Era Gujaria Khatana, LL.B Hons, University Institute of Law and Management Studies
ABSTRACT
The newly independent Republic of India was faced with the formidable task of finding a balance between liberal & modern ideas of democracy with the enormous cultural, religious, linguistic and ethnic diversity found within in its boundaries. To that end, a Uniform Civil Code was proposed and was endorsed by the likes of Ambedkar and Nehru, as a ‘cornerstone of modernity ’and an indispensable tool to secularisation and national integration, touted as the ultimate tool to achieve gender, caste and religious parity. However, instead of implementing this code, the constitution makers, chose to provide special status and safeguards based on language, religion and culture as way to ease assimilation of cultures and allay the fears of minorities. While religious liberties were given the status of ‘Fundamental Rights ’the proposed provision for a Uniform civil code was relegated to the role of a ‘Directive Principle of State Policy’, meant to be implemented at a later date by a future government. Despite the fact that multicultural societies with such legal pluralism tend to lead to the violation of individual rights and often create impediments to policy change and restrict progress, the constitution makers accorded the religious personal freedoms the status of fundamental rights, opting to create its own peculiar brand of secularism. This essay seeks to examine the rationale behind this decision, in a country that set out to be democratic and equal. To understand that one must look at the history of Uniform civil code and the debates surrounding its non implementation and what the term ‘secularism’ has come to mean in the Indian context, as envisioned by the constitution makers.
