Special Guest Contribution: Is Love without Borders Possible?. Issue 1 (July 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Sarkar, Tanika
• Is Part Of: Feminist review. Volume 119:Issue 1(2018)
• Page Start: 7
• Page End: 19
• Publication Date: 2018-07
• Subjects: Hindutva -- gender -- India -- communalism -- moral policing; Feminism -- Periodicals; 305.4205
• DOI: 10.1057/s41305-018-0120-0
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0141-7789

Abstract

This article focuses on 'Love Jihad, ' the neologism that Hindutva, or Hindu Extremism, has invented to incite suspicion and violence against Indian Muslims. I begin with a brief discussion of several characteristics of the Hindutva organisational and ideological apparatus. Then I discuss anti-Love Jihad campaigns as a strategy to assert Hindu extremism in interpersonal relations. I go on to highlight specific episodes of 'Love Jihad' attacks by the Hindu Right that have targeted and made a political spectacle of love and marriage across community boundaries. I suggest that Love Jihad campaigns become a mode of producing docile, submissive subjects who will not question regimes of power, be it neoliberalism, religious majoritarianism or social hierarchies and injustice.