Small Indian state passes landmark 'civil code' opposed by Muslims

Lawmakers in a small Indian state ruled by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Wednesday approved landmark legislation to unify personal laws across religions, a moved opposed by many minority Muslims. Approval by the Himalayan state of Uttarakhand makes it the first in the country after independence from Britain to implement a Uniform Civil Code, a contentious decades-old BJP promise, months before national elections.

Lawmakers in a small Indian state ruled by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Wednesday approved landmark legislation to unify personal laws across religions, a moved opposed by many minority Muslims.

Approval by the Himalayan state of Uttarakhand makes it the first in the country after independence from Britain to implement a Uniform Civil Code, a contentious decades-old BJP promise, months before national elections. The move, banning polygamy and other Muslim practices, is expected to pave the way for other BJP-ruled states to follow suit despite angry opposition from some leaders of India's 200-million strong Muslim minority.

"The Uniform Civil Code will give the right to equality to everyone without any discrimination... We must make history by clearing it," said Pushkar Singh Dhami, the chief minister of Uttarakhand state, just minutes before BJP lawmakers and some others voted in favour of the bill. A political aide to Dhami confirmed that the bill was passed through voice vote in the state assembly.

Passage of the code was swift as the BJP enjoys majority in Uttarakhand state legislative assembly. Rooted in the framework of the Indian Constitution, the code puts an end to religious interpretation of laws guiding marriage, divorce, maintenance, inheritance, adoption and succession.

Currently, India's Hindus, Muslims, Christians and other minority groups follow their own personal laws and customs, or an optional secular code for marriage, divorce, adoption and inheritance. A national civil code is one of the three core promises of the BJP and the only one that remains unfulfilled.

The other two were removing the autonomy of the only Muslim majority region of Jammu and Kashmir in 2019 and building a contested temple to Hindu deity Ram, replacing a centuries-old mosque razed by Hindu radicals in 1992.

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