The proposed Uniform Civil Code may appear to be an attractive proposition, but it is not quite desirable in the Indian context. It will likely “paint all people in one colour” and tamper with India’s diversity and pluralism, which are its strengths, not brittle weaknesses.
The Constitution provides religious communities the space to live their lives in accordance with the personal laws framed on the basis of their religious texts and tenets. The All India Muslim Personal Law Board , Muslim clerics and theologians are justified in deciding to boycott the Law Commission, as the proposals now prepared by it, if enacted and implemented, would infringe on their religious freedom guaranteed by the Constitution. “One nation, one law” sounds fine, but it is just a step away from the thesis of “one nation, one religion” and “one nation, one culture”.
The Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) advocacy of the Uniform Civil Code is a ruse to dilute the distinctiveness of Islam in India. It must be hard for the BJP to claim that it wants the Uniform Civil Code transcending Hindu beliefs and practices. Hindu laws cannot be the template for such a code in a country with a diverse mix of races and religions.
A regressive and reactionary party cannot toy with the idea of bringing about progressive and revolutionary changes in personal laws of all citizens without giving primacy to the nationally predominant religion. Hindu organisations and seers must first agree to amend the Hindu personal laws prejudiced against women and pass religion-neutral laws. Indian Muslims practise a gentler strand of Islam; it is wrong to force them to follow personal laws framed to homogenise a multi-layered and heterogeneous Indian society.
It is for the Muslim community to bring about reform in its personal laws pertaining to marriage, divorce, adoption, inheritance, property rights and succession, accept gender equality and strive to shirk regressive practices such as triple talaq.
Attempts to push the saffron agenda, of which the Uniform Civil Code is a part, need to be thwarted for India’s continued existence as a secular and pluralist democracy.
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G David Milton, Maruthancode
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