Has time come to implement Uniform Civil Code in our Country and realize the vision of article 44 of our constitution under directive principle of state policies?
I was listening to parliamentary speeches of honourable Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee ji. He was making a lucid argument in favour of bringing uniform civil code in the country. He said, most of the Islamic countries have changed their laws so its high time that India should also move forward in this direction. Keeping aside the argument of should we or should we not, I find some conceptual flaws in this argument.
Firstly, somehow the whole issue of uniform civil code has been reduced to change in Islamic laws or personal law system. This blanket reductionism of civil code issue in a diverse country like India is akin to turning fuzzy logic into arbitrary binaries. What about tribals, or other religions, sects, diverse cultural practices practiced in different parts of India? Can we really sweep those identity aside and combine them under one head of hinduism?
Just to substantiate some examples, in Nagaa culture, the groom is captured by brides family member and marriage takes place.
Similarly, in South India cross-cousin marriages are allowed but the same is tabooed in Northern culture.
Some tribes in Chattisgarh have a tradition where girl lives in boy's house without marrying him for nearly one year and if boy's family likes the girl then they enter into nupital bond.
So it remains to be seen how a uniform code would capture all these peculiar practices.
Another big issue is of misplaced comparison between the Islamic countries and India. In the Islamic countries, the change came from the community itself. Progressive section of their society brought forth rules to nullify the menace of triple talaq system. However, story in India is somewhat different. Here muslim brothers are in minority thus any such attempt of change has to pass the litmus test of perceived feeling of majority communalism. Minorities may view this as machiavellian agenda of majority to disturb the minority identity and culture.
It is certainly possible to bring such common code but the moot question is 'should a law govern a change in the society or should society spearhead the process of change in the law?'
At least for now, the best strategy would be to fix our own house and place it in order. Hindus themselves have enough flaws in their extravagantly grand marriage systems which acts as mark of social status in the society. Such marriages indirectly promotes dowry and acts as exit point of black money. We should curb this trend. Though I must qualify my previous statement because such grand functions are big source of employment and consumption in the economy. Simultaneously, we should drive forward other communities to come with their code so that we can make a synthesis document which would cover all aspirations and different cultural traditions.
I was listening to parliamentary speeches of honourable Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee ji. He was making a lucid argument in favour of bringing uniform civil code in the country. He said, most of the Islamic countries have changed their laws so its high time that India should also move forward in this direction. Keeping aside the argument of should we or should we not, I find some conceptual flaws in this argument.
Firstly, somehow the whole issue of uniform civil code has been reduced to change in Islamic laws or personal law system. This blanket reductionism of civil code issue in a diverse country like India is akin to turning fuzzy logic into arbitrary binaries. What about tribals, or other religions, sects, diverse cultural practices practiced in different parts of India? Can we really sweep those identity aside and combine them under one head of hinduism?
Just to substantiate some examples, in Nagaa culture, the groom is captured by brides family member and marriage takes place.
Similarly, in South India cross-cousin marriages are allowed but the same is tabooed in Northern culture.
Some tribes in Chattisgarh have a tradition where girl lives in boy's house without marrying him for nearly one year and if boy's family likes the girl then they enter into nupital bond.
So it remains to be seen how a uniform code would capture all these peculiar practices.
Another big issue is of misplaced comparison between the Islamic countries and India. In the Islamic countries, the change came from the community itself. Progressive section of their society brought forth rules to nullify the menace of triple talaq system. However, story in India is somewhat different. Here muslim brothers are in minority thus any such attempt of change has to pass the litmus test of perceived feeling of majority communalism. Minorities may view this as machiavellian agenda of majority to disturb the minority identity and culture.
It is certainly possible to bring such common code but the moot question is 'should a law govern a change in the society or should society spearhead the process of change in the law?'
At least for now, the best strategy would be to fix our own house and place it in order. Hindus themselves have enough flaws in their extravagantly grand marriage systems which acts as mark of social status in the society. Such marriages indirectly promotes dowry and acts as exit point of black money. We should curb this trend. Though I must qualify my previous statement because such grand functions are big source of employment and consumption in the economy. Simultaneously, we should drive forward other communities to come with their code so that we can make a synthesis document which would cover all aspirations and different cultural traditions.
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