Debating Patriarchy: An excerpt

Fri, 25 Jun 2021 09:22:53 +0000

The decade of 1940s was a vital decade in Indian history. The nation was bestowed with the unprecedented opportunity to transform itself as a modern nation. To build a modern nation,  a variety of economic, political, social and cultural factors had to come to terms with each other. The vision of planned economic development and self reliance within a curious mixture of socialism and capitalism led to the evolution of political structures within the ambit a democratic set up. As economic and political forces reconfigured themselves to contribute towards the emergence of the modern economy, the cultural milieu also experienced the need for alignment to the aspirations of an emerging nation. The protracted debate over the Hindu Code Bill with widespread participation across all regions and segments of the Indian society between 1941 and 1956, known as the Hindu Code Bill debate, epitomised the necessity of the society to strike an alliance with the forces of modernization. Customary Hindu laws, frozen in religious beliefs of centuries, came to be challenged by the egalitarian, secular structure envisioned by the leaders of the modern Indian nation. The extensive  Hindu Code Bill debate, in both public and legislative spheres, was of momentous importance to the entire project of carving a new, secular India. It was the debate that contributed to the family law reforms that influenced, to a great extent, the distribution of power and resources within the society, particularly at a granular level, within the family and enabled Indian society to align with the planned economic progress and modernisation.