(Bloomberg) -- Some of the worlds biggest investors say its time to position portfolios for an end to the pandemic. That doesnt mean they agree on how best to do it.

One of JP Morgan Asset Management Inc.s recommendations is to buy beaten-down shares of travel companies, airlines and hotels. Fidelity International Ltd.s multi-asset team is increasing holdings in regions such as Europe that are badly hit by the virus, betting theyll get better. Franklin Templeton contends its still too early to move away from places like Asia that have better handled the crisis.

Even as all three firms look beyond surging cases and renewed lockdowns to the prospect of a vaccinated population achieving herd immunity sometime over the next two years, their at times divergent views on how to invest underscore the high stakes for money managers during what could be a pivotal moment for markets. Progress on Covid-19 vaccines this month has already triggered wild shifts in relative performance among industries, countries and stock-market investment styles.

Equity-sector rotation could dominate investor discussion in coming months, said Tai Hui, the chief Asia market strategist at JP Morgan Asset Management. We think investors can look to diversify their allocations to take advantage of potential good news on vaccine development.

Vaccinations in the U.S. will hopefully start in less than three weeks, Moncef Slaoui, the head of the federal governments program to accelerate a vaccine, said on CNN on Nov. 22. That came after Pfizer Inc. and its partner BioNTech SE, and Moderna Inc., said their virus shots are 95% effective. A vaccine developed by the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca Plc prevented a majority of people from getting the disease.

Vaccine Breakthroughs Put Covid Protection Within Reach

An index of global stocks has risen more than 4% since Nov. 9, the day Pfizer first indicated that its vaccine was more than 90% effective. The equity rally is extending even as investors consider hurdles such as ultra-low temperature storage and distribution for some vaccines. U.S. stocks hit fresh peaks on Tuesday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average climbing above 30,000 for the first time. Global shares are poised for the best month ever while Asian equities are on track for best gains since 2009 this month.

Story continues

For Salman Ahmed, the London-based head of macro and strategic asset allocation at Fidelity International, its time to become positive on Europe. The firms multi-asset team has turned bullish on the region and thats a major shift, he said. Asia, according to Ahmed, has maximized the market benefits it can get from containing the virus.

Countries which are under a lot of pressure because of the virus stand to gain the most from a credible vaccine, he said. And Europe comes under that category because the virus has been pretty bad.

The shift is already afoot. A measure of European equities is up more than 7% since Nov. 9.

But not everyone is buying into such a rotation. For Stephen Dover, the head of equities at Franklin Templeton, there are still months at a minimum before any vaccine can be widely implemented, and that means Asian stocks are still the place to be.

Vaccine Endgame

Asia may benefit by being able to fully function economically while the West waits for full vaccinations, he said in an interview earlier this month.

Money managers also differ on when the vaccines will lead to a return to normal economies. For Dover, for example, thats most likely to happen in the second half of 2021. But Ross Cameron of Australian money manager Northcape Capital in Tokyo assesses that more than half the worlds population still wont be vaccinated by the end of 2023.

Our sense is markets are way too optimistic on the speed of a global vaccine rollout, Cameron said. It will take a lot of time and dollars.

Cameron said glove makers -- which hes been investing in for more than a decade -- are likely to be a big beneficiary of the virus shots.

Administering the vaccine will itself result in a spike in glove demand to protect the health professionals involved, he said. Glove demand is likely to remain elevated for at least the next two years.

Malaysias Top Glove Corp., the worlds biggest rubber-glove producer, has already more than quadrupled this year, despite slumping Tuesday after its workers caught the virus, forcing authorities to temporarily shutter 28 of its factories.

India, Indonesia

Vaccines working successfully will also benefit stock markets in India and Indonesia, according to Fidelitys Ahmed. India has the worlds second-highest virus caseload while Indonesia has recorded the most infections in Southeast Asia. While Indias benchmark equity gauge has posted a gain in 2020, the Jakarta Composite Index has lost more than 9%.

Evan McCulloch, director of equity research for Franklin Equity Group and the lead portfolio manager of the Franklin Biotechnology Discovery Fund, sums up how the fund managers, despite differences in their strategies, are generally looking beyond new waves of the virus and the return to lockdowns in many countries.

We are long-term investors, he said. We are looking through the rising case numbers and continued economic weakness towards a reopening of the economy enabled by the vaccine.

(Updates market performance in sixth paragraph)

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Global Investing Giants Are Making Their Post-Covid Stock Bets - Yahoo Finance

As investors look to shore up their portfolios for the new year, one of the enduring themes to consider is the ever-growing popularity of environmental, social and governance (ESG) investing. ETF investors can keep riding that wave into with funds like the SPDR S&P 500 ESG ETF (EFIV).

EFIV seeks to provide investment results that, before fees and expenses, correspond generally to the total return performance of an index that provides exposure to securities that meet certain sustainability criteria (criteria related to environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors) while maintaining similar overall industry group weights as the S&P 500 Index.

In seeking to track the performance of the S&P 500 ESG Index (the index), the fund employs a sampling strategy, which means that it is not required to purchase all of the securities represented in the index. Overall, EFIV gives investors:

For the cost-conscious investor, getting exposure to ESG wont come at a high premium with EFIV. Access to the funds only requires a net expense ratio of 0.10%.

