Suchergebnisse

Given the popularity and success of the Hindu-Right in India's electoral politics today, how may one study ostensibly 'Western' concepts and ideas, such as the secular and its family of cognates, like secularism, secularisation and secularity in non-Western societies without assuming them simply as derivative, or colonial legacies or contrast cases of Western societies? While recognizing that the dominant language of political modernity of Western societies is not easily translatable in non-Western societies, The Secular Imaginary elaborates upon an intellectual history of secularity in modern India by focusing on the two most influential political leaders - M.K. Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru. It is an intellectual history of both idea(s) and intellectuals, which sheds light on Indian narratives of secularity - the Gandhian sarva dharma samabhava, Nehruvian secularism, and unity in diversity. It revisits this dominant narrative of secularity of the twentieth century that influenced and shaped the imagination of the modern nation-state.

This paper is an examination of a new turn in the practice of multiculturalism in India observed by legal and political theorists who have challenged the long-standing argument of multiculturalists that personal laws in India inhibit "gender-equalizing" changes. Recent literature on Muslim Personal Law points out that the demand placed by religion on women through the promulgation of the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Divorce) Act, 1986 has not meant an abridgment of the democratic rights of Muslim women. In recent scholarship this impugned law has been viewed as more salutary for women, as this codified Islamic law has prevented destitution of women more effectively than secular state law. By making an analysis of case law on the maintenance of divorced Muslim women in the High Courts and the Supreme Court of India, this paper examines the claim that the Muslim Women's Act is a gender-just personal law. It thereby examines how the Indian judiciary has balanced the demands of religion and gender justice in delivering judgments on maintenance for Muslim divorcees who are governed by their religious law after the enactment of the Muslim Women's Act in 1986.

This paper is an examination of a new turn in the practice of multiculturalism in India observed by legal and political theorists who have challenged the long-standing argument of multiculturalists that personal laws in India inhibit "gender-equalizing" changes. Recent literature on Muslim Personal Law points out that the demand placed by religion on women through the promulgation of the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Divorce) Act, 1986 has not meant an abridgment of the democratic rights of Muslim women. In recent scholarship this impugned law has been viewed as more salutary for women, as this codified Islamic law has prevented destitution of women more effectively than secular state law. By making an analysis of case law on the maintenance of divorced Muslim women in the High Courts and the Supreme Court of India, this paper examines the claim that the Muslim Women's Act is a gender-just personal law. It thereby examines how the Indian judiciary has balanced the demands of religion and gender justice in delivering judgments on maintenance for Muslim divorcees who are governed by their religious law after the enactment of the Muslim Women's Act in 1986. (Asien/GIGA)