Entries "My entries":

Saturday, 6 May, 2006

Published in The Telegraph, Kolkata on 28 Sept.2000

                

 

 

The Telegraph  28 Sept.2000

    DIPANKAR LAHIRI 


 SECULAR IS AS  SECULAR DOES


The concept of secularism has been worrying both India's politicians and its general populace. When a virtually closed, stagnating economy suddenly wakes up to the compulsions of a global economy, the problem of resolving the contradictions bound to bedevil such social systems is formidable indeed. Predictably, we are witness today to secular ideals being touted in shapes and forms that are as varied as they are weird. Yet even Western liberal democracies have not fully succeeded in providing a realistic framework to enable an individual to pursue a social ethic without the interference of formal religion.
In not a single one of the liberal democracies is an individual accorded the right to exercise his franchise and elect his political representatives before attaining the prescribed statutory age, which normally is 18 years. This logically implies that an individual is incapable of exercising his mature judgment till such time as he officially becomes an adult. Given this premise, an individual should equally be deemed as not having the maturity to decide which organized religion he should belong to, if any at all, before he turns 18. But this is seldom the case.  .
                              In order to pursue a religion other than the one a person is born into, conversion is mandatory. This is true even if a 11 year old born into a Hindu family decides, say, to be a follower of Islam on becoming an adult. But should one need to convert to another religion if one had not voluntarily accorded one's mature consent to be a follower of the initial one in the first place ?

Naturally religious
The rights guaranteed by the Constitution in a democracy enable one to change one's religion; but on what bais does one become a follower of the religion he is allowed to change his allegiance from?
The manner in which even a secular state assumes the religious commitment of minors is akin to the question of citizenship. Thus a 

person born to parents of a certain national it}y is automatically assumed to be a citizen of that particular country. Such citizens are called natural born citizens. Only natural born citizens, for example, are entitled to contest for the post of president in the United States. Recently, there was a move to incorporate some such provision in our Constitution for the post of prime minister to prevent Sonia Gandhi from taking that chair.
This is an integral part of the socio-Iegal system as it now prevails. The question being raised, however, is whether an alternative method of initiation into a religious order can effectively be evolved to give more meaning and scope to the concept and practice of secularism. In the absence of any such arrangement, not only is a person's faith decided by birth, but h is caste and sub caste too.

Sense and sensibility The practice of a person being born into an organized religion makes a mockery of the essential prerequisites of a secular social order at a very primordial level. This issue has probably not been considered in any debate on secularism since it entails a radical restructuring of the social system and a negation of the accepted moral standards sanctifying family relationships,
The anomaly is more manifest in countries like India which, while claiming to be secular, have marriage and family ties governed in terms of laws deriving their sanction from organized religions. It is bewildering that a secular state should have such acts as the Hindu Marriage Act, the Christian Marriage Act, the Parsi Marriage Act and the Muslim Women (Protection  of Rights on Divorce) Act. .
It is not comprehensible as to why the nature and scope of marital relations should be different for different people in a secular state depending on which religion they belong to. Why has the non-religious Special Marriage Act not been made applicable to all citizens irrespective of caste, creed and religion? Social institutions in a secular state are being governed by blatantly non-secular laws, some of which are out of tune with the dominant convention of the religion after which they are named.
Secular principles can never be nurtured by the state legalizing religious precepts - often anachronistic - and incorporating them  into its laws. It can only be achieved by a system of jurisprudence divested of religious trappings and sensitive to the emerging needs of a transformational society.
 

 

»2:41 PM    »Write comment    

Posted by: lahiri
Thursday, 27 April, 2006

Articles by Dipanka Lahiri (Published earlier in THE TELEGRAPH, Kolkata)

(Published in 'THE TELEGRAPH', Kolkata, on 12 April, 2001)

Working on the Relationship

The proposed bill on domestic violence smacks of the same biases in favour of women which guide some other legal provisions, writes Dipankar Lahiri

The proposed bill against domestic violence has to be seen in the context of the sweeping changes in the Indian economy and concomitant shifts in conventional moral standards governing social life and institutions. Recognition of this change is implicit in the proposal which also brings live-in relationships within its scope. A revolution in sexual mores and marital relations has always been coeval with and an outcome of changes in the economic structure and the new role women get to play in the productive activity. The trend towards an assertion of individuality among women in the West, conspicuously noticeable in the Fifties, was a direct outcome of the growing absorption of women in the workforce and their resultant economic independence.
In the Indian context, given that an increasing number of women are entering the job market on terms of equality with men, the question of gender identity and discrimination needs to be redefined.

Liberalization has led to growing stratification of the Indian society into distinct social groups characterized by widely diverse sets of social and cultural ethos. This is primarily the result of the emergence of a sizable section of upwardly mobile, professionally qualified, liberalized urban population with a substantial disposable income which has little in common with the vast majority of the rural and semi-rural populace steeped in poverty, illiteracy and superstition.