The pandemic may have put a stranglehold on the capital markets, especially back in March, but the ESG space was able to mute the effects of the downturn. As such, ESG has been one of the few bright spots in 2020 and should continue shining through to 2021.

Alex Dunnin describes the coronavirus pandemic as a grand real-time experiment on the effectiveness of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investing, said a Financial Review article. And so far, investment managers who put their funds into companies which follow environmental, social and governance principles have outperformed non-ESG funds as sharemarkets were hit by the impact of the global pandemic, says Dunnin, executive director of research & compliance at finance sector research house Rainmaker.

The EGS sector has passed that test with flying colours, because as we go through this massive shake-up and turmoil, it turns out ESG is a pretty good investment solution for bad times as well as good, says Dunnin.

For more news and information, visitthe ESG Channel.

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ETFs with Heart...and Returns: ESG Investing into 2021 - ETF Trends

Whether it's due to fear of increased coronavirus lockdowns or concern about political volatility in Washington shaking the markets, some investors have increasingly been turning to safe-haven investments like gold. Others have focused on copper stocks as interest in infrastructure projects in the U.S. and China has increased.

With so many choices, what's a metals-minded investors to do? Here are three stocks worth considering: Pretium Resources (NYSE:PVG), Royal Gold (NASDAQ:RGLD), and Southern Copper (NYSE:SCCO).

Image source: Getty Images.

While the price of gold has skyrocketed 24% year to date, shares of Pretium Resources have only inched about 5% higher as of this writing as investors have feared that COVID-19 could hurt the operations at Brucejack in British Columbia, Canada, the company's sole mineral-producing asset. Pretium's stock currently trades at about 7.4 times operating cash flow.

Since the company only began to generate positive cash flow in 2017, it's impossible to compare its current valuation to a five year-average multiple. But it's worth noting that the stock trades at a discount to its 10.2 valuation for 2019.

Image source: Getty Images.

Although investors' concerns have stifled the stock's rise this year, Pretium seems poised to deliver on its 2020 guidance. After producing roughly 259,000 gold ounces in the first three quarters of the year, management is targeting production of about 86,000 ounces in Q4, positioning the company to achieve 2020 guidance of 325,000 to 365,000 ounces, comparable to the gold production of 354,000 ounces it achieved in 2019. That would certainly be a positive considering the challenges which COVID-19 have brought, but it would mean little if it came at an exorbitant cost.

This doesn't appear to be the case, though. Through the first three quarters of 2020, Pretium reported all-in sustaining costs (AISC) of $971 per gold ounce, and it's confident that it will ultimately achieve its 2020 AISC forecast of $960 to $1,120. For some context, Eldorado Gold and Equinox Gold, two peers based on market cap, forecast 2020 AISC per gold ounce of $900 and $1,000, respectively.

Similarly, Pretium has maintained its free cash flow (FCF) outlook for 2020. After generating FCF of $191 million in the first nine months of 2020, the company is confident that it will achieve its full-year FCF forecast: $205 million to $275 million. Should the company achieve the midpoint of its guidance, it would represent an impressive 30% gain over the $184 million that it reported in FCF for 2019.

For investors seeking exposure to mining stocks but who wish to mitigate the risk associated with investment in an individual mining company, Royal Gold, which, has ties to numerous mining companies, represents an excellent option. Unlike mining companies, Royal Gold is a royalty and streaming company.

Developing mining projects is capital-intensive, so mining companies don't always choose to pursue that course alone. Oftentimes, they turn to royalty and streaming companies, which provide up-front capital for the development of projects in exchange for the right to purchase the mined metal at a pre-set price or to receive a percentage of mineral production. By doing this, Royal Gold avoids the associated risks of developing individual projects while gaining the opportunity to prosper from their success.

Image source: Getty Images.

Investing in Royal Gold mitigates the risk of investing in a single company and offers diversity beyond one metal. While gold accounted for 79% of the company's 2020 revenue (its fiscal year ends in June), silver and copper each contributed 9% to the company's top line.

To address the strength of Royal Gold's portfolio and allay concerns over the pandemic, CEO William Heissenbuttel said on the company's fourth-quarter conference call in August: "In addition to a portfolio of 187 assets, 41 of which produced revenue of almost $500 million, our cash overhead remained low, representing about 4% of revenue. It is this combination of revenue diversification and high cash margins that should allow us to withstand the potential uncertainty of future COVID-19 impacts."

Royal Gold achieved annual records for revenue, operating cash flow, and net income in its fiscal 2020 despite the challenges of COVID-19.

Smashing analysts' estimate of $0.86 in first-quarter earnings per share, Royal Gold reported EPS of $1.63 in early November. Nonetheless, the stock is still on the discount rack. Whereas its five-year average operating cash flow multiple is 22.2, shares now trade with that multiple at 19.9.

If you're uninterested in precious metals, consider Southern Copper, a leading global copper producer. Over the past few months, the price of copper has been steadily gaining after plummeting in the spring, and on Nov. 20, it traded at its highest point over the past two years as demand grows in China.

In addition, news of COVID-19 vaccines and the promise of a return to normal that that sparks and messaging from President-elect Joe Biden supporting infrastructure projects have also spurred demand. And with shares of Southern Copper trading at 19.7 times operating cash flow, a bargain considering the five-year average multiple of 20.3, investors can pick up the stock at a discount.

