Harsh Mander: The ‘love jihad’ bogey in Kashmir is another attempt to deny women freedom of choice

The drafting committee of the Indian Constitution included two women members, Hansa Mehta and Rajkumari Amrit Kaur. They proposed, for inclusion in the fundamental rights of the Constitution, the right of every woman to choose her spouse, or at least consent to the person to whom she is wed. This did not find support among most other members of the committee, all men. Therefore, this right was not included in the final draft of the Constitution placed before the constituent assembly.

Even seven decades later, it is sadly not unusual for adult women who dare to choose partners outside the boundaries of their religion or caste to be coerced by their families and their communities, supported by the police, courts and political leaders, to not follow their hearts but instead conform to their bigoted dictates. Their male partners – of stigmatised religions and castes – are charged with kidnapping, rape, and the new canard of “love jihad”, often jailed. If the couples resist, they may be murdered by the men in their own families, or lynched by furious mobs. The founding mothers of our Constitution, Hansa Mehta and Rajkumari Amrit Kaur, had clearly sought to build a very different India.

A storm broke out in the valley of…

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