Hindu nationalist party in New Delhi, India, has passed legislation in the most populous state of countries that imposes a prison sentence of up to 10 years for anyone found guilty of using marriage to force someone to change religion.

The Uttar Pradesh state decree was approved on Tuesday and follows a campaign by Prime Minister Narendra Modis Hindu-Nationalist Party Bharatiya Janata against interfaith marriage. The party describes marriages such as love jihad, an unproven conspiracy theory used by its leaders and hardline Hindu groups to accuse Muslim men of converting Hindu women to marriage.

According to the decree which will become a law after its approval by the governor of the states, a formality a couple belonging to two different religions will have to give two months notice to a district judge before they get married. The couple will only be allowed to marry if the official finds no objection.

Uttar Pradesh government minister Siddharth Nath Singh said prison terms of up to 10 years would stop illegal conversions and ensure justice for women.

Uttar Pradesh is the third Indian state led by the Modis party after Haryana and Madhya Pradesh to pass such legislation to control what Hindu nationalist leaders call forced and illegal religious conversions.

Earlier, the top leader of states, Yogi Aditynatah, a Hindu monk, said at a public meeting that those who do love jihad must either abstain from it or be prepared to die.

Amid a growing tide of Hindu nationalism in India under Modin, hardline Hindu groups have long accused minority Muslims of taking the land by persuading Hindu women to marry them and convert to Islam.

Although India’s constitution is secular and provides protection for all faiths, the issue of love jihad has captured the headlines and placed Modis party leaders against secular activists.

However, investigative agencies and courts in India have rejected the love jihad theory, which many see as part of an anti-Muslim agenda by the Modis party.

On Tuesday, a court in Uttar Pradesh heard a case of interfaith marriage and said that interfering in a personal relationship would constitute a serious violation of the right to freedom of choice of two individuals.

The court ruling came after a Muslim was accused of forcibly converting his Hindu partner.

India is a predominantly Hindu country, with Muslims making up about 14% of its more than 1.3 billion people. Hardline Hindu groups also oppose conversion to Christianity and have vowed to continue trying to prevent interfaith relations.

Critics of Modi, a staunch Hindu nationalist, say the tradition of diversity and secularism in India has been under attack since his party came to power in 2014 and returned for a second term in 2019.

They accuse the party of igniting religious passions and leading religious intolerance and sometimes even violence. The party denies the charge.

But an apparent mood of fear, anger and frustration is growing among ordinary Indian Muslims. They say Modi and his party are slowly relinquishing their rights, leaving the community to account for a future as second-class citizens.

The new decree comes at a time when Indian politics is becoming increasingly religiously charged.

On Monday, police registered a case against two executives of the online streaming service Netflix, after a Modis party leader objected to scenes in the series A Suitable Boy, in which a Hindu girl and a Muslim boy kiss in the background of what appears to be a Hindu temple.

The police complaint was registered in the state of Madhya Pradesh for allegedly violating the religious feelings of Hindus.

A Netflix India spokesman declined to comment.

Many Indians on Twitter demanded the boycott of Netflix and called for the series to be removed from the platform.

Last month, jewelry brand Tanishq pulled an ad featuring a Hindu-Muslim family celebrating a baby shower from TV channels and its social media platforms, following a backlash from Hindu nationalists and Modis party leaders. They said the ad promoted the love jihad.

The withdrawal of the ad drew harsh criticism from many in India and shed light on the religious polarization of countries under Modi, whose party and supporters project the country as a Hindu nation and are accused by critics of normalizing anti-Muslim sentiment.