Branded ‘love jihad’, locked-up by police: Ankita and Hasnain’s five-month ordeal to get married

“I had read about ‘love jihad’ and Hindutva organisations,” Hasnain Ansari said. “But I never expected all this to happen to us and that it would be this bad.”

In January, Ankita Rathore’s and Hasnain Ansari’s application under the Special Marriage Act was rejected by a marriage registrar in Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh. This was after a vicious smear campaign by the Hindi media, which branded their relationship as a case of “love jihad”, violent threats from Rathore’s family and intimidation by Hindutva groups.

Love jihad refers to the Hindutva conspiracy theory that Muslim men are conspiring to marry Hindu women merely so that they can force them to convert to Islam.

Rather than uphold the right of two adults to get married, the justice system has also ended up victimising the couple. Their decision to get married was broadcast to the world by the public notice provision of the Special Marriage Act. And then, ostensibly as part of the “police protection” to keep them safe from angry relatives and Hindutva groups, Rathore was confined to a children’s shelter home. Ansari, in turn, was kept in a police barrack. They were denied access to their phones and confined to a room.

“We felt like we were in police custody, not...

Read more