My first interaction with Smita was when I visited the organization she worked in for my personal work a few years ago. Over the next few weeks of our interaction I learnt that she was a single mother abandoned by her husband.
On the face of it this may not seem much of a problem and more or less a regular story. However, the fact is that she was married to Aslam who abandoned her soon after their child was born, due to family pressure.
I learnt from mutual contacts about her struggle. While some said that his family were opposed to a Hindu daughter-in-law, others said they wanted her to convert which she wouldn’t. Some even alleged physical abused but I cannot be certain of that. However, she certainly suffered much mental abuse.
I never gathered enough courage to further the discussion of this, partially because she is in a happy space and raising her daughter to the best of her ability and I didn’t want to dig into her past which she clearly intends to forget.
This was my first and only personal encounter of a love jihad case; even though many may not categorize it as such. I have also seen many Hindus convert, be it the male or female, to Christianity for their spouse. The Islamic love jihad, however, is a greater threat because it is now being used as a weapon to further terrorism.
Recently a woman immolated herself in front of the Lucknow assembly alleging torture from her Muslim in-laws after her husband left for Saudi. Another Hindu woman who had eloped and married a Muslim man despite opposition from her family was beheaded in Sonbhadra for not embracing Islam.
There are numerous cases in recent times where Muslim men have assumed Hindu identity to entrap Hindu woman; most of whom have been later forced to convert, tortured or even murdered if they dared to confront the men.
Love jihad is a serious societal issue which is being swept under the carpet in the name of maintaining “communal and social harmony” or being white-washed by calling it “successful inter-faith marriage” as the Tanishq Ad and subsequently several liberals sharing their personal “love stories” attempted.
The Smita I mentioned above was lucky enough to escape but not every Hindu woman has been so fortunate. Many have simply lost their lives for merely asking the men to keep up their promise of marriage or confronting their husbands for cheating them with false identities after realizing the truth.
The Hindu society is by and large reluctant to accept that love jihad exists in their attempts to be the “good citizens” considering everyone as “family”. It is this laxity and the bending over backwards to appear secular that is leading to rise in such cases.
While Hindus are bothered about their image, pushed to the wall conveniently by the media and their secular allies, Muslims are clear about their agenda. Recently, a married man and father of two Waseem Ahmed trapped and sexually exploited a Hindu woman calling himself Dinesh Rawat. On being caught, he said that he never intended to marry the woman and only wanted to teach Hindus a lesson.
Social media is making it easier for men such as Ahmed to befriend and trap gullible Hindu women. Besides the Hindu society must also share some blame for the situation as they continue to believe in and keep propagating the false notion of “vasudaiva kutumbakam”, “sarva dharma sambhava” and secularism.
Instead of acknowledging the problem, many Hindus simply want to be like those cats which shut their eyes and believe that the danger would pass off. It is now or never and hence Hindus would be well advised to give up their political correctness and take the necessary action to prevent Hindu women from being exploited using love as a pretext.