Among this neo-elite, morality and gender relations have acquired a new meaning. Marriage, as a form of dependent relationship, where the role of the male partner was paramount, has lost much of its meaning. The economic independence of the female partner in almost all such cases has necessitated a shift in perspective. Marriage is now seen as a more equitable form of partnership. Although such changes in the West were believed to have resulted in the "masculinization of women", it would be more appropriate to view the process as one leading towards the convergence of sexual identities of both men and women.
The relevance of monogamous, hetero-sexual marriage as the dominant pattern and norm is also gradually on the wane among many in this group. For these young men and women, marriage is much more than a socially imposed moral obligation. It should, to them, create a natural bond of mutual understanding and respect.

Any intended legislation to be meaningful in the changed social context should, therefore, also seek to relate to the needs and expectations of the liberalized generation of the 21st century. It also follows that the changed perception of gender relations can only be compatible with a regime of laws which admits and accords sanctity to the concept of equality of  status of both the sexes.

Against this backdrop, the incongruities in the entire gamut of Indian legislation, particularly the bias in favour of the fairer sex becomes evident. This is manifest in the tacit legal assumption of certain behavioural traits as  peculiar to males. For example, our innate social conditioning makes it difficult for us to imagine that a woman in a position of authority can indulge in sexual misconduct with, say, a male subordinate at the workplace. The likelihood of such thing happening, however, cannot be discounted any longer. It is power, authority and economic status which largely determine a person's responses to different situations, irrespective of gender.                  

 It can then be asked why no provision to ensure appropriate legal remedy for the victimized male has been incorporated in the Indian law?
Similarly, it is strange that while adultery continues to remain a punishable criminal offence for men under Section 497 of the Indian Penal Code, women who indulge in the same act in a marriage do not attract any punitive action. Little wonder then that the virtuosity of the wife of the adulteror gets extolled in teleserials like Hazratein, Saans and Kora Kagaz.
Provisions such as Section 498A of the IPC put the onus of establishing innocence on the male if a complaint of mental or physical torture is lodged against him or his parents by his wife. Assumed to be automatically guilty on the basis of the complaint lodged, the law provides for immediate incarceration of the man without bail. In spite of being grossly misused by many women who wish to settle personal scores with their husbands or in-laws, the provision continue to glorify our statutes. There is no corresponding remedy available to a man who is similarly tormented by his wife or  in-laws.
Even in the matter of income tax, preferential treatment has been accorded to women. With effect from the financial ycar 2001-02, a special deduction of Rs 5,000 has been allowed to working women from the tax payable by them under Section 88c of the Income Tax Act. irrespective of their economic and marital status. As government employees, they get preferential posting and out of turn allotment of quarters. And now it is being proposed that a third of the seats in Parliament be reserved for women despite the fact that practically all political parties in the country have a substantial number of  female members

As long as the socio legal framework in the country remains predicated on the ideal of female infallibility and an unfounded notion of female vulnerability, a gross gender discrimination and institutionalized prejudice against the male would follow as a natural corollary. If stereotypical concepts of masculinity and femininity are allowed to organize experience and behaviour and influence legislation, the emerging notions of gender identity will be threatened.
Efforts to ensure immunity from mental and physical torture at the hands of the male partner should not exempt the woman from punishment when the same acts are perpetrated by her against the opposite sex. The halo of purity surrounding women can become a self-perpetuating delusion that will cause great harm to the causes of both gender equality and female empowerment.

Legislative action to uphold the cause of women should be tempered with a mature appreciation of the changing role of the sexes. The manner in which certain valid objections to the proposed legislation was brushed aside reveals the obduracy of the axioms which govern law making in this country.

How long would everything continue to be considered absolutely fair for the "fairer sex"? Unless something is done to set right the underlying bias, one cannot be faulted for displaying a proclivity to accept without qualms Oscar Wilde's famous observation on the sexes: "Women represent the triumph of matter over mind, just as men represent the triumph of mind over morals". The feminist bias of an effeminate "male" society should come to an end.

Apart from the definite bias, there are other facets of the proposed bill on domestic violence which are jarring.  The suggestion to extend the application of the legislation to live-in relationships, for example, seem to make little sense. For one thing, the partners in such relationships are highly individualistic apart from being economically self sufficient as well. Why any of them should put up with either "physical, sexual, verbal, economic or mental torture" from the other and continue to "live together" defies comprehension.

What our law makers need to realize is that any of the partners in such a relationship, in the absence of institutional bonding, would walk out of it the moment it turns sour rather than lodge a complaint against the other with the "protection officer" while continuing to stay together as before. Should any of them be abused or tortured, he/she can seek legal remedies and initiate necessary action against the other under extant legal provisions which are more than adequate for the purpose.
 .
If such relationships are to be treated as "domestic units" for the purpose of legislation and bestowed, thereby, with a degree of acceptability and legal sanction, then other resultant rights and benefits which accrue in an institutional bonding should also be logically extended to them.

The working partners in such relationships should, in that case, be extended the benefit of maternity and paternity leaves as well, wherever applicable, if they intend to have a child of their own. They should also be allowed to adopt a child like any other married couple under the Adoption and Maintenance Act. 1956 after ensuring that the future interests of such a child are duly fortified. 

