Interfaith Marriage

 Interfaith alliance is a perennial hot potato. There is a lot of controversy of late about marriages between persons of different religions. In particular, Hindu brides marrying Muslim bridegrooms are attracting suspicious notice by some state governments as a device for forcible conversions.

Religious conversions are not prohibited by law. But forcible conversions are unlawful. The argument against the government intervention is that these conversions are of persons who are adults and as such involve legitimate exercise of freedom of conscience. 

There is a lot of truth in the statement that love is blind. It requires an inordinate amount of rational jingoism to claim otherwise. Love is an emotion. There is nothing wrong about emotion. In fact, in the absence of emotions, life will be an unbearable drudgery. However, it is illicit to exploit emotions as a religious tool for conversion.

Love is a strong emotion that prods an individual to do even untypical acts. A person in love is prone to perform some acts which the person would not do otherwise. It would be unlawful to take advantage of this emotion to convert a person's religion. At the same time, it would amount to denial of fundamental right if a person is forced not to marry a person of his or her choice. 

So, what is the way out? It may be legislated that interfaith marriages need to be performed only under the Special Marriage Act. This would legitimise the marriage and also obviate the need for conversion. Under the Muslim personal law, marriage with a non-Muslim is in most cases a nullity.