Bajrang Dal activists barged into an auditorium and forced a play to stop on Sunday, objecting to the depiction of Muslim characters on stage and an alleged “love jihad angle”.

The play, a Kannada adaptation of the 1970s American musical Fiddler on the Roof, was being staged at a Veerashaiva marriage hall in Anavatti, Shimoga district.

Jathegiruvanu Chandira (The Moon Will Be With Us) was in its last scene at the Veerashaiva Kalyana Mantapa when the Bajrang Dal activists barged in around 9.30pm, Kotrappa S. Hiremagadi, who heads the Shimoga-based theatre group Rangabelaku that staged the play, said.

“They were shouting ‘Bolo Bharat Mata ki jai’. They threatened to occupy the stage and forced us to switch off the stage lights, ignoring my pleas to allow us to finish the last scene,” Hiremagadi told The Telegraph on Monday.

“They said the play would not be allowed to continue with Muslim characters wearing skull caps and the hijab since the venue was a marriage hall belonging to the Veerashaiva community.”

The Veerashaiva are an orthodox Shaivite community well represented in Sangh parivar outfits in Karnataka. The authorities of the marriage hall could not be reached for comment.

The Kannada adaptation, written by playwright and poet Jayanth Kaikini, replaces the Jewish characters in the Hollywood hit with Muslim characters. Like the 1971 movie, the play revolves round a poor father with three daughters of marriageable age.

Hiremagadi said the play had been staged across Karnataka many times since the late 1990s without any controversy.

But the Bajrang Dal alleged the play contained a “love jihad angle” and would therefore not be allowed to be staged any more.

“Love jihad” is a Right-wing reference to an alleged conspiracy by Muslim men to “trap” impressionable Hindu women into romance or marriage with the aim of converting and radicalising them. No government agency has been able to come up with proof to substantiate the alleged conspiracy.

“I’m told there is a love jihad angle in which a Hindu boy marries one of the Muslim characters. This will send a wrong signal to the community,” Bajrang Dal state coordinator Raghu Sakleshpura told this newspaper, defending the act by the outfit’s Anavatti unit.

Hiremagadi said that in the play, the main character’s third daughter falls in love with the son of a temple priest and decides to marry him.

“I don’t understand what malicious intent there can be in this scene; it only signifies communal amity,” he said.

“This is the biggest shock of my theatre career. We staged the same play in Shimoga city on June 16 without any issues. The audience of more than 800 stood up and applauded the play. Even yesterday (Sunday), the play was going really well with about 300 people in the hall until the disruption.”

Local police said the play had already stopped when they arrived at the hall.

Hiremagadi said no police complaint would be filed “as there is no point doing so”.

BJP-ruled Karnataka has witnessed several acts of coercion and intolerance by Sangh parivar outfits against minorities in recent years, with at best token action taken against them.

Hindutva outfits have raided Christian prayer halls and churches, led successful campaigns against the hijab on campuses and against Muslim vendors at temple festivals, urged a boycott of halal products including meat, and held noisy protests against mosque loudspeakers.