Dividend investors may also be attracted to Southern Copper. The company announced in late October a dividend raise from $0.40 to $0.50 per share, putting the stock's forward dividend yield at 3.5%. Although this applied to shareholders of record as of Nov. 11, the recovering price of copper suggests that the company may report a strong fourth quarter, leaving it well positioned to maintain the $0.50 payout. And it has generated FCF of $1.7 billion over the past 12 months, more than the $1.2 billion that it generated in 2019.

Besides the Tia Maria project, located in Peru, which is estimated to achieve annual copper production of 120,000 metric tons when it commences operations, Southern Copper has a variety of other projects in its pipeline, including El Arco in Mexico and Los Chancas in Peru.

With some analysts forecasting gold to trade as high as $2,300 per ounce in 2021, Pretium Resources and Royal Gold are especially interesting at the moment. But even if gold maintains its current level, both stocks are still lustrous opportunities. Meanwhile, Southern Copper presents investors interested in base metals with an equally compelling option given how well it's been doing and the potential for increased demand.

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Looking to Invest in Mining Stocks? These 3 Could Be Great Buys. - The Motley Fool

A soldier from the Royal Anglian Regiment.

Leon Neal | Getty Images News | Getty Images

LONDON The U.K. has announced the biggest program of investment in British defense since the end of the Cold War.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Thursday told the House of Commons, Britain's lower house of Parliament, that the government will spend an additional 16.5 billion ($21.8 billion) on defense over the next four years. The current budget of the U.K.'s Ministry of Defence is almost 41.5 billion.

"I have taken this decision in the teeth of the pandemic because the defence of the realm must come first," the prime minister said ahead of the announcement, in a statement on Wednesday evening.

"The international situation is more perilous and more intensely competitive than at any time since the Cold War and Britain must be true to our history and stand alongside our allies. To achieve this we need to upgrade our capabilities across the board."

Johnson said this was a chance "to end the era of retreat" and bolster the U.K.'s global influence.

The government said it expected the increased spending, which will go toward investing "in cutting-edge technology," positioning the U.K. "as a global leader in domains such as cyber and space and addressing weaknesses in our defence arsenal that cannot be allowed to continue."

The money will see further investment in military research and development, as well as new areas of defense. Johnson will announce the creation of a new agency dedicated to Artificial Intelligence, a new "National Cyber Force" to protect people from online harm and a new "'Space Command', capable of launching our first rocket in 2022," the government added.

The extra defense spending could create 10,000 extra jobs annually, according to the government. The announcement is on top of a pledge made by the ruling Conservative Party ahead of the 2019 election "to exceed the NATO target of spending 2 percent of GDP (gross domestic product) on defence and increase the budget by at least 0.5 percent above inflation every year of the new Parliament."

Extra spending would "cement the U.K.'s position as the largest defence spender in Europe and the second largest in NATO," it said.

The announcement comes after the Ministry of Defense has pressed for increased investment in recent years. Defense Minister Ben Wallace called the announcement "excellent news for (the Ministry of) Defence, and provides us with the financial certainty we need to modernise, plan for the future and adapt to the threats we face." The extra investment would also secure U.K. jobs and livelihoods, he added.

The government noted Wednesday that the threat from the U.K.'s adversaries has been "evolving since the Cold War" but did not outline who those adversaries are.

"Our traditional defence and deterrence capabilities remain vital, and our Armed Forces work every day to prevent terror reaching the U.K.'s shores. But our enemies are also operating in increasingly sophisticated ways, including in cyberspace, to further their own interests."

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UK announces biggest military investment in 30 years - CNBC

In no other culture does faith play out in as colourful and traditional a fashion as in India. In our countrys places of worship, we find rich myths, ancient traditions, cultural touchstones and delicious food that are offered to the Gods and to humans. According to award-winning author and columnist Shoba Narayan, her newest book, Food and Faith: A Pilgrims Journey Through India (HarperCollins Publishers India) began as a food book before it morphed into one on faith.

Food & Faith explores this rich tapestry that is the hallmark of Indian culture. I was humbled and privileged to visit many temples and talk to priests and scholars. Through their stories and through my visits, I discovered how food and faith form a timeless and profound connection.

Hopping across the length and breadth of Indias many places of worship, Narayans new tome delves into the many ways food and belief are intertwined with our identities.

It is 11 am, and the granite floors and pillars offer cool respite from the heat outside. Devotees line up quietly, muttering prayers, hands clasped together fervently. It is a scene familiar to anyone who has visited a temple in India. Swishing saris, the smell of sandal and incense, topless Brahmin priests hurrying between idol and devotee, clanging bells, chanting men and women. For the faithful, Hindu temples inspire devotion, hope and a preternatural peace that descends in spite of the surrounding chaos, as if generations of muttered prayers have muted the soul into peaceful surrender.

The Krishna temple in Udupi is no different. It isnt very crowded on that June morning. My mother and I are pretty much left alone to pray in peace. We walk around the sanctum sanctorum many times and peer at the idol. No hustling priests, no crushing crowds, no furtive glances suggesting a small donation for closer access to the deity. It is just us in quiet communion with the lord.

