The release of the web series Love Storiyaan on Valentine’s Day on Prime Video came as a delightful surprise. I have long been affiliated with the Indian nonprofit Dhanak of Humanity, whose mission is to advocate for an individual’s freedom to choose a partner for marriage or a relationship, and also with Tasveer, a US-based nonprofit whose mission is to inspire social change through thought-provoking film, storytelling, and art. And so, for me, these two missions converge beautifully in Love Storiyaan.
It is also personal. I married for love in 1985 to someone of a different faith than mine. It has been a continuing quest to help normalise such relationships in a country where cultural prejudices and taboos prevail to this day.
India’s anti-conversion laws introduced in the past few years make it all the more difficult for inter-community couples. These state-level laws violate International Human Rights that guarantee individuals the freedom to change their religion.
However, it is worth highlighting the Special Marriage Act (SMA) of 1954, a secular law in India that allows for civil marriage between people of different religions and castes. While the SMA has a few impractical aspects that can create problems for couples, organisations like Dhanak for Humanity (also known simply as Dhanak) help couples through the process.
The crusaders
The colossal efforts of organisations that help lovers realise their dreams rarely get recognition. These true warriors help desperate couples navigate the complicated law enforcement and legal network ridden with biases, sensitively deal with familial and community pressures, provide shelter and protection, and create awareness by dispelling stereotypes and myths.
Dhanak, based in Delhi, India, was founded by a few interfaith couples in 2005 as a support group and was formally registered in 2012. The team, led by Asif Iqbal, has been tirelessly working on issues of gender equality, forced marriage, honor-based crimes, and protecting couples under threat. They advocate for an individual’s freedom to choose who to marry, or for that matter, not marry.
Dhanak launched a safe home for threatened couples in 2017 after attempting to garner support from the National Commission for Women, Ministry of Women and Child Development. It was to no avail.
This was before the 2018 Supreme Court (SC) directive to open safe homes all over India. Despite the SC directive, only Delhi has opened a safe home for intercaste and interfaith couples in distress. Haryana, Punjab, and Chandigarh opened shelter homes after a direction by the High Court in 2010.
India Love Project founded by journalists Priya Ramani, Samar Halarnkar, and Niloufer Venkatraman, was launched in 2020. The platform was conceived soon after an advertisement by the Tanishq jewellery brand became controversial for featuring an interfaith marriage, and ultimately had to be taken down.
India Love Project showcases and archives love stories of couples who look beyond the constructs of faith, caste, ethnicity, gender, and economic status and beat the odds to come together. The Instagram account has been highly successful with over 61.7k followers. Offline, the organisation helps connect interfaith couples who often face resistance in local courts with pro bono lawyers and counselors.
Dhanak and India Love Project are members of Chayan, a consortium of organisations and individuals from around India, co-founded by Dhanak in 2013. The consortium works on gender-based violence and the Right to Choose in matters of marriage and relationships and meets once a year to share information and support survivor couples in need.
Advocacy and storytelling can lead to social change
Advocating for a social cause can lead to societal and even policy change. The process can be painfully slow and discouraging, but with persistence, successes trickle in. Among many successes, Dhanak can account for being the first organisation to open a shelter home for survivor couples in India; instrumental in opening a Special Cell for survivor couples in each district of Delhi, Maharashtra, and Haryana; simplifying rules and guidelines for marriage registration in Delhi; and facilitating accommodation to trans-couples in the government-run shelter homes in Delhi.
There is a better chance of a wider reach and impact when effective advocacy is combined with clever storytelling. Unfortunately, most couples who face hardships and overcome them, do not want to ‘air’ their story. Rehashing the past can lead to further revelations creating new family tensions or bringing up unpleasant memories can disrupt the status quo in the family.
In addition, matters can become miserable if the couple lives in an intolerant community. Couples would rather stow away the past and build their lives in compliance with the people around them to keep peace.
The six stories that comprise season 1 of Love Storiyaan are commendable picks. With big producer names like Karan Johar, Apoorva Mehta, and conceptualiser-producer Somen Mishra, the docudrama series is an attentively curated selection of couples from disparate backgrounds like faith, caste, gender, and economic status.
The series is set in different parts of the country, including neighboring countries Bangladesh and Afghanistan. Each story is unique, making it a tempting binge-watch. What’s common in all stories is a display of guts, resilience, and tenacity, which hopefully, will strike a chord with viewers looking for inspiration or positive reinforcement. The choice to have actors reenact certain parts intertwined with conversations with the couples is compelling storytelling. This is what makes it captivating.
In a deeply patriarchal sociocultural system, ridden with taboos and stereotyping, and weak political will to make the process straightforward for couples to be together, the uphill battle falls upon activists and storytellers to parse through it all and persist in working towards social change.
Chronicling personal histories in their context is significant work. Tactfully produced love stories in a powerful docudrama format like Love Storiyaan will help inspire people to break free of dogma.
Co-published with eShe.in.
