UCC in Gujarat Could Open a Pandora's Box by Pitting Muslims Against Tribals

For the BJP, the UCC is more than just a governance measure. It will further cement its Hindutva vote bank.

Gujarat is poised to introduce the Uniform Civil Code (UCC), becoming the second state after Uttarakhand to do so. The Bill is all set to come up for discussion in the Assembly on 24 March.

(Illustration: Aroop Mishra/The Quint)

Gujarat is set to introduce the Uniform Civil Code (UCC)—becoming the second state after Uttarakhand to do so. The Bill is expected to come up for discussion in the Assembly on 24 March, Tuesday. The proposed legislation mandates the compulsory registration of marriages and divorces for all couples, and imposes a penalty for non-compliance.

While it allows marriages to be solemnised according to religious customs, it forbids polygamy, prescribing up to seven years in jail for violations. Nikah halala will also be abolished for good under the new rules. Any divorce not ratified by a court decree will result in a sentence of up to three years' imprisonment.

Commendably, the UCC also simplifies adoption rules. Currently, non-Hindus cannot adopt under the Hindu Adoption and Maintenance Act. Christians and Muslims must use the more cumbersome Guardians and Wards Act, which does not grant full parental rights. A UCC would create a single, secular adoption framework.

The UCC Bill also mandates that children born of live-in relationships will be recognised as legitimate—and women will have the right to claim maintenance if abandoned by their partners.

Interestingly, there already is a law in Gujarat that mandates parental consent for a love marriage. No one can elope. As per government rules, parents will be notified via WhatsApp.

In principle, the UCC aims to promote equality and legal consistency, but implementing it in a diverse country like India brings manifold challenges. And the current political climate, as well as the UCC experience of many inter-caste, inter-faith couples and minorities in Uttarakhand suggest, the devil is in both the implementation and interpretation.

Subverting Secularism?

Concerns around religious freedom, minority rights, federal structure, and cultural diversity are likely to dominate the discourse. The strongest arguments in favour of the UCC focus on gender justice and equal rights for women given different religions currently accord different rights. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has reiterated that the UCC has been a long-standing party commitment and has been included in its election manifestos for 1998, 2019, and 2024.

Critics argue that, although the UCC seems fair and logical, it is neither truly uniform nor inclusive for all communities. For example, Muslims are prohibited from practising polygamy under the UCC, while tribals in Gujarat are exempt. This inconsistency has fuelled claims that the UCC is "anti-Muslim".

The BJP asserts that these exemptions are to protect tribal traditions from extinction. However, in Gujarat—a highly polarised and political state—the underlying motives are debatable.

Muslims constitute only 9.67 percent of Gujarat's population, while tribals constitute 14.8 percent. The tribal population in Gujarat is 6.2 percent more than the national average. Compared to this, the Muslim population in Gujarat is over 5.4 percent less than the national average. While there is not a single Muslim-majority seat among the total 182 Assembly seats in Gujarat, 27 of the 182 seats are reserved for Scheduled Tribes (STs). Beyond these, there are 47 seats where the ST population exceeds 10 percent of the electorate, of which 40 have tribal concentration above 20 percent and 31 above 30 percent.

Prominent human rights advocate Suhail Tirmizi, who practises at the Gujarat High Court, sounds convincing when he asks: If the push is for a UCC, why are tribals exempted while Muslims are not, even when some of their traditions are similar?

This inconsistency raises questions about equal treatment and the true intent behind the exemptions. Selective application and exclusion may create constitutional contradictions, he warns.

While welcoming the equal rights and protection that the UCC grants women, fellow human rights advocate Father Cedric Prakash raises the question of whether the UCC would clarify its impact on the Hindu Undivided Family (HUF) system, which enjoys specific tax benefits. He also asks whether the UCC would simplify the adoption process for non-Hindus seeking to adopt a Hindu child, besides emphasising the tribal exclusion.

The Gender Justice Peg

Eminent women's rights advocate and former Congress MP Amee Yajnik argues that the UCC is a diversionary tactic by the BJP to shift attention from significant women-related issues in Gujarat, such as empowerment, safety, and malnutrition.

Despite official claims, concerns remain about low female labour force participation, nutrition, health outcomes, and continued gender-based violence. Yajnik emphasises that legal uniformity alone does not automatically translate into empowerment, especially if underlying socio-economic conditions remain weak. She calls the Gujarat UCC "another BJP gimmick."

Congress Rajya Sabha MP Shaktisinh Gohil says he is not against the UCC per se, but that it "has to be based on inclusive dialogue, legal fairness, and cultural sensitivity".

"Any attempt to enforce a single set of laws without addressing the concerns of various communities would be unethical and illegal. India's pluralistic identity should be maintained while upholding constitutional values such as equality and justice. In the absence of broad-based consultation with communities, coupled with social consensus rather than legislative majoritarianism, the UCC will remain a constitutional vision rather than a fully practical reality."

Shaktisinh Gohil

Gohil claims the timing is of the essence, too, and in the present context, the Gujarat UCC appears more politically motivated than reform-driven. "The Congress has always maintained a consistent line: we do not oppose the idea of a UCC outright, but it cannot be imposed unilaterally," he reasons.

"The Muslim personal law discriminates against women by allowing practices such as polygamy, unequal inheritance, unilateral divorce, and denial of alimony," a senior BJP minister tells The Quint. He adds that gender justice and nationhood are the guiding principles behind the UCC provisions in Gujarat.

Politics of Uniformity vs Conformity

For the BJP, the UCC is more than just a governance measure. It will further cement its already consolidated Hindutva vote bank, besides reinforcing its image as the party that delivers—referencing Article 370, triple talaq, the Ram temple, and now the UCC as a chain of fulfilled pledges.

The Congress, which failed to even secure official Opposition status in the 2022 Gujarat Assembly elections, will find itself in a catch-22 situation. If the Congress opposes the UCC, it risks being labelled "anti-women" and "anti-reform" by the BJP's communications machine. If it supports it, it alienates its already dwindling minority voter base and dents its moral stand on secularism and pluralism. There is no clean exit.

Thankfully, though, for the Congress, there will not be enough time to debate the Bill. The BJP is all set to table the Bill on 24 March, and the Assembly session ends on 25 March.

Senior BJP leader and current Speaker of the Gujarat Assembly, Shankar Chaudhary, however, dismissed such notions. He said that the House will give the Opposition enough time and opportunity to discuss the Bill. No law in the House is enacted without a majority, but the Opposition must participate, he said.

Even as the majority BJP government is able to pass the UCC Bill without any major opposition in the Gujarat Assembly, the underlying constitutional tension between legal uniformity (Article 44) and religious freedom (Article 25) may spring up. But, as of now, it seems the Gujarat government and the high-powered committee that has submitted this report is ready with a solid defence.  

Critics apprehend that, without broad consensus and consultation, the UCC may reduce itself to a sarkari tool of cultural assimilation rather than herald genuine reform. Goa's seven-decade-old UCC model, for all its imperfections, is legitimised by decades of lived experience—something Gujarat's Bill has yet to achieve.

Conclusively, a truly uniform civil code, applied without prejudice, that reforms gender-discriminatory and rigid practices across all communities—Hindu, Muslim, Christian, and tribal alike—would be a legitimate step forward. But, a code that mirrors the majority community's practices while dismantling others' can claim to be uniform in name only.

(Deepal Trivedi is the CEO and Founder Editor Gujarat news portal of Vibes of India. She tweets at @DeepalTrevedie. This is an opinion piece, and the views expressed above are the author’s own. The Quint neither endorses nor is responsible for the same.)