October 19th, 2008 — Education, Experiences, Society
Understanding our own emotions is the most powerful method to controlling yourselves. Emotions control most of our decisions and if we can control our emotions, we can control our involuntary decision making process (impulsive actions). It might sound simple, but understanding needs knowledge of emotions, its causes and likely reactions and the impact of the reactions on others.
Here is a simple example. Most of us will be uncomfortable if our girl friend is seen having a nice conversation with someone else and particularly is she seems to enjoy it. Our typical reaction would be to talk to her about it and ask her to stop. Really stupid ones will interfere then and there and will make himself look awkward. All of this exposes the insecurity feeling and will have a bad impression on the relationship.
But if we are aware of such a relationship problem, we can easily detect it slowly forming inside ourselves, and consciously avoid a possibly damaging impulsive reaction. The same is true for all sorts of emotions. Love, hatred, jealousy, anger, insecurity, excitement, pride etc. This technique is very helpful to deal with the negative emotions.
I am of the opinion that basics of human psychology should be taught in schools. Students should be presented with case studies of real life situations that they might encounter with, in the future and ways to deal with them. This might help our future generation and society a lot.
You become God when you understand yourselves fully.
Share This
Tags:
emotions,
Love,
Society
Related posts
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!
October 6th, 2008 — Politics, Society
So, from the first post, it is clear that the constitution unambiguously calls for a uniform civil code throughout the territory of India. But why do we have all these different laws, even though we are an independent nation whose laws are guided by the constitution? The key to the answer lies in the history of these laws.
These laws were created and enacted, mostly during the early periods of the British rule in India and when India became independent, these laws were carried forward from the British India, meant to be corrected and amended in the years to come. The fact that nobody had the courage and determination to do that is a different question. Nevertheless, when you look at the origin of these laws, we can see that Britain, a country with a uniform civil code that does not discriminate on the basis of religion, has allowed and encouraged a separate legal system based on religion. We can easily see that this is just an extension of the British Empire’s governing principle of divide et impera (Divide and Rule) manifesting itself in making the people believe that they are different from others in the eye of the government because they belong to a particular religion.
Even so, one may ask why a common civil code has not yet been implemented. It almost looks as if there is some legal issues with that. The answer is NO. There are no legal issues. In fact, the apex court of justice in India, the Supreme court has come out time and again urging the government to enact a unified civil code. For example, in the infamous Shah Bano case of 1986, the Supreme court has observed that:
OBSERVATION (Article 44 of our Constitution has remained a dead letter. There is no evidence of any official activity for framing a common civil code for the country. A common Civil Code will help the cause of national integration by removing disparate loyalties to laws which have conflicting ideologies. It is the State which incharged with the duty of securing a uniform civil code for the citizens of the country and, unquestionably, it has the legislative competence to do so. A beginning has to be made if the Constitution is to have any meaning.
In any case, these observations are not legally binding with the government to start legislating and enacting a uniform civil code and hence nothing has been done on this field so far. But why has it not been done so far? In the ’50s, there were some initiatives for this law reform, but Hindu right wing, led by the parties that were predecessors of current BJP opposed the reform of the Hindu law and this stumbling block led the legislation to be shelved. In a deep dark corner of the shelf, that is: almost forgotten.
Ironically, incidents like the Shah Bano case prompted the same people to be impassioned supporters of the rights of Muslim women. Later, they wholeheartedly became the proponents of a unified civil code. However, the Congress party, which was in power most of the time in the first four decades after Indian independence has always been detrimental to the vision of the architects of the constitution. In case of the Shah Bano case, the Rajiv Gandhi government, with its absolute majority, passed the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Divorce) Act, 1986 which diluted the secular judgment of the Supreme Court and, in reality, denied even utterly destitute Muslim divorcees the right to alimony from their former husbands.
Thus, this legislation, that is guided by the constitution, but has been postponed for decades became more and more difficult to be done. With the age of absolute majorities bygone, it has become difficult for the move to gather enough support within the Parliament to be successful. Also, for historical reasons, this demand has come to have acquired a communal tone and many partners in the coalition governments that have become the norm, are wary of the cause because of obvious vote bank concerns. We can only hope that we bridge all these gaps and finally make good of the promise given to the people by the founding fathers.
Sources:
1. Background on Shah Bano Case
2. Shah Bano Judgment
3. Analysis of the judgment
Share This
Tags:
british india,
common civil code,
constitution,
court of justice,
domestic avalanche,
national integration,
observation,
politics,
Society,
supreme court,
unified civil code,
uniform civil code
Related posts
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!
October 5th, 2008 — Politics, Society
The term civil code is used to cover the entire body of laws governing rights relating to property and otherwise in personal matters like marriage, divorce, maintenance, adoption and inheritance. The call for a uniform civil code for India has been gaining traction from all avenues of the society. As a modern society, we really need to come up with a unified civil code for leading our country to the next millennium and beyond.
However, there is a big controversy about the topic whenever the issue comes up at any venue. So what is the true nature behind all these? Let us examine the situation starting with Indian Constitution which is and should be the basis of all laws in India. The article 14 of the Indian Constitution is as follows.
Right to Equality
14. The State shall not deny to any person equality before the law or the equal protection of the laws within the territory of India.
Then the question arises, why is that there are different sets of laws that govern different people, all citizens of India, mind you. Let me explain the current state of laws in India. As far as the Criminal Laws are concerned, everyone is subjected to the same code, known as the Indian Penal Code. However, the civil code of India is a mess of different sets of laws according to what religion that they follow. We have a) The Hindu Law (which covers Sikhs, Jains and Buddhists), b) Muslim Personal Law, c) Christian Personal Law and Parsee Civil Law. This itself is a blatant violation of the article 15 of the Indian constitution that says
15. (1) The State shall not discriminate against any citizen on grounds only of religion, race, caste, sex, place of birth or any of them.
There are inherent inequalities built into these various civil codes. A classic example is that the Muslim Personal Law allows the Muslim women to inherit only half of that of men. One does not have to be a constitutional lawyer to see that it violates the 15th article. If you go into the marriage and divorce areas, these different civil codes take a quick turn to absurdity. So, the call for a uniform civil code asks for unifying all these different personal laws and coming up with a single secular civil code that is applicable to all the citizens of India, regardless of sex, caste or religion.
As human beings and citizens under the same tricolor flag, and abiding by the same constitution, I feel that we all should be subjected to the same laws. This is the only way that we can fulfill the vision of the founding fathers of the country as they were drafting the constitution to enable this young country with tens of thousands of years of rich and varied heritage to set forth on a path of freedom and equality so that we may be called as the best country ever in history. Are you still unconvinced that the constitution asked for a unified civil code? Well have a look at the Article 44 of the constitution that says:
44. The State shall endeavor to secure for the citizens a uniform civil code throughout the territory of India.
So, there is no excuse for denying all the citizens of India, what is promised by our constitution.
Source : Constitution of India
Share This
Tags:
civil law,
common civil code,
domestic avalanche,
hindu law,
indian constitution,
indian penal code,
muslim personal law,
muslim women,
Society,
unified civil code,
uniform civil code
Related posts
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!
