Yearly volume of the Nile river at Aswan, an example of time series data commonly used in change detection. Dotted line denotes a detected change point when Old Aswan Dam was built in 1902.
In statistical analysis, change detection or change point detection tries to identify times when the probability distribution of a stochastic process or time series
changes. In general the problem concerns both detecting whether or not a
change has occurred, or whether several changes might have occurred,
and identifying the times of any such changes.
In offline change point detection it is assumed that a sequence of length is available and the goal is to identify whether any change point(s) occurred in the series. This is an example of post hoc analysis and is often approached using hypothesis testing methods. By contrast, online change point detection is concerned with detecting change points in an incoming data stream.
Background
A time series measures the progression of one or more quantities over time. For instance, the figure above shows the level of water in the Nile river between 1870 and 1970. Change point detection is concerned with identifying whether, and if so when,
the behavior of the series changes significantly. In the Nile river
example, the volume of water changes significantly after a dam was built
in the river. Importantly, anomalous observations that differ from the
ongoing behavior of the time series are not generally considered change
points as long as the series returns to its previous behavior
afterwards.
Mathematically, we can describe a time series as an ordered sequence of observations . We can write the joint distribution of a subset of the time series as . If the goal is to determine whether a change point occurred at a time in a finite time series of length , then we really ask whether equals . This problem can be generalized to the case of more than one change point.
Algorithms
Online change detection
Using the sequential analysis ("online") approach, any change test must make a trade-off between these common metrics:
Basseville (1993, Section 2.6) discusses offline change-in-mean detection with hypothesis testing based on the works of Page and Picard and maximum-likelihood estimation of the change time, related to two-phase regression.
Other approaches employ clustering based on maximum likelihood estimation,, use optimization to infer the number and times of changes, via spectral analysis, or singular spectrum analysis.
Detection of changepoints in the Nile River flow data using a Bayesian method
Statistically speaking, change detection is often considered as a model selection problem.Models with more changepoints fit data better but with more parameters.
The best trade-off can be found by optimizing a model selection
criterion such as Akaike information criterion and Bayesian information criterion.
Bayesian model selection has also been used. Bayesian methods often
quantify uncertainties of all sorts and answer questions hard to tackle
by classical methods, such as what is the probability of having a change
at a given time and what is the probability of the data having a
certain number of changepoints.
"Offline" approaches cannot be used on streaming data because
they need to compare to statistics of the complete time series, and
cannot react to changes in real-time but often provide a more accurate
estimation of the change time and magnitude.
Linguistic
change detection refers to the ability to detect word-level changes
across multiple presentations of the same sentence. Researchers have
found that the amount of semantic
overlap (i.e., relatedness) between the changed word and the new word
influences the ease with which such a detection is made (Sturt, Sanford,
Stewart, & Dawydiak, 2004).
Additional research has found that focussing one's attention to the word
that will be changed during the initial reading of the original
sentence can improve detection. This was shown using italicized
text to focus attention, whereby the word that will be changing is
italicized in the original sentence (Sanford, Sanford, Molle, &
Emmott, 2006), as well as using clefting constructions such as "It was the
tree that needed water." (Kennette, Wurm, & Van Havermaet, 2010).
These change-detection phenomena appear to be robust, even occurring
cross-linguistically when bilinguals read the original sentence in their
native language and the changed sentence in their second language
(Kennette, Wurm & Van Havermaet, 2010). Recently, researchers have
detected word-level changes in semantics across time by computationally
analyzing temporal corpora (for example: the word "gay" has acquired a new meaning over time) using change point detection.
This is also applicable to reading non-words such as music. Even though
music is not a language, it is still written and people to comprehend
its meaning which involves perception and attention, allowing change
detection to be present.
Visual change detection
Visual change detection is one's ability to detect differences between two or more images or scenes.
This is essential in many everyday tasks. One example is detecting
changes on the road to drive safely and successfully. Change detection
is crucial in operating motor vehicles to detect other vehicles, traffic
control signals, pedestrians, and more.
Another example of utilizing visual change detection is facial
recognition. When noticing one's appearance, change detection is vital,
as faces are "dynamic" and can change in appearance due to different
factors such as "lighting conditions, facial expressions, aging, and
occlusion".
Change detection algorithms use various techniques, such as "feature
tracking, alignment, and normalization," to capture and compare
different facial features and patterns across individuals in order to
correctly identify people.
Visual change detection involves the integration of "multiple sensors
inputs, cognitive processes, and attentional mechanisms," often focusing
on multiple stimuli at once.
The brain processes visual information from the eyes, compares it with
previous knowledge stored in memory, and identifies differences between
the two stimuli. This process occurs rapidly and unconsciously, allowing
individuals to respond to changing environments and make necessary
adjustments to their behavior.
Cognitive change detection
There
have been several studies conducted to analyze the cognitive functions
of change detection. With cognitive change detection, researchers have
found that most people overestimate their change detection, when in
reality, they are more susceptible to change blindness than they think.
