Editing Interfaith marriage (section)

===India===
{{See also|Special Marriage Act, 1954|Love jihad}}

Interfaith marriage is controversial in some areas, especially disapproval of relationships between Hindus and Muslims. Advertisements and films depicting Hindu-Muslim relationships have attracted condemnation and legal action.<ref name=conversation>{{Cite web|url=http://theconversation.com/the-problem-with-indias-love-jihad-laws-152675|title=The problem with India's 'love jihad' laws|first=Sumit|last=Ganguly|website=The Conversation|date=27 January 2021 }}</ref> Hindu-Muslim couples have experienced harassment, including posting personal details on social media.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://thewire.in/communalism/hindu-muslim-couples-love-jihad-rightwing-marriage-notice|title=To Harass Hindu-Muslim Couples, Rightwing Activists Are Now Using Their Marriage Documents|website=The Wire}}</ref> In 2020 and 2021, several Indian states with [[Bharatiya Janata Party|BJP]] governments passed laws prohibiting forced conversions, and requiring notification of intent to marry and a waiting period, and allowing anyone to object to the union. Interfaith marriages have been taken as an inherent indication of a forced conversion, despite some individuals stating they will not be converting in order to marry.<ref name=crux>[https://cruxnow.com/church-in-asia/2021/08/indian-court-strikes-down-provisions-against-interfaith-marriage/ Indian court strikes down provisions against interfaith marriage]</ref>  Fearing vigilante violence and after facing long delays and uncooperative lawyers and government officials, some couples have fled to other states to get married, often losing their jobs.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.npr.org/2021/09/14/1037096376/a-new-law-in-india-is-making-it-harder-for-interfaith-couples-to-get-married|title=A New Law In India Is Making It Harder For Interfaith Couples To Get Married|website=NPR.org }}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-56330206|title=India's interfaith couples on edge after new law|work=BBC News |date=15 March 2021}}</ref> In August 2021, the [[Gujarat High Court]] limited the scope of that state's law on the grounds of freedom of religion.<ref name=crux />

According to scholar Tamalapakula (2019), within the context of interfaith marriage, the social dimension of the [[caste system in India]] should be heavily considered.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Tamalapakula |first=Sowjanya |date=2019 |title=The Politics of Inter-caste Marriage among Dalits in India: The Political as Personal |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/26663710 |journal=Asian Survey |volume=59 |issue=2 |pages=317 |doi=10.1525/as.2019.59.2.315 |jstor=26663710 |issn=0004-4687|url-access=subscription }}</ref> In various instances in her study of interfaith and inter-caste marriages, arguably the dynamics of class and gender play a pivotal role in the development of social relationships between families of interfaith and inter-caste marriages. In one of the used examples, in the marriages between [[Brahmin]] women and the [[Dalit]] men, the men are often viewed poorly by Brahmin relatives and isolate from their Dalit relatives to avoid association, to attain a similar status to the Brahmin women which is socially seen as ¨pure¨ compared to the Dalit man<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Tamalapakula |first=Sowjanya |date=2019 |title=The Politics of Inter-caste Marriage among Dalits in India: The Political as Personal |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/26663710 |journal=Asian Survey |volume=59 |issue=2 |pages=324–326 |doi=10.1525/as.2019.59.2.315 |jstor=26663710 |issn=0004-4687|url-access=subscription }}</ref> 

Still, marriage is often seen as a means for the improvement of social status by Dalit men and even as a means of transcending the boundaries of caste-based discrimination and constraints for both men and women. Yet, for Dalit women, Tamalapakula argues that given that the higher castes would never accept them to be as the legal wife of a Brahmin man and as they are seen as sexually exploited from their Dalit relatives,<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Tamalapakula |first=Sowjanya |date=2019 |title=The Politics of Inter-caste Marriage among Dalits in India: The Political as Personal |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/26663710 |journal=Asian Survey |volume=59 |issue=2 |pages=330 |doi=10.1525/as.2019.59.2.315 |jstor=26663710 |issn=0004-4687|url-access=subscription }}</ref> it is another example how interfaith and inter-caste marriages are essentially tied through structural inequalities surrounding gender and class. Thus, while interfaith marriage is seen as partly controverisal and legally acceptable, it is part of a larger power dynamic that crosses between class and gender within Dalit and Brahmin castes.