Reclaiming Space: A Feminist Retelling of Love Jihad in India

Majoritarian politics has been on the rise over the last few decades in India. Amidst this dominating push, one of the issues constantly brought up by the advocates of Hindutva ideology is that of love jihad. This self-explanatory surveillance slogan is not just deeply patriarchal but also infantilises the women it claims to protect. Sameena Dalwai’s book, Love Jihad: A Feminist Retelling , uses her own experience as a child in an interfaith family to reverse the lens and reclaim the space long occupied by men to push extremist ideas. Dalwai writes, “We create innocent, violent men and blameworthy battered women. Against this brutal patriarchy, I view the love jihad trope. The first segment of this propaganda are the gullible Hindu women who are lured by Muslim men. If Muslim men did not do this, the Hindu women would continue to live glorious lives—so the propaganda goes.”