It is plausible that a serious and honest practice can create more panic among Hindus than Muslims
It is plausible that a serious and honest practice can create more panic among Hindus than Muslims
Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami has recently constituted a committee to draft a Uniform Civil Code (UCC) for the state. Many leaders of BJP ruled states supported One UCC in India, Although the implementation of the UCC has been a key agenda of the BJP and has found mention in the previous two manifestos, the party’s regional leaders have been more vocal in pursuing this objective than their national leaders. It is surprising whether the BJP is adopting a bottom-up strategy to fulfill its long-standing ideological goal, urging some states to pass their respective UCCs so that it can use these as its own. for the national campaign.
Opposition to UCC
Muslim groups, especially the Ulema, have long opposed the idea of the UCC. Jamiat Ulama-e-Hind, under the leadership of Mahmud Asad Madani, recently passed a resolution against a UCC In a meeting in Deoband which was attended by over 2,500 of its members. The All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) has consistently opposed the UCC as it fears that such a code would undermine the Muslim identity. Actually, its existence is due to this fear. The AIMPLB was established in 1973 on the initiative of Muhammad Tyeb, who was then the head of the Deoband madrasa. When HR Gokhale, as Law Minister, introduced an Adoption Bill in Parliament that was not in line with Muslim religious laws, Muslim clergy were concerned. He saw the bill as a precursor to the UCC. A small meeting was held in Deoband followed by a larger meeting in Mumbai on 27-28 December 1972. Four months later, AIMPLB was born. Fear of UCC and protection of Muslim Personal Law were the reasons for the formation of AIMLAB. Over the years, the body began to support various Muslim issues such as the protection of disputed Islamic religious structures.
Since the passage of the Hindu Code Bill, the Hindu right is of the view that Muslims in a Hindu majority country are being allowed to have their own personal laws and therefore need to be ‘disciplined’ and brought under a UCC . In 1996, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee called for a national debate on the UCC during his speech against the no-confidence motion in Parliament. During the speech, he described the practice of consent by brides as progressive in Muslim marriage rituals. One has to wonder how the Hindu right will react if the practice is accepted as part of the UCC. Responding to the debate, former Prime Minister PV Narasimha Rao cited the age-old tradition of marriage between uncle and niece among Hindus in Andhra Pradesh and challenged the BJP to address it. Should this tradition of Andhra Hindus be abolished or implemented among Hindus outside Andhra? The truth is that there are too many customs and traditions in Hindu society that have to be addressed constructively to do justice to the idea of UCC. In addition, Flavia Agnes and other feminists recognize many of the anti-women biases in the Hindu Code Bill, which have not been adequately brought up in Indian public debate. This has resulted in public perception that only Muslim personal law needs to be reformed.
What will the UCC look like?
It is commendable that a serious and honest practice can create more consternation in Hindu society than in Muslim society. Upendra Baxi, in an opening remarks at a workshop on ‘Dispelling Rhetoric: Law of Divorce and Gender Equality in Islam’ in 2017 said: “Do we know enough about the individual law of the various tribal communities from which the UCC can choose . … do we know enough about the religious personal laws of other Indian communities? It is a sad mistake to think that the UCC is about Hindu-Muslim relations and identity…”
The BJP has been able to realize two of its major ideological agendas over the past eight years: abolishing the special status for Jammu and Kashmir and facilitating the construction of a Ram temple in Ayodhya. Comparatively speaking, the task of realizing the UCC is not going to be easy. The truth is that the caste system which is an integral part of Hindu society celebrates hierarchy, which in turn is inconsistent with the idea of uniformity or equality. Sadly, since independence, no group, for or against the UCC, has been able to decipher what UCC would actually mean for the confusingly diverse Indian society. Given the toxic political climate of our times, it is possible that the efforts of various state-level governments of the BJP may give a majoritarian spin to such an exercise. Such an outcome would raise the political temperature of many secular groups and religious minorities and invite lasting dissent against a UCC.
Sheikh Mujibur Rahman teaches at Jamia Millia Central University, New Delhi, and is the author of the forthcoming book ‘Sikwa-e-Hind: The Political Future of Indian Muslims’.