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, which served only a minority.

It was not until 1955-56, amid fervent protests and organized opposition, that substantial reforms were finally introduced in Hindu personal laws. A significant faction of Hindus resisted codification, echoing societal conservatism observed in both Eastern and Western cultures, notably from men wary of revising entrenched gender norms.

Crucially, support for these reforms was fervently championed by women's organizations, including the Congress' women's wing, which argued that the proposed changes remained faithful to classical Hindu personal law.

However, critics within Parliament, predominantly male members of Nehru's Congress party, vehemently opposed these Bills, fearing that reforms would disrupt traditional Hindu social structures and incite societal upheaval. 

They contended that concepts such as divorce contradicted Hinduism's sacramental view of marriage, and equal property rights for women threatened the principles of joint family under Mitākṣarā law, thereby destabilizing Hindu society.

Furthermore, opponents argued that such legislative initiatives lacked broad public consensus, asserting that intervening in personal laws contradicted the government's policy of non-intervention and risked imposing reforms favoured by a few onto a reluctant majority.

Nevertheless, Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru who would not have dared bulldozing these reforms through the Muslim community as he was known to treat them gingerly and with kid gloves, insisted that those who supported the Bills were modern and progressive and so held vital weight in the Hindu community, in importance if not in numbers. 

He also argued that because the Bill's supporters were progressive, those who dissented would eventually change their position when confronted with the realities of modernity. 

Thus began a transformative era in Hindu law, marked by legislation such as the Hindu Marriage Act (1955), Hindu Succession Act (1956), Hindu Minority and Guardianship Act (1956), and Hindu Adoptions and Maintenance Act (1956), encompassing Hindus broadly defined to include Jains, Buddhists, and Sikhs.

Nearly three generations later, these reforms are now more or less widely accepted as societal norms.

Gurcharan Das in his book ~A Fine Family~ has beautifully etched several generations of Punjabi family that covers Partition and then life in East Punjab in the midst of a radically transforming world. 

For instance, despite his deep affection for his daughter Tara, patriarch Bauji opposed the codification of Hindu personal laws, exemplified by his unwillingness to provide for her in his will, believing her dowry sufficed.

This book resonated with me on various levels as my forefathers too came as refugees to Delhi, prompting conversations with my grandfather, whose generation first navigated these upheavals and new realities. 

It underscored shifts such as brothers sharing inheritance with sisters, husbands considering maintenance obligations to wives they otherwise would have cast away, and land divisions that challenged traditional economic models—each a seed of new beginnings...

Such as a daughter caring for her parents because she now had the wherewith all, a woman being able to walk out of a failed marriage to build a new life or the pride of simply being considered equal!

Contrasting this evolution, the codification of Muslim personal laws was staunchly resisted, leaving the Muslim community as a vote-bank for self-serving politicians and gatekeepers who promised them that their archaic laws would remain intact. 

Recent Supreme Court observations affirming Muslim women's rights to maintenance have drawn stark reactions. Male panellists on TV debates come across smug, aggressive, proudly rooted in 7th century invoking the Quran's wisdom and fairness, while middle aged and elderly women, despite life's lessons, show reticence towards change, delegating reforms to men and clergy.

Yet, amid this conservatism, a few, very few, bold voices emerge, primarily from young Muslim women advocating a Uniform Civil Code to liberate themselves from antiquated laws and custodians who keep them condemned to obscurantism. This advocacy confronts entrenched traditionalists resisting change, symbolizing a broader struggle for progressive reform.

As Europe grapples with enclaves of Sharia law and No Go Zones, India must transcend political biases to forge a society governed by a singular legal framework applicable to all. 

Or else, Mamata’s Bengal, with her JCB men await us and our daughters, and no one knows this better than women, Muslim women!

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