Introduction

Since the dawn of time, caste and religion have been inextricably linked in Indian society. Those same two components form a tightly sealed barrier between societies, causing division, hostility, and conflict among different groups in society. The caste system was so deeply ingrained in Indian culture that it took many years for the citizens to begin to shift from the mindset. That being said, India is still struggling to overcome this social calamity. Marriages between members of the same caste and religion are the standard in Indian society. Weddings between two distinct castes and religious faiths are a huge taboo and a matter of dispute in the Indian society. Interfaith unions and marriage has been the centre of chaos and feud in India for an extensively long period time. Even though India has adopted the “secular” policy, the HinduMuslim divide has long caused a wide range of resentment when it comes to the faiths unionizing in the form of a marriage.

 This religion divide lead to the rise of heinous activities such as honor killings, forceful marriages etc. The communal riots that erupted in Bombay due to the destruction of the Babri Masjid mosque in Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh, on the 6th of December 1992 is the primary backdrop of the movie which branches towards the main focus at hand in the movie. Even though the debacle behind the mosque's location had far gone on since a long period of time between Muslims and Hindus, rising Hindu religious extremism in the nation resulted in its ultimate defacement in the year of 1992. This political issue and the verdict sparked the very worst national outbreaks of communal violence among both Hindus and Muslims since the infamous partition of India. In the premise of the communal riots and religious divide, the movie “Bombay” portrays a rather ‘forbidden’ love story between a woman and a man of the Islamic and Hindu faith.

Plot

Born as the son of a devout and traditional Hindu father in a Tamil Nadu desolate village. Shekhar, a journalism student at a University in Mumbai, finally returns to see his family. During this journey is when he meets a certain Muslim schoolgirl who resides in the village by the name Shaila Bano. She begins to like Shekhar after numerous encounters and days of pursuance from him. They ultimately fall in love.

The lovers' fathers are fiercely opposed to a wedding between the two. His father was strongly adamant against accepting a Muslim as his daughter in law whereas Shaila's father demands that his daughter marry a Muslim man as soon as possible in order to avoid any more resistance from the distraught couple. Shekhar's father went forward to state that if the relationship continues, he would break all ties with his son. Under growing taunts and pressure from her father, Shaila joins Shekhar as he departs for Bombay. As a result, they both decide to elope. Shaila initially struggles with adjusting to and dealing with the new metropolitan lifestyle, having moved from rural surroundings to a city life for the first time. She does, however, adjust to her new way of life over time. They eventually marry and move into a new apartment together. The life they lead seems to be completely unbiased towards one faith as many instances such as Shekhar wearing the Muslim cap and Shaila adorning the red tikka is portrayed, showing the respect they possess for each other’s faith.

Over time, Shaila gives birth to twins, Kabir Narayan and Kamal Basheer. Raised with no particular religion or faith, they are introduced and made accustomed to both faiths. In the period of six years that go by, things pass by smoothly in their lives when they decide to amend the estranged relations with their families and households.

However, the inception of the communal riots between the Hindu- Muslim faiths due to the demolition of the Babri Masjid grow to an alarming height and peak violence strikes. They grow increasingly concerned for the protection of their family that profess both Hinduism and Islam and as they reside in the heart of the city. In the riot and chaos, they lose the twins as they are trapped by a few strange goons who attempt to burn them alive. However at the nick of time Shekhar and Shaila happen to save them. When the parents arrive hearing the news of the riots, the second round of riots lead to the death of the parents in a house fire. The movie concludes with a pressing message from a group of people including Shekhar showing protest for the hate, dispute and violence. The last frame of the movie is a call for harmony and unity amongst citizens irrespective or religion divide.