Cognitive change detection has many complexities based on external
factors, and sensory pathways play a key role in determining one's
success in detecting changes. One study proposes and proves that the
multi-sensory pathway network, which consists of three sensory pathways,
significantly increases the effectiveness of change detection.
Sensory pathway one fuses the stimuli together, sensory pathway two
involves using the middle concatenation strategy to learn the changed
behavior, and sensory pathway three involves using the middle difference
strategy to learn the changed behavior. With all three of these working together, change detection has a significantly increased success rate.
It was previously believed that the posterior parietal cortex (PPC)
played a role in enhancing change detection due to its focus on "sensory
and task-related activity".
However, studies have also disproven that the PPC is necessary for
change detection; although these have high functional correlation with
each other, the PPC's mechanistic involvement in change detection is
insignificant.
Moreover, top-down processing plays an important role in change
detection because it enables people to resort to background knowledge
which then influences perception, which is also common in children.
Researchers have conducted a longitudinal study surrounding children's
development and the change detection throughout infancy to adulthood.
In this, it was found that change detection is stronger in young
infants compared to older children, with top-down processing being a
main contributor to this outcome.
The term apologetics derives from the Ancient Greek word apologia (ἀπολογία). In the Classical Greek legal system, the prosecution delivered the kategoria (κατηγορία), the accusation or charge, and the defendant replied with an apologia, the defence. The apologia was a formal speech or explanation to reply to and rebut the charges. A famous example is Socrates' Apologia defense, as chronicled in Plato's Apology.
Although the term apologetics has Western, primarily
Christian origins and is most frequently associated with the defense of
Christianity, the term is sometimes used referring to the defense of any
religion in formal debate involving religion.
Many apologetic books have been written in defence of the history or teachings of the Baháʼí Faith. The religion's founders wrote several books presenting proofs of their religion; among them are the Báb's Seven Proofs and Bahá'u'lláh's Kitáb-i-Íqán. Later Baháʼí authors wrote prominent apologetic texts, such as Mírzá Abu'l-Fadl's The Brilliant Proof and Udo Schaefer et al.'s Making the Crooked Straight.
Buddhism
One of the earliest Buddhist apologetic texts is The Questions of King Milinda, which deals with the Buddhist metaphysics such as the "no-self" nature of the individual and characteristics such as wisdom, perception, volition, feeling, consciousness and the soul. In the Meiji Era (1868-1912), encounters between Buddhists and Christians in Japan as a result of increasing contact between Japan and other nations may have prompted the formation of Japanese New Buddhism, including the apologetic Shin Bukkyō (新仏教) magazine. In recent times, A. L. De Silva, an Australian convert to Buddhism, has written a book, Beyond Belief, providing Buddhist apologetic responses and a critique of Christian Fundamentalist doctrine. Gunapala Dharmasiri wrote an apologetic critique of the Christian concept of God from a Theravadin Buddhist perspective.
Christian apologetics combines Christian theology, natural theology, and philosophy
in an attempt to present a rational basis for the Christian faith, to
defend the faith against objections and misrepresentation, and to show
that the Christian doctrine is the only world-view that is faultless and
consistent with all fundamental knowledge and questions.
Christian apologetics has taken many forms over the centuries. In the Roman Empire,
Christians were severely persecuted, and many charges were brought
against them. Examples in the Bible include the Apostle Paul's address
to the Athenians in the Areopagus (Acts 17: 22-34). J. David Cassel gives several examples: Tacitus wrote that Nero fabricated charges that Christians started the burning of Rome. Other charges included cannibalism (due to a literal interpretation of the Eucharist) and incest (due to early Christians' practice of addressing each other as "brother" and "sister"). Paul the Apostle, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, and others often defended Christianity against charges that were brought to justify persecution.
John Henry Newman (1801–1890) was an English convert to Roman Catholicism, later made a cardinal, and beatified in 2010. In early life he was a major figure in the Oxford Movement to bring the Church of England
back to its Catholic roots. Eventually his studies in history
persuaded him to become a Roman Catholic. When John Henry Newman
entitled his spiritual autobiography Apologia Pro Vita Sua','
in 1864, he was playing upon both this connotation, and the more
commonly understood meaning of an expression of contrition or regret.
Deism is a form of theism
in which God created the universe and established rationally
comprehensible moral and natural laws but no longer intervenes in human
affairs. Deism is a natural religion
where belief in God is based on application of reason and evidence
observed in the designs and laws found in nature. The World Order of
Deists maintains a web site presenting deist apologetics that
demonstrate the existence of God based on evidence and reason, absent
divine revelation.
Hinduism
Hindu
apologetics began developing during the British colonial period. A
number of Indian intellectuals had become critical of the British
tendency to devalue the Hindu religious tradition. As a result, these
Indian intellectuals, as well as a handful of British Indologists,
were galvanized to examine the roots of the religion as well as to
study its vast arcana and corpus in an analytical fashion. This endeavor
drove the deciphering and preservation of Sanskrit. Many translations of Hindu texts were produced which made them accessible to a broader reading audience.
