#indian mandir for home

[divinewoodncrafts1]

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[preetfurniture]

https://preetfurniture.com.au/

[o-daintyduck]

He's back

[silpihandicrafts]

Elegant custom mandirs and traditional decor, available at plano store!

DIYAS FOR DIWALI!! come to our store to see everything from small cute diyas to large standing diyas. Handmade high-quality pieces, limited stock! Come pick up your favorite brass diyas before they run out!

[theartvedas]

Greetings for the festival of colors!... HAPPY HOLI.!

May this festival fill your lives with all the bright & beautiful colors!

Explore @theartvedas for handcrafted, one of a kind art pieces that will upgrade your ambience with unique touch!

[samarthcrafts]

Buy New Arrival Furniture online at Samarth Crafts.

Call at - 098711 85284

Visit - https://samarthcrafts.com/

[shehzadi]

so far, nearly 3 weeks on from the inauguration of ram mandir, indian authorities have demolished as many masjids and/or madrasas.

30.01.24 - akhoonji masjid & madrasa in delhi, also destroying a cemetery, shrine and all the students’ belongings in the process.

01.02.24 - a madrasa in maharashtra despite facing opposition from local muslims and one day before its scheduled court appeal.

08.02.24 - a masjid & madrasa in uttarakhand. this comes one day after uttarakhand became the first state to pass the uniform civil code (x, x) which aims to apply a ‘hindu code’ to all indians, infringing on the rights of dalits, adivasis, sikhs, christians, buddhists and muslims (i.e. anybody non-hindu) to practice their religion/lifestyle. muslim women protesting the demolition were lathi-charged (beaten with sticks) by police, a shoot-on-sight order was given resulting in 6 muslims killed and 300+ injured in the riots that followed, a curfew was put in place during which hindutva mobs burned down muslim homes and businesses while shouting abuse at muslims.

as always, no prior notice was given and bjp used it’s gold-standard excuse for each demolition, citing ‘illegal encroachment’.

in addition to these masjid demolitions, indian authorities bulldozed 2 neighbourhoods (ghettos, really) in the same timeframe and also without prior notice:

01.02.24 - jasola slum, which, having been around for at least 16 years, should not have been demolished without providing alternative housing, as the delhi slum policy states for slums which came up before 2015. obviously, housing hasn’t been provided.

06.02.24 - panchsheel nagar in mumbai which, having been around since 2011, entitled residents to paid rehabilitation, which has also not been given. this has left over 110 families homeless.

the demographic of both neighbourhoods, surprise surprise, is overwhelmingly muslim, buddhist and dalit.

bjp is enjoying the cover it is receiving from israel’s genocide in palestine to do whatever it wants and is getting bolder by the day. this ‘bulldozer justice’ has been happening for years, but not at such a rapid rate as it is now.

[ultfreakme]

Freeing Palestine is India's fight

I've seen lots of posts about how Western countries and their populations should be concerned for stopping the genocide in Palestine but Indians are involved in this as well.

India has a HUGE Islamophobia problem, from the day India became what it is, this country exists the way it does through conflict regarding religious majorities and it is a problem we must acknowledge.

Collective punishment has often been carried out indiscriminately against Muslims in India- Muslim people's houses in Madhya Pradesh have been demolished without warning. This has also happened in Uttar Pradesh and in 2023, Haryana(300 businesses and homes). These were all normal innocent civilians who had proper legal paperwork showing their purchase and ownership of their home and land, but the police did not care. In many of these instances the police stood by and were involved in demolition and all of these were under BJP-majority and ruled areas. The recent Ram Mandir was built on the demolished land of Babri Masjid(it was built in the 14th century before India as it was even a THING, its destruction & demolition on the claim that it was Ram's birth place is unfair). Hate crimes against Muslims run amok and there are multiple cases of violence against Muslims in India.

PM Modi of the BJP party has been consistent in maintaining positive relations with Benjamin Netanyahu and the occupying force of Israel. A majority of the military equipment for India comes from Israel, and India has constantly been neutral in UN council meetings when decisions regarding Israel are brought up. A spyware called Pegasus, developed by the occupying force of Israel was used to surveil politicians, journalists, activists etc severely breaching right to privacy and threatening freedom of speech.

