Young Muslim woman flees from family to marry Hindu
Subia Gaur, from Plaistow, east London, married student Ashwani Gupta, 21, during a ceremony in his home town of Ghaziabad near Delhi on Monday despite the disapproval of her parents.
The tale — described by some as Bollywood meets Romeo and Juliet — has caught the imagination of the Indian media to the extent that the ceremony was broadcast on television.
She got to know Mr Gupta through an online chat room two years ago and their romance blossomed as they exchanged emails and photographs.
Ms Gaur met her husband for the first time in April during a trip to Mumbai, where her grandparents live, but claims she was taken back to Britain “forcefully” by her angry family.
She then flew to Delhi last month in secret and claims the couple had to go into hiding because she feared her family’s reaction.
Before the wedding, which was attended by around 1,000 people because of the publicity attracted by the story, an Indian police chief appointed an officer to protect her.
Ms Gaur, who had recently been studying for her A-levels, told London’s Evening Standard: “My family have put a lot of pressure on me and I didn’t want to hurt them, but I had to be with the man that I love.”
She said she would not convert her religion as Mr Gupta’s family had accepted her “for who I am.”
Her father Abdul Gaur, 46, a shop manager, told the newspaper the fact she had married a non-Muslim man was “shocking.”
Marriages between Hindus and Muslims in India are rare and there has always been intense rivalry.
He said: “I believe she has been brainwashed. She doesn’t understand what she has done.
“She is Muslim above all and she has married a Hindu and that is the most shocking thing about this, not that she has lied to us and married against our wishes.”
Mr Gaur denied claims that intent on stopping the wedding, her relatives made threats to the couple.
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