Uniform Civil Code Will Remain a Polarizing Topic Never Be A Reality

UCC would never be a reality in India because none of the religious bigots would accept a truly uniform code that applies to all. They all want the other group to fall in line and accept whatever they think is uniform but ask them to look at their own personal laws, they won’t accept.

UCC should have been a compulsory provision instead of directive principle, at the time of making the Constitution and the tyranny of regressive religious laws should have ended the day India was born as a modern democratic nation state. But it could not be implemented because India is a deeply religious nation and things like marriage, divorce, property inheritance are all governed by personal religious laws that nobody would want to give up. But they all just want the Muslim community to fall in line, it is about targeting them for having separate laws while they forget that all communities are enjoying the benefit of having personal laws.

Sadly, today UCC has lost relevance for Hindus, because Hindu laws are already largely codified and reformed and gender equality brought in. So Hindu religious bigots have nothing more to lose. Now they want revenge. They feel they have been wronged by the reforms which took away male privilege, so why shouldn’t the same happen to Muslim men? Why do Muslim men still have their privileges sanctioned by religion? That is the main grievance of the Hindutva brigade which gives rise to demands of Uniform Civil Code (UCC). The left liberal secular side oppose UCC to show their resistance to the aggressive and communal agenda of the Right Wing. They do not oppose uniformity in theory, but they have a legitimate fear that in the name of uniformity minorities would be bullied.

This explains why a feminist organization like Majlis Law led by Flavia Agnes is increasing its support to AIMPLB (All India Muslim Personal Law Board). Through a Facebook post, they extended support to the Board’s idea of asking Muslim women to go to Darlu Qaza with their marital dispute. Darul Qazas are kangaroo courts, like khap Panchayats which should not exist in modern societies. SC has stated that Darul Qazas has no legal validity and their decisions are invalid in law. Majlis Law’s enthusiasm to keep Muslim women ghettoised, within control of Muslim males, denied access to formal justice system and rather push them to Kangaroo courts is highly regressive. But their fear of Hindutva majoritarianism is legitimate.

It is shameful that AIMPLB took about 80 years to realize they need to pay some token attention to women problems. Only in 2017, they started THINKING of setting up women wing. And still Muslim women are advised by leading feminist organization to keep their heads down and follow the Board’s command, accept whatever the Board think is good for them.

Muslim women should reject these religious boards and kangaroo courts and approach formal courts for issues related to marriage, divorce and property matters. And the same should be done by 80% of the Hindu community. Hindu women are in no better position than Muslim women.

Uniform Civil Code is Good Idea But Not Possible In India

Uniform Civil Code is a sensible idea, we failed to achieve in so many years, mainly because of ego clash between majority and minority communities and women are just pawns.

UCC is opposed by liberal secular side on two grounds mainly, 1) State has no right to interfere in personal matters 2) It is a political agenda

Technically, it is true that state has no right to interfere in personal matters like marriage, divorce, property inheritance, adoptions etc except in cases when you seek some benefit from the state on the basis of these institutions. For eg you got married and want to put your spouse’s name in your passport / health schemes / life insurance / retirement papers. Here it is no longer your personal matter, state is a stake holder in your marriage because on the basis of it you are seeking additional benefits / relief / protections from the state. Therefore the state has the right to decide what kind of marriage and divorce should be acceptable and what not. If on the other hand you have absolutely no connection with sate, if you don’t care whether your spouse is shown on records, then it doesn’t matter to state whether you marry, don’t marry, live in, have multiple partners whatever.

Secondly, UCC cannot be a political agenda because it says uniform laws for all community, doesn’t say Hindu laws for all community. Without taking a look at the provisions of UCC whenever that happens, how can we say it is political agenda? It seems minority community is confused between politics and religion and they live with a persecution syndrome.

Muslim personal law board to form women’s wing to look into triple talaq. The body has also decided to set up a toll-free helpline to counsel and guide women of the community across the country. Source: http://scroll.in/latest/822043/muslim-personal-law-board-to-form-womens-wing-to-look-into-triple-talaq

While there has been a lot of brouhaha regarding how the Uniform Civil Code will affect Muslims, the Law Commission, in its questionnaire asking the public for suggestions, raises pertinent issues on other religions, too

Source: Not just triple Talaq – Ahmedabad Mirror