On Eid-ul-Fitr, Malayalam actors Vishnu K Vijayan and Sumi Rashik took to Instagram to upload a music video, wishing their fans on the occasion. But this video did not go down well with social media users, because on watching this short video by Juneberry Bridal Makeover, which is shot by Kcaptures, one can clearly see how this video is indirectly promoting conversion of religion in the name of love, and hence, the obnoxious phenomenon of Love Jihad, spreading like a virus across the country.
This video, which is garnering a lot of attention on social media platforms like Twitter and Instagram, not because it is being liked, but because it is being criticized heavily, showcases Sumi Rashik as a Hindu woman, wearing a south Indian style lehenga attire, and her love interest, a Muslim man, portrayed by Vishnu K Vijayan, in a black kurta pajama set and wearing a Muslim prayer cap. As the video begins, the Muslim man can be seen offering namaz and the Hindu girl is peeping from behind a pillar.
After a few moments, the Muslim man ‘gifts’ a salwar kameez set to his girlfriend, which is typically worn by Muslim women. Following this, the girl approaches her boyfriend wearing the salwar kameez, and then, the Muslim man not only removes the Bindi, traditionally adorning the foreheads of Hindu women, but also drapes the dupatta on the woman’s head, like a veil. Finally, after this, the man embraces the woman.
Now, several social media users, after watching this video, are of the opinion that the removal of the Bindi and making the woman drape the dupatta as a veil, are clear signs of showcasing religious conversion of a Hindu woman by a Muslim man.
The question which arises at this point is what kind of secularism is this which, every time, depicts a Hindu woman involved in a love relationship with a Muslim man, and it is never the other way round? Another point to be noted here is that while concerned individuals talk about Love Jihad as an evil phenomenon of religious conversions of Hindu women, the so-called Left-liberal lobby of the country calls it to be a fake ideology of the ‘fascist’ Hindus. According to their opinion, love does not have a religion. So, why was it important for the Muslim man to remove the traditional signs showcasing that the woman was a Hindu? Isn’t love actually about accepting the other person as they are and for who they are?
I have another valid question at this point: do the creators of such a video have the audacity to shoot another video, extending wishes of Akshay Tritiya or of any other Hindu festival for that matter, and showcase a Muslim woman in love with a Hindu man, and the Hindu man offering her a saffron saree, Bindi, and vermillion? This is important to see because secularism can never be a one-way lane, if Hindus can get converted into Islam for the sake of love, so can Muslims, can’t they? Or will that become ‘fascism’ and ‘Hindu dominance’ for the ‘dara hua Musalman’ of this secular country because while people from every other religion are free to practice their religion and wear it on their sleeves in India, it is only the Hindus who are expected to be the flagbearers of Secularism.
In my opinion, this video, is in no way ‘secular’ or beautiful for that matter, because a secular video would have maintained both the Hindu and Muslim identities, but here, the wiping off of the Bindi does not merely involve the Bindi as an accessory, it showcases the wiping off of the Hindu identity and Sanatana Dharma.