In the early 18th century, Christian missionary Bartholomäus Ziegenbalg engaged in dialogues with several Tamil-speaking Malabarian
Hindu priests, and recorded arguments of these Hindu apologists. These
records include German-language reports submitted to the Lutheran
headquarters in Halle, and 99 letters written by the Hindu priests to him (later translated into German under the title Malabarische Korrespondenz from 1718 onwards).
During 1830–1831, missionary John Wilson engaged in debates with Hindu apologists in Bombay. In 1830, his protege Ram Chandra, a Hindu convert to Christianity, debated with several Hindu Brahmin apologists in public. Hindu panditMorobhatt Dandekar summarized his arguments from his 1831 debate with Wilson in a Marathi-language work titled Shri-Hindu-dharma-sthapana. Narayana Rao, another Hindu apologist, wrote Svadesha-dharma-abhimani in response to Wilson.
A range of Indian philosophers, including Swami Vivekananda and Aurobindo Ghose, have written rational explanations regarding the values of the Hindu religious tradition. More modern proponents such as the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi have also tried to correlate recent developments from quantum physics and consciousness research with Hindu concepts. The late Reverend Pandurang Shastri Athavale has given a plethora of discourses regarding the symbolism and rational basis for many principles in the Vedic tradition. In his book The Cradle of Civilization,
David Frawley, an American who has embraced the Vedic tradition, has
characterized the ancient texts of the Hindu heritage as being like
"pyramids of the spirit".
'Ilm al-Kalām, literally "science of discourse", usually foreshortened to kalam and sometimes called Islamic scholastic theology,
is an Islamic undertaking born out of the need to establish and defend
the tenets of Islamic faith against skeptics and detractors. A scholar of kalam is referred to as a mutakallim (plural mutakallimūn) as distinguished from philosophers, jurists, and scientists.
Jewish apologetic literature can be traced back as far as Aristobulus of Paneas, though some discern it in the works of Demetrius the chronographer
(3rd century BCE) traces of the style of "questions" and "solutions"
typical of the genre. Aristobulus was a Jewish philosopher of Alexandria and the author of an apologetic work addressed to Ptolemy VI Philometor. Josephus's Contra Apion is a wide-ranging defense of Judaism against many charges laid against Judaism at that time, as too are some of the works of Philo of Alexandria.
In response to modern Christian missionaries, and congregations
that "are designed to appear Jewish, but are actually fundamentalist
Christian churches, which use traditional Jewish symbols to lure the
most vulnerable of our Jewish people into their ranks", Jews for Judaism is the largest counter-missionary organization in existence, today. Kiruv Organization (Mizrachi), founded by Rabbi Yosef Mizrachi, and Outreach Judaism, founded by Rabbi Tovia Singer,
are other prominent international organizations that respond "directly
to the issues raised by missionaries and cults, by exploring Judaism in
contradistinction to fundamentalist Christianity."
Pantheism
Some pantheists have formed organizations such as the World Pantheist Movement and the Universal Pantheist Society to promote and defend the belief in pantheism.
Native Americans
In a famous speech called "Red Jacket on Religion for the White Man and the Red" in 1805, Seneca chief Red Jacket gave an apologetic for Native American religion.
In literature
Plato's Apology may be read as both a religious and literary apology; however, more specifically literary examples may be found in the prefaces and dedications, which proceed many Early Modern plays, novels, and poems. Eighteenth century authors such as Colley Cibber, Frances Burney, and William Congreve,
to name but a few, prefaced the majority of their poetic work with such
apologies. In addition to the desire to defend their work, the
apologetic preface often suggests the author's attempt to humble his- or
herself before the audience.
Love jihad (or Romeo jihad) is an Islamophobicconspiracy theory promoted by right-wing Hindutva activists. The conspiracy theory purports that Muslim men target Hindu women for conversion to Islam by means such as seduction, feigning love, deception, kidnapping, and marriage, as part of a broader demographic "war" by Muslims against India, and an organised international conspiracy, for domination through demographic growth and replacement.
The conspiracy theory relies on disinformation to conduct its hate campaign, and is noted for its similarities to other historic hate campaigns as well as contemporary white nationalist conspiracy theories and Euro-American Islamophobia. It features Orientalist portrayals of Muslims as barbaric and hypersexual, and carries the paternalistic and patriarchal
notions that Hindu women are passive and victimized, while "any
possibility of women exercising their legitimate right to love and their
right to choice is ignored". It has consequently been the cause of vigilante assaults, murders and other violent incidents, including the 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots.
