The Catch-22 Dilemma of AIMPLB : July 7 actions of the judge, are a declaration of war directly on All India Muslim Personal Law Board
Do we allow a perverted and corrupt body to allow for the slaughter of an entire community as the wrecking ball comes to destroy their power?
By Rushda Siddiqui New Delhi
A ball has been set in motion. This time it is a wrecking ball, targeting the destruction of the All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB). On July 7 a High Court judge, set the ball rolling by instructing the Ministry of Law & Justice, Government of India, to start the process for drafting a Uniform Civil Code. The legal jargon has been released, and with every coming election the possibility of the UCC becoming a reality will gain strength and momentum. From the end of the month till 2024, the world will see debates, political promises, violence, rhetoric being repeated and most importantly, a bill being framed that will work towards fragmenting the social fabric of the country even further.
Briefly, the Uniform Civil Code was and is a weapon used effectively to prove that the only set of people who are not ‘homogenous’ in the country, are Muslims. There are three main religions that are in the battlefield of the Personal Laws (Hindu, Muslim and Christian), while the other religions have been absorbed in the religion of the majority.
Framed from the 1860s, these laws are a legacy of the British. It is important to remembered that the laws were not framed at one go. They underwent a series of interpretations depending on the cases that were brought to courts for justice. Not going into the details of each case that were responsible for interpretation of each law, one can safely say that by the early 1900s, nearly all personal laws had been framed and documented.
The British left behind a legacy of Muslim Personal Laws in nearly all their colonies. These were mostly a compilation of their interpretation of the Sharia. This is not to say that the Muslims did not have a hand in the framing of the laws. Clergy, scholars and jurists were consulted while the laws were being framed. In India, since 1937, all questions regarding Muslims were settled according to the MPL. When the Constitution of India was framed after independence, and the realization of the identity of the minorities needing protection arose, the solution was found in retaining the Personal Laws.
Since then, the MPL has been a double edged sword for the Muslims. It makes the Muslims exclusive, more so after partition. The argument that if Muslims wanted their own laws, they should have left India, is an important co of Hindutva. Over decades, while there was acceptance of criminal laws being common for all Indians, the issue of civil laws remained. It is a Catch-22 situation.
If Muslims accept common civil laws, they lose their unique identity of being a unique social group. If they don’t, they are the reason for a non-homogenous social order in the country. Over the years, as the majoritarian socio-political forces have grown, so has the resentment towards the minorities having their own social and civil laws.
At no point should one forget the political capital that personal or civil laws provide. It has been a moot point in the power struggle between the right and the left and the centrists. The issue of who plays God, or whose ideology is perfect for society, and who can make the most perfect civil laws for all society, lies at the root of all conflict.
The power plays continue and are likely to continue for some time. Only, in the case of India, with the BJP government firmly entrenched at the center, the chances of the Muslims being the biggest losers with the establishment of a UCC, rise exponentially over the next five years. For Hindutva, the establishment of a Hindu Rashtra will come with the physical annihilation of the opposition, be they Marxists or Muslims or even the less than one percent Christians or Sikhs. Scrapping laws, constitutional safeguards or provisions, will not be an impediment, rather they will be tools to prosecute and persecute. Most of the power of the current government, as is being documented, is anyways coming from ‘extra-constitutional laws’ and processes. An Ordinance can be made into a bill that can turned into an Act in six months.
This brings us back to the question of how the Muslims need to share the blame for their own identity being wiped out. We can go in history and argue that with the coming of the British, the exclusion of Muslims as a community was a state policy that resulted in Muslims being uneducated, ghettoized, powerless over their destiny. The political and economic insecurity led them to accept whatever official interpretation of their religion was handed down to them. During decolonization, the political and economic class that could have controlled the rot and started a movement for re-interpretation of the social laws, chose physical safety and the creation of a separate land for Muslims.
However, the largest blame lies not with the section that opted for Pakistan, but the political and social influencers that remained. Consolidating themselves to form the All India Muslim Personal Law Board in 1972, the group of clerics, scholars, lawyers, politicians and other professionals, the body quickly filled the vacuum left behind by the migration of the social and political leadership from the country.
The July 7 actions of the judge, are a declaration of war directly on this body. The BJP as well as the Judge know that the AIMPLB will be unable to defend the MPL as they do not have support from the community or from the country’s liberals.
Across the world, when Muslims are working towards re-interpretating Sharias or opting for international laws designed in bodies like the UN, AIMPLB has been focusing on retaining the historic and archaic interpretations in the MPL. During the Shah Bano case, the Supreme Court clearly brought out the redundancy factor of old interpretation. It was the beginning of showcasing the misogyny and patriarchy of the board. Instead of accepting the problem and working towards resolving a crisis, AIMPLB worked towards reversing the court decision and asserting their political strength as being the sole representative of Muslims in the country.
