By now, you’ve surely heard of love jihad, that insidious technique by which Muslim men allegedly seduce Hindu women and convince them to convert. This odd combination of seemingly incompatible words, which emerged out of the Catholic and Hindu right wing in the south five years ago, is now turning up all over.

The Bharatiya Janata Party’s youth wing is planning to campaign against it in a big way. The BJP’s Uttar Pradesh cadre has been told to leave it to the Bajrang Dal. The Vishwa Hindu Parishad is raising the issue in Maharashtra. And senior BJP leader Uma Bharati has called it a social problem. All this while ignoring the fact that party president Amit Shah and Union Home minister Rajnath Singh claim love jihad isn’t a real thing.

But love isn’t the only kind of jihad out there.

Land Jihad

Of the second-tier jihads, after the actual militant jihad and the alleged love jihad, land jihad appears the most prominent and the most serious. It’s received news coverage and plenty of blog-based attention as well. Land jihad, according to a Sangh leader in western UP, happens when Muslims build shrines on public land and then refuse to vacate, thereby taking land away from the public.

Just like love jihad, which is consensual, though, the Hindu Janajagruti Samiti thinks there’s nothing illegal about land jihad: “[It] is a kind of systematic attempt by Muslim land Mafia, to own a land at any price through a purely legal procedure,” writes Jyethesh Shukla, for the HJS. “As a result, across Kerala, in the last 10 years, a large portion of lands now has Muslim ownership. Nobody hcan go to court as nothing is illegal and nothing is hidden.”

Cow Jihad

This one is a lot lesser known, but it is equally dangerous. Our vulnerable cows are being stolen from right under our noses, and the culprits only need a small car and some quick moves to get away with it.

All you need to do is watch the video below and remember to keep a careful eye on your cows.



Organ Jihad

This is not the real Subramanian Swamy's Facebook page. Nevertheless, this is a theory that might very well have come from the long-time leader of the Right (and briefly the not-Right).


Lift Jihad

There are no age boundaries when it comes to love jihad, and the awful state of our public transport can make it much easier for seductive men with snazzy two-wheelers to get away with their insidious activities.


Temple Jihad

Even Hindu religious institutions are not exempt. According to the website CentreRight India, the Congress party when it was in power had a clear aim of attempting to appropriate all the wealth that is contained within Hindu  temples:

"The Congress Government’s lust for Hindu temple gold also has other sinister implications," writes Sandeep Balakrishna. I"t aims to kill two birds with one stone: grabbing temple wealth will automatically stop Hindus from donating to temples, which in turn will eventually lead to the destruction of the temple culture. And by implication, this destruction will also lead to the death of one of the defining hallmarks of Hindu culture and society."

Cab Jihad

The techniques of love jihad appear to be spilling over to the corporate world as well. Knowing that they can’t survive just by offering better services, newfangled taxi companies have decided that they are going to out-compete even our proud desi auto-rickshaw when it comes to fares, which a clever reddit user accurately titled:


Food Jihad

They call it "creeping sharia" in the United States. The sudden appearance of items and products that are tailored to Muslim customers, that would otherwise not show up in the marketplace. To many America, it is proof that a grand Islamic agenda to remake our world is slowly making progress. And here in India, many believe it is working, with what we have always considered the most important thing there is: our food.

You now get halal cosmetics, molecular halal products and other products built specifically for consumption by Muslims. For many, this is a sign that the fundamentalists are winning out even in an effort to ensure that all food Indians eat is appropriately sanctioned by Islam and could allow anyone to later be converted into a Muslim.