Interfaith marriages in India have been a sensitive issue for ages, especially marriages between Hindus and Muslims. Our country’s law allows marriages between people of different religious faiths under the “Special Marriages Act” of 1954. The applicability of the Act extends to people of all faiths including Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, and Christians across India.
Few years back, we came across a new term called ‘Love Jihad’. This term came into existence because too many cases started surfacing where Hindu girls were lured into love affairs by Muslim boys, and then the girls were forced to convert to Islam religion and were even used for terrorism-related activities. In many cases, after a few years, girls were forcibly given Talaq(divorce) on some flimsy issues. There were other cases where a Muslim boy lured a Hindu girl into a relationship, and then the girl was murdered. This year two high-profile cases of such nature came into the limelight, where the girls were cut into pieces at home and their body parts thrown away in forests or other such places.
These types of incidences have angered many Hindu groups, and they have started putting pressure on the government to bring anti-conversion laws. Their point is no one should( be forced to) convert to a different religion for the sake of marriage. There are many Indian states who are pressing for, some have already passed, Anti conversion law that criminalises interfaith love marriages between Hindus and Muslim men and women.
The problem with Hindu-Muslim marriages is, that if the marriage has to be performed either by Hindu or Muslim religious rites, then the couple should be of the same religion, and if they are not then the person who is of a different religion has to convert Hindu religion, if the marriage has to be solemnized by Hindu religious rites, and the same is also true for if marriage has to be solemnized by Muslim religious rights.
Under the Special Marriage Act, both partners get their marriage registered under the Special Marriage Act. They can also have a wedding performed according to their own religious rites, for their own satisfaction, and no conversions are required. To get married under this Act, the couple has to fulfill the conditions prescribed in the Act. The most controversial provision of this act is that a couple has to give notice of 30 days for getting married. As this notice is uploaded on the government portal, making it easier for vigilante groups to identify interfaith couples. The vigilante groups find the notice and spread it around to people. They go to people’s houses and discourage them from pursuing marriage.
Now to understand the psyche of Hindu fundamental groups opposing Hindu-Muslim marriages, one must see/read the news on the various media channels where it is generally shown that it is a Muslim boy who has ditched a Hindu girl in this type of interfaith marriage. There are many Muslim male celebrities who have married Hindu women but their marriage has ended in divorce, and the man has married again a younger girl. Here are a few examples
1 Aamir Khan married first with Rina Dutta,, divorced her, and again married Kiran Rao, divorced her. Both his wives were Hindus.
2 Saif Ali Khan married Amrita Singh, divorced her and again married Kareena Kapoor. Hindu wives.
3 Arbaz Khan’s marriage with Malaika Arora ended in divorce.
4 Mohsin Khan married Reena Roy and then divorced her.
5 Azharuddin(cricketer) first marries a Muslim girl, and after a few years divorces her and marries Sangeeta Bijlani. He divorced Sangeeta a few years back.
6 Farhan Akhtar’s marriage with Adhuna ended in divorce.
7 Omar Abdullah’s (politician) marriage with Payal Nath ended in divorce.
8 Imran Khan’s (nephew of Aamir Khan) marriage with Avantika ended in divorce.
These all Muslim male celebrities married Hindu women, and after their youth ended and they were getting old, these male celebrities ditched them.
Now look into the marriage of Hindu male celebrities with Muslim female celebrities, here Hindu men did not divorce their wives from the Muslim faith
1 Sunil Dutt’s marriage with Nargis lasted till her death.
2 Aditya Pancholi and Zarina Wahab.
3 Sachin Pilot and Sara Abdullah (Omar Abdulla’s sister)
4 Manoj Bajpayi with Shabana Raza
5 Shirish Kundar with Farah Khan
6 Cricketer Ajit Agarkar with Fatima Ghadyali
7 Sunil Shetty with Mana Qadri
8 Atul Agnihotri with Alvira Khan (Salman Khan’s sister)
9 Shashi Rekhi with Waheeda Rehman (till he died)
10 Mayur Wadhwani with actress Mumtaz
11 Sameer Nerurkar with TV actress Tasnim Sheikh
12 Actor/Director Tinu Anand with Shahnaz (Jalal Agha’s sister)
13 Pankaj Udhas with Farida
14 Kumud Mishra (actor) with Ayesha Raza
15 Cricketer Manoj Prabhakar with Farheen (actress)
16 Politician Manish Teewari with Nazneen Shifa.
These all-male celebrities married Muslim women, and their marriage is still going on. This means these men took their love and marriage seriously and maintained their relationships in a loyal manner.
Sometimes I failed to understand why the marriages of Muslim men and Hindu women fail, and not vice versa. This can be also one of the main reasons for Hindu vigilante group to protest against such marriages. Some will say that the law allows such marriages and that marriage is an individual choice, why should an outside party object? But these people forget that in India marriage is not only between man and woman, but it also involves families, culture, inheritance, and many more issues.
Friends, these are totally my personal opinions, and you might differ with them, there is no issue with that.
Anil Malik
Mumbai, India
3rd October 2023