Created in 2009
as part of a campaign to foster fear and paranoia, the conspiracy
theory was disseminated by Hindutva publications, such as the Sanatan Prabhat and the Hindu Janajagruti Samiti
website, calling Hindus to protect their women from Muslim men who were
simultaneously depicted to be attractive seducers and lecherous
rapists. Organisations including the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and the Vishva Hindu Parishad have since been credited for its proliferation in India and abroad, respectively. The conspiracy theory was noted to have become a significant belief in the state of Uttar Pradesh by 2014 and contributed to the success of the Bharatiya Janata Party campaign in the state.
The concept was institutionalised in India after the election of the Bharatiya Janata Party led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Right-wing pro-government television media, such as Times Now and Republic TV, and social media disinformation campaigns are generally held responsible for the growth of its popularity.
Legislation against the purported conspiracy has been initiated in a
number of states ruled by the party and implemented in the state of
Uttar Pradesh by the Yogi Adityanath government, where it has been used as a means of state repression on Muslims and crackdown on interfaith marriages.
The
Indian subcontinent has been religiously pluralistic for centuries.
This map from 1909 shows Muslim regions in the northwest in green mixing
with Hindu regions stretching across most of the region into Buddhist
Burma.
In a piece picked up by the Chicago Tribune, Foreign Policy correspondent Siddhartha Mahanta reports that the modern Love Jihad conspiracy has roots in the 1947 partition of India.
This partition led to the creation of India and Pakistan. The creation
of two countries with different majority religions led to large-scale
migration, with millions of people moving between the countries and
rampant reports of sexual predation and forced conversions of women by
men of both faiths.
Women on both sides of the conflict were impacted, leading to "recovery
operations" by both the Indian and Pakistani governments of these
women, with over 20,000 Muslim and 9,000 non-Muslim women being
recovered between 1947 and 1956.
This tense history caused repeated clashes between the faiths in the
decades that followed as well, according to Mahanta, as cultural
pressure against interfaith marriage for either side.
As of 2011, Hindus were the leading religious majority in India,
at 80%, with Muslims at 14% an increase from 9% from 1951 while the
Hindu population of Pakistan has remained at 2% and that of Bangladesh
fallen to 8%. In the 1951 census, West Pakistan (now Pakistan) had 1.3% Hindu population, while East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) had 22.05%.
India has a long tradition of arranged marriages, wherein the bride and groom do not choose their partners. Through the 2000s and 2010s, India witnessed a rise in love marriages, although tensions continue around interfaith marriages, along with other traditionally discouraged unions.In 2012, The Hindu
reported that illegal intimidation against consenting couples engaging
in such discouraged unions, including inter-religious marriage, had
surged.
That year, Uttar Pradesh saw the proposal of an amendment to remove the
requirement to declare religion from the marriage law in hopes of
encouraging those who were hiding their interfaith marriage due to
social norms to register.
One of the tensions surrounding interfaith marriage relates to concerns of required, even forced, marital conversion. Marriage in Islam
is a legal contract with requirements around the religions of the
participants. While Muslim women are only permitted within the contract
to marry Muslim men, Muslim men may marry "People of the Book", interpreted by most to include Jews and Christians, with the inclusion of Hindus disputed. According to a 2014 article in the Mumbai Mirror, some non-Muslim brides in Muslim-Hindu marriages convert, while other couples choose a civil marriage under the Special Marriage Act of 1954.
Marriage between Muslim women and Hindu men (including Sikh, Jaina, and
Buddhist) is legal civil marriage under The Special Marriage Act of
1954.
Love jihad in politics has been closely tied to Hindu nationalism,
particularly the more extremist form hindutva associated with BJPPrime Minister of IndiaNarendra Modi. The anti-Islamic stances of many right wing hindutva groups like Vishva Hindu Parishad
(VHP) are usually hostile to inter-religious marriage and religious
pluralism, which can sometimes result in mob violence motivated by
allegations of love jihad.
Timeline
Early origins and beginnings
Similar controversies over inter religious marriage were relatively
common in India from the 1920s until independence in 1947, when
allegations of forced marriage were typically called "abductions".
They were more common in religiously diverse areas, including campaigns
against both Muslims and Christians, and were tied to fears over
religious demographics and political power in the newly emerging Indian
nation. Fears of women converting was also a catalyst of the violence against women that occurred during that period. However, allegations of Love Jihad first rose to national awareness in September 2009.
According to the Kerala Catholic Bishops Council, by October 2009 up to 4,500 girls in Kerala had been targeted, whereas Hindu Janajagruti Samiti claimed that 30,000 girls had been converted in Karnataka alone. Sree Narayana Dharma Paripalana general secretary Vellapally Natesan said that there had been reports in Narayaneeya communities of "Love Jihad" attempts. Following the controversy's initial flare-up in 2009, it flared again in 2010, 2011 and 2014.On 25 June 2014, Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy
informed the state legislature that 2,667 young women converted to
Islam in the state between 2006 and 2014. However, he stated that there
was no evidence for any of them being forced to convert, and that fears
of Love Jihad were "baseless." Muslim organizations such as the Popular Front of India and the Campus Front have been accused of promoting this activity. In Kerala, some movies have been accused of promoting Love Jihad, a charge which has been denied by the filmmakers. Bollywood films PK and Bajrangi Bhaijaan were accused of promoting Love jihad by Hindu outfits. The actors and directors denied that their films promoted Love jihad.
