A country should have set of laws for all its citizens. It is an irony, that in India different personal laws apply to different religions. Hindus (which also includes Sikhs, Buddhists and Jains) have their own set of personal laws. Christians have their own, Parsis have their own. The silver lining is that the difference between Hindu, Christian and Parsi laws is little. What I mean here is that if Hindu law code is applied on Christians, their lives would change very little or vice-versa. And the Hindu, Christian, Parsi laws are modern and secular to a great extent.

BUT, the same doesn’t apply to Muslims. If, say any secular law code is imposed on Muslims, the life of Muslims would change greatly. That’s the main reason why many Muslims are opposing Uniform Civil Code (UCC).

“THE MUSLIM PERSONAL LAW (SHARIAT) APPLICATION ACT, 1937” mandates all Muslims be governed by Shariat. The law was enacted by British, it is tough to say their intention behind this, but the law is in force today.

BUT, we all know majority of Indian Muslims are converts from Hindus. Even after adopting Islam, the Muslims kept themselves governed by Hindu traditions and Hindu personal laws. Though they started offering Namaz instead of Puja, they did not forget their roots.

BUT, in 1973, Mrs. Indira Gandhi created the All India Muslim Personal Law Board(AIMPLB). The AIMPLB, from the beginning is filled with radical Mullahs, Muftis and Maulvis. And they have always devised ways to ensure that Muslims in India start following Shariat more and more and dump their ancestors’ Hindu traditions. It is no surprise to see more and more Muslim women wear burqas now a days than 50 years back. Earlier they used to put on Indian dresses.

Lets understand what AIMPLB has done to move Indian Muslims away from Indian traditions and adopt Shariat and there by Islamizing India.

  1. AIMPLB plays a role in appointing Imams across major mosques all throughout India. The Imams convince common Muslims to move to Shariat, and more importantly they make them break the link the Muslims have with their Hindu ancestors.
  2. By having mostly Maulanas(not members of Muslim civic society like doctors, professors etc.) in the executive body, the thought of AIMPLB has become very radical.
  3. AIMPLB has played a major role in propagation of Urdu language in India across Muslims.
  4. AIMPLB rarely has any women members, thereby the issues of Muslim women are never considered.
  5. The AIMPLB focuses primarily to defend the Sharia laws from any law or legislation that they consider infringes on it. In this role it has objected to any change in the Divorce Laws for Muslim women.
  6. The AIMPLB has also objected to the Right of Children for Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009 as they believe it will infringe on the Madrasa System of Education.
  7. It has also supported child marriage and opposes the Child Marriage Restraint Act.
  8. It has been establishing Shariat courts across the country to ensure that any dispute resolution related to civil matters (like marriage, divorce, inheritance etc.) are resolved on lines of Shariat.
  9. If these were not enough, AIMPLB has vociferously argued in courts at all levels for upholding Shariat practices like triple talaq, nikah halala and polygamy etc.

All these steps since last several decades have Islamized the Indian Muslims.

Hence, AIMPLB is the biggest stumbling block for implementation of UCC and one of the biggest mistakes of Mrs. Indira Gandhi. Hence, I doubt if UCC can ever be achieved in India without abolishing the AIMPLB.

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