This article was first published in the print edition of Manushi Journal. (Issue-77, Jul-Aug 1993)
One of the most contentious political issues facing us today is the issue of uniform civil code versus personal laws of various minority communities in India. The bitter polarisation of opinion around this question has played a big role in worsening relations between various communities in the country, especially
between the Hindus and the Muslims.
The government policy on this issue has always been at best confused. Based as it has been on narrow and shortsighted electoral considerations, it appears to the majority community as proof of dangerous appeasement of the minorities, and therefore, has come to be aggressively resented. In its attempt to placate sometimes one and sometimes another vote bank, the issue of a uniform civil code has been grievously mishandled by successive governments, thus sharpening the divide between the Hindus and the Muslims…