In one corner, a group of ladies sit in a circle, singing Krishna songs and stringing garlands with lightning fingers. They have separated yellow marigolds from green tulsi leaves, jasmine from tuberose and each woman takes a flower or leaf to string together or alternately. Several string fragrant jasmine flowersJasminum sambac or what we call gundu-malli in South Indiain garlands. In the opposite corner, a visiting group spreads out their tanpuras and dholaks before commencing a spirited Krishna bhajan.

Near the temple tank, one of the hubs of activity, there are men in dhotis bathing, praying and performing rituals. One monk, clad in saffron robes, sits by himself, singing a bhajan that is remarkably soothing.

My mother and I sit leaning against the pillars, listening to bhajan mixing with folk song, breathing in incense mixing with the smells of jasmine and coconut, watching idly the run-off stream of milk and honey and holy water that is used to bathe the idol every morning. After a while, my mother repeats the phrase that countless others say after their communion with God.

Lets go eat.

Hinduism, like many great religions, is about feasting and fasting, praying and, it must be said, eating prasadam. The Udupi temple is part of the famed pilgrims triumvirate of Udupi-Sringeri- Dharmasthala, all of which serve very good food to thronging devotees. Udupis temple food is the best, the faithful tell me. We walk out and turn left to the feeding halls, my mother leading me with the expertise of having spent a lifetime visiting temples.

Indians are funny that way. The elderly in China play mah-jong. American senior citizens go on cruises and play golf. Europeans visit museums, tour wineries and dine at Michelin-star restaurants. Indian elders visit temples. Pilgrimages are a big part of their lives, as I see daily with my septuagenarian aunts and uncles, not to mention my mother. For her latest birthday, I offered my mother the choice between a two-week trip through Europe or a week through interior Maharashtra to visit one of the twelve jyotirlingam shrines to Lord Shiva. She chose Shiva over the Sistine Chapel.

Udupi is part of my mothers regular beat since the Mookambika Temple of Kollur (which happens to be our family deity) is in the same area. She has been visiting the temple twice annually for the past twenty years. En route to her devi, she usually stops to see Krishna.

So we hurry, mom and I, down the corridor, to the feeding area. The Brahmins are fed separately. Upstairs, my mother says.

I wince.

Let me just come right out and say it. Although I grew up in a devout Hindu family, I am uneasy about my religionabout all religions for that matterfor all the usual reasons. Faith gives solace, for sure, but it also inspires guilt. Religion brings people together, but also divides them. It gives peace and causes war; it hurts and heals. Since I come from a fairly traditional, devout, Tamil Brahmin family, I dont express my antipathy very much. Instead I disengage, to the extent that it is possible, in a religious family such as mine.

I follow my mother up the stairs to the separate area where we, as Brahmins, will be fed. What about in the eyes of God, all are equal?, I feel like asking my mother, but she is racing up the stairs.

The hall is huge, and people are sitting cross-legged on the floor. Young, good-looking boys exuding what my mother calls tejas, or radiance, stride through the hall carrying giant containers holding rice, rasam, vegetables, sweets and ghee. We take our places. Banana leaves are placed before us. Then a veritable feast with all the regional delicacies appears. There are spicy pakoras, sweet payasams, brinjal gojjus, jackfruit curry, several chutneys, kosambari salads and a mound of rice in the centre.

A priest walks down the corridor. With his fair skin and a bright red vermilion dot in the centre of his forehead, he looks resplendent in a purple silk dhoti. Behind him are a line of young ascetics. I stretch my upturned palm like the rest of the congregation. The chief priest pours a little holy water into my palm, which I assume is to wash my hand.

Drink it, my mother hisses.

So I do, wondering if the water is safe.

Govinda, says my neighbour, uttering one of the many names of Krishna, this one meaning the one who protects cows. Govinda, I repeat obediently.

Govinda is one of the names of Vishnu. The Vishnu names I know by heart are the twelve that my grandfather used to recite while doing his sandhya vandanam or evening prayer. They are: 1. Keshava: The one with long, matted locks. 2. Narayana: The one who gives refuge. 3. Madhava: The one who gives knowledge. 4. Govinda: The one who knows and cares for cows. 5. Vishnave: The protector in the Divine Trinity. 6. Madhusudhana: The killer of the demon Madhu.

7. Trivikrama: The one who lifted his legs so he could conquerthe three worldsheaven, earth and the underworld. 8. Vamana: An avatar of Vishnu. 9. Shridhara: The beautiful lord of love. 10. Rishikesha: The master of senses. 11. Padmanabha: The one whose navel is shaped like a lotus. 12. Damodhara: The one who had a cord tied around his waist as a child.

Each name has a story behind itof battles fought, demons subdued, benediction given, wisdom dispensed, compassion offered and devotees charmed.

The food is delicious. Barring the jackfruit curry, which must be an acquired taste, I polish it all up. Udupi is justly famous for its rasam, and this one doesnt disappointpiquant with a lovely spicy, lemony flavour. I take a second serving of the rasam, then a third.

A young boy comes and distributes Rs10 bills to all of us as dakshina or fee for eating the meal.

We end the meal as we began it: with holy water poured on our upturned palms.

