Nivedita Menon’s article on a Uniform Civil Code (“ >It isn’t about women ”, July 15), states that “since the Muslim marriage as contract protects women better in case of divorce than the Hindu marriage as a sacrament, all marriages would have to be civil contracts….” This is not only fallacious but also factually incorrect. A UCC need not necessarily mean the selection of one practice that would be enforced upon all Indians, which is the foundational assumption of this article. In Hindu law, courts have laid down that different local traditions and customs would be respected, even if it results in a departure from the letter of the law. What the UCC would actually be — assuming that such a code is even a possibility at this stage — is a set of standard principles bringing about certain reforms to all branches of personal law collectively. A brief look at efforts to introduce reforms to personal law show that Hindu law has been reformed the most since Independence and not because of a lack of effort on the part of parliamentarians in bringing about reforms in other branches of personal law. This has been explained by Prof. Faizan Mustafa as a “minority psyche” created by events such as Ayodhya and Shah Bano. Therefore, the writer’s assertion that one form of marriage is “better” for the woman and hence applicable to all other marriages is preposterous.
Second, while Muslim marriage is widely understood to be a contract, with a small number of scholars saying that it attains religious value by virtue of being discussed in detail in the Koran, it has not proved to be better for the woman, at least in the Indian context. A perfect example of this would be the Shayara Bano case.
Devarsh Saraf,
Hyderabad
I was astonished and perturbed to read Nivedita Menon’s article. I wonder how she states that the purpose of implementing a UCC is to teach a lesson to Muslims. I am afraid that statements like these only show her leanings and prejudices against the BJP. What has the present government done? It has only requested the Law Commission to study and report on the possibility of a UCC. In a secular country with multiple religious practices, this becomes all the more important since administration should be separated from religious practices. Religious personal laws completely negate this and are therefore anachronic to the secular state. It is another matter how the UCC should be, whether it is helpful to the cause of women and whether it will make religious groups lose the advantage they enjoy.
H.S. Gopala Krishna Murthy,
Bengaluru
Nivedita Menon is right when she says that talk of a UCC has nothing to do with gender justice, but more about a Hindu nationalist agenda. Though Mr. Venkaiah Naidu has denied this in his article, “Why not a Common Civil Code for all?” (July 16), his arguments sound hollow. This does not mean that Muslims do not want any changes to be made. Muslim women in particular look forward to changes but within the confines of the Muslim Personal Law. It does not mean that they are opposed to Shariat laws or that they dispute religious injunctions. The matter is more social and economic than religious.
In economically backward Muslim families, there are countless instances of men who neither pronounce single or triple talaq and just walk out of a marriage with impunity. The poor woman still bears the tag of being his wife, though deprived of every right of a wife. Right-wing activists and even some Muslim women activists end up being confused about these emerging voices demanding changes in Muslim Personal Law with a false perception that it is a demand for enforcing a Common Civil Code.
S. Tahsin Ahmed,
Bengaluru
