Love's totally worth waging jihad for!

A common mating ritual in the late 2000s if you observed casually on the roads of Tehran where a sixth of Iran lives involved young women holding placards with their phone numbers across it by car windows mdash soon as traffic stopped at a junction and they saw boys in parallel lanes showing interest through the eyesYes the girls made the first move Which is the surest sign of gender equality Something you couldnt otherwise gauge about the place of women under an IslamicIranian government that actively employs special moralpolice forces outside malls etc to mind womens dresses and intermingling of sexesHow do Tehranis negotiate love now Havent been back since But even in 2008 Iran had the worlds secondhighest number of bloggers despite an Internet connection slower than Indian dialup of the 90sPretty sure the young have naturally adapted to FBInstaSnapchatTikTok or most likely dating apps BumbleTinderHinge to establish gentle contacts that naturally develop into connectionscompanionships casualserious mdash all of it safely away from prying eyes of the State on the street and conservative oldies at homesneighbourhoodsWhich is at least progressively becoming the case I sense in smalltown India mdash hitherto altogether segregated genders finding waysmeans of being in touch through personal technology that frees you up to be who you are Rather than simply the castereligion youre born into after boy or girlBoth of them can potentially match online over a series of identities that define them far more mdash how theyre like to each other what they like doing together how they view the world in its future or the past who they love on screen Shah Rukh or Salman it tells you a lot0Who loses out again in this natural selection between equals That loveless luckless charmless involuntary celibate living inside an ugly mind consequently an unbeautiful body with a stick in his hand mdash going around harassingbeating up consenting couples in parks and cafes in towns like UjjainAurangabadBijnaurMeerut on Valentines Day mdash upholding moralityWhat does morality really do Benefits him the most And he finds a political cover for his own inadequacies Because this upholder of civilisational values is firstly the voter whos enlisted himself as supporter campaigner and a selfstyled activist Hes useful for politics Only an arranged marriage will save his lovelife anywayAlso what if the girl in the park is Hindu and the boy Muslim even vice versa likewise the couple belongs to different castes lower and upper In one fell swoop you destroy with love an identity politics built on hate Now whos the otherWhat if the guy and the girl from different religions wish to marry Fact is they ordinarily cant Families of both the girl and the boy will not allow God knows centuries of breadandbutter romances have been scripted over this rebellion alone Why look at literaturescreen pretty sure over time there lies a similar story in most Indian homes more likely resulting in the defeat of loveIndias Constitution instead of seeding suspiciondoubt actively encourages interfaith marriage Even if the procedureredtape on ground may not always play out well So how does an ageold identitybased politician navigate this space stillHe introduces a concept called love jihad Chiefly involving an adult woman who is empoweredsmart enough only to vote for him But way too dumb to tell shes been duped by an imposter who poses to be from her religion while hes not That fellow resorts to similar other trickeries so he can vow to live with her mdash all his life And that this is a serious epidemicIt must be stopped through a proposed law in multiple states I havent read the law There is no need to Enough already exists to protect citizens from cheatstouts Heres what we know Intuitively speaking majority of interfaith marriages happen against wishes of parents or extended families Degrees of resistance may vary A legislation that sides with parents arming them to go after the boy they wont like mdash sides against love Let alone that this is statecapture of even an institution like marriageWhy had we never heard of love jihad before Whats changed The woman especially the young mdash inevitably the Achilles heel for extremistconservative thought Her irreversible independence financial included threatens a maledominated civilisation if it looks only to its past through a singular prism like religion to imagine a statusquofuture She has the world and a cellphone in her hand and an even more sorted place under the sun up aheadThe other reason for alleged bogeys like love jihad of course is quicktermelectoral gains Best explained in House of Cards if I may totally paraphrase The only way to lose power in politics is to forget even for a second how you got there The winners are always at it But this jihadwar against love will inevitably fail Weve come too far Tough luck with that girl shes really not into youMayank Shekhar attempts to make sense of mass culture He tweets mayankw14Send your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomThe views expressed in this column are the individuals and dont represent those of the paperKeep scrolling to read more newsCatch up on all the latest Mumbai news crime news current affairs and a complete guide from food to things to do and events across Mumbai Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updates MidDay is now on Telegram Click here to join our channel middayinfomedialtd and stay updated with the latest news