Naseeruddin Shuts ¡®Love Jihad¡¯ Accusation, Says Ratna & He Prove Hindu-Muslim Can Live Together

Naseeruddin Shah and Ratna Pathak Shah have been married for over forty years now and share a unique inter-faith relationship. They did it at a time when it was the biggest taboo but neither they nor their families ever even think of terms like ¡®Love Jihad¡¯ or ¡®Marriage for conversion¡¯.

The Newsmen

It is now that someone termed these for Shah and he had to respond.

Naseeruddin is known for always speaking his mind loud and clear and he has done it again. In an open letter through the National Herald, Shah expressed his thoughts on the same. He wrote, ¡°I had no compunctions or hesitation about marrying a Hindu, and vice-versa.¡±

Twitter

¡°I didn¡¯t dream that some put-out-to-pasture spouse of an ex-cabinet minister would, 38 years after my marriage, threaten me with ¡®no one said anything when you married outside your religion¡¯, stopping short of accusing me of love jihad but clearly implying that my time was now up.¡±

Interestingly, Naseeruddin¡¯s mother was the one who supported Ratna Pathak¡¯s decision to not convert to Islam.

Instagram/@ratnapathakshah

Naseer revealed, ¡°As it happened, the subject of my wife Ratna converting to Islam was brought up just once by my mother and that as enquiry, to which on receiving a reply in the negative, she concurred with a ¡°Haan, mazhab kaise badla jaa sakta hai (Yes, how can faith be changed)¡±.

Also Read: ¡®Koi Aa Jayega Ghar Par Pathar Daalne¡¯: Ratna Pathak Advice To Naseeruddin Shah On His Views

¡°Whether this statement of a woman weaned exclusively on a diet of the Quran makes more sense than the hate-filled rhetoric of ¡®Hindus and Muslims cannot live together¡¯, I will leave to the judgement of the reader.¡±

Instagram/@ratnapathakshah

Naseer further in his writing expressed that his and Ratna¡¯s successful marriage is proof that Hindus and Muslims can be together.

He wrote, ¡°All I can say is that my union (accepted unquestioningly by both families) with a Hindu woman for 40 years so far is proof¡ª if proof were needed¡ªthat it is not only possible but desirable for Hindus and Muslims to live together. So, from where did this poison appear? Or were the seeds of hatred planted during Partition slowly germinating all that while?¡±

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For the unversed, Naseer and Ratna first met during the rehearsal of Satyadev Dubey¡¯s play ¡®Sambhog se Sanyas Tak¡¯ in 1975 and dated for seven long years until they finally got married in 1982. The duo are parents to Vivaan Shah and Imaad Shah.

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