--- On Thu, 25/6/09, Pranesh Prakash <[email protected]> wrote:
> From: Pranesh Prakash <[email protected]>
> Subject: Re: [silk] BJP pulling wool over our eyes?
> To: [email protected]
> Date: Thursday, 25 June, 2009, 5:17 PM
> I'm writing this in a hurry, so
> please pardon the lack of clarity, etc.
>
> On Thu, Jun 25, 2009 at 16:57, Kiran K Karthikeyan
> <[email protected]>
> wrote:
> [...]
> > The most disturbing fact is that most Muslim countries
> have moved beyond
> > age-old Shariah laws, including Pakistan but in India
> we still rely on a law
> > formulated in the 1930s.
> [...]
>
> While on paper it will seem like the Brits didn't interfere
> with
> 'Indian' personal laws,[1] that is not true at all.
> They in fact
> consolidated Hindu and Muslim identities, hence in the
> process
> deciding what is appropriate law for Hindus and
> Muslims. Customary
> law, while still given recognition, slowly becomes an
> exception rather
> than the rule which it was earlier. It also forces
> people to choose
> identities. Communities in which mixtures of Islamic
> and Hindu laws
> were followed were pigeonholed into one or the other based
> on what was
> perceived as their 'dominant' identity as chosen by the
> administration/courts.
>
> > In the end the argument is quite clear. If Muslim
> > countries can reform Muslim Personal Law, and if
> western democracies have
> > fully secular systems, then why are Indian Muslims
> living under laws passed
> > in the 1930s?>
>
> To quote Noorani again,
> "None can deny the fact that the Muslim law on marriage and
> divorce,
> as in force in India -- the Anglo-Muhammadan law --
> violates the
> rights enjoyed by women in Islamic law" (Muslims in India
> by
> A.G.Noorani, 2003, page 16).
>
> [1] Incorporating Sharia into legal systems,
> http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/7235357.stm
Usman,
I wish you could comment on this.
IG
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