Aakar Patel | Myths & Reality Over ‘Love Jihad’: Why All This Fuss On Conversions?

There are things that this nation is worried about, and there is real news. One of the things we are worried about, especially in our media and WhatsApp groups, is demographic change and “love jihad” and others. The data doesn’t support our concerns, but why should facts prevail when we have conviction?

News Minute has published the latest figures on conversions in Kerala. Remember, this state had said its high court in December 2009 suspected “a scheme to trap bright upper-caste Hindu and Christian girls from wealthy families”. These offhand remarks from a judge who admitted he had no evidence started the “love jihad” conspiracy theory that remains with us today.

News Minute collected conversion data from the state, whose law requires every conversion to be recorded. Figures for 2024 show that there were a total of 963 conversions in the state. 543 of this population are women and 420 are men. The total number of converts to Hinduism was 365 (of whom 329 were formerly Christians and 36 were formerly Muslims). The number of converts to Islam was lower at 343 (of whom 276 were formerly Hindu and 67 Christians). The number of converts to Christianity was 255 (of whom 234 were Hindus and 23 Muslims).

There is no “love jihad” or anything else going on in Kerala. The data will not surprise those who have been following it for a while. I looked at historical figures in my book Our Hindu Rashtra, published a few years ago.

On March 7, 2017, Malayalam Manorama reported a study by a non-profit organization (Media Development and Research Foundation, Kozhikode) showing that 60 percent of converts in Kerala between January 2011 and December 2017 chose to become Hindu. Newspaper records where the names were changed showed that 8,334 people converted during the seven-year period, the vast majority of whom (4,756 were Christians and 212 Muslims) 4,968 chose to become Hindus. Of the total, 2 thousand 244 were women and 2 thousand 724 were men.

Of the 1,864 converts, 78 percent were formerly Hindu; again, male and female converts were roughly equal. Of the 1,496 people who were Christians, 95 percent were Hindus, 720 were women and 776 were men. Six people, five Hindus and one Christian, a total of two women and four men, chose to become Buddhists.

A newspaper report published a few years ago (“Nearly 6,000 people converted to Islam in 5 years in Kerala: Report”) cited an “intelligence report” prepared by the police showing that 5,793 people had converted between 2011 and 2015. About half of them were men and half were women. The number of Hindu converts was 4,719, of whom 1,074 were Christians.

There will be uncles in WhatsApp groups who are the voices in their own minds, heavily indoctrinated by the government. They may just dismiss it as fake news. Such people need to think about what happened in the Lok Sabha on February 4, 2020. Benny Behanan, MP from Chalakudy in Thrissur, asked a question. He asked the Home Office to clarify whether it was aware of any cases of “love jihad” and, if so, what the details of it were.

The ministry responded: “Article 25 of the Constitution provides for freedom to manifest, practice and propagate religion subject to public order, morality and health. Various courts, including the Kerala high court, have upheld this view. The term ‘love jihad’ is not defined in existing laws. No such case of ‘love jihad’ has been reported by any of the central agencies.”

Then a question arises. If “love jihad” isn’t a real thing, and the government admits it isn’t a real thing, and the data on conversions shows it isn’t a real thing, then why is it being discussed, let alone the levels of insanity we associate with it?

In my opinion, there are two reasons for this. The first is that real news does not fit well with the narrative of New India. If we were to discuss how incompetent the intelligence agencies are based on a recent case where the US captured and imprisoned an Indian citizen, the government would not be able to take care as it does regarding national security. If it were to be argued that a completely false case was filed against a party and its chief minister was imprisoned because the BJP wanted to topple it, we could not tell the world so confidently that we are the mother of democracy. And so the focus becomes other things, and the government wants to keep the focus there. These are all for a reason.

The other reason is that the narrative of Hindutva has become so acceptable that even facts cannot damage it much. An outright lie, accepted as a lie by the government in the Lok Sabha, is significant enough for the BJP to pass laws dispelling this myth in seven states since 2018. This has become our reality.

While the latest data will reassure those who know that the BJP project is misguided and damaging, it will also present a conundrum to those who swallow the lie but are open to being manipulated based on information and analysis. But this will likely do nothing to change the views of those sections of the Hindutva base who are fascinated by the voices of conspiracy and doom that constantly occupy their minds.

The writer is the president of Amnesty International India. Twitter: @aakar_patel