The Uttar Pradesh government has cleared an ordinance that enables the state to police and punish inter-faith marriages with “the sole intention of changing a girl’s religion”. The move comes after the forced conversion of a Hindu girl to Islam in the Hapur district of western Uttar Pradesh sparked national outrage and debate about the role of religion in society.
Under the provisions of the proposed law, the state can choose to investigate the motives behind a woman’s change of religion and has the power to annul an inter-faith marriage if it finds that its sole “purpose” is her religious conversion.
This flies in the face of a constitutional fact: Neither clan council nor khap panchayat, and certainly not a democratic government, has the licence to vet personal choices as right or wrong.
Allowing the police to examine subjective “intentions” of men and women entering a marriage veers into thought control — and sets the law up for rampant abuse.
It also legitimises a rank communal fantasy — the alleged conspiracy by virile Muslim men to lure and convert gullible Hindu women.
It continues the cynical politics that seeks to marshal Hindu unity by stoking the anxieties about the Muslim Other — and enshrines it in law.
Under fire for the Hathras gang-rape, the Yogi Adityanath government has sought to deflect criticism by emphasising measures taken for the security and “respect” of women — the “love jihad” ordinance is being peddled as another such move.
The Law allowed the police to examine a person's “actions” and “intentions” as part of deciding whether the person entering into an inter-faith marriage be charged under the act.
This is extremely dangerous. It places complete power in the hands of the police and opens up the possibility of charges being registered against people who have done nothing wrong at all.
By clearing the ordinance, the state government has trespassed the fundamental right to marry guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution.
A major conversion towards the Hindu religion happened after the Islamic invasions and it has led to several laws.
Central government proposed various bills but none of them passed and became a law. They are:
In 2015, the Law Ministry said passing of any law on religious conversion is purely a “State subject” and Central government has no role in it.
An interfaith marriage is either a mixed-religion marriage between a man and a woman or, in some cases, between same-sex partners.
It differs from a religious intermarriage because the latter generally refers to the mixing of different denominations of one religion.
Marriage between the same faiths has been governed by the Hindu Marriage Act 1955, Muslim personal Law. But to rectify and include interfaith marriages Centre passed the Special Marriage Act 1954.
Although interfaith marriages are most often contracted as civil marriages, in some instances they may be contracted as a religious marriage.
This depends on the religious doctrine of the two parties' religions; some of which prohibit interfaith marriage, but others allow it in limited circumstances.
