India: Sharia Law Questioned AG Noorani

In an article “Hindutva’s stick” AG Noorani wrote a lot of fascinating things about Indian Personal Laws,  and I am focusing on the Sharia aspect of it, as I had written similar sentences in another article, both are presented here.

“The real issue is not the civil code. It is reform of Muslim Personal Law, which flagrantly violates the Sharia, the law ordained by the Quran. The perverted law now in force is oppressive to women, specifically the arbitrary triple divorce and polygamy. It is not Sharia that is followed in this but the “Anglo-Muhammadan” law of British times. The All India Muslim Personal Law Board is in the grip of dinosaurs. A besieged community is a conservative community. It clings to what is left of its identity. Since Independence, the Muslim community has been exploited either by the “sarkari musalman” who acts as adalal (agent) between the state and the country’s Muslims, the quintessential Uncle Tom, or the reactionaries who control the board or the bogus secularism of some “secular” parties.”

Jawaharlal Nehru had to wage a battle within his own party, the Congress, against Hindu communalists. Muslims witnessed his helplessness, suffered in the never-ending riots, saw the erosion of constitutional safeguards and the attacks on Urdu, and faced the wrath of the rising forces of Hindutva. They withdrew into their own suffocating shell. The nation is poorer for that.

The issue, then, is the reform of Muslim Personal Law. Pressures for its abrogation by the uniform civil code retard the progress for reform. Professor J.N.D. Anderson noted: “It is the family law that has always represented the very heart of the shariah, for it is the part of the law that is regarded by Muslims as entering into the very warp and woof of their religion.” It has been “basic to Islamic society down the centuries”. This was why in 1931 the Congress Working Committee declared that “personal laws shall be protected by specific provisions to be embodied in the Constitution”. Nehru assured Mohammad Ali Jinnah, in a letter dated April 6, 1938, that the Congress had “declared that it does not wish to interfere in any way with the personal law of any community”. Law Minister G.S. Pathak said in the Lok Sabha on May 17, 1966, that “personal laws are mixed up with religion” and that “we cannot coerce people to accept our views about their religion and customs”. Earlier, a similar assurance was given in the Lok Sabha by Law Minister A.K. Sen on August 29, 1963.”

The full article is at: http://mikeghouseforindia.blogspot.com/2015/11/hindutvas-stick-against-muslims.html

My note as preface to the article Muslim women facing arbitrary divorce at http://sharialaws.blogspot.com/2015/10/muslim-women-facing-arbitrary-divorce.html

There is God's (Quranic) Sharia which is just and equitable, and there is man's sharia which is selfish and cruel.

In case of a divorce, the Quranic Sharia calls for separation for at least three months, while making efforts to reconcile the differences, if reconciliation is not possible then comes the divorce, where the man takes full responsibility for child support and alimony if the woman has no other source of income.God's law is common sense. (Genesis of Sharia Law)

However, what Muslims have been practicing is Man's (Male's) Sharia, believing that it is the divine law, and it is not. It is misogynistic and does not care about woman. The guy can say the word divorce three times, and the life that was built over a life time can be done away in a minute. Women constantly live in the fear of this ugly pronouncement and it is not acceptable. No human should live in apprehension, particularly the married women in a society where the are dependent.

This has got to go, unless we are just to fellow beings, our spiritual growth is incomplete. Being just amounts to being Godly or being spiritual or achieving Taqwa.

Thanks God for giving courage to Muslim women in India to take the bold step of calling to get rid of this ungodly law.
Dr. Mike Ghouse is a community consultant, social scientist, thinker, writer and a speaker on Pluralism, Interfaith, Islam, politics, human rights, foreign policy and building cohesive societies. Mike offers pluralistic solutions on issues of the day. More about him in 63 links at www.MikeGhouse.net and his writings are at TheGhousediary.com