Bhagwa Love Trap: A new Indian online trend causing real-world harm

"It was extremely vile. I couldn't believe my eyes," says Maryam, a Muslim woman from northern India, recalling a string of abusive messages she received online.

Maryam - not her real name - was the target of a doxxing attack, having her personal details revealed online. Photographs of her standing beside Hindu men were copied from public social media accounts, and used to allege that she engaged in interfaith relationships - a huge taboo for those attacking her online.

The claims were untrue.

The men in the pictures were friends, not romantic partners, but that didn't stop her accusers making false allegations. "They said I sleep around with Hindu men. They were abusing my parents, and questioning my upbringing", she says.

Interfaith relationships are still a huge taboo among conservative Indian families.

Based on the identities of some of the accounts that doxxed her, Maryam believes Muslim men were behind the claims she had fallen victim to the "Bhagwa Love Trap".

"Bhagwa" means saffron, a colour that has come to be associated with Hindutva. Hindutva is an ideology which - to its critics - promotes a kind of extreme rightwing Hindu nationalism. In this context, "Bhagwa" is being used as synonymous with Hindutva.

The "Bhagwa Love Trap" theory suggests men who believe in Hindutva are trying to seduce Muslim women, and lure them away from their communities. The idea is primarily being pushed by Muslim men, many of whom are fearful the practice is really taking place.

The BBC spoke to owners of accounts advocating this theory and reviewed the examples provided by them. We found no evidence to suggest a conspiracy is playing out on the ground. But the narrative has continued to spread on social media - the phrase has been used more than 200,000 times since March this year.

Its effect is spilling into the real world, too.

In May, a video filmed in Madhya Pradesh was posted online. It shows two medical students, a Muslim woman and a Hindu man, returning to their university on a scooter.

A crowd of seemingly Muslim men has encircled them, and the woman is being reprimanded for bringing shame on her religion. "No-one will allow you to let down Islam," one of them shouts, while others assault the Hindu man.

The BBC has seen videos of more than 15 confrontations from across India that follow a similar pattern. Videos alleging the theory is real, featuring these and other incidents, have been viewed more than 10 million times on YouTube, Instagram and X, accompanied by the hashtag #BhagwaLoveTrap.

The theory is a reversal of an older, and better known idea: "love jihad". It puts forward the opposing narrative, claiming Muslim men are trying to seduce Hindu women, and has been pushed online by Hindu nationalists for many years. Like the "Bhagwa Love Trap" theory, these claims have spread in an absence of proof and have led to real world violence.

Interfaith marriages are still rare in India, with most people opting for arranged marriages.

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Independent investigations by two Indian news organisations were unable to find evidence to support the theory.

Despite that, so-called "love jihad" has become a firm fixture in India's political discourse. It has been discussed publicly by politicians from Prime Minister Narendra Modi's party, the BJP, and some of its members who subscribe to the Hindutva ideology.

The "Bhagwa Love Trap" theory has mostly been championed on social media, often by anonymous accounts, but a number of high profile Muslim leaders have amplified the theory as well.

Shoaib Jamai, an Islamic scholar and regular commentator on Indian news channels, credits himself with popularising the idea in national media, but says he doesn't endorse the real-world harm the trend has led to.

"I don't support the people from Muslim society who're trying to take the law into their hands. This country runs by law," he says.

But on the veracity of the theory itself, Mr Jamai is unequivocal. Hindu youths are being "brainwashed" by the "Hindutva brigade," he claims, "to lure Muslim women into traps".

Mr Jamai and other proponents of the theory are basing their claim on authentic videos circulating online, that show Hindutva leaders actively encouraging Hindu men to pursue Muslim women - just as the "Bhagwa Love Trap" theory suggests.

One of them shows Yogi Adityanath, a member of India's ruling BJP party speaking at a political rally in 2007. If Muslims "take one Hindu girl," he says, "we should take a hundred Muslim girls". The crowd cheers.

Mr Adityanath has since risen to become the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh. The BBC asked him if he still stood by the statement, but he did not respond.

We looked into 10 specific examples shared with us by Mr Jamai and other proponents of the "Bhagwa Love Trap" theory to support their belief that the phenomenon is real. These were instances of Hindu men who, the theory's supporters said, had deliberately entered relationships or marriages with Muslim women to convert and harm them because of their religious identity.

While all the examples mentioned to us involved relationships between Hindu men and Muslim women, in two cases, the women did not undergo religious conversion.

In the six instances where it was claimed that the Hindu men had killed their partners because of their religious identities, four of the cases were related to financial or domestic disputes leading to murder, according to police statements. The reasons for violence in four other cases couldn't be confirmed through news or police reports, but there was no proof that the Bhagwa Love Trap theory had anything to do with the incidents.

A further string of videos featuring claims about the "Bhagwa Love Trap", have been debunked by the Indian fact-checking website Boom Live.

Hindutva groups deny the existence of the love trap.

"There is absolutely no evidence of such a trap being run by Hindus," says Alok Kumar, head of Vishwa Hindu Parishad, a Hindutva organisation. The claims put forward by scholars like Mr Jamai "stand on thin ice", he says.

Perhaps predictably, Mr Kumar believes "love jihad" is real. "There is a large section of Muslim men… who lure Hindu women into their trap," he says.

Tempting as it is to view the two theories as equal rivals, battling for control of the narrative, some disagree.

"Love jihad has great political backing," says Fatima Khan, one of the first journalists to write about the Bhagwa Love Trap, pointing to its support among members of India's ruling party. "On the other hand, the Bhagwa Love Trap is a fairly nascent conspiracy theory. It's something that doesn't have political backing at all."

Like so many debates in the country, the issue is clouded by political partisanship - but one thing seems clear. India's religious divisions are proving fertile ground for theories like these to flourish online, and spill over into real world harm.

Maryam, the Muslim woman who was targeted in a doxxing attack, is a testament to that idea. She was so distressed by the messages she was receiving, she took time off work to avoid potential confrontations.

"For the first time I felt unsafe in my neighbourhood. I was really disturbed and scared to go out," she says, issuing a challenge to the warped logic of her trolls: "You claim that you're protecting women, by basically ruining their lives."

-bbc