Disempowering Women and Constructing Muslims as ‘Other’: A Study of India’s Anti-Conversion Legislations

As a constitutional democracy, India remains committed to the cherished values of individual liberty and freedom of conscience which form the core of the fundamental rights enshrined in our constitution. However, in the last few years, we have witnessed a marked departure and foundational shift in the pursuit of these values. What we see in terms of the curtailment of women’s freedom, dictating personal relationship choices and maligning Muslims as a danger to Hindu women’s honour, delivers a severe blow to our pluralistic ethos and the cherished values of coexistence. The recently enacted legislations dressed up as anti-conversion laws to criminalise love choices bear a clear reflection of Nazi Germany’s Nuremberg Laws in many ways. Against the background of the state making intrusions into private spaces, denying the right to choose partners and acting as an oppressive surveillance agency, this study argues that these laws subvert the vision of our constitutional democracy and defy various judicial orders. It examines the literature on Hindu rights for women, analyses the contents of the legislation considering the contemporary discourse, to argue that these laws amount to undoing our achievements as a secular modern nation in the last seven decades.