Story highlights India is one of few countries with large Muslim populations not to have banned triple talaq

The practice has been criticized by Prime Minister Narendra Modi

New Delhi (CNN) Over a million Muslims from across India, the majority of them women, have signed a petition to end the controversial divorce practice of triple talaq.

Triple talaq is an Islamic practice where a man can divorce his wife by saying "talaq," the Arabic word for divorce, three times

The petition was started by the Muslim Rashtriya Manch (MRM), an Islamic organization affiliated with the right wing Hindu group Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).

The RSS is linked to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

"For a long time when we were not in the government, the BJP had, and still has, the ideology that gender equality is a must, irrespective of religion or caste," BJP official Sidharth Amarnath Singh told CNN.

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