National Public Radio (NPR) Rough Translation

“The Love Commandos”

New Season: Love Commandos. Starting Wednesday, July 26th, 2023.

They seemed like superheroes. In 2012, when a group called the Love Commandos leapt into the public eye in India, they pledged to do something that most government agencies and police departments couldn't do: protect and shelter young lovers on the run.

In India, the vast majority of marriages are arranged. Couples who choose to marry against their parents' wishes can be cast out of their own communities, arrested — even, in some extreme cases, murdered – for choosing romantic love over family duty.

But are the Love Commandos the caped crusaders for love they vow to be?

Listen here.

Episode 1: The Vow

What do you do when the love stories you watch on the big screen and the rules of love you live by are opposite? In the first episode of Rough Translation's Love Commandos season, host Gregory Warner speaks with freelance journalist Mansi Choksi and NPR reporter Lauren Frayer to unpack the story of the Love Commandos. Together, they explore the ways in which the romantic promise of Bollywood musicals faded under the glaring violence that many young lovers couldn't escape.

Until a man named Sanjoy Sachdev stepped onto the stage of a popular TV show promising to fight for lovers. He had a group with the perfect name to do it: the Love Commandos.

In 2018, NPR correspondent Lauren Frayer visited the group's secret safe house. Several months into her reporting, the Commandos were brought down by some of the very couples they vowed to help. Rough Translation sets out to answer the questions surrounding Sachdev's case. Is he the person he promised to be? And what does his case mean for couples who go against the norm?

Episode 2: After The Wedding

In the second episode of our Love Commandos series, reporter Lauren Frayer tells the love story of an inter-caste couple in India fighting to stay together. Facing the forces of tradition that would keep them apart, this couple runs away from their own community in an attempt to get married. As their own families close in, chasing the newlyweds, they are pushed toward a breaking point.

Enter the Love Commandos.

But do they have the reach and the power to come to the rescue?

Episode 3: The Honeymoon

In Episode 3 of Love Commandos from NPR's Rough Translation we go deep inside the Commandos' home base in Delhi. Couples on the run from all over India seek out the group's shelter. The Commandos' safe house offers them a chance to get married and live in freedom with their beloved.

But not all couples feel the same about life inside the shelter, or the rules the Commandos impose on them. As we pick up the story of Surya and Akanksha after their daring escape, we meet other couples in the Commandos' care. Some see the group's leader, Sanjoy Sachdev, as a surrogate father. Others, a tyrant. Many start to realize that escape may not be the same thing as freedom.

Episode 4: Forever Yours

The Love Commandos' origin story begins at a time of year you'd expect to find the man nicknamed India's cupid: Valentine's Day. But the circumstances surrounding the group's founding are anything but sweet.

In Episode 4 of Love Commandos, the duality of a deeply complicated individual emerges. Reporter Lauren Frayer and co-hosts Gregory Warner and Mansi Choksi team up to investigate the group's enigmatic leader, Sanjoy Sachdev.

They follow the money that funds the Commandos' operation. It's a search that leads us far away from India.

And closer to home, they discover a pattern that had been going on for years. Couples who stayed at the Love Commandos' shelter in Delhi arrived seeking safety and protection. But many of them say they soon discovered it was nearly impossible to leave. Why would a shelter offering the freedom of choice in marriage end up making its residents feel like they were trapped? Is Love Commandos a misunderstood project or something darker?

Episode 5: Calling It Quits

In Episode 5, tensions in the Love Commandos' safehouse reach a tipping point as some couples conspire a takedown of Sanjoy Sachdev, the group's founder. But not everyone is on board with the plan.

NPR correspondent Lauren Frayer speaks to Sachdev about the allegations leveled against him. He denies all charges, and insists that the mission of the Love Commandos will persist – against all odds.

Why are couples so divided in their opinions about the Love Commandos?

And what happens to the newlyweds as they venture out on their own again? Can they make amends with the families they left behind?

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