Editorial

The flurry of reports suggesting setting up separate Muslim Personal Law Boards have come more as joke than any serious piece of news. Far from highlighting any genuine differences, the ‘splitters’ have only exhibited their immaturity in faking a split and have relied on less than competent people to put up the spectacle.


Till any more mature and pragmatic leadership and outfit emerges on the national scene, the All India Muslim Personal Law Board remains the only viable joint platform of Indian Muslims and serves to provide an umbrella to diverse sectarian interests within Indian Muslims. It is satisfying to note that the sane and sober sections among all the communities have noted the bickering fomented by the alien elements whose invisible strings extend to the fascist organizations within India and the imperialist forces overseas. The Board leadership too deserves appreciation for remaining calm and laughing off the pinpricks being administered by vested interests, of whom not much is expected to be heard in months ahead. Sectarian differences are nothing new to Islam. Nor has Islam’s capacity to manage diverse legal opinion ever been in doubt. Any faith, religion or legal system that survives for a millennium and odd centuries must develop enough flexibility and cushioning capability to absorb the pressures of time, space, science and technology. Islam has steered the course remarkably well. It is why those pining to deflect the shariah from its axis of the doctrine and faith have to resort to cheap gimmicks like faking splits with media hypes.


There is no gainsaying of the fact that differences exist between various Muslim legal schools on matters of triple talaq and scores of other issues and the Muslim Personal Law Board has been measured in its response to tackling them in the most democratic manner over the years. It has refused to be bludgeoned into hasty decisions under pressure from feminists or Western oriented elite and civil right activists for whom ‘Muslim women’s plight’ forms the core of concern. Reforms ought to take place in several sectors and the Muslim society needs to step out of its present mindset of rebuffing all changes merely to stick to the letter of the shariah. But such changes should be part of a larger exercise to sensitise the community on empowerment of women restoring to them all those rights they enjoyed in the past. They should not follow the mandate set by Rand Corporation’s (vide its recent report titled Civil, Democratic Islam: Partners, Resources and Strategies by Cheryl Banard) scripted by the State Department.


A frank admission to the effect that triple talaq seriously undermines the rights of the Muslim women blotting out prospects of reconciliation could very well advance the cause of justice. The dichotomy between it being a gunaah (sin) and still remaining valid does sound much like a sore note from whichever angle it is viewed. Similarly, the pressure to adopt nikahnama appears rather odd in the given socio-economic environment of the community in India. In the marriage market, where the women are already undervalued, insistence on nakahnama is more likely to add a minus to their worth. The community ought to think of ensuring better education, restoring their economic rights, relieving them from double jeopardy of Indian customs like dowry, ostentatious marriages and weighing them in gold. But much of these assignments lie beyond the pale of Muslim Personal Law Board and call for the involvement of the entire intelligentsia.


There could also be a cogent thinking on accommodating the challenges and changes posed by the science and technology that have affected and altered the gender roles considerably. The Board leadership did not exactly cover itself with glory by its knee-jerk reaction to divergence of opinion on an issue like birth control. Several such issues warrant discussion on a larger community plane. Refusal to see the problem does not lead to their disappearance. The community must develop an adequate mechanism to analyse changes being brought by science, technology, market forces, ideologies and learn to prepare adequate response to them.