Under the pretext of an ‘anti-Bangladeshi’ drive, Bengaluru (Rural) Police on May 21, 2022 raided a settlement of Bengali Muslim migrants located in Sarjapura, Anugondanahalli and Hebbagodi police limits and destroyed their property.

According to The News Minute, the police launched a fresh drive to identify and extradite undocumented Bangladeshi migrants in the outskirts of the state capital. However, with no method of distinguishing a Bangladeshi from an Indian Bengali, authorities allegedly switched their focus on dwellings of Muslim migrants. Those who bore the brunt of this arbitrary decision were the Bengali-speaking Muslim migrants.

Speaking to TNM, they said the police resorted to unprovoked violence, damaged property and targeted people based on their religion. Residents said the police barged in with batons and demanded that the people leave the area immediately. The settlement houses 30 Bengali Muslim families who work for the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) for collection and segregation of garbage. Some even accused men police officers of frisking women. TNM also reported that the Anagondanahalli police ordered the people to leave the city even after looking at their Aadhaar cards and other documents proving their Indian identity.

This is in sharp contrast to the treatment of Dommasandra ‘s Bengali Hindus. These BBMP waste collectors and segregators also suffered a raid from the police. However, the 26 or so families were left alone after they showed the police proving them to be Hindu migrants. All of these migrants belong to the Malda-Murshidabad region of West Bengal. Yet as per Hindu and Muslim accounts, the officials only targeted the Muslim migrants.

With this, Bengaluru adds to a growing list of incidents where Muslims neighbourhoods have been subjected to forced evictions under claims of anti-encroachment drives or anti-infiltrators drives, etc., usually as an alleged retaliatory measure. Such eviction started in Khargone after the Ram Navami violence where even houses sanctioned under government schemes were not spared. Later, there were demolition drives in Jahangirpuri, Delhi in wake of the Hanuman Jayanti violence. The Supreme Court ordered status quo on the demolition, but the municipality continued hours after the order was given. There were also attempts to demolish structures in Shaheen Bagh but the people gathered and prevented this from happening. Still the demolition continued in Okhla. Recently, the homes of three Muslims were also demolished in Assam’s Nagaon district. There the affected families were involved in an alleged arson incident after a local fish-seller Safiqul Islam was allegedly killed in custody by the police.

In all these cases, the demolition drives took place in BJP-led states. This includes the recent action against Bengali Muslim migrants in Bengaluru. Further, in all these situations, the police refuted allegations of any targeted eviction.

Bengaluru Rural Superintendent of Police (SP) Kona Vamsi Krishna said there was absolutely no question of targeting. He claimed the police were only conducting preliminary identification drives and asking questions. Regarding documents, Krishna said such documents could easily be fake. He did not elaborate on police measures to verify nationality otherwise, said TNM.

The last major police crackdown like this in the city was in 2019. Many of these workers who provide crucial workforce for the city’s functioning migrated out of the city. However, these incidents are being reported across India.

Related:

Assam: Police station burnt down after fish-seller’s alleged custodial death, bulldozers flatten attacker’s homes
Evolution of Bulldozer Injustice
Jahangirpuri Demolition: SC to take “serious view of demolitions after Mayor was informed of order”
Madhya Pradesh’s Home Minister blames Muslims for Ram Navami day violence, justifies mass demolitions

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Image Courtesy: Hindustan Times

The apex court started hearing the case on a day to day basis from August 6, after no headway was made in mediations by the July 31 deadline. The case is being heard by a Constitution bench comprising Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi, Justice SA Bobde, Justice DY Chandrachud, Justice Ashok Bhushan and Justice Abdul Nazeer.