Post Shah Bano, the shallowness of the board as being a reformist body of intellectuals who could guide the community to modernity and progress, kept resurfacing. It is interesting and tragic at the same time that the subject the board chose to repress to make a stepping stone for their power play, are the most powerless sections of the community, ie., women and children. It is taking away their rights, allowing them to patronize customs that are regressive, and making no conscious effort to take the community towards education and science, the board is harming the community more than it understands.
I will take two examples here to make my point. The first relates to the property rights of women. The Sharia that the MPL is based on, gives them a quarter of the male share. The male can be any male with a relation to the family. So, a woman can find herself being deprived of her economic rights by her cousins, own siblings, children of cousins.
Worse, she finds it difficult to leave the legacy of what she got from her husband, or even her mehr to her daughter, or any woman she chooses. The Quran simply states, give them a fair share. By not revising the interpretation of both the Sharia and the Quran, the board is making it difficult for women to safeguard their economic status. As a result, the security that should have been provided to them by their own community and custodians of their personal laws, is now being provided by criminal courts of the country.
The economic strength of women can make or break a community was recognized by the Quran, and reiterated by various Hadiths and Sharias. Not allowing women to own a fair share, not safeguarding their rights, and allowing malpractices like dowry by not taking a stand against it, the board is proving to be a body that revels in disempowering, dishonouring and repressing women.
The second case that needs to be understood, is of adoption. An interpretation of the economic and social rights of adopted children, as understood by the Sharia, can always be re-negotiated.
The AIMPLB however, does not let the issue reach the level of re-interpreting the laws. The question first arose in 2002, and is arising again today when children are losing parents to a pandemic or other issues. When the issue of foster care for children is being formulated by Child Rights Commissions, they are at sea about what to do with Muslims. The issue is trusting the community with looking after its own, let alone others, should be worrisome to anyone who follows Islam.
The board squarely blames women for the predicament. It does not talk about adoption or kafala to girls, just to boys, who would be thrown out of the household as soon as they are 18, becasue their relation with their foster mother or adopting mother will be na-mahram. Sexualizing motherhood and making it into a perverted relationship as soon as a boy grows up, is shameful.
AIMPLB wears it as a badge of pride. It is the women who will seduce, it is the women who cannot be trusted with an adult male, it is the women because of whom the Sharia needs to be interpreted the way it is.
Should the women be thankful that the board does not deal with the adoption of the child, or should they curse the board for wanting to lower the marriage age of girls? The aggressive patriarchy of the board is harming the future generations in more ways than can be imagined.
Unfortunately, the board does not understand that every time it defends regressive and patriarchal stands or quashes the ideas of education and reform, it is eroding its own power. A section of the left or liberals, who have the capacity to safeguard the identity of the Muslims, will refuse to be allies with the chauvinistic body. They will however, unhesitatingly support the women and the poor who are fighting both the Hindutva ideology and the patriarchy of “Islam”.
The women who led the anti-CAA protests were unequivocal with the condemnation of the mindsets that the AIMPLB seeks to defend. They rose from nowhere to let the world know that “custodians of Islam” are not the chauvinistic male body that is dogmatic and defunct. Over the years students, and Muslims who have received scientific education, have learnt how to defend their identity as Muslims. They have learnt how to practice Islam and render corrupt patriarchal bodies like AIMPLB as invalid. The problem lies with the clout the board has with the Hindutva bodies, the government and political leaderships. It is a question every Muslim in our country will need to decide: Do we allow a perverted and corrupt body to allow for the slaughter of an entire community as the wrecking ball comes to destroy their power? Or do we work with our community to seek time and work towards redefining our personal laws. In either case, we need to acknowledge that change is inevitable. How we shape the change is up to us.
(The writer is a social science researcher and executive member of the National Federation of Indian Women, New Delhi. Views are personal)
(www.siyasat.net is Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India based Website, powered by Gujarat siyasat, a Fortnightly)
An Appeal For The Sake Of Upright & Fearless Brand Of Journalism
To sustain and improve our coverage. Gujarat siyasat- a vernacular Fortnightly and English٫ Hindi Website www.siyasat.net
Your little but timely support is needed۔
Bank details، GUJARAT SIYASAT, Current Account 204720110000318, ifsc code BKID0002047 BANK OF INDIA , VASNA BRANCH, AHMEDABAD GUJARAT INDIA
Also on Phone pay, Paytm,Google pay +91 9925531111
We hope you help and see siyasat.net grow. And rejoice that your contribution has made it possible.
सत्य को ज़िंदा रखने की इस मुहिम में आपका सहयोग बेहद ज़रूरी है। आपसे मिली सहयोग राशि हमारे लिए संजीवनी का कार्य करेगी और हमे इस मार्ग पर निरंतर चलने के लिए प्रेरित करेगी। याद रखिये ! सत्य विचलित हो सकता है पराजित नहीं।
Regards,
Siyaasat dot net team, Ahmedabad,
Gujarat, India
