• Know about Hindu girls who suffered like Shraddha, why do such incidents happen, are Hindu girls at fault, why are accused invariably Muslims, is there Fear of law and Way forward.
• Is India returning to the medieval times for Hindu women?  

As a mother of a 20 plus daughter I was deeply disturbed reading about the murder of Shraddha Walkar allegedly by her live-in-partner Aftab Poonawala and chopping of her body into 35 pieces, storing them in a refrigerator. Whilst my reaction was from this Hindu girl Muslim boy relation that ended gorily a google search showed more examples. See them with media reports–

1. Hyderabad June 2022- 16 year old allegedly raped by Mohd. Sufiyan. Source The Hindu

2. Hyderabad   2022- a 17 year old girl raped in Jubilee Hills area by five, four of whom are juveniles to be tried as adults. Source Indian Express

3. Faridabad  2020- “Nikita Tomar, a third-year B.Com student, was shot dead outside her college in Faridabad, a former classmate who had been pressuring her to marry him and his friend have been sentenced to life imprisonment for her murder.” Sentenced “Tauseef, Nikita’s former classmate, and Rehaan have been sentenced to life imprisonment.” Source Indian Express

4. Lucknow 2022- “Sufiyan Killed Our Daughter Nidhi for Refusing Conversion-Nikah”. Matter in court. Source Swarajyamag.com

5. Ghaziabad 2020 – Swati G Sharma wrote, “In June, 21-year-old Naina Kaur was stabbed to death near her house by a stalker named Sher Khan in the national capital region.” Source Swarajyamag.com

6. Una, Himachal 2022 – Prachi Rana at 15 year old girl was allegedly murdered by Mohammed Asif because she resisted him. Source Swarajyamag.com 

7. Mumbai 2022 – a model Mansi Dixit was killed and body put in a bag. Source Times of India. “According to the police, Muzammil had known Dixit for a few days and found her attractive. “I called her on the pretext of a photoshoot and demanded to have sex with her. When she refused, I hit her on the head with a wooden stool,” Muzammil is stated to have told the police during his interrogation.” Source Hindustan Times

8. Hyderabad 2020 – Swati Goel Sharma wrote, “In a fresh case that has emerged from Hyderabad, a woman belonging to a Scheduled Caste, was killed by her boyfriend Syed Mustafa and his brother Jameel on the intervening night of 17 and 18 October.” Source Swarajyamag.com

9. Madhya Pradesh 2022- “a Hindu woman had eloped with her Muslim boyfriend a few years ago, was found dead under suspicious circumstances. The woman’s father has called it a murder by her boyfriend-turned-husband. The man, Mohammed Irfan, was earlier accused by the woman, Rachna, of forced conversion with domestic violence and was jailed.” Source Swarajyamag.com

10. Jhansi, Uttar Pradesh 2022- Swati Goel Sharma wrote, “A Hindu girl, reportedly a minor, was attacked with a blade on her neck and face by a man named Mohammed Danish Khan in Uttar Pradesh’s Jhansi district on Monday evening.” Source Swarajyamag.com

Also read From Kashmir and Bengal to now Jharkhand: Will Hindus ever wake up?

Kalbelia dance by a Hungarian Muslim, Jaisalmer Desert Festival 2013.

11. Jharkhand 2018- A Hindu girl was set ablaze for refusing marriage proposal of the alleged accused Shahrukh. Source Hindustan Times

12. Mumbai 2022- “A 23-year-old man was arrested on Saturday for allegedly killing his 19-year-old girlfriend, whose partially-decomposed body was found stuffed in a sack, with her hands and legs tied, at Versova beach on Thursday. The accused, identified as Mohammed Shahjeb Ansari, was arrested after the police scanned through the call data records of the victim, Sonam Shukla.” Source Hindustan Times    

13. Amdavad, 2018- “Bopal police on Wednesday arrested a 20-year-old jilted lover for the alleged murder of a 20 year old woman, Payal Patel. Accused was Majidkhan Pathan.” Source Times of India  

14. Jharkhand 2014- “The Jharkhand police lodged an FIR on the complaint of national-level shooter Tara Shadeo, who alleged she was deceived by one Ranjit Kumar Kohli into marriage, whose real name is Raqibul Hasan Khan. She said in her complaint that she was tortured for over a month to accept her husband’s religion.” Source Times of India

There are more similar instances in India. What about other countries? Here is a recent example in California. UK suffers from the grooming gang problem.