Worse; India has been using the Israeli strategy of colonizing Palestine with Kashmir. Jammu & Kashmir is a union territory which basically means they are allowed to function independently on most fronts but India has been seeking to integrate J&K into itself and has been extremely hostile to its Muslim citizens and are currently intensifying their occupation efforts. There have been consistent internet and communication blackouts since 2018 and it is STILL ongoing.

India invited Israeli officials to Kashmir to open 'Centers of Excellence' which are supposedly for agricultural innovation but everyone in J&K are concerned and see it as India taking an opportunity to intensify its occupation with Israeli help.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, several Kashmiris told Middle East Eye the Israeli agriculture hubs would deepen India's occupation in the region and accelerate its settler-colonial project. "Earlier, we would draw the parallels between Kashmir and Palestine or India's intimate alliance with Israel. But now they are bringing Israel to the Valley in the form of these institutions - which will be "agro-oriented" in name - but we all know that Israel will physically help India in Kashmir to turn it into a proper Palestine," a Kashmiri academic based in Istanbul told Middle East Eye.

In 2016 Coalition of Civil Society said there are more than 8000 'disappearances' of people in J&K. There are mass graves with over 2000 bodies being found with these unlawful activities being attributed to the Indian Security Forces. That's just scratching the surface of decades of violence and human rights violations enacted by India.

BJP is not shy about its ties to the RSS and promotes Hindutva(I've seen people citing the literal meaning of the word as evidence that it is harmless but the word is a label given to an embraced by extreme right-wing groups who are open about their Islamaphobia. Meaning of the word becomes pointless when actions speak otherwise).

India is an occupying force on J&K, it's suppressing Muslims, demonizing them and further marginalizing them in the name of 'Hinduism'. It buys from Israel and endorses them. As Indians, it is key that we do whatever we can to stop the genocide because we are unwittingly being used to fuel this and are being radicalized to hate on our neighbors, the people we share our land and history with.

Even outside of the ways in which the current government is shamelessly supporting Israel, India's history is rife with colonization. The British had occupied us, forced us into fighting each other, into prioritizing meaningless differences to suppress each other. We were once starved by occupying forces, violated, killed. Our land is also covered in blood shed by colonization.

What are we doing if we don't speak up? If we don't stop this? Do not follow the propaganda conflating extreme right-wing ideologies with the identity of being Indian. Don't buy into the idea that India is "for Hindus", we are so ridiculously diverse, there are 100s of languages and religions in this country.

Free Jammu & Kashmir, free Palestine, stop Islamophobia.

[ome-magical-ramblings]

(Unexpected) Meeting Angalaparameshwari!

Don't Worry! I am not changing this blog to a Hindu/Eastern focused blog! LOL

Had to get that out of the way lol, but yeah in amazing turn of events and if people know from my old posts that I do/did work with ganesha on multiple occasions in the past. I mean I currently have a permanent place for Ganesha beside in a separate altar to my other atlars. A dream of Ganesha lead to me finding a south indian guy on marketplace who was offering his Home Mandir/Puja altar for sale and I decided hmm that might be a good thing to buy! When I went there I was mind-blown by the energy of the house and the house's altar I felt drawn to it! I was even grateful to be allowed to take picture of that house altar and meet the kula devata/ancestral tutelary deva of that family, Angalaparameshwari. The whole interaction felt orchestrated and I didn't expect the gods would play hands into leading me to find this person, find Angala devi and seeing her, getting that shelf, and I couldn't put my finger on it except that Ganesha definitely pulled some strings to make this happen! I don't know the ramifications of this blessed meeting but I feel like there's an aspect of work where even the gods help us when we offer them the respect and place in our life for them and not treat them like tulpas or imaginary friends. I am still mind blown and grateful for this sudden random event I was thrust into and of the vision of the goddess.

I acquired the small altar shelf and was overall grateful for the darshan of Angala Devi! I didn't figure out how to properly use it until I use it as my jesus altar! I don't know if this is cultural appropriation but I found the altar to be in the perfect spot and it just "clicked" in spot with all other altars I have! I am definitely grateful for this incidents!

Who has a Curved Trunk, Large Body, and Who has the Brilliance of a Million Suns, O Lord, Please make all my Works, free of Obstacles, always.

[beardedmrbean]

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has inaugurated a grand temple to Hindu god Ram in the flashpoint city of Ayodhya.

He said it heralded "a new era" for India - the temple replaces a 16th-Century mosque torn down by Hindu mobs in 1992, sparking riots in which nearly 2,000 people died.

