I always used to think love is the most innocent among every emotion ever possible to human beings. Till yesterday!
There is news doing round that an outfit called Love Jihad is recruiting Muslim Men to woo Hindu Women, marry them and convert them to Islam. Posters printed by Muthalik-founded Sriram Sene appeared on the compound walls of some colleges in Kerala, warning Hindu Girls about the presence of the Outfit in the campus.
I remember Sriram Sene as a group of people who assaulted women in a pub in Mangalore. I remember them as an organization who assaulted girls in Bangalore for wearing jeans. When ever I hear their name the first image that comes to my mind is the Pink Chaddi Campaign. And it crosses my mind that they warned lovers against publically celebrating Valentines Day. They come across to me as highly intolerant people, not very credible. That is because I switch off at the very first outburst of Puritanism and prudishness.
I don’t know if the claim is true. It may be or may not be true. Either way, it changes life for people like me. As I already told you, love has always been an innocent expression of emotions where I am concerned. Not any more! After reading this news I am turned into a sceptic. To think that people will use ‘love’ as a means to fulfil their political agenda is highly discouraging.
I have already given up on ‘spiritually’ and ‘faith’. To me, today, spiritually is what some intelligent people use to run a business and make a lot of money. Faith is what some people use to push their political agendas and come to power. Now, am I being forced to give up on ‘love’ too?
I am from Kerala. I’ll tell you what happens usually when an ‘inter-religious love’ in Kerala turns into a marriage. The girl usually gets converted into the boy’s religion. That is because Kerala is predominantly a male-dominated, male chauvinist society. Some times, in some unusual cases, the boy converts into the girl’s religion. Either way, religion is the winner and love has never been. So I should have been sceptic about ‘love’ all the time, right?
Wrong. Till the poster appeared on the compound walls of the colleges, no one really cared who converted into what for the sake of a marriage, except the families involved. And most people got converted for the sake of marriage and not really because their conversion has got anything to do with faith. Now that there is a Love Jihad and there is a Sriram Sena warning against it, people will think twice before falling in love. Love is not love when religion, race, language and money become the key factors that leads you to it.
They used to say ‘love is blind’ and I really used to like it that way!
