POLYGAMY is Getting BANNED in ASSAM? Assam is going to become the first Indian state to ban polygamy. Polygamy. Polygamy. Polygamy. Law to ban the practice of a man marrying multiple women. Hemant Abiswa Sharma ji banning polygamy in Assam. From 4th February 2024, banning polygamy in Assam, meaning keeping more than one wife, will be completely banned.
And this statement was given by Assam’s CM, Hemant Abiswa Sharma ji publicly in the media. But by banning polygamy in Assam, we will pass the law in February. He didn’t just make an announcement. A few days ago, on 11th January 2024, CM even said that all formalities are almost complete. And on 5th February, he is going to pass the Child Marriage Abolition Bill with this polygamy ban.
After his statement, opposition leaders were shocked. Because, as you would know, polygamy ban appears to be a very anti-Muslim law. This move was carried out by the PM, and a prominent opposition leader criticized the move. He said that this move by the government is showing hatred towards Muslims. Even some opposition leaders accused the government that this issue is politically motivated.
The government is passing this law just to win the election. This law is coming to an end, and you are doing this drama. If you do a little research, you will see that this bill is going to be passed by the PM. So, even before passing this bill, the Assam government had taken some bold and seemingly controversial decisions.
Like, a few days ago, the CM banned 700 Madrasas. Around 700 Madrasas have been banned. In July 2023, he warned the youth of Assam in clear words, that don’t cross the Lakshman Rekha. Don’t marry outside your faith. And then, recently, he also arrested 4000 people who got their child married. In which, of course, there were Hindus, but Muslims were in the majority.
And because of these series of events, many opposition leaders are protesting against them by telling the CM’s recent polygamy ban as a complete anti-Muslim law. RSS is just two steps ahead of us in spreading hatred. But, hold on. This is just a one-sided story. The Assam government is saying that opposition leaders are making a mess without any reason.
Whereas, according to them, the people of Assam, who are the people of Assam, are very happy with this decision. According to the surveys conducted there, 97% of the people of Assam are fully supporting the polygamy ban. We got 159 bans. We got 144 bans that helped to ban polygamy. We got 3 bans that are against banning polygamy.
So, are these facts really true? The ground reality of Assam, what is it? Is it really true? People are supporting it as if it is an election propaganda of the government. Let’s understand this whole issue in detail. But before that, there is one more controversial thing in this bill. Polygamy is a religious practice that comes under the religious rights of Islam.
No government has ever been able to touch it. Because religious rights are a fundamental right of Muslims under Article 25 of the Constitution. So, the work that the central government has not been able to do till today, how can the government of Assam do that work? And well, that is because the government of Assam is not going to pass it like a normal bill.
Rather, it is going to pass it in a very unusual way. Now, what is that unusual way? I will tell you this in a little while. But, to get a little bit of background, just look at this list once. These are all Islamic countries where Sharia law is followed. By the way, Turkey’s name is also included in it.
After Saudi Arabia, the next Islamic Caliph is scheduled to be made. And this is India, which is a secular country. Now, interestingly, why is it that polygamy is banned in these Islamic countries? But, this ban has not been implemented in India yet. Now, the reasons behind this are going to open the eyes of many people.
So, let’s understand them in detail. So, starting with the government’s claim. The claim of the government of Assam is that the bill that is being told against Muslims, more than 97% of the people of Assam have supported the bill. Even the CM of Assam himself is saying that he is getting a lot of support from the Muslim community on this issue.
And according to him, the Muslims themselves have told him that polygamy should be banned. Public consultation has been done. I have received a lot of support from the Muslim community. I have received a lot of support from the Muslim mothers and sisters. So, in February, we will pass a law banning polygamy.
So, seemingly, why are the Muslims of Assam supporting anti-Muslim law so much? But, before understanding that, if you are interested in India’s policies and its history, then I would highly recommend Kuku FM’s audiobook British Economic Policy in India. Have you ever thought that when the Britishers came to India, then in India already, Mughals, Dutch, French, and Portuguese rulers lived in different states of India.
Well, first, let’s understand a little bit of polygamy.
What does this word mean in this context? So, in simple words, when a man, a Muslim, marries multiple women, it is called polygamy. According to a survey published in the Times of India, 84% of Muslim women want to ban polygamy practice. This survey was published by an NGO called the Indian Muslim Women Movement .
In which, they asked 289 questions from women affected by polygamy and conducted a holistic survey. This survey revealed that most of the women experiencing polygamy are living with severe mental trauma. Yes, this is the ground reality of polygamous marriage. Basically, from this survey, we came to know about the worst conditions of women in polygamous marriage.
For example, in 70% of polygamy cases, the first or second wife is not even at the metric level. Because of this, they do not get any proper work anywhere. Nor do they have any other source of income, which makes them dependent on the man. And that is why, even though they do not want to, they are forced to live with their husband’s second wife for their children.
And mind you, it is not that these women did not raise their voice. According to this report, 42% of women raised their voice against their husbands. But then, the priest who got them married, i.e. the religious priest, advised them to adjust directly. And this is because, in Islam, polygamy is allowed according to Surah An-Nisa 4.3 of their religious book.