Top film stars and cricketers were among guests at the event in Ayodhya.

But some Hindu seers and most of the opposition boycotted it, saying Mr Modi was using it for political gain.

General elections are due in India in the next few months and Mr Modi's political rivals say the governing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will be seeking votes in the temple's name in a country where 80% of the population is Hindu.

Critics have also accused the government of exploiting a religious celebration in a country which - according to its constitution - is secular. For Muslims, India's biggest minority, the event evoked fear and painful memories, members of the community in Ayodhya told the BBC in the run-up to Monday's ceremony.

Televised live, it showed Mr Modi performing religious rituals inside the temple's sanctum along with priests and Mohan Bhagwat, head of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) - the ideological fountainhead of Hindu nationalist parties.

The complex history of India's Ayodhya holy site

Transforming a flashpoint holy city into the ‘Hindu Vatican’

"Today's date will go down in history," Mr Modi said after the event. "After years of struggle and countless sacrifices, Lord Ram has arrived [home]. I want to congratulate every citizen of the country on this historic occasion."

The temple has been constructed at a cost of $217m (£170m), funded from private donations. Only the ground floor was opened - the rest is expected to be completed by the end of the year. The construction work is part of a revamp for the city, estimated to cost more than $3bn.

The building of the Ram temple in Ayodhya fulfils a decades-long Hindu nationalist pledge. Many Hindus believe the Babri mosque was built by Muslim invaders on the ruins of a temple where the Hindu god was born.

The movement to build the temple helped propel the BJP into political prominence in the 1990s.

There was a festive atmosphere as tens of thousands of chanting Hindu devotees waved flags and beat drums - military helicopters showered flower petals on the temple. Saffron flags with pictures of Lord Ram line streets in the city festooned with marigolds, as do banners with the faces of Mr Modi and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.

Some of India's biggest celebrities, including Bollywood star Amitabh Bachchan and cricketer Sachin Tendulkar, attended.

Temple rises from ruins of one of India’s darkest days

Listen: The temple at the heart of Modi's India re-election bid

Transforming a flashpoint holy city into the ‘Hindu Vatican’

In many other northern cities Hindus lit lamps, and saffron flags carrying images of Ram are fluttering on rooftops, including in several parts of Delhi. Cinemas screened the event, and big screens relayed pictures from Ayodhya to town squares and residential neighbourhoods.

The ceremony, called Pran Pratishtha, which loosely translates from Sanskrit into "establishment of life force", lasted about an hour. Hindus believe that chanting mantras and performing rituals around a fire will infuse sacred life in an idol or a photograph of a deity.

Several domestic TV stations built huge sets by the side of the river Saryu, a tributary of the Ganges, just behind the temple, and provided wall-to-wall coverage of the event, some proclaiming the moment of consecration as the start of "Ram Rajya" (Lord Ram's rule) in India.

Hindus celebrated the inauguration in other countries too. Massive billboards of Lord Ram graced Times Square in New York, where a group of devotees braved the freezing weather to gather in the middle of the night.

Temples all across the United Kingdom - where Indians are one of the largest diaspora groups - marked the event. Colourful posters had been shared inviting devotees to honour the occasion and celebrations involved flowers, sweets and music. There were also some celebrations in Muslim-majority Dubai - where Indians are a significant population - but from Indian news reports these appeared more muted than elsewhere.

In 2019, the Supreme Court gave the disputed land to Hindus after a protracted legal battle followed the mosque's demolition. Muslims were given a plot outside the city for a mosque but have yet to build one.

One member of the community the BBC spoke to in Ayodhya ahead of Monday's inauguration agreed that Hindus have the right to build the temple after the Supreme Court gave them the site.

"We did not accept that decision happily, but what can we do," he said. Another man said he was happy Hindus are building the temple - "but we are also sad because it was built after destroying a mosque".

The new three-storey temple - made with pink sandstone and anchored by black granite - stretches across 7.2 acres in a 70-acre complex. A 51-inch (4.25-ft) statue of the deity, specially commissioned for the temple, was unveiled last week. The idol has been placed on a marble pedestal in the sanctum sanctorum.

Thousands of police were deployed for Monday's event, despite Mr Modi having appealed to pilgrims not to turn up and to watch the ceremony on television. In many states a full or half day holiday was called, with schools and colleges closed and stock markets shut.

