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Unit 3: Marriage

wife is like a mother to him. Zihar does not dissolve the marriage but it provides a ground to the wife Notes
to sue her husband for divorce. In lian, the husband accuses his wife of adultery. This provides
ground to wife to approach the court for divorce. Divorce given by mutual consent of husband and
wife is called khula (initiated at the instance of the wife) or mubarat (initiative coming from wife or
husband). After divorce, the wife is not entitled to get maintenance allowance from her husband.
However, about fifteen years ago, the Supreme Court allowed maintenance allowance to one Shah
Bano. Since this decision was questioned by the Muslim leaders, describing it as interference the
Muslim Personal Law, the government had to amend the legislation. In February 1993, the Uttar
Pradesh High Court also ordered the payment of maintenance allowance to one Hameedan and her
two children. The All India Muslim Personal Law Board then filed a review petition in the High
Court.
All these features point out the difference between the Hindu and the Muslim marriages in terms of
aims and ideals of marriage, nature of marriage, characteristics of marriage, and dissolving marriage.
It is now contended that the belief that Muslims practise polygyny and easy divorce in large numbers
is a misconception. The number of Muslims who have more than one wife is negligible now. There
are more cases of bigamy amongst Hindus. Likewise, there are more divorces among Hindus and
Sikhs than among Muslims. The statistics compiled by the Indian Statistical Institute reveal that 72
out of 1,000 non-Muslims have more than one wife while only 15 out of 1,000 Muslim males have
more than one wife (Hindustan Times, June 27, 1998). Earlier, the report compiled by the Committee
on the Status of Women, published in 1975 had also revealed that the incidence of polygamy was the
highest among tribals (15.25%), followed by Buddhists (7.97%), Jains (6.75%), Hindus (5.8%), and
Muslims (5.7%) (Shaukat Ali, 1995).
Uniform Civil Code (UCC)

The unilateral divorce and polygyny among Muslims is so much criticised that many people clamour
for uniform civil code regarding marriage. The Muslims oppose it because they not only consider it
interference in Muslim personal laws but also because the content of the UCC will be mainly drawn
from the Hindu Act. A survey was conducted among 395 persons (187 Hindu and 208 Muslims) in
Aligarh in 1995 by the Institute for Development Studies (The Hindustan Times, January 1, 1996).
About 60 percent of the total respondents expressed undesirability of the UCC irrespective of their
religious background. On the other hand, on religious background basis, 74 per cent Hindus and 9
per cent Muslims expressed the desirability of the UCC. The arguments in favour of the UCC were:
(1.) national integration and secularism will be promoted; (2) growing communal and caste violence
will be contained; (3) the process of civil justice will be strengthened; and (4) the gender biases will be
mitigated and feelings of equality amongst women will be perpetuated. The 34 Muslims who supported
the UCC were professional and white-collared persons (doctors, lawyers, engineers, college teachers,
office workers and students). The arguments against the UCC were: (1) Muslims themselves do not
feel any necessity for the change. (2) The political groups are exploiting the religious sentiments of
the people for creating their vote bank. (3) Muslims hold that Hindus are trying to impose their
cultural values on Muslims as the provisions in the UCC are mainly taken from the Hindu law. (4)
The UCC will generate heat, discontent and intolerance among different religious groups, particularly
amongst minorities. (5) Most Muslims hold that the UCC will tantamount to a denial of the fundamental
right of freedom to religion and will hamper the development of the concept ‘unity in diversity’. The
Hindus, however, do not share this opinion. It may be averred that if the UCC is not perceived from
the ‘religious’ perspective but is viewed as a measure to check evils of polygyny and easy verbal
divorce, a detailed discussion with non-orthodox religious leaders of different communities can help
in the formulation of legislation.
Difference between Hindu and Muslim Marriages

Hindu and Muslim marriages may be differentiated on four bases: (i) aims and ideals, (ii) features of
the marriage system, (iii) nature of marriage, and (iv) marriage relations.

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