Uniform Civil Code Politics
Civil Society New, New Delhi
Published: Feb. 29, 2024
SOCIAL reforms have for long eluded Indian Muslims because of an obdurate clergy. Among the few willing to take them on has been Zakia Soman and women activists of the Bharatiya Muslim Mahila Andolan working with her. But their efforts have met with little success and the established order has been able to brush them off. https://civilsocietyonline.com/interviews/ucc-is-right-on-polygamy-wrong-on-moral-policing/
Now, a law ushering in a Uniform Civil Code (UCC) in Uttarakhand does away with polygamy, sets 18 as the marriageable age for girls and, in addition to the earlier abolition of triple talaq, outlaws unilateral divorce.
Soman says she has no option but to welcome the UCC in the absence of voluntary reforms within the Muslim community. But she worries about social issues being used for political ends by the BJP. Moral policing is also a matter of concern. The UCC is both good and bad in parts, she says in an interview to Civil Society.
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.