The Politics of Personal Law in South Asia: Identity, Nationalism and the Uniform Civil Code

Partha Ghosh

2nd edn.

Routledge 2018, 1-293

pp. ISBN: 978-1-138-55165-7

Mohammad Umar

 

The politics around the Uniform Civil Code (UCC) has been simmering since the time the idea found its genesis in the text of the Constitution. Once the 21st Law Commission of India published its consultation paper in 2018 and submitted that UCC is ‘neither feasible nor desirable’ in India, it was expected that the rationale of the submission would be respected. However, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) which politically leads the Hindutva ideology in India since 2014 had to review the submission and hence the issue of UCC is presently being examined afresh by the 22nd Law Commission of India. The fundamental thrust on the issue is not for attaining legal expediency or creating a gender-just society but for advancing the political goals that helped the party gain electoral victory in India.