Kareena Kapoor: what the trolling of the Bollywood star over her son’s ‘Muslim’ name says about India’s interfaith marriage hang-ups
- Social media trolls are targeting the Bollywood star, a Hindu, after she named her second son after a 17th-century Muslim Mughal emperor
- The incident highlights how India’s debate over interfaith marriages has become increasingly toxic under the ruling right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party and its ‘Love Jihad’ legislation
The onslaught began soon after the 40-year-old actor released her first book, Kareena Kapoor Khan’s Pregnancy Bible, last week along with a photo of her second son, born in February, captioned “Jehangir Ali Khan”.
Critics were quick to claim the nod to the Mughals – a Muslim empire that ruled most of northern India from the early 16th to mid-18th century – was evidence that Kapoor Khan, a Hindu, had betrayed her own religion.
“Imagine a Punjabi Kapoor naming her sons after Taimur and Jehangir, who tortured and brutally executed Sikh Guru Arjan,” commented a user on Twitter, in reference to the first martyr of the Sikh religion.
“First son – Taimur and the second one Jahangir. Well done – perpetuating Mughal culture. Enemies of the nation. We should continue to boycott their movies. Shame on these two,” remarked another.
Kapoor Khan and her husband, Bollywood actor Saif Ali Khan, have still not publicly announced Jehangir’s name, presumably scarred from the trolling they received following the public disclosure of Taimur’s name.