Around the same time that the conspiracy theory was beginning to
spread, accounts of Love Jihad also began becoming prevalent in Myanmar. Wirathu, the leader of 969 Movement, has said that Muslim men pretend to be Buddhists and then the Buddhist women are lured into Islam in Myanmar. He has urged to "protect our Buddhist women from the Muslim love-jihad" by introducing further legislation. Reports of similar activities also began emerging from the United Kingdom's Sikh diaspora. In 2014, The Sikh Council alleged that it had received reports that girls from British Sikh
families were becoming victims of Love Jihad. Furthermore, these
reports alleged that these girls were being exploited by their husbands,
some of whom afterwards abandoned them in Pakistan. According to the
Takht jathedar, he alleged that "The Sikh council has rescued some of
the victims (girls) and brought them back to their parents."
Congress Party era (2009–2014)
The initial formations of the conspiracy theory were solidified when
various organisations began joining. Christian groups, such as the
Christian Association for Social Action, and the Vishva Hindu Parishad
(VHP) banded against it, with the VHP establishing the "Hindu Helpline"
that it started answered 1,500 calls in three months related to "Love
Jihad". The Union of Catholic Asian News (UCAN) has reported that the Catholic Church was concerned about this alleged phenomenon. In September, posters of right-wing group Shri Ram Sena warning against "Love Jihad" appeared in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala.
The group announced in December that it would launch a nationwide "Save
our daughters, save India" campaign to combat "Love Jihad". Muslim organizations in Kerala called it a malicious misinformation campaign. Popular Front of India
(PFI) committee-member Naseeruddin Elamaram denied that the PFI was
involved in any "Love Jihad", stating that people convert to Hinduism
and Christianity as well and that religious conversion is not a crime. Members of the Muslim Central Committee of Dakshina Kannada and Udupi districts responded by claiming that Hindus and Christians have fabricated these claims to undermine Muslims.
In July 2010, the "Love Jihad" controversy resurfaced in the press when Kerala Chief Minister V. S. Achuthanandan referenced the alleged matrimonial conversion of non-Muslim girls as part of an effort to make Kerala a Muslim majority state. PFI dismissed his statements due to the findings of the Kerala probe, but the president of the BJP Mahila Morcha, the women's wing of the conservative Bharatiya Janata Party, called for an NIA investigation, alleging that the Kerala state probe was closed prematurely due to a tacit understanding with PFI. The Congress Party in Kerala responded strongly to the Chief Minister's comments, which they described as deplorable and dangerous.
In December 2011, the controversy erupted again in Karnataka legislative assembly, when member Mallika Prasad of the Bharatiya Janata Party
asserted that the problem was ongoing and unaddressed – with,
according to her, 69 of 84 Hindu girls who had gone missing between
January and November of that year confessing after their recovery that
"they'd been lured by Muslim youths who professed love." According to The Times of India, response was divided, with Deputy Speaker N. Yogish Bhat and House Leader S. Suresh Kumar supporting governmental intervention, while Congress membersB. Ramanath Rai and Abhay Chandra Jain argued that "the issue was being raised to disrupt communal harmony in the district."
Bharatiya Janata Party era (2014–present)
During the resurgence of the controversy in 2014, protests turned violent at growing concern, even though, according to Reuters, the concept was considered "an absurd conspiracy theory by mainstream, moderate Indians." Then BJP MP Yogi Adityanath alleged that Love Jihad was an international conspiracy targeting India,
announcing on television that the Muslims "can't do what they want by
force in India, so they are using the love jihad method here." Conservative Hindu activists cautioned women in Uttar Pradesh to avoid Muslims and not to befriend them.
In Uttar Pradesh, the influential committee Akhil Bharitiya Vaishya
Ekta Parishad announced their intention to push to restrict the use of
cell phones among young women to prevent their being vulnerable to such
activities.
Following this announcement, The Times of India reported that the Senior Superintendent of Police
in UP, Shalabh Mathur, "said the term 'love jihad' had been coined only
to create fear and divide society along communal lines." Muslim leaders referred to the 2014 rhetoric around the alleged conspiracy as a campaign of hate. Feminists voiced concerns that efforts to protect women against the alleged activities would negatively impact women's rights, depriving them of free choice and agency.
In September 2014, BJP MP Sakshi Maharaj claimed that Muslim boys in madrasas
are being motivated for Love Jihad with proposals of rewards of "Rs 11
lakh for an 'affair' with a Sikh girl, Rs 10 lakh for a Hindu girl and
Rs 7 lakh for a Jain girl." He claimed to know this through reports to
him by Muslims and by the experiences of men in his service who had
converted for access.
