Opinion | Neha Hiremath Was Killed Because Her Right of Choice Was Not Respected

The blood-curdling and brutal murder of Neha Hiremath, a 23-year-old college student in broad daylight on a college campus in Hubballi, Karnataka by Fayaz Khodunaik has sent shock waves through society and shaken the morale of young Hindu women, engendering in them a fear psychosis that hinders their unrestricted mobility and freedom of choice. Should we stop going to college? Should we remain confined to our homes? These are the questions they have been asking society at large.

Niranjan Hiremath, Neha’s father and a Congress Councillor of the Hubballi-Dharwad Municipal Corporation (HDMC), has claimed: “They were forcing her to convert. Since she didn’t agree to religious conversion, she was murdered.”

This serious allegation compels us to revisit the controversy of ‘love jihad.’ Is ‘love jihad’, the notion that Muslim men lure unsuspecting Hindu girls into an ostensibly romantic relationship with the intent of converting them and forcing them into marriage, a figment of imagination of the Hindu Right as some claim or is it a reality that we are desperately trying to deny in order to appear politically correct – a stance that has the potential to destroy the fabric of our society?

The contention that love jihad is an Islamophobic conspiracy of the Hindu Right would have validity if it did not find resonance in other communities. But other religions too have raised concerns about love jihad.

In 2021, Joseph Kallarangatt, Bishop of the Palai diocese of the Syro-Malabar Church, categorically stated that those who claim that ‘love jihad’ doesn’t exist in Kerala are “blind to reality.” He went on to remark: “Such people, be they politicians or those from social and cultural spaces, media may have their own vested interests. But one thing is clear. We are losing our young women. It’s not just love marriages. It’s a war strategy to destroy their lives.”

A year later, another Christian bishop, Mar Joseph Pamplany, Auxillary Bishop of Thalassery told Manorama Online that the church was concerned about certain mixed marriages. He surmised: “In a society as diverse as ours, mixed marriages are natural and it has happened in the past too…. But in recent times, unlike in the past, such marriages appear planned in some cases. That is the concern of society and it is our request to the government to take it seriously…. As this is a complicated issue, we don’t insist on referring to it as ‘love jihad’ because the word jihad has a spiritual connotation among the Muslim brethren, hence if it hurts them, we don’t want to use it.”

A report by the Kerala Catholic Bishops Conference (KCBC) Commission for Social Harmony and Vigilance claims that there were approximately 4,000 instances of ‘love jihad’ between 2005 and 2012. The Akal Takht, the highest temporal seat of Sikhism, had expressed similar reservations in 2014 with regard to Sikh girls in the UK being ‘trapped’ into marriage by Pakistani boys. So, objectively speaking, this is not a concern of Hindus alone, Christians and Sikhs too have similar same fears.

A 2018 investigation into this controversy by the NIA resulted in equivocal findings. They did not find any prosecutable evidence. However, the report indicated that “while there may have been efforts to facilitate the conversion of either the man or the woman involved, there was no evidence of a larger criminal design.”

To find incontrovertible, tangible legal proof of a conspiracy with regard to deep set ills of society is difficult. Love jihad is like patriarchy. Formal instruction in either of these may not be explicit and difficult to pinpoint. This does not mean that it does not exist. A father doesn’t sit his sons down and give them a lesson in Patriarchy101. It is the result of years of ingrained learned behaviour – a cultural and religious undertone that subconsciously perpetuates and encourages such nefarious tendencies among certain individuals. The lack of prosecutable evidence in a select group of cases from Kerala cannot be extrapolated to gloss over this omnipresent ill of society or deny its existence.

Love is a beautiful thing which needs to be celebrated but only as long as it is not clouded by factors like race, caste or religion. I have never been able to comprehend why a person in love should change her/his religion to get betrothed. The excuse that some people willingly convert to get married to the person they love is poppycock; traditional and societal pressure inadvertently forces people to do so. If love is really genuine and each individual loves the other for who she or he is, then conversion should not be offered or accepted by any of the parties involved. To subjugate your partner in love to the religious domination of your persuasion dilutes the concept of love and makes it transactional.

The Indian Constitution already has a provision for inter-faith marriages without the need for conversion via the Special Marriage Act of 1954. The Special Marriage Act, 1954 is an act of the Parliament of India enacted to provide a special form of marriage for the people of India and all Indian nationals in foreign countries, irrespective of the religion or faith followed by either party.

Laws like the Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Religious Conversion Ordinance, 2020 are attempts to disassociate marriage and religion and preserve the sanctity of love. It adds another layer of scrutiny to inter-faith marriages. As per this new law, there is a severe penalty for those indulging in forceful or fraudulent conversions. A person wishing to convert prior to marriage will need permission from the DM before doing so. People in inter-faith relationships with no ulterior motive have little to fear. Concerns that this law will be misused are unfounded. There have been instances where the courts have stepped in to provide relief in cases of genuine inter-faith marriages.

The Left-wing liberal contention that these laws hamper a woman’s right to choose her partner and freedom of religion is too simplistic. On the contrary, it empowers women by deterring such heinous acts. It enhances their morale and confidence and protects their right to choose.

Neha Hiremath was killed because she chose, I repeat, she chose to reject Fayaz’s love proposal. Her right to choose a fundamental right of human democracy was not respected. Indian society will be doing a great disservice to Hindu women, in particular (given the increasing number of such instances whereby Hindu women have been brutally murdered by their supposed romantic partners) if it remains in a state of denial and fails to address this burning issue with promptness.

If one doesn’t like the word ‘love jihad’, call it anything else. But Indian society is duty-bound to acknowledge and address this issue to affect a more egalitarian society. Denial and political correctness will only allow such tendencies to persist with the eventual degeneration of our society. Inaction is a crime against Hindu women.

The writer is a US-based author. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely that of the author. They do not necessarily reflect News18’s views.