Police in Uttar Pradesh make arrest under law banning interfaith marriage

[NewYorkExpress]

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/03/world/asia/india-muslims-interfaith-marriage-arrest.html

The police in northern India have made their first arrest under a new anti-conversion law intended to curb “love jihad” — a highly contentious term used by Hindu nationalists who accuse Muslim men of luring Hindu women to marry them in order to convert them to Islam.

The arrest in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh came days after state legislators there approved the law aimed at curbing interfaith marriage, which makes forced religious conversion by marriage an offense punishable by up to 10 years in prison.

The law is the latest in a series of measures that have steadily marginalized the country’s Muslim minority, one of the world’s largest, since Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Hindu nationalist party came to power in 2014.

Muslims have faced a wave of violence at the hands of Hindu nationalists and last year, the Modi government enacted a blatantly anti-Muslim citizenship law that critics said was the most alarming indication yet that it was trying to turn India into a Hindu-centric state.

The man arrested on Wednesday, Owais Ahmad, was accused of pressuring a Hindu woman who was married to another man to leave her husband and convert to Islam so she could marry him. The police said the woman’s father had previously filed and later withdrawn a kidnapping case, after his daughter had eloped with Mr. Ahmad in 2019 but then returned.

The recent complaint was filed by the father a few days before Wednesday’s arrest, which the district police said was the first under the new law.

[Santander]

UP is a laughingstock of a state even among Indians.

[PSOL]

UP is a laughingstock of a state even among Indians.

The joke of India is Bihar

[Santander]

UP is a laughingstock of a state even among Indians.

The joke of India is Bihar

Yes, of course, but UP is almost as bad.

[CumbrianLefty]

Modi-ites inspired by SA Apartheid laws is it??

[Former President tack50]

UP is a laughingstock of a state even among Indians.
[/quote
Isn't UP the most populated state? That'd be like calling California a joke?

[Santander]

UP is a laughingstock of a state even among Indians.

Isn't UP the most populated state? That'd be like calling California a joke?

No. UP has the second-lowest HDI of any Indian state. (ahead of only Bihar, of course)

[jaichind]

Just to be clear.  Several other BJP ruled states already passed similar laws.  UP is not the first nor the last Indian state that will pass this sort of law. 

If you read the law it is reads fairly reasonable.  It just states that if, for example, a Muslim man pretends to be Hindu, marries a Hindu women and then forces her to convert to Islam, it is illegal.  The remedy is that all conversions have to be verified by a government magistrate.  The Indian Center-Left, correctly, argues that such a process will clearly discourage inter-faith and inter-caste marriages since in those cases the couple's family most likely will not be supportive of such a marriage and not help the couple convince the government magistrate who is likely to be an Upper Caste Hindu that such a conversion is legit.

AIADMK ruled TN had a similar law years ago that banned use of material inducement for conversions.  Back then it was mostly to target Christian Churches in TN that run charity aid efforts which many claim were distributed in a way to encourage conversion to Christianity.

As the BJP continue their domination of politics at all levels in non-Dravidian India one would expect these trends to continue.

[CumbrianLefty]

As the BJP continue their domination of politics at all levels in non-Dravidian India one would expect these trends to continue.

"Make India fascist again"

[Farmlands]

If you read the law it is reads fairly reasonable.  It just states that if, for example, a Muslim man pretends to be Hindu, marries a Hindu women and then forces her to convert to Islam, it is illegal.

It's not reasonable at all, because it's clearly going to be misused, as these laws always are, to persecute the minority group. Like here, where the man did not pretend to be Hindu or force any woman to convert to anything. The language is just there to make a bad law seem more palatable and easier to keep in place.

[World politics is up Schmitt creek]

Hindutva is one of the worst religious movements in the world.

[jaichind]

https://indianexpress.com/article/india/himachal-pradesh-love-jihad-law-suresh-bhardwaj-7115400/

HP also passes Love Jihad law

[jaichind]

Various BJP states have passed anti "Love Jihad" laws that on paper is trying to stop coerced conversions but has the impact of discouraging inter-faith and even inter-caste marriages.  MOTN poll shows that a majority believe in the basis of these laws.

[It’s so Joever]

But OSR told me India was 100% better than China in every way possible because reasons!

Although seriously, not surprising. I don’t really know if this achieves anything that would be of benefit to India or is just a reactionary policy put in place by an idiot.