Abdul Razzaq Khan, the vice-president of Jamiat Ulama Hind, responded
by denying such activities, labeling the comments "part of conspiracy
aimed at disturbing the peace of the nation" and demanding action
against Maharaj. Uttar Pradesh minister Mohd Azam Khan indicated the statement was "trying to break the country". In January, Vishwa Hindu Parishad's women's wing, Durga Vahini used actor Kareena Kapoor's morphed picture half covered with burqa issue of their magazine, on the theme of Love Jihad. The caption underneath read: "conversion of nationality through religious conversion".
In June 2018, Jharkhand High Court granted a divorce in an alleged love
jihad case in which the accused lied about his religion and forcing the
victim to convert to Islam after marriage.
In May 2017, the Kerala High Court
annulled a marriage of a converted Hindu woman Akhila alias Hadiya to a
Muslim man Shafeen Jahan on the grounds that the bride's parents were
not present, nor gave consent for the marriage, after allegations by her
father of conversion and marriage at the behest of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).
Hadiya's father had claimed that his daughter had been influenced to
marry a Muslim man by some organisations so she no longer remained in
her parents' custody.
However, Hadiya claimed that she had been following Islam since 2012
and had left her home of her own will. Akhila was married to Shafeen by
the time her father's petition was taken up by the court, following
which her marriage was annulled.
The decision of the court was challenged by Shafeen in the Supreme Court of India in July 2017. The Supreme Court sought the response from the National Investigating Agency (NIA) and the Kerala government, ordering an NIA probe headed by former SC Judge R. V. Raveendran
on 16 August. The NIA had earlier submitted that the woman's conversion
and marriage was not "isolated" and it had detected a pattern emerging
in the state.
The Supreme Court on 8 March 2018 overturned the annulment of
Hadiya's marriage by the Kerala High Court and held that the she had
married of her own free will. However, it allowed NIA to continue
investigation into the allegations of a terror dimension.
The NIA examined 11 interfaith marriages in Kerala and completed its
investigation in October 2018, concluding that "the agency has not found
any evidence to suggest that in any of these cases either the man or
the woman was coerced to convert".
Despite drawing severe criticisms, the Syro Malabar Church
continued to repeat its stand on "love jihad". According to the church,
Christian women are being targeted, recruited to terrorist outfit
Islamic State, making them sex slaves and even killed. Detailing this, a circular, issued by Church chief Cardinal Mar George Alencherry, was read out in many parishes at the Sunday mass. In the circular (dated 15 January 2020) that was read out in churches on Sunday, it is stated that Christian
women are being targeted under a conspiracy through inter-religious
relationships, which often grow as a threat to religious harmony.
"Christian women from Kerala are even being recruited to Islamic State through this," the circular read.
Further, Kerala Catholic Bishops Conference's (KCBC) Commission for
Social Harmony and Vigilance, claimed that there were 4,000 instances of
"love jihad" between 2005 and 2012.
On 27 September 2020, protests occurred after a young Muslim man
attempted to kidnap a 21-year-old Hindu woman near her college campus,
and fatally shot her when she resisted. Her family said that he had
tried to force her to convert to Islam and marry him.
Many BJP-ruled states, such as Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana and Karnataka,
then began mulling over laws designed to prevent "forcible conversions"
through marriage, commonly referred to as "love jihad" laws. In September 2020, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath asked his government to come up with a strategy to prevent "religious conversions in the name of love". On 31 October, he announced that a law to curb "love jihad"
would be passed by his government. The law in Uttar Pradesh, which also
includes provisions against "unlawful religious conversion," declares a
marriage null and void if the sole intention was to "change a girl's
religion" and both it and the one in Madhya Pradesh imposed sentences of
up to 10 years in prison for those who broke the law.The ordinance came into effect on 28 November 2020 as the Prohibition of Unlawful Religious Conversion Ordinance. In December 2020, Madhya Pradesh approved an anti-conversion law similar to the Uttar Pradesh one. As of 25 November 2020, Haryana and Karnataka were still in discussion over similar ordinances.
In April 2021, the Gujarat Assembly amended the Freedom of Religion
Act, 2003, bringing in stringent provisions against forcible conversion
through marriage or allurement, with the intention of targeting "love
jihad".
The Karnataka state cabinet also approved an anti-conversion ‘love jihad’ bill, making it a law in December 2021.The Congress-led government scrapped the law in June 2023.
The conspiracy theory is noted for its similarities to other historic hate campaigns and instances Euro-American Islamophobia. It features Orientalist portrayals of Muslims as barbaric and hypersexual, and carries the paternalistic and patriarchal
notions that Hindu women are passive and victimized, while "any
possibility of women exercising their legitimate right to love and their
right to choice is ignored". It has consequently been the cause of vigilante assaults, murders and other violent incidents, including the 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots.
