(Continued from Aug 26 issue)
https://highlandpost.com/ucc-for-meghalaya-and-north-east-india/
The people professing the need for the Uniform Civil Code (UCC) seem to be concealing a hidden agenda because they do comprehend – fully well comprehend – the intention behind Art 44. They are making us believe that they are unable to see the underlying thing that has not been able to be achieved as yet hence the renewed effort to bring about the UCC by the present government. There is nothing to wonder at in the failure of the intention behind Art 44 because it has been protracted over decades and apparently will continue to linger.
It is not a simple task to overhaul a system that is diligently supported by those who do not intend to see it overhauled or if they do, it will be a deflection of what was really intended because if the UCC does come anywhere near what it was intended to be it will rid India of the influence of the priestly class (the Brahmins) in the Caste System and this looks like a distant goal judging from the recent events in the inauguration of the Parliament. From what we observe there is a distinct discrimination against the Christians and the Muslims in India and this must be dealt with by the UCC.
The people of the North East do not hold religious instruction above their way of life. Take for instance the instruction in Christianity that women shall not enter the church without a head cover and if they do their head should be shaved. No one even thinks that there is such a verse in the Christian Bible but it is there. We don’t need a code or an act of law to do away with it. There are other verses as well which we have dispensed with, with the changing times.
There is a verse in the Christian Bible that expects marriages to be for life but this too has been done away with, we actually have a Divorce Act. But why are we focusing only on Christianity…because it is the principal religion in Meghalaya and in the North East whether we admit it or not. The fact is that much of Christianity has been compromised in the customs we follow – and without a UCC. But for the present context let us stick to our approach for the UCC.
The idea that political superiority always resolves itself into a concept denoting superiority of lifestyle is not uncommon in India because of the Caste System. But in a Hinduism majority State as the one we have in India today it is possible that the caste that dominates the religion, the Brahmin to be precise, will seek to impose its ideas and its ways into the UCC. We in the North East have already determined the way forward and are living it out to this very day, but now there are new elements that have developed and it is these new developments that need to comprehend our ways and blend in, not break us up.
We are treading on some very sensitive matters here but if we are to come to any meaningful conclusion it is absolutely necessary because right and wrong, good and bad confront one another for the first time as designations of “this is good and this is bad.” One should be warned against taking these concepts of socially good and bad practices too ponderously or broadly, not to say symbolically as every belief in religion usually is.
Social matters must not be confused with religious ones, because whenever we do everything becomes more dangerous, as we are witnessing in India at present. The need to separate religion from the State has become an imperative in India, as many minorities in India are discriminated; often violently making them feel deserted. The UCC must encourage sensible multiculturalism.
The way forward in devising a UCC is by giving weightage to wisdom, and an ever abundant concern for our fellow humans; and this is not the way of religion, not the way of the religious dogmatic proponents at least. Dogmas and doctrines are the greatest enemies of progress – why, because they are the most impotent. It is because of their impotence that hatred grows to monstrous and uncanny proportions.
In the Western world the dangers from the dogmas and doctrines are only too well known, no one can ever forget the hell that was called the Spanish Inquisition, and in India we are beginning to see a similar ferocity against Christians and Muslims. Nothing comes close in comparison to the hatred and the beastliness of religious violence. And the UCC is what we are relying on to bring some sense into the moderation of religion in social life in India.
Coming to the present context when people determine between good and bad it is not a new custom or a new religion that ushers in the good, it is just the opposite, it is the release from our old religious ways and beliefs that does. Some old customs or some religious dictates have to be dispensed with, for the general good of the community and that is what has been adopted by the people in the North East ever since new religions came among the people. However in formulating a UCC for the people of North East India, there are some categorical imperatives which cannot be compromised.
The people, and this means all the aboriginal inhabitants of the North East, have a set of historical customs just as any community does. According to The Code of Manu, the Aryan (Hinduism) heartland extends from the Himalayas in the north to the Vindhyas in the South and from the Eastern Sea in the East to the Western Sea in the West – not more not less – because the laws of Manu are sanctioned into a religion…Hinduism.
And when Hinduism or any religion for that matter seeks to penetrate its teachings among the people a new order is established which has now brought about the following communities in Meghalaya, the Khasi Khasi or the one who abides by the old customs and religion, the Christian Khasi or the one who has adopted Christianity without losing his Khasi customs, the Hindu Khasi which is a more recent introduction among the community and which the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) are perpetuating in the Khasi Hills by attempting to get the people to shed their old ways for the “Brahmanical” ways and finally the Muslim Khasi which has been around for a few decades now, which has also compromised its doctrines in favour of the old Khasi ones.