The build-up to a demolition that shook India

The man who helped Lord Ram win the Ayodhya case

But a sour note was struck with some top religious seers saying that as the temple was not yet complete, it was against Hinduism to perform the rituals there, and many opposition leaders deciding to stay away.

Some opposition-ruled states also announced their own plans for the day - West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said she would pray at the iconic temple to goddess Kali in Kolkata and then lead an all-faith rally. The eastern state of Odisha (Orissa) unveiled huge plans to bring pilgrims to the Jagannath temple in Puri, one of the holiest sites for Hindus.

Authorities say they expect more than 150,000 visitors per day once the temple in Ayodhya is fully ready.

To accommodate this expected rush, new hotels are being built and existing ones spruced up as part of a major makeover and in recent weeks, a new airport and railway station have opened.

Officials say they are building a "world-class city where people come as pilgrims and tourists", but many local people have told the BBC that their homes, shops and "structures of religious nature" have been either completely or partially demolished to expand roads and set up other facilities.

[siyadigital3]

TOP 10 INTERIOR DESIGNER IN DELHI

INTERIOR DESIGNER IN DELHI

Interior Designer makes our homes creative, functionality and attractive. Interior Designer will create a space that helps you relaxed and feel calm. Interior Designer helps create luxury interiors for homes and comfortable working environments for corporate offices. Interior Designer have amazing capacity to establish wonderful settings. Transition of houses also helps  people to change their mindset.

HERE IS THE LIST OF TOP 10 INTERIOR DESIGNER IN DELHI:-

ANSA ARCHITECTURES

4 LOTUS INTERIOR

ADS ARCHITECTS

DECO ARTE

BLOSSOM

TWEAK INTERIOR

K2 INDIA

BEYOND DESIGNS

RAMA INTERIOR

THE ORANGE LANE

1.ANSA ARCHITECTURES

Ansa Architects is stand for beauty and perfection. It is mainly work on Residental, Commercial, Institutional and Healthcare. They have capacity to understand client choice and taste with respect.

Founder: Ankush Aggarwal and Sapna Aggarwal

Types of Built Projects: Residential, Commercial, Institutional, Healthcare Location: 12 Community Centre, 2nd Floor, Mayapuri Phase I, New Delhi-110 064, (India) Style of work: Creates designs that are detail-driven , inventive and given new dimensions to the art of interior designing.

Contact Number: (+91) 9810630334,(+91) 9811094353

Achivements:

Designing of texture paint at Wagah Border and Hussaini Wala Border, India.

Designing of DG Bar at Chawla Camp, Najafgarh, Delhi (India).

2. 4  LOTUS INTERIOR

 Founder: Rashid Ali

Types of Built Projects: Residential, Commercial Location: Plot No-57, W.h.s, A Block, 2nd Floor, Kirti Nagar Industrial Area, Timber Market, West Delhi, New Delhi, Delhi-110015

Contact Number:(+91)9811363064, (+91)9211123138 Style of work: We understand your desire and budget therefore we create a meaningful designs factual and convert thinks, ideas into real.

3.ADS ARCHITECTS

Founder: Vikrant Timbadiya 

Types of Built Projects: Residential, Commercial, Institutional Location: 414-Oberon, opp. Mercedes benz showroom, New City Light, Surat, Gujarat 395007 Style of work: Emphasis on incorporating minute technical details & aesthetic in each project.

Contact Number:(+91)9033718216,02613511005

4.DECO ARTE

Founder: Amardeep Gulri

Types of Built Projects: Residential, Commercial, Institutional, Hospitality Location:  E-204, East of Kailash Near Kailash Colony Metro Stn, New Delhi, Delhi 110065 Style of work: A collection motifs, forms, lines, curves, colours, and materials are used to create an abstract design.

Contact Number: 011-40513984, 011-45513948

5. BLOSSOM

Founder: Renu Mishra

Types of Built Projects: Residential, Commercial, Institutional Location: Plot No- 1214, 1st Floor Green Field Colony, Block B, Faridabad, Haryana-121003 Style of work: Strong believe that designs should be completely bespoke.

Contact Number: (+91)9717467976

6.TWEAK INTERIOR

Founder: Chaitali Keshari

Types of Built Projects: Residential, Commercial, Institutional Location: Block DD, Kalkaji Extension, Kalkaji, New Delhi, Delhi 110019 Style of work: 1 Year of Warranty, Customized Interiors, Delivery within 45 Days

Contact Number: (+91)9108551788

7. K2 INDIA

 Founder: Sunita kohli and Kohelika Kohli

Types of Built Projects: Heritage and contemporary designs Location: F-213/C, 3rd Floor, Lado Sarai, Old M.B. Road, New Delhi – 110 030 Style of work: Their work often reflects a blend of traditional Indian elements with modern sensibilities.