15. According to CNN.com, “In a news release, the Simi Valley Police Department said the remains of Rachel Castillo, 25, were discovered in Los Angeles County’s Antelope Valley, and her ex-husband has since been taken into custody. Castillo’s ex-husband, Zarbab Ali of Hawthorne, California, is the primary suspect in the case, police said.” Source

16. According to this 2018 BBC report, “Twenty men have been found guilty of being part of a grooming gang that raped and abused girls as young as 11 in Huddersfield.   During the three trials, jurors heard how the men - who are all British Asians mainly of Pakistani heritage - preyed on young, vulnerable girls.” Source  Prime Minister Rishi Sunak spoke about tackling grooming gangs problem too. This Swarajyamag report says that Pakistani grooming gangs have been targeting Sikh girls for over 50 years. Tribune Chandigarh report Pak men led gangs raped 1,400 UK girls in 16 years

17.   According to May 2023 Hindustan Times  report,  20 year old Sahil Khan stabbed a 16 year old girl 16 times in Shahbad Dairy area of Delhi. The Indian Express says that the girl wanted to end the relationship. Sahil was angry with her intent.  Was that a good enough reason to stab her to death? Think.

18. Neha H from Hubli, Karnataka April 2024. According to this Hindustan Times report, “Niranjan Hiremath spoke to news agency ANI on Friday and said, "After my daughter was returning from college, an unknown person came and stabbed her 7 times and she died on the spot. The accused has already been arrested. The motive of the murder is that the victim rejected the accused's love proposal." The accused has been identified as Fayaz, a former friend and classmate of the victim, Neha Hiremath, who died after suffering multiple stab wounds.”

Is India returning to the medieval times where when an invader liked a woman, she had to be conquered irrespective?

19. “Police reported that on Monday, 25-year-old Nazibur Rahman Bora, an engineer, surrendered at the police station with his nine-month-old baby and confessed to killing Sanghamitra Ghosh and her parents Sanjeev and Junu Ghosh.” Source Indian Express

Also read Rani Padmini and Alauddin Khilji

Place in Chittorgarh Fort where Jauhar was committed. 

So what is common to the cases in India?

Girl Hindu, boy Muslim. Most of the girls above refused to convert and marry (Nikah) a Muslim or resisted their advances.

Why do such incidents happen?

Based on media reports it would be safe to say that Hindu girls were resisting marriage through Nikah-conversion (Nidhi in e.g. 4) and sexual advances (Mansi e.g. 7). When a girl refuses or resists they threaten violence hoping she might agree. When the women does not agree violence is a result. Actually the problem is more deep rooted, more about that later.

Such marriages are encouraged by the emergence and dominance of Bollywood by Shahrukh, Aamir and Salman Khan since the 1990’s. The first two married Hindu girls whilst the third nearly married one. Also, a number of movies show Muslim boys marrying Hindu girls. Bollywood has a huge influence on young and innocent minds. Girls in smaller towns might begin to believe that marriage with a Muslim boy is the new norm. 

Impact of movies like Kurbaan (2009). In the movie the hero, an already married Afghan national, became an Indian Muslim Professor in Delhi married a Hindu girl, used her to migrate to the U.S. Subsequently, the hero blackmailed his wife to solicit support for Jihad in the U.S. It is a brilliantly made movie but the common man looks at it differently-this could happen to my daughter.

Due to a decay in the external environment parents of Hindu girls are getting more protective. This means lesser interaction with boys and exposure. Thus when such a girl meets a boy who woos her like never before she gets overawed by the attention, is unable to deal with it and more likely to elope. If the boy is Muslim the situation gets complicated. Conversely, in the name of freedom some girls ignore parents views a la Shraddha.

Students at VKV School, Jirdin Arunachal Pradesh. 2013 

Why not marry under the Special Marriages Act?

