9/19/21, 8:54 PM Demands for a uniform civil code are back, and women’s groups continue to oppose it.

continue to oppose it. Here’s why

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Sunday, September 19th 2021

PERSONAL LAW

Demands for a uniform civil code

are back and women’s groups
continue to oppose it. Here’s why
With five Bharatiya Janata Party-led states passing or planning laws
against ‘love jihad’, Hindutva groups have renewed their calls for a
common civil code.

Aarefa Johari  
Dec 29, 2020 · 09:00 am

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9/19/21, 8:54 PM Demands for a uniform civil code are back, and women’s groups continue to oppose it. Here’s why

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Muslim women participate in a rally to oppose the Uniform Civil Code in Ahmedabad in 2016.
|
Sam
Panthaky/AFP

On November 28, the Uttar Pradesh government cleared an ordinance to prevent

“love jihad”, a right-wing conspiracy theory which claims that Muslim men are
seducing and marrying Hindu women in order to convert them to Islam. The new
law, while penalising forced religious conversions, also makes it mandatory for an
individual to seek the state government’s permission if they wish to convert to
another religion in order to get married.

Uttar Pradesh has already arrested about 35 people under this law, but is not the
only state cracking down on “love jihad”. Last week, the Madhya Pradesh cabinet
cleared a similar bill while three other Bharatiya Janata Party-led states –
Karnataka, Haryana and Assam – have announced plans to pass such laws.

Hindutva organisations have been raising the bogey of love jihad for nearly a
decade, targeting inter-faith couples and Muslim men even though no evidence of
such forced religious conversions through marriage have been found so far. The
demand for laws hindering inter-faith marriages, however, is incongruent with the
right wing’s other favourite demand: a uniform civil code.

By definition, a uniform civil code involves having a common set of laws governing
marriage, divorce, succession and adoption for all Indians, instead of allowing
different personal laws for people of different faiths. The aim of such uniformity is
meant to be ensuring equality and justice for women in particular, who are often
denied their rights in marriage, divorce and inheritance under patriarchal
personal laws.

Hindutva groups have raked up the demand for a uniform civil code for decades,
and implementing it was one of the three big promises in the BJP’s manifesto when
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9/19/21, 8:54 PM Demands for a uniform civil code are back, and women’s groups continue to oppose it. Here’s why

it came to
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abolishing Article 370 in Kashmir and laying the foundation for on a Ram Mandir
Sections 
in Ayodhya – its supporters expect the uniform civil code to be next, and have
Exchange
raised the demand once again in conversations about “love jihad” laws.

Opposition to a uniform civil code has been fierce and predictable from minority
religious groups who want to preserve their personal laws. But the idea of a
uniform code has also been firmly opposed by women’s groups and secular
organisations, for reasons that are nuanced and less obvious.

Uniform Civil Code? Plea in SC seeks 'uniformity' in laws on

divorce and alimony, Centre issued notice
https://t.co/SY8fDOT7MV

— Free Press Journal (@fpjindia) December 16, 2020

Appropriated by Hindutva force

In 1956, the “endeavour” to secure a common civil code across the country was
added as a directive principle in the Constitution. However, the subject has always
been contentious and politically charged, so the code was neither drafted nor
implemented.

Up to the 1990s, women’s rights groups saw merit in the idea of a uniform civil
code, which could provide women with rights not granted under the Hindu Code
Bills, the Muslim Personal Law or other personal laws. In 1995, for instance, non-
profit group Forum Against Oppression of Women drafted its own blueprint for a
common civil code in a document titled “Vision for Gender-just Realities”.

Although it was never formally submitted to any government agency, this “vision”
document focused on ensuring women’s rights in matters of marriage, divorce and
inheritance. Like the existing Muslim Personal Law, it viewed marriage as a
contract rather than a sacrament. It also recognised non-heterosexual relationships

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9/19/21, 8:54 PM Demands for a uniform civil code are back, and women’s groups continue to oppose it. Here’s why

and civil
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Over the past 20 years, however, most women’s groups have changed their position
on the matter and now reject a common civil code.

“The demand for a uniform civil code has been appropriated by the Hindutva right
wing, which is anti-Muslim, extremist and heavily patriarchal,” said Hasina Khan, a
founder of Bebaak Collective, a feminist non-profit organisation working for
minority and human rights. “It is sad, because we are opposed to many of the
provisions in the Muslim Personal Law. But we cannot have a uniform civil code
coming from a Hindutva government.”

No blueprint
This, for many, is the crux of the matter. Even though the uniform civil code has its
roots in ideas of gender justice, Hindutva groups have turned it into a stick to beat
Muslims with.

The demand for the code is raised whenever controversial aspects of Muslim
personal law like triple talaq or polygamy are in the headlines, Khan said. In 2017,
after the Supreme Court already deemed triple talaq to be invalid and
unconstitutional, the BJP government doubled down and passed a law to
criminalise that form of instant divorce, which Muslim groups see as a red flag for
the uniform civil code.

“This is the intention of the right-wing – to criminalise everything in order to target

Muslims,” said Khan. “Muslim men don’t want issues of women’s rights to come to
the fore because it provides fodder to Hindutva groups. Women end up bearing the
double burden of this.”

The Bharatiya Janata Party is a loud advocate of the uniform civil

code, but has earned the distrust of minority communities by its

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9/19/21, 8:54 PM Demands for a uniform civil code are back, and women’s groups continue to oppose it. Here’s why

Hindutva
Home
Global bias.https://t.co/ehJAGUaZqx

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— The Telegraph (@ttindia) December 21, 2020
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Another red flag for women’s groups is the fact the proponents of a uniform civil
code have never, so far, released a draft or even a rough blueprint of what such a
code would look like. Would it involve taking the best gender-just practices from
different personal laws and making them applicable for all? Or would it involve
scrapping the personal laws of minority communities in favour of a majoritarian
Hindu approach?

“People in the right wing are not spelling out what kind of laws they have in mind,”
said historian Tanika Sarkar. “They are focusing on Muslim men and women, but
would they allow change in Hindu personal laws? In general, the Hindu
community has been very opposed to reforms.”

According to feminist activist Chayanika Shah from the Forum Against Oppression
of Women, Hindus would have to be willing to let go of their own personal laws in
order to achieve a uniform civil code.

“They would have to get rid of the Hindu Undivided Family [under the existing
Hindu civil laws], which offers a lot of protection to Hindu family property,” said
Shah, who points out that Hindu inheritance laws have been retained for Hindus
even in the Special Marriage Act, the only law that comes closest to a uniform civil
law by allowing men and women from any faith to enter into a civil marriage.

“I think the right wing has no idea what it means to have a uniform civil code,” she
said. “Even currently, within various Hindu communities, rules about who you can
marry and what is considered a marriage ceremony are all protected by customary
laws.”

Shah’s reference is to the legal protections that Indian law provides to the customs
of various indigenous communities. In addition to these, Goa is the only state with

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9/19/21, 8:54 PM Demands for a uniform civil code are back, and women’s groups continue to oppose it. Here’s why

its own civil

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Keeping in mind these pluralities, many women’s groups believe
to reform individual personal laws to make them more gender-just, instead of
getting stuck on the idea of single, universally applicable uniform code.

“The right wing keeps repeating the same demand over and over again,” said
Flavia Agnes, a feminist lawyer from Mumbai. “But there is no need for a uniform
civil code at all.”

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