India's Journey towards a Uniform Civil Code
“The State shall endeavour to secure for the citizens a Uniform Civil Code throughout the territory of India.” Ever wondered why, during the 1940s when our Constitution was being drafted, our elders and wise leaders did not pursue a Uniform Civil Code, despite its criticality for fostering comprehensive unity and integrity in a nascent nation? It is said that India, having recently endured traumatic division along religious lines, resulting in the largest human migration in history, bore raw wounds that made our new leaders hesitant to challenge entrenched community beliefs and traditions regarding marriage, divorce, maintenance, adoption, inheritance, guardianship, and succession. In hindsight, one might question whether these leaders hesitated due to their novice statesmanship or intellectual constraints. As a consequence, perhaps that is why the British colonial legal and judicial framework persisted largely unchanged, continuing to operate predominantly in the English language,