Contact Number:(+91)9650391250

8.BEYOND DESIGNS

Founder: Juliana Oliveira

Types of Built Projects: Residential, Commercial, Institutional Location:  A-1/28 W.H.S, Kirti Nagar, New Delhi, Delhi 110015 Style of work: Emphasis on detail designs and latest trends

Contact Number: (+91)9312074967

9. RAMA INTERIORS

Founder: Mr. Ram Kr. Sharma

Types of Built Projects: Residential, Commercial, Transportation Location: 19 Kailash Enclave, Pitampura near Sai Baba Mandir -110034 Style of work: Convert mere structure into spaces with a sense of artistry, practicality, and grace

Contact Number: (+91)8042782700

10.THE ORANGE LANE

Founder: Shabnam Gupta

Types of Built Projects: Eclectic and colorful interiors Location: 102, Shubham Co-op Housing Society Ltd, Juhu Versova Link Rd, Gharkul Society, Bharat Nagar, Versova, Andheri West, Mumbai - 400053 Style of work: brings a fresh and artistic flair to spaces, making them lively and inviting.

Contact Number: (+91)2231753530

WHY WE CHOOSE INTERIOR DESIGNER?

Expertise And Experience.

Save Time and Effort.

Access to Resources and Contacts.

Budget Management.

Personalised and Cohesive Design.

Increased Property Value.

Stress Reduction.

[shivanixrao]

━ INTRODUCING SHIVANI RAO

full name. Shivani Rao

nickname(s). Shivi, Vani, SV

age. 33

birthdate. November 16th 1990

occupation. Dance Instructor / Owner of Feel the Beat dance studio

currently living in. Midtown

gender. Cis Female

pronouns. She/Her

hometown. Mumbai, Maharashtra, India

length of time in Wilmington. Five Years

face claim. Kiara Advani

connections. // pinterest.

trigger warnings. none

BIOGRAPHY;

Shivani Rao was born in Mumbai, India into a very loving home. She was the younger of two sisters and had no complaints throughout her early childhood. Her father and mother got the opportunity to move to New York when Shivani was about eight years old. They were going to be managing a Indian grocery store location in the suburbs and the girls would be transitioning to becoming American citizens. Her mother was already a US citizen as she had been born there, but her father had to work extremely hard to gain his own citizenship and while the girls were still young, and one of their parents was a citizen they were also able to gain citizenship a little easier. 

Middle school was the worst time for little Shivani’s life as she just did not fit in. She felt like while she was in a prominently Indian neighbourhood, she didn’t fit in with the kids born there either. And so she all but threw herself into dance. Dance had been a love of hers since she was back home in India and allowing it to move with her to New York had been important for Shivani. This love allowed her to thrive on a public stage and gain fame even if it was through the community. Still her father saw something in her performances and encouraged her to apply to Juilliard. At this point despite being relatively middle-class, she didn’t want to apply knowing that if she got accepted but didn’t get a scholarship all her dreams would crash. But given her financial standing and her exceptional talent, she’d managed to get a scholarship.

Those four years getting her bachelor of fine arts in dance had been nothing short of wonderful. She had found friends who understood that level of dedication and passion that she possessed as well. Upon graduation she’d opted to work on off-broadway for a few years and had been part of some shows while continuing to audition for broadway level shows as well. One day she’d been told she was one of the top two contenders and Shivani had to do anything she could to become the one on top. She did. She edged out her competition, her best friend at the time and made it. 

The success was short-lived though as it was during one of the shoes that her harness snapped and she fell to the stage from a bit of a height. Shivani’s ankle was severely damaged. Enough that the position would be filled by her understudy, that same best friend who had been her competition. Becoming a failure hadn’t sat well with Shivani at all and while her family told her that it was okay and she could always move back home to Queens, New York—she refused to do that. She had been living a life in Manhattan—she couldn’t go back to living with her parents. 