Now, what is written in the Quran is not wrong, but its interpretation is situational. And you will come to know about this later. The second difference here is that in other religions like Hinduism, Buddhism, and Christianity, marriage is considered as a sacrament. But in Islam, marriage is considered as a civil contract between a male and a female.
And usually, a contract in Nikkah, which is called Nikah Nama, is signed by the husband and wife. And this contract is validated by the Qazi. That is why, in that survey, those Qazi advised women to adjust. This same case came up in 2022, when Reshma, who lives in Delhi, was 28 years old, requested the Delhi High Court to order the government to make a law to ban polygamy.
Because, Reshma said that her husband, Shoaib Khan, remarried a second time. And when Reshma opposed this, Shoaib beat Reshma up and left her and her child alone forever. Without even divorcing her. ACN Journal of Science, reports say that women affected by polygamy face many mental traumas like mental trauma, unhappiness, loneliness, and lack of trust.
According to a report published by the University of Lincoln, from 1994 to 2014, 20 years of research, it was found that children born in a polygamous family face problems like mental health issues, social incompatibility, and lowered academic achievements. All in all, because of all these reasons, Indian Muslim women, and women of color, have also said in their survey that the government should ban polygamy immediately.
And mind you, this polygamy ban is not against Muslims at all. And it is not like only Muslims will benefit from it. If you look at the data of the National Family Health Survey published in 2022, then today in India, this is the percentage of polygamy cases. 1.9% in Muslims, 1.3% in Hindus, 1.6% in Christians and other communities.
Now, in Hindus, this practice is mostly in tribal areas where the Hindu Marriage Act is not applicable. So, as you can clearly see, the ban of polygamy is going to benefit women of all religions. So, now the question is, when the Assam government is taking a correct step like banning polygamy, then why is the government having to pass this bill in an unusual way?
Well, as you might speculate, the leader of the opposition party A.I.U.D.F. has openly said that this polygamy ban is violating the fundamental rights of the Muslim community According to him, polygamous marriage is the religious freedom of Muslims. Basically, as I told you earlier, polygamous marriage is allowed in Muslim religion. So, if this is banned, then there will be a ban on their religious practice, which will be a clear interference.
And that’s why the government of Assam is facing exactly this problem. So, what does this mean? Will the government take this step secretly? Well, no. The Assam government has formed an expert committee of former Gohati HC Judge Rumi Kumari Fooka to answer this allegation. This committee has been asked to check the legalities of passing this law.
Basically, the committee’s job is to check how the Assam government can legally pass this law. So, the committee has made two discoveries on this. First, the opposition’s concern was whether this law will violate the fundamental rights of Muslims. While answering this, the committee put the first fact that the opposition is talking about Article 25 and 26 of Freedom of Religion.
The sub-clause 1 of Article 25 itself states that this fundamental right can be changed for public order, morality, health, and especially social welfare and reform. That is, it can be updated. And as far as the religious practice of polygamy is concerned, the committee stated that polygamy is permissible in their religion.
But it is not a compulsory religious practice like five times And it is not permissible for polygamy to be banned. The second and the most major finding of the committee was that many opposition people were also quoting it that the Shariat Act 1937 which is a central law under which polygamy is a national law for Muslims cannot be made an ASEAN or any state government law.
But the committee countered it with the fact that under Article 254 of the Constitution sub-clause 2 the state government can easily pass this law legally. So here this was the entire legal strategy of the government with the help of which they fixed all the major loopholes. But you know what what I think is that India till now till 2024 is just discussing polygamy ban and many other behind the scenes laws.
But Turkey Azerbaijan Tunisia and all these Islamic countries have already made their polygamy a punishable offense here. And the reasons for banning polygamy are also very interesting. For example Tunisia this Islamic country banned polygamy in 1958 and after practicing for one year in jail and fined they made polygamy a punishable offense.
And the notable thing is that they have imposed under Shariah law by giving verses of Tunisia gave a reason that according to Shariah law it is mandatory to marry women but not mandatory. And that is why Tunisia banned polygamy in their country with an updated interpretation of Quran and Shariah. Now if we talk about this country banned polygamy before our independence of India.
Their biggest leader Mustafa Kemal Pasha promoted women rights and passed this decision. But today in India despite being a secular country we are not running different religious personal laws on the country. Whereas in a secular country like India as soon as we are free a single law should be passed. So this is the whole story on this topic of polygamy.
I believe that India should keep adopting new progressive and rightful laws according to And even if they are not religious beliefs because changing times circumstances and nature is the biggest problem and with that it is the biggest blessing and medicine of this God The God’s blessing is always with those who And those who can’t change understand that the first thing that breaks the tree in a storm is the tree that is not weak.
Now friends what are your views on this topic? Do tell us in the comments because at the end your critical thoughts are very important Some proof of such strong nationalism we recently saw in the case of boycotting the Maldives when their ministers insulted our PM But the most shocking thing in this case we came to know that the Maldives are not only insulting our PM this small country is spreading terrorism in India In fact 26/11 Mumbai attacks in which 20 soldiers of our country 175 citizens and 26 foreigners were killed in that attack
the Maldivians also had a big hand and I am not saying that they themselves are the victims but their former president Nasheed.
Till then as always stay curious and keep learning Jai Hind!