If any of the partners deserts the other, as can surely happen in such relationships, then the aggrieved partner should be allowed to file a suit of desertion and 'restitution of conjugal rights'. Entitlement for married quarters, wherever they exist, should be extended to such couples. In the government sector every effort should be made to place them at the same station as in case of married government employees. They should also be allowed the benefit of advance increments if any of them undergoes a family planning operation.

The extension of only protective provisions of the law in respect of verbal and physical abuse to the female partner in such relationships while denying both the female and male partners all other benefits that accrue to married couples would make a mockery of the principle of natural justice. It would also be typical of the contradictions and anomalies that characterize our legal system.
Only a concerned appreciation of the various possibilities can shed new light on the shifts in the balance of economic power between women and men and the emerging social realities of our time. The bill on domestic violence has to be more pragmatic than what it appears to be.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

»7:32 PM    »Write comment    

Posted by: lahiri
Modified on April 28, 2006 at 11:25 AM
Articles by Dipankar Lahiri (Published earlier in THE TELEGRAPH, Kolkata)

s0001_0.doc

»7:24 PM    »Write comment    

Posted by: lahiri
arts by lahiri


 (Published in THE TELEGRAPH, Kolkata, dt.31 Oct.2000)

MORALITY, LAW AND SEXUAL BEHAVIOUR

  DIPANKAR LAHIRI

The Indian penal code's treatment of sexual relations needs to be dissociated from Victorian morality to which it continues to be wedded. How a couple would enjoy consensual sex is best left for them to decide and can never be the concern of  a democratic, secular state as long as it does not amount to forcible imposition of personal preferences by one partner on the other.
Which practice, custom or convention of Hinduism can justify the mandatory nature of monogamy for Hindus under the' Hindu Marriage Act'? Monogamy had never existed as the dominant form of marital relations in Hindu societies prior to the passing of this act in 1955. The liberal sexual mores of Hindu societies over the ages - reflected in the stories of Hindu gods and rishis, apsaras, the sculptures of Konark and Khajuraho and the concept of gandharva vivaha in the Mahabharata - indicate that Hinduism accords sanction to both polygamy and polyandry.
Besides, personal sexual preferences between consenting adults within the confines of an institutional marriage continue to be tinged with religious precepts and happen to be the unwarranted concern of a supposedly secular state in India. Anal intercourse, for instance, between husband and wife is an offence under the IPC (Section 377) and the Hindu Marriage Act. while marital rape is not ! But one only has to take a casual glance at Hindu temple sculpture to see that Hinduism has never been unduly puritanical in matters of sex.

Secular Hypocrisy

The essentially Hindu characteristics of the Hindu Marriage Act are difficult to discern. Social institutions  in India remain governed by blatantly non-secular laws, some of which are out of tune with the dominant convention of the religion after which they are named.

Secular principles can only be achieved by ensuring a system of jurisprudence divested of religious trappings in any shape and basing it on objectivism and rationality, giving due recognition to the changing social order. No religion can do this because its precepts are static. This is abundantly manifested by the Catholic church's and Islam's opposition to abortion and birth control.
There are unending contradictions that the continuation of such legal systems could invite. Thus. on the basis of a perceived religious precept, a Muslim woman could be deprived of the right to maintenance by the state under Section 125 of the criminal procedure code as recently as in 1986. Hindus could also demand the right to practice polygamy under the Hindu Marriage Act in keeping with their traditional and scriptural lores. Moreover, we have marriage laws based only on four organized religions when there are hundreds of religions in the world - both organized and unorganized.

Marital Pluralism

Ideallv, we should have as many marriage acts as there are religions in the world irrespective of the number of followers they may have. Alternatively, we can have a Simple code for all marriages and the rules governing marriage can be standardized for all citizens.
But, there are no separate sets of laws governing marital relations for the Sikhs, Buddhists and Jains who have been made to come under the ambit of the Hindu Marriage Act. The unique features of some of these laws also come in the way of the implementation of progressive judicial decisions,
In the case of the Christian Marriage Act. for example. every decree of dissolution of marriage granted by a district judge is required to be confirmed by a three member bench of the high court for it to become effective and it takes years for the process to be complete. This renders the Supreme Court's order to ensure disposal of all divorce cases within six months largely mean meaningless for those coming under this act. Further, there is no provision in the Christian Marriage Act for the dissolution of marriage on  the basis of mutual consent unlike in the Hindu Marriage Act. .
Hypocrisy is the basic creed of this set of rules. The statutes and practices mentioned here came into being ostensibly to ensure a secular social order. But, ironically, these codes have only contributed to an erosion of the credibility of the state to uphold, protect and preserve secular ideals in daily life. The inanity of this scenario is only surpassed by its naïveté.

»7:18 PM    »1 comments    

Posted by: lahiri
Modified on April 28, 2006 at 11:33 AM
Articles by Dipankar Lahiri (published earlier in THE TELAGRAPH, Kolkata)

 
s0001.doc

»6:08 PM    »3 comments    

Posted by: lahiri
Modified on April 27, 2006 at 6:18 PM
My Favorites
Search
 
RSS-Feed
  For all categories

21Publish - Cooperative Publishing