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The Indians' Impossible Civil Code*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 August 2009

Olivier Herrenschmidt
Olivier Herrenschmidt*
Affiliation:
Laboratoire d'ethnologie et de sociologie comparative, Université Paris Ouest Nanterre La Défense [olivier.herrenschmidt@wanadoo.fr].
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Abstract

The Uniform Civil Code which, as written in the 1950 Constitution of the Indian Union, should be enacted, still does not (and will probably never) exist. This paper examines the tactics used by the opponents in the Constituent and Legislative Assembly (1946-1951) who succeeded to wreck a proposed “modernisation” of the Hindu Personnal Law, which could have been a first step towards that Uniform Code. In a very clever way, they never claimed to defend the dharma treatises which had codified and legitimated a Brahmanical Social Order for centuries, but only wanted to maintain the multiplicity and diversity of customs and usages of the Hindu people.

Résumé

La constitution de l'Union indienne (1950) prévoit la rédaction d'un Code civil unique qui n'existe toujours pas et n'existera peut-être jamais. Cet article examine les manœuvres des opposants qui ont fait échec aux tentatives de l'Assemblée constituante et législative (1946-1951) de « moderniser » le droit hindou des personnes et des biens, qui eût pu être un premier pas vers ce Code civil. Leur argument le plus subtil a consisté à se poser en défenseurs des coutumes et traditions diverses de cette nation nouvelle, et non des traités de dharma qui codifiaient et légitimaient depuis des siècles un Brahmanical Social Order.

Zusammenfassung

Die Konstitution der indischen Union (1950) schreibt ein ziviles Gesetzbuch vor, das es bis heute nicht gibt und wahrscheinlich nie geben wird. Dieser Aufsatz schildert, wie die Gegner die Versuche der verfassungsgebenden Versammlung (1946-1951) vereitelt haben, welche eine Modernisierung des hindischen Personen- und Güterrechts, ein erster Schritt in Richtung ziviles Gesetzbuch, vorgesehen hatte. Ihr subtiler Argumentationsstrang bestand nicht in der Verteidigung der dharma, die seit Jahrhunderten das Brahmanical Social Order kodifiziert und gerechtfertigt hat, sondern in der Verteidigung verschiedener Bräuche und Sitten dieser neuen Nation.

Keywords

IndiaConstitutionPersonnal LawCustomsAmbedkarIndeConstitutionDroit personnelCoutumeAmbedkarIndienVerfassungPersonenrechtBräucheAmbedkar
Type
Jewish Institutions and Practices
Information
European Journal of Sociology / Archives Européennes de Sociologie , Volume 50 , Issue 2 , August 2009 , pp. 309 - 347
Copyright
Copyright © A.E.S. 2009

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