There is no need for either person to convert if one marries under the Act. However, it is common for Muslim boys to insist that a Nikah is the only way to marry. Some Hindu girls hold their ground, others convert or convert in name only like a Bollywood actress of yesterday years who continues to be publicly known by her Hindu pre-marriage name.

Do the Holy Scriptures sanction such methods of marriage?

To an ordinary mother like me, whether or not scriptures sanction does not matter. It is for intellectuals and the learned to decide.

The way a person behaves is a reflection of the scriptures of his religion.

It is because some Muslim boys have given their community a bad name that they present themselves as Hindu boys. (Tara Shedeo in e.g.14)

Ask yourself- Why Kashmiri Pandits never picked up a gun in response? 

Are Hindu girls not as fault?

Yes they are at fault for e.g. at the age of 18 singer Sunidhi Chauhan eloped to marry Bobby Khan, a small time choreographer and director, and converted to Islam! Her family never acknowledged the marriage and threatened to disown her. The couple fell apart in a year. She is now married to Hitesh Sonik. Source

What the Hindu girl is unable to comprehend is the deeper intent behind such a relationship, the conversion to Islam and how it would impact life thereafter. A lawyer friend says that one of the reasons for divorce between Hindu girls and Muslim boys is that Hindu girls are brought up very differently. Relationship is more open; girls are encouraged to study and become financially independent.

Inspite of so many examples Hindu wish to marry Muslim boys. Wish someone did research on why?

Warrior Queen Rani Abakka, Karnataka 17th century.  

Why are the accused invariably Muslim boys?

According to a 12/9/2012 India Today report, “Love Jihad in Kerala is part of global Islamisation project" said Global Council of Indian Christians. In 2009 Kerala Catholic Bishops Council (KCBC) had stated that more than 2600 young Christian women were converted to Islam since 2006”. 

Further a 10/12/2009 Economic Times report says Kerala HC asked the State Government to frame laws to stop ‘love jihad’. Years ago received a power point presentation prepared by the World Sikh Alliance titled ‘Sikh girls targeted by predatory forces and Women in Sikhism and Islam.”

Also read Dr Ambedkar’s views Here 

Look at women as only Devotees. At Assi Ghat, Kashi 2013. 

Simply, Muslim boys want to marry-convert Hindu girls to increase their population. Sri Aurobindo said in 1940 that Mahomedens wanted to rule India again. It might also be seen as a symbol of conquest!

Notwithstanding there are many examples of Hindu-Muslim marriages.

Some of the high profile Muslim men married to Hindu girls are Salim Khan (father of Salman Khan) to Sushila Charak now Salma, Tiger Pataudi to Sharmila Tagore, Shahnawaz Bhutto grandfather of Benazir Bhutto, Azarhuddin to Sangeeta Bijlani (seems now separated), Shahrukh Khan to Gauri Chibber, Aamir Khan to Kiran Rao (now divorced), Javed Akhtar’s brother Salman to Monisha Nair. Similarly a few names of Hindu men married to Muslim girls are veteran actress Zohra Khan to K N Sehgal, cricketer Ajit Agarkar to Fatima Ghadially, Tamil actor Khusbhu (converted) to Sunder C, Suman Chattopadhyay (converted to Kabir Suman) to Sabina Yasmin - a Bangladeshi Muslim singer and journalist Saba Naqvi to Sachin Bhowmick.

The effectiveness of the judicial system is best shown by the following examples. Read and decide for yourself.

1. Following a public uproar over the 2019 gang rape on a veterinary doctor in Hyderabad the police did an encounter of the four accused.  Source Indian Express

2. “Every saint has a past, every sinner has a future.” The death sentence handed down to man convicted for killing a 4-year-old girl after raping her, was commuted by the Supreme Court to life imprisonment (Mohd. Firoz v. State of Madhya Pradesh.) Source Barabench.com

The man raped and killed a four year old. What about the child’s parents yet he deserves to live!

3. “On Wednesday, the Telangana High Court granted conditional bail to the fifth juvenile accused, arrested in early June, for gang-raping a 16-year-old girl kidnapped from a pub in the Jubilee Hills area of Hyderabad.” Source Indian Express The sixth accused, 18 year old Saduddin Malik was granted bail on the condition that, “The mother of the accused shall furnish an undertaking that upon bail the juvenile will not be permitted to come into contact with the victim, associate with any unknown criminal or be exposed to any moral, physical or psychological danger. Source Siasat.com 

Under what provision of law was an undertaking from the accused’s mother asked for is for the learned to decipher. As a mother of a daughter I cannot relate to it. 