The Nirmohi Akhara is one of the petitioners who moved SC against the 2010 Allahabad High Court judgement that had trifurcated and equally divided the 2.77 acre land among three parties: the deity, Nirmohi Akhada and the Sunni Waqf Board. Yesterday, the Akhada had claimed ownership based on possession. But when the court today asked for revenue records to establish possession over the disputed site, the Akhada failed to provide any documents and claimed that the documents were lost in a dacoity in 1982. Finding them unprepared, the court moved on to hearing other petitioners.
 

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Archived from Communalism Combat, November-December 2002 Year 9  No. 81-82, Recommendations, Short Term,

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Divorce may no longer be  such a traumatic experience for women in Bangladesh. If the country adopts  the Uniform Family code (UFC), women will have a greater say in marriage, divorce, maintenance, inheritance and child custody. The proposed uniform family code seeks to reform existing family laws to make them more humane and beneficial to women. By reforming laws to end discrimination against women in these matters, the UFC seeks to give equal rights to women belonging to all religions. 

The UFC, which is presently under consideration by the government, is the brainchild of the Bangladesh Mahila Parishad (BMP). The BMP has been working for women’s rights over the last 30 years. “We realised that women are subject to oppression and discrimination in matters relating to personal rights. They are also denied access to opportunities for development, despite the Constitution guaranteeing equality to men and women,” explains Ayesha Khanam, general secretary, BMP. 

Since they provided legal aid, BMP members were conversant with all laws, particularly those relating to women. According to Khanam, although 85 per cent of the population in the country is Muslim, the demand for a uniform family code cuts across all religions. “Although laws for women do exist, like the Cruelty to Women Ordinance, Dowry Prohibition Act, and the Family Court Ordinance, structural weaknesses limit their efficacy,” contends Khanam. It is these limitations that the UFC hopes to redress. 

In the first part, which deals with marriage and divorce, the UFC makes it mandatory for every marriage and divorce to be registered. It also lays down the minimum age of marriage for boys at 22 years and for girls at 18. “Many girls are married as soon as they reach puberty, sometimes even earlier. These are rarely, if at all, registered. So the girls are deprived of their rights if they are abandoned or divorced by their husbands. If marriages and divorces are registered, it will give women legal grounds to get what is rightfully theirs,” points out barrister–at–law Tania Amir. 

In a bid towards gender equality, the UFC gives women equal rights to property acquired during the course of the marriage. The UFC also outlines grounds for divorce for both men and women. While there are eight grounds on which men can claim divorce, women have 10. 

Besides the usual reasons like immorality, impotency, and physical and mental torture for which women can claim divorce, the UFC also puts down dowry demands as a valid ground. Inability to pay maintenance for two years or disappearing for the same period also gives women reason to demand divorce. In fact, even if the husband is addicted to drugs of any sort, divorce claims are valid. A husband can also ask for a divorce in the event of his wife being a drug addict. 

However, although the UFC gives husbands the right to seek divorce if the wife is a lesbian, it does not give women the same right if their husbands are gay. Says Khanam, “This aspect could be looked into later. We first want men and women to understand that a woman cannot be divorced merely on the whims of her husband. The reasons have to be in accordance with the laws. Women are often taken for a ride because of their ignorance.”
In the second part, the UFC provides for maintenance to become compulsory and uniform, thus transcending religious customs and traditional laws. While laying down the grounds for maintenance, it also outlines the course of action that can be taken if the maintenance amount is not paid. 

“The number of abandoned women is on the rise,” contends Farida Arif, executive director of the SERWTCI Trust, a quasi-governmental body that looks after the socio–economic development of distressed women. 
“Organisations like ours try to make women economically independent. But if maintenance becomes their right by law, their aspirations for self–sufficiency will become greater and reduce their dependency on others,” says Arif. 
The third part of the UFC deals with the appointment of guardians of minors and lays out eligibility conditions for guardians and their duties and rights. It also provides for regulating the conduct of guardians if they act against the welfare of the minor or the property they have been nominated to protect. 

