On Preserving India’s Cultural Diversity and UCC – Strike a Fine Balance have a Just Civil Code

Source: This post on Preserving India’s Cultural Diversity and UCC has been created based on the article “Strike a fine balance, have a just civil code” published in “The Hindu” on 8^th February 2024.

UPSC Syllabus Topic: GS Paper 1 – Indian Society – Salient features of Indian Society, Diversity of India.

News: The article discusses how Indian civil laws and Constitution accommodate its cultural diversity. It also highlights the way forward for a UCC that is just.

A detailed article on the Uniform Civil Code (UCC) Debate can be read here.

Background:

On February 7, Uttarakhand passed the Uniform Civil Code. Additionally, the Law Commission of India has invited views and proposals from the public about the Uniform Civil Code (UCC).

How do Indian Civil Laws and Constitution Accommodate its Cultural Diversity?

1) Religious Personal Laws: Not just Muslims but even Hindus, Jains, Buddhists, Sikhs, Parsis, and Jews are governed by their own personal laws based on their religious identity.
For instance, even the reformed Hindu Marriage Act, 1955 insists on solemnisation of marriage, through saptapadi (seven steps around fire) and datta (invocation before fire).

2) Regional Differences in Application of Personal Laws: For instance, Kerala had abolished the Hindu Joint Family in 1975; Muslim marriage and divorces are registered in Bengal, Bihar, Odisha, Jharkhand under the 1876 law, and in Assam under 1935 law.

3) Right to Preserve Cultural Diversity: The fundamental right in Article 29(1) is dedicated exclusively to conserving the distinctive culture of all citizens.

4) Indian Model of Secularism: India decided not to adopt the French model of laïcité, which strictly prohibits bearing any religious outfit or marker in public and considers religion in public as a threat to the nation’s secular fabric.

However, according to the authors, India’s quest of preserving its multicultural diversity is sometimes antithetical with values such as secularism. State assistance to minority cultures has also been seen as ‘appeasement of minorities.’

Read More UPSC Topics-

What Should be The Way Forward for a Just UCC?

1) Ensure Multiculturalism: Law Commission must remember that for a diverse and multicultural polity such as India, the proposed UCC must represent India’s ‘mosaic model’ of multiculturalism.
Note: Mosaic Model describes a society in which cultural groups live and work together maintaining their unique heritages while being included in the larger fabric of society.

2) Removal of Discriminatory Personal Laws: Cultural diversity cannot justify continuation of unjust and discriminatory personal laws. Such provisions of the personal laws must go.

3) Bottom-Up Reform: Since each religious group has cultural autonomy, it is argued that the community should itself come forward to seek reforms by identifying the discriminatory and oppressive issues.

4) Prevent Threat Perception among Communities: When a community feels threatened in any way, community allegiance becomes much stronger. Therefore, the Law Commission should be accommodative and not contribute to the rise of reactive culturalism amongst different communities in India.

The Law Commission should strike a fine balance as it should aim to eliminate only those practices that do not meet the benchmarks set by the Constitution.

Question for practice:

How do Indian civil laws and Constitution accommodate its cultural diversity? What should be the way forward for enacting a suitable UCC in this context?