4. The juvenile (M Afroz) in the Nirbhaya rape (2012) was given a grant of Rs 10,000/- and a sewing kit by Delhi’s AAP government. Source India Today

What message is the government giving to the people?

5. If India has more women judges things might change because one can relate to another. Perhaps, Supreme and High Courts could lead from the front.

Also read Where are the women in India’s higher judiciary

So what is the way forward?

It is time Hindus understood that this menace can be fought only by standing tall and together. This is a Dharma Yudh, the war of Hindu existence that requires courage, conviction and clarity of Shatru bodh. Twitter trends, candle marches, raising funds for aggrieved families won’t help anymore. We need integrated action. 

All inter religion marriages should be under the Special Marriages Act. No girl should voluntarily or otherwise change her religion before marriage.

There is an urgent need for one law for all marriage, divorce, inheritance. People can have any religious ceremony but the law should give same rights, responsibilities and protection to all equally.

Even if a boy is a juvenile but found guilty of rape he should be convicted as an adult. No mercy should be shown.

Fast track courts, directly reporting to the Chief Justice of India, should be set up to handle rape cases. The law must prescribe the period within which such cases should be closed. By law Capital Punishment and Life Imprisonment (meaning up to death) should be the only two options available for the convicted.  

Inculcate Hindu values in your girls in their formative years, worship together as a family and inculcate unshakable faith in them.

Educate them about the differences between Sanatana Dharma and Abrahamic religions (all religions are no equal). Communicate openly on this subject citing facts not fiction.

Also read Comparing Indic vs. Abrahamic faiths

Tell them how the existing laws could put them in danger for e.g. a Muslim is allowed to marry four times or discriminatory inheritance laws. Read below.

Also read Everything a Hindu girl was know before marrying a Muslim boy  And Comparing Inheritance Laws for Hindu and Muslims  

Instil in her, pride for Dharma and value of family, as no Abdul is of greater value than the family.

What are the Social Issues concerning Hindus and Muslims?

Purdah/ Burkha means Muslim boys have less contact with Muslim girls. Thus a Muslim boy going to college would mostly interact with Hindu girls.

Dr Ambedkar wrote in 1941, “The isolation of males from females is sure to produce bad effects on the morals of men. It requires no psychoanalyst to say that a social system that cuts off all contact between the two sexes produces an unhealthy tendency towards sexual excesses and unnatural and other morbid ways and habits.” Thoughts on Pakistan, Pg. 226-228.

When he compares Hindu girls with Muslim ones he finds Hindu girls to be outgoing, less religious, open-minded, westernized, educated and thus more probably attractive. This is ok but the matter gets complicated when the result is marriage.

Having said that there are fewer problems when a family has a history of two way marriages. For e.g. both the ex-wives of actor Aamir Khan, Reena Dutta and Kiran Rao, continue to be Hindus. Also the actor’s sister Nikhat is married to Santosh Hegde and another Farhat to Rajiv Dutta.

Indian Muslims can reflect or brush away concerns of non-Muslims to magnify the problem!

Utmost care taken in culling out data. Errors if any are unintended and without malice. Use your intellect (Buddhi) to form your opinion.

Also read

1. Links by Swati Goel on her articles on Hindu women targeted by Muslim

2. Who was responsible for partition?

3. Did Muslims rule India for 800 years?

4. Hindu victims of Hate Crime Part 2

5. List of Terrorist Attacks in India

6. Sar tan se juda murderers – Indian under attack

7. The Sufi Mission in Kashmir

8. 20 instances of the brutality of inter-faith relationships

9. Muslim men trapping Hindu women has become culture says ex DGP Nirmal Kaur

The author is a hospitality entrepreneur. She is an avid history buff and perpetually researches episodes where history was faulted to manufacture faux narratives. Views expressed are personal.

To read all articles by author

Article should not be republished without written permission from esamskriti.com