The uniform law of adoption forms the fourth part of the UFC. It simplifies adoption procedures for married couples. But it has still not made a provision allowing single women or men to adopt children if they so desire. 
The most important aspect of the UFC is the uniform law of inheritance. Property rights are often the most contentious. This law lays down that women, whether married or unmarried, shall have equal rights to property. In fact, it also makes provisions for children born out of wedlock — it gives them the right to their maternal property. 

“Property rights are one of the most important tools for empowering women. This helps them control their resources and become independent,” avers Aroma Dutta, chief of the PRIP Trust, a Dhaka–based non–governmental organisation (NGO) working towards women’s empowerment. 
New dreams and aspirations are stirring within Bangladeshi women. Education is helping more women realise that they are entitled to certain rights under the Constitution. But since structural contradictions of laws still exist, reforms are imperative to make these dreams come true. 

Women’s organisations pushing for the UFC have received considerable political support, not just from the coalition parties in power but also from the Opposition led by former premier Begum Zia. Since a woman Prime Minister, Sheikh Hasina, is in the saddle at present, hopes are high that the Uniform Family Code will be adopted soon. 

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According to the teachings of Islam, marriage is a social contract between two consenting adults for which no moulvi or kaazi is essential. All that is needed are two Muslims respected by the local community, willing to be witnesses to the contract between a man and a woman to marry each other on mutually agreed terms. But because the poor Muslim does not know this (or chooses to be ignorant), he continues to be a slave of the moulvi saheb anyway.

Why blame the poor moulvi saheb alone? The moment he puts his signature on the nikaahnama (wedding document), his role is over. This is because while a Muslim male marries in an ‘Islamic’ way he divorces in a totally ‘secular’ fashion. A post-card, a telegram, now an e–mail, is all that he needs to snap the marital bond without a moment’s notice either to his wife or to any moulvi saheb. 

And once the post-card, telegram or e–mail has been served on the hapless wife, even a well–intentioned moulvi saheb is totally helpless because of his belief that though socially abhorrent, the triple talaaq practice is theologically unobjectionable. Even if he were to subsequently intervene and convince the errant male to rethink, its too late. The only way out for the summarily divorced wife is to find another man who will marry her, consummate the marriage and give her an instant talaaq. Only then can she remarry her first husband.

Make no mistake. The moulvi sahebs and the kazis who adorn the All–India Muslim Personal Law Board are no hermits who need a ‘dialogue’ with this or that group of Muslim women to become aware of the plight of Muslim women. If indeed they are concerned with Islam getting a bad name, they should ask themselves why they so obstinately continue to resist change. One has only to go through the preceding two articles to realise how far the Muslim woman in India is behind her sister even from ‘backward’ Bangladesh. 

Be it Bangladesh, Pakistan, Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia, or any other Muslim society, one thing is obvious. In each of these countries, the impetus for pro–women reforms has come from other societal or state institutions, while the bulk of the clergy remains opposed to change. How can it be otherwise in case of India?
As in all other organised religions, the Muslim clergy, too, is entirely male-dominated. And its but natural that a male-centred body — be it a ‘Men Only’ club or a religious body — will be male–oriented in thought and in deed. 

No one can deny that when Islam was born, the teachings of the Quran and the sayings of the Prophet were radically pro-women, far in advance of the then prevailing social ethos. But we are not talking here of Islam or its Prophet. We are talking instead of the male–dominated Muslim clergy that through the centuries has subverted the egalitarian thrust of the Quran in the matter of man–woman relations. The MPLB is part of that subversive tradition. 

It is not to be denied that some men of religion, who occupy important positions in the MPLB hierarchy, are genuinely concerned about the pathetic plight of Muslim women in India. But to expect such a body to be an agent for change is to ask for a miracle. To believe that the same clergy that has been the bulwark of patriarchy, orthodoxy, conservatism and worse, elsewheres in the world will through some magical process in India be the harbinger of change.

Archived from Communalism Combat, May 2001 Year 8  No. 69, Cover Story 5

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