How Indian law is trying to make it impossible for interfaith couples to marry

A February 8 video of a Muslim man being beaten up by members of Hindutva groups in a Bhopal court for attempting to register his marriage to a Hindu woman went viral. The Bhopal police later arrested the man under Madhya Pradesh’s anti-conversion law. But his assailants were not arrested or even booked.

Even as the man was arrested for allegedly trying to convert his partner to Islam, the police confirmed that the couple was seeking to register their marriage under the Special Marriage Act, 1954, which enables interfaith marriages.

On February 4, the Bharatiya Janata Party-ruled Rajasthan government tabled a bill modelled after Madhya Pradesh’s anti-conversion law. If enacted, this would be the ninth such law passed by a BJP-ruled state since 2017 that makes it difficult to marry after changing one’s religion.

Both these developments encapsulate how it has become almost impossible in several states of India today for an interfaith couple to marry.

There are two avenues available to interfaith couples: either both retain their religion and marry under the Special Marriage Act, or one of them converts to the other’s religion and then marry under the personal law of that religion. Over the last few years, both routes have been virtually cut off for interfaith couples in many states, especially if the...

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