If the different religious traditions still govern the rules of marriage or inheritance, the Indian government’s desire to standardize the Civil Code causes concern among Christian and Muslim clergy.
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The announcement promises to spark heated debate in India. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has just announced that his Hindu nationalist party wants to reform the Civil Code, consultations have even started to adopt a new law in this direction.
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India today has five different Civil Codes. Hindus, Christians or Muslims are thus governed by different rules of marriage, divorce or inheritance, all inspired by their traditions. Most of these rules have been modernized in recent years, to facilitate divorce among Christians or prohibit the marriage of minors among Hindus, but this right remains fragmented. The government is therefore trying to standardize all of these rules in a single code. But the approach is opposed by the clergy of minority religions, such as Christians and Muslims, who fear that the Hindu nationalists in power will dilute their traditions to impose a Hindu version of the Civil Code.
850,000 responses to the consultation
Within these minorities, some are nevertheless favorable to the reform. This is the case of many Muslim women who suffer from the fact that the Muslim Civil Code in India still allows archaic practices. “The Muslim code is misogynistic, believes, for example, the Muslim feminist activist Zakia Soman. It allows polygamy or the marriage of minors, because according to Sharia, a girl can be married as soon as she is pubescent, which is horrible. I have no hope that these reforms come from our patriarchal Muslim clergy.”
“Even though the government has a political agenda, the only way for Muslim women to get justice is through this unique Civil Code.”
Zakia Somanat franceinfo
This reform will also affect the other communities. Today, the Hindu code, for example, favors men when inheriting; this advantage could disappear, which would be difficult for the government to manage. The Law Commission has launched a public consultation on this reform, it has already received 850,000 responses in two weeks. The issue should be addressed during the next session of parliament which begins in three weeks, and the debate promises to be intense.