Paper short abstract:

In this paper I will look at instances of inter-religious marriages and romantic relationships between Muslims and Hindus in a small town in Gujarat, India. I argue that these relations can at once serve to both undermine as well as support wider ethnic stereotypes and ideologies in the region.

Paper long abstract:

In this paper I will look at instances of inter-religious marriages and romantic relationships between Muslims and Hindus in a small town in Gujarat, India. I argue that despite Gujarat's reputation as a haven of communal antagonism and tension, there continue to exist places, particularly outside of the major urban centres, in which links between members of the two communities remain a significant part of everyday life. In the cases detailed in this paper, love and sexuality can be seen as both upholding and reinforcing common stereotypes in India of the aggressive and lustful Muslim male seeking to seduce and dishonour Hindu women (and thereby the Hindu community as a whole) which has been brandished widely by Hindu nationalist organizations and discourses. On a more idealistic level, however, such relationships can also be argued to defy the wider communalist practices and ideologies which purport that the two communities are intrinsically opposed and share no mutual common ground.