It took some time and a lot of different applications sent around the country until finally one picked up in Wilmington, North Carolina. They had a vacancy for a dance instructor and so Shivani packed up her belongings and made her way there. It had been an adjustment but she’s now been here for about five years and managed to buy out the previous owner of the dance studio as well. Her injury made is so that she couldn’t really ever put as much pressure on it as she once used to during practices but she was still able to teach dance and so she continues to do that, while trying to make peace with what her life could’ve been had she perhaps not messed up in the way she did. 

HEADCANONS;

shivani is quite religious and has a little mandir set up in a corner of her home.

she's often humming the latest indian track she's heard and ensuring everyone around her listens to it as well.

she loves cooking and will often be cooking for people even if they don't ask.

shivani's got two tattoos, both on her rib cages. one that says 'naach' which means dance in devanagari script. and the other is a pair of ghungroo's which was the first dance form she learnt.

she's classically trained in kathak, and jazz officially but doesn't get the chance to teach that anymore and does more hip hop and freestyle along with some simple ballet.

she will go to despicable lengths for a costco chocolate chip cookie, and the subway ones as well.

she misses her family quite a bit but knows that if she heads back to new york she'll feel like a failure because the rest of her family is successful and she doesn't think she's lived up to the potential her father saw in her.

she is almost always carrying a mini pharmacy in her purse, that and pretty much all essentials at all times.

has a little havenese dog that is named rolo and he is truly the love of her life.

attended a bachelorette party in vegas and ended up married on a whim. her parents still don't know and she'd prefer to keep it that way. (besides they got it annulled--maybe? 👀)

[manishaaaaa]

I want to read hindi sahitya, I want to learn bhajans, I want to learn indian classical dances, I want to listen to ghazals under the moon, I want to make the best adrak wali chai, I want to visit mandirs and masjids, I want a house of my own, I want to invite people and feed them home cooked meals, I want -

[mariacallous]

Last week, the Indian state of Uttarakhand passed a bill to adopt a controversial Uniform Civil Code (UCC), which will bring an end to religious or personal laws governing marriage, divorce, adoption, and inheritance, among other issues. The change will bring all communities together under a common law to regulate those practices. The new legislation has already faced pushback from Muslim leaders and other members of India’s political class.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) hope that Uttarakhand will serve as a model for the introduction of a UCC across India, or at least across BJP-ruled states. Some of these states, including Assam and Modi’s home state of Gujarat, are already considering their own UCC bills and are keen to use the Uttarakhand code as a template, although they may tweak the legislation to address local needs. Despite its seeming impartiality, the UCC pushed by the BJP would be a threat to India’s religious pluralism.

The idea of a UCC has long caused consternation among India’s religious minorities, especially Muslims. Muslim politicians and religious leaders have suggested a UCC would amount to unwarranted interference in their community’s norms, especially when it comes to specific legal protections related to marriage, divorce, and inheritance. The Uttarakhand code even regulates live-in relationships—a clear nod to conservative Hindus, many of whom frown on such arrangements.

These critics’ misgivings are not without merit. The BJP has long pursued three contentious goals that impinge disproportionately on the interests of the Muslim community: the abolition of Article 370 of the Indian Constitution, which granted special autonomous status to the Muslim-majority state of Jammu and Kashmir; the construction of a Hindu temple in the city of Ayodhya on the site of a mosque demolished by a Hindu mob in 1992; and the adoption of a nationwide UCC. It achieved the first goal in 2019, and the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya is not yet complete but was consecrated last month.

However, the idea of a UCC goes back decades to India’s foundations as an independent state. The subject was extensively debated by the constituent assembly that helped forge India’s constitution in 1949, but it was not resolved. Owing to the sensitivities of religious communities, most notably Muslims, no government was willing to tackle the politically fraught question. So why is it the unabashedly pro-Hindu BJP government—and not one controlled by the Indian National Congress party, which is committed to secularism—that has taken up the issue of the UCC? The answer requires a bit of historical exegesis.

The prevalence of separate personal laws for different religious communities in India can be traced to a colonial-era regulation. Warren Hastings, then the governor of Bengal and later the first British governor-general of India, directed in 1772 that “in all suits regarding inheritance, marriage, caste and other religious usages and institutions, the laws of the Koran with respect to the Mahomedans and those of the Shaster with respect to Gentoos [Hindus] shall be invariably adhered to.” In 1937, the British Raj enacted the Muslim Personal Law (Shariat) Application Act, which codified Islamic law for marriage, divorce, succession, inheritance, and other family affairs.