Official investigations
India
In August 2017, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) stated that it had found a common "mentor" in some love jihad cases, "a woman associated with the radical group Popular Front of India", in August 2017. According to a later article in The Economist,
"Repeated police investigations have failed to find evidence of any
organised plan of conversion. Reporters have repeatedly exposed claims
of 'love jihad' as at best fevered fantasies and at worst, deliberate
election-time inventions."
According to the same report, the common theme regarding many claims of
"love jihad" has been the frenzied objection to an interfaith marriage
while "Indian law erects no barriers to marriages between faiths, or
against conversion by willing and informed consent. Yet the idea still
sticks, even when the supposed 'victims' dismiss it as nonsense."
In 2022, the Observer Research Foundation
and Indian government stated that no more than 100-200 Indians had
joined Islamic State, a figure so low that one researcher remarked that
"academics and experts often ask the question ‘What had prevented Indian
Muslims from joining the Islamic State?'."
Karnataka
In October 2009, the Karnataka government announced its intention to
counter "love jihad", which "appeared to be a serious issue". A week after the announcement, the government ordered a probe into the situation by the CID to determine if an organised effort existed to convert these girls and, if so, by whom it was being funded.
One woman, whose conversion to Islam came under scrutiny as a result of
the probe, was temporarily ordered to the custody of her parents, but
eventually was permitted to return to her new husband after she appeared
in court, denying pressure to convert.
In April 2010, police used the term to characterize the alleged
kidnapping, forced conversion and marriage of a 17-year-old college girl
in Mysore.
In late 2009, The Karnataka CID
(Criminal Investigation Department) reported that although it was
continuing to investigate, it had found no evidence that a "love jihad"
existed. In late 2009, Director general of police
Jacob Punnoose reported that although the investigation would continue,
there was no evidence of any organised attempt by any group or
individual using men "feigning love" to lure women to convert to Islam. Investigators did indicate that many Hindu girls had converted to Islam of their own will. In early 2010, the State Government reported to the Karnataka High Court that, although many young Hindu women had converted to Islam, there was no organized attempt to convince them to do so. According to The Indian Express, Justice K. T. Sankaran's
conclusion that "such incidents under the pretext of love were rampant
in certain parts of the state" ran contrary to Central and state
government reports.
A petition was also put before Sankaran to prevent the use of the terms
"love jihad" and "romeo jihad", but Sankaran declined to overrule an
earlier decision not to restrain media usage. Subsequently, the High Court stayed
further police investigation, both because no organised efforts had
been disclosed by police probes and because the investigation was
specifically targeted against a single community. In early 2010, the state government reported to the Karnataka High
Court that although many young Hindu women had converted to Islam, there
was no organized attempt to convince them to do so.
Kerala
Following the launching of a poster campaign in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, purportedly by the organisation Shri Ram Sena, state police began investigating the presence of that organisation in the area.
In late October 2009, police addressed the question of "love jihad"
itself, indicating that while they had not located an organisation
called "Love Jihad", "there are reasons to suspect 'concentrated
attempts' to persuade girls to convert to Islam after they fall in love
with Muslim boys".
In November 2009, DGPJacob Punnoose stated there was no organisation whose members lured girls in Kerala by feigning love with the intention of converting. He told the Kerala High Court
that three out of 18 reports he received questioned the tendency.
However, in absence of solid proof, the investigations were still
continuing.
In December 2009, Justice K.T. Sankaran, who had refused to accept
Punnoose's report, concluded from a case diary that there were
indications of forceful conversions and stated it was clear from police
reports there was a "concerted effort" to convert women with "blessings
of some outfits". The court, while hearing the bail plea of two
individuals accused in "love jihad" cases, stated that there had been
3,000-4,000 such conversions in the past four years.
The Kerala High Court in December 2009 stayed investigations in the
case, granting relief to the two accused, though it criticised the
police investigation.
The investigation was closed by Justice M. Sasidharan Nambiar following
Punnoose's statements that no conclusive evidence could be found for
the existence of "love jihad".
On 9 December 2009, Justice K T Sankaran for the Kerala High
Court weighed in on the matter while hearing bail for a Muslim youth
arrested for allegedly forcibly converting two female students.
According to Sankaran, police reports revealed the "blessings of some
outfits" for a "concerted" effort for religious conversions, some 3,000
to 4,000 incidences of which had taken place after love affairs within a
four-year period.
Sankaran "found indications of 'forceful' religious conversions under
the garb of 'love'", suggesting that "such 'deceptive' acts" might
require legislative intervention to prevent them.
In January 2012, Kerala police declared that "love jihad" was
"[a] campaign with no substance", bringing legal proceedings instead
against the website hindujagruti.org for "spreading religious hatred and false propaganda." In 2012, after two years of investigation into the alleged "love jihad", Kerala Police
declared it as a "campaign with no substance". Subsequently, a case was
initiated against the hindujagruti website, where counterfeit posters
of Muslim organisations offering money to Muslim youths for luring and
trapping women were found.
