Skip to content
Search

Latest Stories

Will Modi's push for uniform civil code pay off at the polls?

Currently, India’s Hindus, Muslims, Christians, and large tribal populations follow their own personal laws and customs, alongside an optional secular code

Will Modi's push for uniform civil code pay off at the polls?

NINE months before a general election, India’s prime minister Narendra Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have dusted off a potentially divisive plan to enact a common set of personal laws for all, irrespective of religion.

Currently, India's Hindus, Muslims, Christians, and large tribal populations follow their own personal laws and customs, alongside an optional secular code, for marriage, divorce, adoption, and inheritance.


The Law Commission, a government-appointed advisory body, has sought public opinion on creating a Uniform Civil Code (UCC). It received more than five million responses online on the eve of the deadline last Friday (14).

The BJP said the common code is necessary to ensure gender justice, equality through uniform application of personal laws and to foster national unity and integration.

"If there is one law for one family member and another for another family member, can that family function smoothly? How can a country function with such dual systems?" Modi said at a BJP meeting late last month, just days after he returned from state visits to the US and Egypt.

The comments were his most forceful in favour of the common code.

Critics call the push for a common civil code a cynical attempt to divide communities and consolidate Hindu votes for the BJP ahead of the 2024 general election. Supporters, who include some Muslim women's rights groups, said it is much needed reform to end discriminatory Islamist practices.

"The idea is to send a message to the majority community so that you are able to keep the majority community polarised in favour of BJP," said Sanjay Kumar, political analyst and psephologist at New Delhi’s Centre for the Study of Developing Societies.

"This is a kind of a tool to divide and mobilise," he said.

India's Muslims, the country's largest minority with about 200 million of the 1.4 billion population, are mostly sharply opposed to the plan.

Although no draft of the UCC has been presented, BJP leaders said it primarily has to do with reforming Muslim personal laws as other personal laws have progressed over the decades.

Many Muslims said they see it as interference with centuries-old Islamic practices and another weapon for a majoritarian political party that they accuse of being anti-Muslim.

The All India Muslim Personal Law Board, a voluntary body that represents the interests of Indian Muslims on personal law issues, sent its objections to the Law Commission saying "mere projection of uniformity is not a valid ground for uprooting established systems of laws governing personal matters".

"Majoritarian morality must not supersede personal laws, religious freedom, and minority rights in the name of a code which remains an enigma," it said.

India's next general election has to be held by May 2024 and follows commanding wins for BJP in 2014 and 2019. Critics said the party's campaign playbook has been to polarise voters along religious lines and take advantage of the Hindu majority, although the BJP maintains it represents all Indians and that it wants growth for all.

Modi and the BJP are widely expected to win a third term, but the ruling party got a scare when it lost elections to the main opposition Congress party in Karnataka state in May. Opposition groups are now working to pose a united challenge in 2024.

Some analysts said the UCC plan will force opposition parties into a corner. They cannot support it, and if they oppose it, they will be accused of being reactionary and pandering to conservative Muslims.

The Congress, for instance, said it questions the timing of the plan and has asked to see a draft.

Sushil Modi, a senior BJP leader and member of parliament, said the UCC plan was not related to the election.

"In India you have elections all the time," said Modi, who is not related to the prime minister. "Someone has to show the courage, someone has to take the initiative. We are showing the courage and doing it".

Key Muslim personal law issues that are expected to be addressed are the age of marriage, polygamy and inheritance, said another BJP leader and a judiciary source, who both declined to be identified.

Muslim personal laws in India, for instance, allow Muslim males and females to marry after attaining puberty while all other Indian males have to be 21 years old and females 18 years old to get married.

Muslim men are allowed to have up to four wives at the same time and Muslim men get double the share of female siblings during inheritance.

To start with, the government could raise the age of marriage for Muslims to match others, outlaw polygamy and mandate an equal share of inheritance for Muslim men and women, the BJP source said.

Just a handful of these changes may not qualify to be called UCC in the true sense, yet it would be major reform and a political achievement, the source said.

Legal experts and political analysts said even this would need extensive consultations and political consensus to get past parliament and there isn’t enough time before the elections.

The BJP’s aim, therefore, appears to be to keep the issue in the public eye and enact the code if it returns to power as expected, they said.

"It will be raised in the run-up to 2024, it will be used, harnessed," said Zakia Soman, co-founder of the Indian Muslim Women's Movement, which supports the UCC despite its reservations about the politics linked to it.

"The fact that it is being championed by the BJP government doesn’t help because the onslaught (on Muslims) has been very consistent and that gives credence to the conservative bogey that this is an attack on Muslims, an attack on Islam," she said.

(Reuters)

More For You

scotland-minimum-wages-iStock

Full-time workers on the National Living Wage will receive an annual pay increase of £1,400 in real terms. (Representational image: iStock)

iStock

Wage increase takes effect for thousands of workers in Scotland

HUNDREDS of thousands of workers in Scotland will see a pay increase as new National Living Wage and National Minimum Wage rates take effect from Tuesday.

The changes will benefit approximately 220,000 people, according to STV News.

Keep ReadingShow less
uk-energy-bill-iStock

Water bills, energy prices, and council tax are rising, while the minimum wage has also increased (Representational image: iStock)

iStock

April bill increases put financial strain on single parents

A RANGE of essential household bills are increasing from April, with Citizens Advice warning that single parents will be among the hardest hit.

Water bills, energy prices, and council tax are rising, while the minimum wage has also increased, BBC reported.

Keep ReadingShow less
Netflix drama Adolescence to be screened in UK schools
Stephen Graham and Owen Cooper in 'Adolescence'
Netflix

Netflix drama Adolescence to be screened in UK schools

THE NETFLIX drama Adolescence will be shown in UK secondary schools as part of efforts to address harmful online influences on young boys, officials announced on Monday.

The show has sparked debate over the impact of toxic and misogynistic content on the internet. Prime minister Keir Starmer met the show's creators, charities, and young people at Downing Street, calling the initiative an important step in starting discussions about the content teenagers are exposed to online.

Keep ReadingShow less
Sanger-Tribute

Indian high commissioner Vikram Doraiswami speaking at the memorial.

Bhavan London pays tribute to Joginder Sanger

BHAVAN LONDON held a tribute event on 27 March to honour Joginder Sanger, a British Indian hotelier and philanthropist who passed away at 82 on 28 February.

Sanger, born in Jalandhar, India, established several London hotels, including the Washington Mayfair Hotel, Courthouse Hotels in Soho and Shoreditch, and the Bentley in Kensington.

Keep ReadingShow less
Imran-Khan-Getty

Imran Khan, founder of the opposition Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, has been in jail since August 2023. (Photo: Getty)

Former Pakistan prime minister Imran Khan nominated for Nobel Peace Prize

FORMER Pakistan prime minister Imran Khan has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for his work on human rights and democracy.

The nomination was announced by members of the Pakistan World Alliance (PWA), an advocacy group formed in December, who are also part of the Norwegian political party Partiet Sentrum.

Keep ReadingShow less