Those who drafted the Indian Constitution debated the necessity of a UCC, with most Muslim members against it. One of the principal architects of the constitution, B.R. Ambedkar, argued that if India could have a common criminal code, it could also have common personal laws, and suggested that a uniform civil code initially be voluntary. The framers instead settled for Article 44, a set of non-justiciable directives that range from prohibiting cow slaughter to curbing liquor consumption. It also called on the Indian state to endeavor toward a UCC for its citizens.

During Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru’s first term (1952-1957), the Congress party succeeded in codifying Hindu personal law through four pieces of legislation in the face of opposition. Conservative forces decried the move to meddle with Hindu personal laws, while reformists wondered why the changes were restricted to Hindus alone. But when asked about a uniform civil code, Nehru said that the time was not ripe for it.

The matter largely remained unaddressed until 1978, when Shah Bano—a recently divorced Muslim woman—sued her former husband in a lower court in central India for not providing alimony in accordance with the Indian penal code. The local court awarded Bano monthly basic maintenance, which was later increased by a high court. Bano’s husband, Mohammed Ahmad Khan, later challenged the matter before the Indian Supreme Court. Khan contended that he was not obliged to support his former wife under Muslim personal law because he had paid a dowry and three months’ maintenance.

In 1985, the Supreme Court not only rejected Khan’s appeal, but also came out in support of a nationwide UCC. At the time, Chief Justice of India Y.V. Chandrachud—the father of the current chief justice—asked why Article 44 remained a “dead letter,” noting that the Indian state lacked the “political courage” to enact a UCC. The judgment created a firestorm, especially among the Muslim community.

The Congress government led by then-Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi responded by passing the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Divorce) Act in 1986, which said that maintenance had to be paid only for the waiting period for a widowed or divorced woman, usually three months—effectively nullifying the Supreme Court ruling. The new law doused the controversy for the moment, but it also opened up the Congress government to charges of so-called minority appeasement. Today, the BJP tends to characterize the Congress party and others as placating Muslims and other religious minorities in the name of secularism.

Since the Shah Bano case, several court rulings have whittled away at Muslim personal law—but none more so than the 2017 Supreme Court ruling that determined the practice of instant triple talaq to be unconstitutional. The ruling came in response to women’s petitions challenging the practice, in which Muslim men can divorce their wives by uttering “talaq” (divorce) three times in quick succession. Indians across the political spectrum welcomed the judgment for advancing women’s rights, but some observers saw it as another step toward a UCC. The BJP government followed up with the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Act in 2019, which made triple talaq a punishable offense.

The UCC indeed has the potential to bolster women’s rights in India by doing away with the anachronistic traditions of some religious groups. But improving the lot of Indian women does not appear to be what drives the BJP. Instead, the party’s pursuit of a UCC appears to be an attempt to stigmatize a particular faith under the guise of enhancing the status of women. (After all, if the BJP were truly concerned about women’s autonomy, it would not have sought to ban the dubious concept of love jihad, which suggests that Muslim men insidiously entice Hindu women into marrying them under questionable circumstances.)

Uttarakhand’s adoption of a UCC is a step toward fulfilling one of the BJP’s key election promises and a staple of its manifestos for the last three decades. Goa is the only other state that currently has a UCC, but its common law dates to the 19th century, when the state was under Portuguese rule. Despite efforts in other BJP-ruled states, a nationwide UCC may be some time away. Still, both Modi and Indian Home Minister Amit Shah have spoken about the idea, with Shah saying recently that the BJP “remains steadfast in bringing in UCC.”

India’s current political climate is far more amenable to the idea of a UCC than in the past. Modi and the BJP are very popular, and unlike the Congress party, they do not rely on Muslim voters to win elections. However, the situation is complicated by the fact that other religious minority groups such as Sikhs, as well as indigenous communities and the Dalit community, feel the potential of a UCC to infringe on religious and cultural rights. (The Uttarakhand code exempts the indigenous peoples of the state, who make up 3 percent of the state population but are present in greater numbers elsewhere.)

The BJP has succeeded in achieving its long-held goals in Indian-administered Kashmir and in Ayodhya. India’s national election is swiftly approaching, and the Modi government has a seemingly inexorable commitment to its Hindu nationalist agenda. If it returns to power this spring with a clear-cut parliamentary majority, the implementation of a nationwide UCC will likely figure prominently in its political priorities, pushing back against what remains of India’s commitment to religious pluralism.

[anandartandcraft]

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