After I returned from Udupi, I decided to do two things. Both involved denial. Once a fortnight, on Ekadashi (the eleventh day of the waxing and waning fortnight), I would fast. This meant not eating anything and drinking just water through the day. Oh, and napping a lot. I did this for a year regularly, and continue to do it intermittently.

The trick is to make religion an ally instead of rebelling against it. If fasting on Ekadashi gave me good karma, fine. But shedding a few pounds was a more immediate goal.

The second was to eat seasonally, which in todays world meant not eating certain foods, even though they were available in the supermarket because they were wrapped in polythene and were clearly imported from Thailand. Frankly, I am not sure of the benefits of seasonal eating. I am not even sure that the seasonal fruits and vegetables that I consciously choose taste better than the dragon fruit imported from Thailand, the New Zealand apples, Malta oranges or Washington cherries. But if such a practice is good enough for a community that gave rise to one of Hinduisms greatest philosophers and the creators of the iconic masala dosa, it is good enough for me.

So I persistedand still dowith my banana stems, young jackfruit, seasonal greens and tender peas, but only when they are in season, cheaply and abundantly available.

Let me see if this turns me into an enlightened soul. For now, Ill simply settle for a lightened body.

Extracted with permission from Food and Faith: A Pilgrims Journey Through India by Shoba Narayan published by HarperCollins Publishers India.

Continued here:

Hinduism, like many great religions, is about feasting and fasting, praying and eating prasadam - Cond Nast Traveller India

Former MP and Congress leader Vijayashanti, who is all set to join the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), questioned the selective silence of TRS on its friendship with MIM, particularly about MIM legislator Akbaruddin Owaisis comments on the Hindu community.

Municipal Minister K.T. Rama Rao has questioned why such hatred towards Muslims, referring to a party, but why is he not questioning his MIM friends on the unpalatable remarks made against Hindus by Mr. Owaisi, she asked in a statement here.

Why didnt Mr. KTR ask Mr. Owaisi why he hates Hindus so much, Ms. Vijayashanti asked while recalling Mr. Owaisis widely circulated statement that Muslims would bring Hindus to their population strength if they were given 15 minutes of freedom in the country. He made similar ridiculous comments on the Bhagyalakshmi temple under Charminar apart from insulting Hindus respect towards cows, she said.

The former MP pointed out that TRS leaders were very vocal about their friendship with the MIM but are now, trying to distance themselves from it for votes in the GHMC elections.

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KTR should also question Akbar on his hatred towards Hindus: Vijayashanti - The Hindu

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Love jihad is a figment of political imagination, but the power of its politics cant be underestimated. You thought Ram Rajya was the foundation stone of the Hindu Rashtra? Think again. It is actually the bending of Hindu minds around the ghosts of love jihad that will ultimately create the Hindu Rashtra.

Love jihad is slowly and steadily turning into the carrot that is leading the donkey towards the formation of a state where politics and religion merge, and the Hindu Rashtra will finally become a reality. Of course, those with even basic common sense can foresee that this will spell disaster for India. With popular acceptance of the concept, legitimised by discussions on television debates and social media, love jihad has turned into a Loch Ness monster that people are convinced exists but has rarely ever seen, which makes it all the more dreadful.

Also read: India needs more and more inter-faith marriages, and laws need to facilitate that

The anatomy of love jihad is fascinating. Since time immemorial, lands have been fought over, conquered, and won for the pride of a kingdom, community, or tribe. One piece of land has recently been won in our very own country from the Mughals the Ram Janmabhoomi. Thus, reinstating the pride and honour of Hindus of India. But there is apparently a new conquest taking place in the 21st century in Narendra Modis New India that most Right-wing Hindus have taken note of. The conquest of the Muslim man over the Hindu woman. And the man who cant stop noticing it is Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.

Muslim men are being accused of running a foreign funded jihadist ploy for a while now, where much like guerrilla warfare, charming Muslim men ambush and lure innocent Hindu women to fall in love with them. These men then, apparently, smooth talk women into converting to Islam for the sake of love. This phenomenon of a Hindu woman marrying a Muslim man has been coined as love jihad because consensual interfaith marriage cant be a reality in new India.

Yogi Adityanath has openly declared that any Muslim man indulging in love jihad will be inviting death.

His government, along with the Bharatiya Janata Party governed states of Haryana and Madhya Pradesh, have decided to enact laws against love jihad. These are three states of a secular nation unabashedly endorsing religious diktats. In Kerala, too, the concept has found support from Catholic bishops, with former Chief Minister Oommen Chandy claiming that 2,667 young women had converted to Islam in the state since 2006. Last year, the National Commission for Minorities vice-chairman George Kurian wrote to Home Minister Amit Shah saying that Keralas Christian community was a soft target for Islamic radicals who were trapping women through love jihad.

How is this fear and paranoia any different from the Wahabi policing in Saudi Arabia, where women are told how to dress, how to behave, or who to be accompanied within a public place? We are also now dictating who to fall in love with with state sanction.

When a state starts policing its citizens based on religion, it turns from a democracy to a theocracy. Europe has struggled with this for long. And the very suggestion of such a law by Indias ruling political partys state governments is, in fact, laying the first foundation stone of the Hindu Rashtra, which so far was only rhetoric a concept of a Hindu country (as opposed to a secular one) endorsed by the BJP and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) in their gatherings. Now we have the legal basis for it.

