DO YOU BELIEVE THERE IS A WIDESPREAD ‘LOVE JIHAD’ CONSPIRACY TO CONVERT HINDU WOMEN?
Health and safety
Perceptions about safety in India vary from region to region, but only about half (51 per cent) of those polled believe that law and order has improved in the country and an even smaller section (45 per cent) believe India to have become safer for women. Significantly, perceptions about women’s safety are diametrically opposite in north and south India.
Also, of the respondents polled, 89 per cent perceive drug abuse as being a serious problem in the country.
A matter of faith
Another trend the MOTN points to is religion becoming less of a social barrier in some instances. The majority (70 per cent) of the respondents feel a uniform civil code should be implemented in India. At 53 per cent, the MOTN 2021 survey recorded a three precentage point increase in support for the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019, from the survey conducted in August 2020. The perception about it being discriminatory towards some religions is down to 9 per cent from 15 per cent. The idea that India must not grant citizenship to illegal immigrants of any religion is also
on the decline.
Opposition to inter-faith marriages, though, both among Hindus and Muslims, is high (54 per cent); 41 per cent feel it should be the individual’s choice. This is also why there is a strong belief (among 54 per cent) that there is a widespread “love jihad” conspiracy to convert Hindu women to Islam, and also great support (58 per cent) for laws passed to discourage inter-faith marriages. The survey shows that while Hindus support such laws, Muslims oppose it. In Uttar Pradesh, for instance, the police had, till midJanuary, lodged at least 17 cases under the Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Ordinance, 2020. While 14 of them relate to inter-personal relationships, marriages and elopement involving Hindu women and Muslim men, in at least three cases—in Azamgarh, Shahjahanpur and Gautam Buddha Nagar—the ordinance has been slapped against Hindus and Christians on charges of the latter allegedly luring people into converting to Christianity. In two such cases, the complainants are directly linked to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and the BJP.