Indian "Love Jihad" goes to court

In the chapter, the author address the problem of “Love Jihad”, a conspiracy theory suggesting that Indian Muslims, to take control of India, seduce non-Muslim women to force them to convert to Islam. Focus is put on a case study of three judicial decisions (from 2016 to 2018) in the case of Hadiya, a young woman who converted from Hinduism to Islam and who had to fight in court for her freedom to do so, against her father. The phenomenon of “Love Jihad”, its background, and the reasons underlying its discussion in India are explained. Main aim is to reveal what arguments were used and what assumptions concerning selected social issues can be drawn from them. It is relevant especially from the point of view of culture-forming and educational functions of judicial opinions. Culture-forming function concern the contribution of judicial opinions to the culture and the relation between the justice system and society, whereas educational function concern the communication of proper behaviour, which is reinforced by the fact the court in principle acts as an impartial entity in the trial.