In 2017, after the Kerala High Court had ruled that a marriage of
a Hindu woman to a Muslim man was invalid on the basis of"'love jihad",
and an appeal was filed in the Supreme Court of India by the Muslim husband. The court, based on the "unbiased and independent" evidence requested by the court from the NIA,
instructed the NIA to investigate all similar cases to establish
whether there was any "love jihad". It allowed the NIA to explore all
similar suspicious cases to find whether banned organisations, such as SIMI, were preying on vulnerable Hindu women to recruit them as terrorists.
The NIA had earlier submitted before the court that the case was not an
"isolated" incident and it had detected a pattern emerging in the
state, stating that another case involved the same individuals who had
previously acted as instigators.
In 2018, the NIA concluded its probe, after investigating 11 interfaith
marriages in Kerala without finding proof of coercion, and an NIA
official concluded that "we didn't find any prosecutable evidence to
bring formal charges against these persons under any of the scheduled
offences of the NIA", adding that "Conversion is not a crime in Kerala
and also helping these men and women convert is also within the ambit of
the constitution of the country."
In 2021, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan
stated that "no complaints or clear information were received regarding
forced conversion", and that, of the data available to the ministry,
"none of the figures validate the propaganda that girls are being lured
into conversion and terrorist organizations".
Uttar Pradesh
In September 2014, following the resurgence of national attention, Reuters
reported that police in Uttar Pradesh had found no credence in the five
or six recent allegations of "love jihad" that had been brought before
them, with state police chief A.L. Banerjee stating that, "In most cases
we found that a Hindu girl and Muslim boy were in love and had married
against their parents' will." The police stated that occasional cases of trickery by dishonest men are not evidence of a broader conspiracy.
That same month, the Allahabad High Court
gave the government and election commission of Uttar Pradesh ten days
to respond to a petition to restrain the use of the word "love jihad"
and to take action against Yogi Adityanath.
In 2018, a report by the fundamentalist Sikh activist organisation, Sikh Youth UK,
entitled "The Religiously Aggravated Sexual Exploitation of Young Sikh
Women Across the UK" (RASE report) made similar allegations of Muslim
men targeting Sikh girls for the purposes of conversion.
The report was severely criticised in 2019 by academic researchers and
by an official UK government report, led by two Sikh academics, for
false and misleading information. It noted: "The
RASE report lacks solid data, methodological transparency and rigour.
It is filled instead with sweeping generalisations and poorly
substantiated claims around the nature and scale of abuse of Sikh girls
and causal factors driving it. It appealed heavily to historical
tensions between Sikhs and Muslims and narratives of honour in a way
that seemed designed to whip up fear and hate".
Previously, in 2011, Sikh academic Katy Sian had conducted
research into the matter, exploring how "forced conversion narratives"
arose within the Sikh diaspora in the United Kingdom and why they became so widespread.
Sian, who reports that claims of conversion through courtship on
campuses are widespread in the UK, says that rather than relying on
actual evidence, the Sikh community primarily rest their beliefs on the
word of "a friend of a friend" or personal anecdotes. According to Sian, the narrative is similar to accusations of "white slavery" lodged against the Jewish community and foreigners to the UK and the US, with the former having ties to anti-semitism that mirror the Islamophobia displayed by the modern narrative. Sian expanded on these views in her 2013 book, Mistaken Identities, Forced Conversions, and Postcolonial Formations.
In response to a flurry of sensational news stories on the subject, ten Hindu academics in the UK signed an open letter
wherein they argued that claims of Hindu and Sikh girls being
forcefully converted in the UK were "part of an arsenal of myths
propagated by right-wing Hindu supremacist organisations in India". The Muslim Council of Britain
issued a press release pointing out there was a lack of evidence of any
forced conversions, and suggested it was an underhanded attempt to
smear the British Muslim population.
In response to the purported conspiracy of love jihad, affiliates of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh have stated that they have launched a Reverse Love Jihad campaign to marry Hindu men with Muslim women. Cases related to the campaign were reported from various parts of Uttar Pradesh
(U.P.), where rape and abduction of Muslim women have taken place. The
perpetrators of these incidents are alleged to be the members of these
affiliates who are being rewarded by the affiliates for their
activities. Between 2014 and October 2016, 389 cases of underage girls
missing or kidnapped were registered by the police in Kushinagar district, and a similar trend was found in a number of districts in eastern Uttar Pradesh, in areas with high communal tensions.
The term Reverse Love Jihad has also been used by the Bajrang Dal
to refer to the Love Jihad conspiracy theory where the purported victim
is a Hindu man being "lured" to Islam with the prospects of a job and
marriage to a Muslim woman.
The Bhagwa Love Trap conspiracy theory,
which alleges that Hindu men lure Muslim women into relationships with
the intention of converting them to Hinduism, has been popularized on
social media.