Also read: We should be free to live, free to love & free to marry that is the real idea of India

The concept of a Hindu Rashtra, at first, seems simplistic a country whose official state religion is Hinduism. But if you were to scratch the surface, the concept has overtones of patriarchy and a totalitarian state where even someone you marry has to be approved by the state that is quite clearly being ruled by men.

Lets understand the patriarchy. The very concept of love jihad is based on the premise that Hindu women are incapable of thinking for themselves and that theyre gullible enough to fall for potential terrorists who just want to marry them for the sake of religious conversions. They have no agency or choice. Often, it is the parents or family of the woman who files complaints alleging love jihad. Only because their daughters choice goes against theirs.

Many Right-wing Hindu men have also reduced Hindu women to just their wombs, because they claim that Muslims are marrying Hindu women only to produce Muslim children, thereby pandering to the fake narrative that Muslims are going to overtake the Hindu population in India. Lesser Hindu wombs, lesser Hindu children.

In fact, if you think that love jihad is a modern concept, youll be surprised to know that Right-wing Hindus were stricken by the same paranoia in the 1920s. Back then, riots took place over the alleged abduction of Hindu women and their forced conversions to Islam in Kanpur in June 1924 and Mathura in March 1928, according to history professor Charu Gupta.

And the story is not very different today. Without any confirmed fact, there is still a big show of the number of Hindu women who have been forcefully converted to Islam by nefarious and seductive Muslim men masquerading as lovers. In 2009, pamphlets distributed in Jawaharlal Nehru University claimed that 4,000 girls had been converted to Islam under love jihad in Delhi and Maharashtra. This number, whose source is unknown, was circulated by the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad or ABVP the student wing of the RSS.

But there are new figures of the number of cases of love jihad being put forth in Uttar Pradesh, with the police actually investigating such cases. And this is how we understand the manner in which totalitarianism is embedded in the very concept of the Hindu Rashtra. Under Yogi Adityanaths very own administration, 14 cases were being investigated for love jihad in August this year. But half of those cases have been found to be consensual marriages between Hindu women and Muslim men, and closure reports have been filed for them. The remaining seven cases are still under investigation. Yet, the myth of love jihad is still considered real enough for Yogi Adityanath and other chief ministers wanting to enact a law on it.

The author is a political observer and writer. Views are personal.

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Not Ram Mandir, the love jihad laws are the foundation of Hindu Rashtra - ThePrint

Update: Since publication, the Uttar Pradesh government approved a draft ordinance to curb forcible or dishonest religious conversions. Under the new law, a marriage will be declared void if a woman converts to another religion in order to marry a man of her new faith. Women will be able to change their religion only after theyre married and must inform the district magistrate two months in advance so as to obtain permission to convert. Those in violation of the law will face a jail term of up to 10 years.

The Uttar Pradesh polices investigation of Love Jihad has revealed its not quite the problem its made out to be by right-wing ideologues and the media. Love jihad is an offensive term to describe the made-up phenomenon of Muslim men seducing and marrying Hindu women by subterfuge and coercion in order to increase the countrys Muslim population. The investigation, carried out at the behest of right-wing organizations including the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), involved a review of cases involving Hindu woman-Muslim man marriages submitted by all 22 police stations in Kanpur. Of these, The Wire reports that eight out of 14 cases involved consensual marriages. Another report by the Indian Express states that the police also ruled out any deliberate conspiracies and online funding set up to mass-convert Hindu women to Islam.

These reports stand in direct contrast to the necessity of a love jihad law, proposed by politicians and ministers of many states, who want to criminalize the non-existent practice. They also rubbish the love jihad-related outrage over Netflixs A Suitable Boy, featuring an inter-religious couple kissing with a temple in the backdrop, and Tanishqs wedding advertisement, featuring a young Hindu bride welcomed into a new home by her Muslim mother-in-law.

Love jihad, though a modern term, has been an unproven but unshakeable bogey since the 1920s. According to historian Charu Gupta, organizations like the Arya Samaj spread pamphlets full of propaganda regarding the Hindu woman victim and the Muslim man perpetrator. This was to further the notion of shuddhi, or re-converting Hindus who had chosen other religions back to Hinduism. Arya Samaj members believed it necessary to undertake shuddhi as a means for Hindus self-respect and determination because of the rapid increase in conversions from Hinduism to Islam/Christianity in pre-Independence India. This flurry of propaganda coincided with communal clashes in areas like Uttar Pradesh. In Muzaffarnagar in 1927, a mob gathered around a girls house after rumors spread regarding her marriage to a Muslim man and forced conversion to Islam. However, after the mob marched into the house to ensure justice, it learned the girl in question had always been Muslim.

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In modern times, though right-wing idealogues stick to utilizing the Hindu womans body as their main battleground, the presence of Internet-influenced outrage culture and supplemental conspiracies like foreign funds make love jihad a stronger-than-ever bogey. Plus, the States and politicians tolerance and even encouragement for fake news and propaganda surrounding love jihad make it harder for the average individual to discern between fact and fiction. As Gupta writes in Hindu Women, Muslim Men: Love Jihad and Conversions, the fact that such generalizations about Hindu womens conversions due to false love and marriages can now be made openly often legitimizes their public expressions and increases the threshold of public acceptance for them; this also makes them true. Propagating such stories through pamphlets, meetings, rumors, and everyday conversations fed by them sustains this as an active cultural, and therefore, political issue.

