What is the “secular civil code” project that worries religious minorities?
The Prime Minister of India took advantage of a speech during the National Day commemorating the country’s independence, this Thursday, August 15, to reiterate his desire to set up a “secular civil code” nationwide. “The civil code we have is a community civil code, supports Narendra Modi. It is based on discrimination.” While this proposal appears to be an egalitarian project in a country where there are great legal disparities between communities, it worries the country’s religious minorities and progressive forces, in the name of religious freedom.
“This is unacceptable for Muslims, who will never compromise with Sharia law.”denounced the Indian Council of Muslim Personal Law, an organization that monitors the application of sharia law in India, where Muslims represent more than 14% of the population. Christians (2% of the country’s population) are also expressing their concern. In 2016, Cardinal George Alencherry, major archbishop of the Syro-Malabar Church, feared that this standardization of law would result in “the imposition of Hindu values on the whole society.” More recently, the Federation of Catholic Associations of the Archdiocese of Delhi recalled that a nation “united” does not necessarily have to be ” uniform “.
Revolution in the functioning of Indian law
Today, criminal law applies to all citizens, but the rules governing marriage, divorce, inheritance, guardianship or adoption are governed by religious or tribal communities. Hindus, Muslims, Christians, Parsis, but also the many tribes have their own rules and customs in these matters. A particularity that dates back to British colonization.
Narendra Modi’s party, the BJP, has been promoting the idea of standardizing these private rights for more than ten years. It is one of the three main demands of the nationalist party, alongside the construction of the Ram temple in Ayodhya, completed last January, as well as the withdrawal of autonomy from the Kashmir region, enacted at the end of 2023. The BJP’s political project is to assert the cultural primacy of Hinduism in India. Christians and Muslims are considered “reports suspected of double loyalty because they look towards Mecca and Rome”explained researcher Christophe Jaffrelot to La Croix last April.
Making India legally more Hindu
Why is Narendra Modi bringing up this project again on the day commemorating the country’s independence? It is a way for the Prime Minister to reaffirm his desire to implement the BJP’s program to his political allies. Indeed, the BJP only obtained a relative majority in the last elections in June 2024. Narendra Modi, in power since 2014, is at the head of a coalition of 29 political parties ranging from the center-right to the far-right.
The “secular civil code” is already being implemented in some Indian states that have been ruled by the BJP for several years. The state of Uttarakhand adopted a single codification in February 2024. This is heavily inspired by Hindu rules and marginalizes Muslim rules, prohibiting polygamy, raising the legal age of marriage, ensuring equal rights for men and women in inheritance, and regulating relationships between people living in the same household. For example, the law provides for prison sentences or fines for people who do not inform the authorities within a month of the start of a cohabitation relationship.
In the official speeches of the BJP, the standardization of law is a way to make the country more egalitarian between religions. However, according to religious minorities, this project aims to deprive them of their own laws. A revolution all the more important since India has built itself as a secular nation without a state religion, unlike Bangladesh or Pakistan.
