‘Bhagwa love trap’: A social media conspiracy theory has divided India’s Muslims

In the last one month, Saba Khan, 38, a former journalist, who lives in North Karnataka, has been called a whore, a slut, a spy, an apostate, among other names, on social media.

The vitriol started after she posted a tweet on May 15, calling out a group of Muslim men seen reprimanding two hijab-clad Muslim women for walking with a Hindu man in a market.

“They are showing their power on girls,” Khan tweeted, referring to a video of the incident that took place in Meerut on May 13. In the video, which was shared on many social media accounts, the men accost the women and yank off their face masks to reveal their identity. The women, who looked visibly uncomfortable, are heard saying that the man accompanying them was their colleague.

On May 15, the Meerut police registered a case and arrested six Muslim men in connection with the incident.

Since her tweet, Khan has been targeted on social media almost every day for supporting what is called the “bhagwa love trap” or “saffron love trap”, and purportedly enabling the arrests of the Muslim men.

She is not the only one. Nabiya Khan, a Delhi-based activist, was forced to briefly deactivate her Instagram account after she...

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