It remains the State and the judiciarys responsibility to quell communal tensions spread by rumors. While progress on that front remains dim, considering many Indian lawmakers public attempts to legitimize love jihad by banning it, there is hope. The Allahabad High Court recently struck down an old judgment that said religious conversions for marriage were unacceptable, calling the same bad in law.

The judges involved noted, We fail to understand that if the law permits two persons even of the same sex to live together peacefully then neither any individual nor a family nor even the state can have an objection to the relationship of two major individuals who out of their own free will are living together.

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UP Police Investigation of 'Love Jihad' Concludes What We Already Know -- It Doesn't Exist - The Swaddle

11/24/2020 Washington D.C. (International Christian Concern) A few years ago, a local Telugu newspaper called Andhra Jyothi published a story about my churchs pastor. I was shocked to see how the storys facts, which I was aware of first-hand, were twisted by the newspaper to fit an anti-Christian narrative. However, what is more, disturbing is the ongoing consequences my pastor and others continue to face as a result of that article.

According to Andhra Jyothi, my pastor was caught red-handed and punished for converting Hindus to the Christian faith. In reality, my pastor merely attended a birthday celebration with a member of my church.

The church member was having a birthday celebration in his village and invited my pastor and several other Christians to join him. After they gathered, a mob of more than 100 radical Hindu nationalists attacked. To justify their assault, they falsely accusing my pastor of being involved in converting Hindus to Christianity.

Instead of reporting what happened, Andhra Jyothi published the nationalists narrative as fact. On its face, this narrative is easily disproven. Christians only were invited to the birthday celebration. How then was the pastor involved in any conversion activity?

Unfortunately, the police based much of their investigation on the article in Andhra Jyothi. As a consequence, my pastor was banned from entering the village where the attack took place. Local Christians have also reported enduring increased pressure from nationalists who were emboldened by the entire incident. The host of the birthday party was eventually forced to relocate.

In India, biased media reports, particularly targeting Christians and other religious minorities, are common and have real-world consequences. Biased reports reinforce false narratives used by nationalists to promote hate, justify physical violence, and pass policies that curtail Christians and other minorities rights.

Recently, Pastor Vinod Nayak, a pastor from the Shivmoga district of Karnataka, reported an incident in which an anti-Christian media report led to an attack.

On November 4, radical nationalists attacked Pastor Nayak and falsely accused him of committing blasphemy against Hinduism. After the attack, Pastor Nayak fled the village, leaving behind his wife and children. He did this because he feared being arrested by police acting upon the false blasphemy allegation.

On November 3, the day before the attack, a local daily publication in Kannada published an article that blatantly called for people to punish individuals who convert Hindus to other religions. Pastor Nayak believes there is a direct connection between the article and the November 4 attack.

This has been the pattern of the radicals, another pastor from Karnataka explained. There have been numerous media reports regarding religious conversions across the country. These reports have pushed Christians into a more vulnerable situation.

These false narratives, reinforced by biased media reports, have also been used to justify legislation that would curtail Christians religious freedom rights.

Last year, a legal panel in Uttar Pradesh submitted a draft bill for the state government to regulate religious conversions and criminalize fraudulent religious conversions. These laws are commonly referred to as anti-conversion laws and have a history of being overwhelmingly used to target and persecute Indias Christian community.

While addressing the media, Sapna Tripathi said, There is no data as such to say how many forced conversions have taken place. However, in 2014, CM Yogi Adityanath himself raised the matter, and we gave him a set of news clippings of the past six months to prove our point.

As can be seen, by this statement, news clippings, not data, were used to justify the curtailment of religious freedom in Indias most populated state. Although Uttar Pradeshs Legislative Assembly has not passed the proposed anti-conversion law, the legal panel report did incite more anti-Christian violence.

Across India, media reports, particularly regarding religious freedom, continue to be published with a distinctly anti-minority narrative. This has empowered the agenda of Indias nationalists. It has also led to bitter consequences for the countrys Christians and other religious minorities.

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Biased Media Reporting in India Helps Fuel the Persecution of Christians - International Christian Concern

Magazine November 2020 The State of Democracy in Asia The Pulse|Environment|Politics|Society|South Asia

What looks like an eminently sensible decision, given the extremely polluting effects of fireworks, has become a politically contentious issue.

Diwali is among the most important Hindu festivals in India. In the last four years or so, however, celebrations have become politically contentious. The National Green Tribunal (NGT), a body empowered to fast-track cases concerning environmental issues, has announced a mix of bans and restrictions on the use of fireworks in cities deemed to have poor air quality. Fireworks are a staple in Diwali celebrations.

Each year, burning fireworks contribute a small fraction of air pollution. However, millions are set off during festivities. This can spike pollution levels just a day later. In New Delhi, for instance, the Air Quality Index (AQI) shot up to 454 on November 14 this year well past the measure for severe pollution. While the health and environmental effects are fairly evident, the politics of fireworks are volatile. The annual episode offers a peek into the quagmire of Hindu nationalism, business interests, and regionalism in India.

