Legal pluralism in islamic period in india
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LAW AND CULTURAL PLURALISM India's family laws, also called personal or customary laws, govern features of family life such as marriage, separation, divorce and its consequences, maintenance for children and other dependents, inheritance, adoption, and guardianship. Independent India retained many aspects of the plural family law system of the British colonial period as a means of cultural accommodation within its multicultural society, especially concerning the accommodation of Muslims. Different family laws govern India's major religious groups—Hindus, Muslims, Christians, Parsis, and Jews—as well as many tribal peoples. Hindu family law also governs those who follow religions of South Asian origin, such as Sikhism and Jainism.
Indian legal pluralism is in tension with the secular commitments of the Indian state, and with the constitutional aim to promote gender equality as the various family law systems uphold unequal gender relations. India's political elite attempted to resolve these tensions in the first decade after independence, through the partial homogenization and reform of Hindu law, the introduction of optional marriage laws in a Special Marriage Act and a constitutional commitment to introduce a uniform civil code to govern all Indians. These policy choices restricted the state's social engineering, however, to Hindu law. They appeared likely to limit efforts to promote gender equality through legal change, particularly through changes in the laws governing the religious minorities as such changes were supposedly left to the initiative of unspecified representatives of these groups, who in practice were often conservative religious and political elites. The price of Indian legal pluralism reflects the problems seen in most multicultural arrangements, in which laws justified in terms of enabling cultural pluralism do not necessarily reflect group norms or practices. The scope for legal change is limited even if citizens demand changes in gender-biased group laws.
Indian legal pluralism is in tension with the secular commitments of the Indian state, and with the constitutional aim to promote gender equality as the various family law systems uphold unequal gender relations. India's political elite attempted to resolve these tensions in the first decade after independence, through the partial homogenization and reform of Hindu law, the introduction of optional marriage laws in a Special Marriage Act and a constitutional commitment to introduce a uniform civil code to govern all Indians. These policy choices restricted the state's social engineering, however, to Hindu law. They appeared likely to limit efforts to promote gender equality through legal change, particularly through changes in the laws governing the religious minorities as such changes were supposedly left to the initiative of unspecified representatives of these groups, who in practice were often conservative religious and political elites. The price of Indian legal pluralism reflects the problems seen in most multicultural arrangements, in which laws justified in terms of enabling cultural pluralism do not necessarily reflect group norms or practices. The scope for legal change is limited even if citizens demand changes in gender-biased group laws.
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