Legal and General Analysis of the Premise of the Movie

The communal riots during the Babri Masjid was primarily a case of religious extremism and an act of dominance by either parties. However this very act caused some of the worst riots which lead to hundreds of casualties from both communities, hence defeating the whole purpose leading to the deaths of innocent people. The portrayal of the variety of concepts in this movie holds it to be one of the most controversial movies in the history of Indian cinema; especially considering the fact that it was released around the time of the heat of the issue. The movie intends to portray the need to unify the Hindu community with the Islamic community using the concept of love; promoting the idea that love knows no religion or bound is subtly shown in the movie with small details and references drawn from many scenes such as the scene where the heroine runs towards the hero as he seems to be on the verge of ending his life, her burqa’s veil which is the symbol of her faith falls off her as she unites with him. This could be construed as an act of romantic awakening but at the same time can also be deemed as a subtle way of showing the stripping of the religious barrier between the two. As can be noted from the movie, after the marriage between the two the life they lead seems to be completely unbiased towards one faith as many instances such as Shekhar wearing the Muslim cap and Shaila adorning the red tikka is portrayed, showing the respect they possess for each other’s faith. Ratnam's idea behind the creation of the movie is apolitical. This movie and its writing  incorporates all different stand points including Hindu and Muslim traditionalists and representatives, authorities who strive to maintain control, and ordinary citizens, kids and elderly who are slaughtered in the guise of religion. With the exception of some tiresome repetition in certain dramatic scenes, the movie serves as a wakeup call and a letter to the nation's citizens for harmony, unification and the understanding of the true sense of secularism.

The release of Bombay in 1995 was met with a storm of controversy. Shiv Sena Chief- Bal Thackeray urged and received trims and cancellation of scenes in the film, which had been originally created in Tamil and further dubbed in both Telugu and Hindi.  Muslim leaders and citizens in the town insisted and urged for a ban but that plea was rejected.   Multiple sides levelled brutal accusations that the movie was prejudiced and would inflame further societal turmoil and disrupt law and order. Many people stated that the heroine played a rather submissive part and that her faith was undermined throughout the whole movie on the basis of patriarchy. A dominance and bigotry from the Hinduism faith was apparently portrayed by the movie subtly according to people. However the approval from the Shiv Sena Chief only threw oil on the fire as the preacher of ‘Hindutva’ (a rather fascist agenda or motion working to establish Hindu primacy and dominance or hegemony and Hinduism in India) consenting to the movie made it evident that the movie was somewhat biased.

The essence of the riots in the movie

The Babri Masjid case placed a permanent dent on the already strained relations between the Hindus and the Muslims. Blames, Accusations, violence and harm inflicted upon the other faith disregarding even the age of the people who are being attacked. Hate and religious extremism typically blinded the protestors, completely veiling any and every shred of humanity in the eyes of the same. The scene where the kids of the protagonist are close to being burnt alive by protestors is a portrayal and an eye opener to what had become of the citizens of a supposedly unified country. This movie not only proposes harmony and cordial relations but also shows the viewers that we as citizens are capable of uniting beyond boundaries and looking at our fellow citizen as a part of one family if we would put the weapons down and take down the veil of hate.

Legal Attributes to Interfaith Marriages

In further years, talks about legal attributes relating the ‘Interfaith marriage’ became a hot topic. The topic of Inter faith marriage still being controversial, certain laws regarding the same branched out. One such law was the Love Jihad law.

Love Jihad

'Love Jihad' is a concept promoted by Hindu clusters that claims Muslim men 'forcefully convert' women to other faiths such as Islam under the guise of love and romance; hence also illegal as known as forceful conversion. This movement was basically a campaign against Muslim men converting Hindu women and thus the goal was to put a stop to such conversions. This phenomenon dates back to the 1920-30s when Muslim looked to increase population amongst them by converting women from other faiths via marriage. Defense arose from the opposition stating that women who converted to Islam was via their own will and desire to get married into the other religion and hence the act of ‘coercion’ did not exist.

The debacle that has surrounded the phenomenon of love jihad began in 2009, when the Karnataka government headed by BJP launched an investigation into Muslim men on the basis of allegations that they were courting girls of other faiths for purposes of conversion.

The Uttar Pradesh Prohibition on Unlawful Religious Conversion Ordinance, 2020 was passed into law by the state assembly to curb the threat of the phenomenon love jihad. The legislation makes it a crime to convert from one religion to another through coercion, false representation, deception, fraud, undue influence, force, or seduction for marriage. If the conversion is for the purpose of temptation or solicitation and inducement, the conversion would be struck down as invalid is held as per Section 2(a) of the Act.

In the case of Priyanshi @ Km. Shamren & Ors. v. State of U.P. & Anr, (2020), the prior decision by the court in Allahabad that any conversion to the faith of Islam was only to be considered valid if it was due to a genuine change in the mindset or need to profess another religion was overruled and struck down stating that according to the core essence of the constitution, any person is allowed to pick and choose their spouse irrespective of faith, caste or creed. As a secular country, it was held that the state cannot have a say in the matter of marriage and profession of religion unless explicit harmful and manipulative methods of coercion and harm has been used against a party in order to manipulate or force them into conversion. Thus motioning to strike the phenomenon of Love Jihad.