Communalism
Inadequate reportage, no shortage of opinion: Where does Big Media stand on the hijab row? By Kalpana Sharma 17 Feb, 2022 https://www.newslaundry.com/2022/02/17/inadequate-reportage-no-shortage-of-opinion-where-does-big-media-stand-on-the-hijab-row Misinterpreting the high court’s order, fanning the flames, the rare nuanced take – we saw it all.
It began on December 28, when six students of the Women's Government Pre-University College in Udupi were not allowed to enter their classroom wearing a hijab. Now, with the arguments being heard currently in the Karnataka High Court, the controversy poses several challenges to the media.
Will the media help tamp down emotions or add fuel to the fire that has already been lit? Will it, as seems inevitable in the highly polarised communal situation prevailing in Karnataka and elsewhere, ratchet up the blame game, creating false binaries such as Muslims vs Hindus, hijab vs saffron, etc? Or will it report with responsibility and context?
Soon, politics took over. The Campus Front of India, which is affiliated to the Social Democratic Party of India, spoke up on behalf of the Muslim students in Udupi. It was only a matter of time before other actors entered the fray, principally the Hindu Jagarana Vedike, which is a part of the Sangh Parivar and has been active on a number of incendiary communal issues in Udupi and nearby districts of Karnataka. This region has been in the news for years with such right-wing groups hounding Hindu-Muslim couples and raising the bogey of “love jihad”.
This report (TNM investigation: How Hindutva group mobilised saffron-clad students at Udupi college :) in the News Minute is particularly revelatory as it establishes that what was attempted to be portrayed as a spontaneous reaction by Hindu students to the demand of Muslim students for their rights was, in fact, stage-managed. The scarves and turbans were made available, and then collected once the media had given the demonstration coverage.
Uttarakhand thus becomes the first state in independent India to pass a common law on marriage, divorce, inheritance and even live-in relationships between two consenting adults. https://thewire.in/government/talking-uniform-civil-code
According to the note which seems to have been disregarded, the Bill was built along the patriarchal Hindu law template and retained several discriminatory aspects that would deny women an equal agency . The leaders of the Muslim community have also protested over the UCC overtaking Muslim personal laws. The new law lacks clarity for both groups and that may cause heavy snarls when it is implemented.
It seems to promote intrusive moral policing and may result in discriminatory harassment of adults in a relationship that has been considered autonomous and consensual. Some of the rules may become clearer when gazetted but the compulsory registration of live-in relationships is full of explosive landmines.
by Mrinal Pande
12/02/2024
Justice for All, Not One Law for All: What the Constitution Says on Uniform Civil Code https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LeDow2aEAJA Dil se with Kapil Sibal.
The Nagaland assembly has unanimously adopted a resolution against a Uniform Civil Code (UCC), seeking an exemption for the state if such a Code is brought in. The Bharatiya Janata Party is a partner in the Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party-led government in the state.
The resolution stated that the apparent objective of a UCC “is to have a single law on personal matters such as marriage and divorce, custody and guardianship, adoption and maintenance, succession and inheritance”. This would pose a threat to Naga customary laws and social and religious practices “that will be in danger of encroachment in the event of imposition of UCC”,
13/09/2023
G N Devy writes: On Uniform Civil Code, intent matters
The idea needs governments that think beyond mere election victories. It needs political parties that think of diverse groups of people as the nation July 14, 2023
Some Adivasis ..follow the custom of asking the husband to move over to the wife’s place after marriage and the wife has the right to drive the man out any time during their married cohabitation if she decides to do so in consultation with the community. To me, this appears to be a custom much fairer than the custom of asking girls to go after marriage to dwell in families of men. Will a proposed UCC give fair consideration to the comparative merits of these two systems?
In some Indian communities, property is inherited by daughters, not by sons. Among the Khasis in Meghalaya, a woman is treated as the head of the family and she plays that role for all legal purposes. Will the UCC take into account such a wonderful practice? I have known some communities that consider the cattle folk in the house as members of the family. Among the Kinnaurs of Himachal Pradesh, the custom is for a woman to take up to five husbands.