This is Nothing But Cultural Genocide

The Hindu nationalist movements central contention is that, for far too long, the countrys billion or so Hindus have been suffering from religious inequality. The Bharatiya Janata Partys (BJPs) majoritarian impulses have contributed to formidable back-to-back election wins in 2014 and 2019. While Hindu nationalism was a growing feature of Indian politics for decades, it has entrenched itself in the political mainstream over the last six years. Among the more revolutionary characteristics of the BJP and the broader Hindu nationalist movement has been their ability to dominate political discourse online.

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In the lead up to this years Diwali, popular social media profiles and blogs linked to the Hindu right-wing proliferated claims against restrictions placed on the sale and use of fireworks. Twitter handles such as True Indology drew on Hindu nationalist interpretations of religious texts to argue that Hindus have used fireworks for millennia.

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Hindu nationalism is wired toward literalism. While gunpowder was invented in the 9th century CE or so, the movement believes that fireworks were used to celebrate the victorious return of the God-King Ram to Ayodhya in the ancient Hindu epic, the Ramayana. To them, it therefore stands to reason that fireworks have always been essential to the cultural practice of Diwali.

Adding to their fury is their belief that the NGT has come down hard against Hinduism but not Islamic or Christian practices deemed to be environmentally problematic. For this reason, they consider the NGT to be run by secular anti-Hindu liberals. This is why cyber-Hindu nationalists have claimed that the double-standard is a conspiracy against Hinduism quite literally a cultural genocide.

Business Meets Politics

Roughly 90 percent of Indias fireworks are manufactured in Virudhunagar district, Tamil Nadu. Most manufacturers are based out of Sivakasi, a town in that district. Before the restrictions, estimates put the industrys annual value at 50 billion Indian rupees. Roughly 800,000 people are either directly or indirectly employed by the industry. Diwalis synonymity with fireworks has rendered the festival critical to the industry. Unsurprisingly, lobby groups representing the interests of manufacturers, such as the Tamil Nadu Fireworks and Amorces Manufacturers Association (TANFAMA), have petitioned courts across the country to overturn the bans. These have generally failed.

However, the industry appears to have found a useful ally in Hindu nationalists. They have been fairly successful at galvanizing Hindus to create a groundswell of pressure. For instance, on November 8 the BJP-run Karnataka state government backed away from an initial ban to then say that people could use green fireworks a reference to crackers that are 30 percent or so less polluting, but still toxic. The BJP-led Haryana state government similarly eased off strict restrictions it had initially announced. The BJP Madhya Pradesh state government distanced itself from restrictions altogether and instead encouraged residents to celebrate with fervor.

Relatedly, it is also notable that the firebrand BJP chief minister of Uttar Pradesh (UP), Yogi Adithyanath, ordered the release of a trader who sold fireworks even though he had imposed a ban across much of UP. A video of the traders arrest had gone viral and there was considerable backlash against the UP police. Evidently, Adityanath found it imperative to play to his base and undermine the legitimacy of his own governments restrictions.

To be clear, this has hardly been utopian for manufacturers. The reality is that sales have come down considerably generally by 30 to 35 percent. Yet, the episode indicates that Hindu nationalist pressure can compel governments to ease off industries considered foundational to Hinduism.

#NorthIndiaBanCrackers

In the last 70 years, Sivakasi has become a cultural landmark for fireworks. Its importance to the local economy forced political parties in Tamil Nadu to the industrys defense. Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami, member of the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK), sent letters to his counterparts in Odisha and Rajasthan urging them to reconsider their bans on fireworks. The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) president, M.K. Stalin, similarly urged Rajasthan to ease restrictions. On the one hand, the statements by the AIADMK and the DMK appear to be little more than a hard-nosed response to economic, employment, and big business considerations. Yet, it is just as important to appreciate how regionalism and Tamil nationalism underpinned their actions.

Perhaps the one cleavage with priceless political value in Tamil Nadu is the divide between Tamil identity and Northern Indian identity. The fact that restrictions on fireworks in many parts of North India had a palpable impact on Tamil Nadu gave the issue an ideological flavor. It was seen as a North Indian assault on the economy of Tamil Nadu. Even though states such as Odisha, Karnataka, and Telangana had various permutations of restrictions, the enemy in the North became the discourse of choice for parties competing to defend the industry. Indeed, all states north of Tamil Nadu were equated with North India. This was perhaps best personified by how Jaya TV, a popular news network in Tamil Nadu, covered the issue. Clips of the bans impact on Sivakasi were frequently accompanied with the hashtag: #NorthIndiaBanCrackers.

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The fact is fireworks are extremely hazardous. Studies suggest that emissions from fireworks are the equivalent of smoking 34 to 464 cigarettes at a go. The detrimental effect they have on the environment is clear as well. However, the politics of fireworks in India is a complex web of interests and ideologies. All groups opposing the restrictions insist that fireworks have been conveniently scapegoated. These have created conditions in which restrictions are routinely ignored. Coming to a consensus between different interest groups is going to be a herculean task. The #RightToBreathe movement has been extremely partisan, while attempts to transition the industry to green crackers looks unlikely to be the panacea. But unless regulators can figure a way to address different sets of concerns adequately, Diwali may well continue to be a politically contentious affair for years to come.

Prashant Waikar is a senior analyst in the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), Nanyang Technological University (NTU).

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