Sreenivasan Jain @SreenivasanJain
As elections approach, we are likely to see the BJP and its supporters intensify accusations of Muslim appeasement. But are Indian Muslims indeed the beneficiaries of undue favours? https://twitter.com/SreenivasanJain/status/1771842332956021101?s=20
https://twitter.com/i/status/1771842332956021101 the authors interrogate some theories that are part of the landscape of WhatsApp chats and social media feeds of millions of Indians every day. Chapter 1 examines ‘love jihad’, perhaps the most ascendant of all these claims. Starting with the first known case of ‘love jihad’, the authors investigate arguably the only definitive list of ‘love jihad’ cases. They travel to the state where the largest number of arrests have been made under new anti-love jihad laws to explore if the crackdown is justified. Chapter 2 places ‘population jihad’—the claim that Muslims are waging a holy war by producing more children—under the scanner.
Chapter 3 scrutinizes the Hindutva claim of a sinister Christian scheme to take over India through mass forced conversions. Chapter 4 examines the theory of Muslim appeasement, probing assertions like unequal availability of electricity on Diwali and Eid, the hajj subsidy, funds to madrasas, and the favourite bugbear of the Hindu Right: Muslim men being able to take up to four wives.