Communalism
Inadequate reportage, no shortage of opinion: Where does Big Media stand on the hijab row? By Kalpana Sharma 17 Feb, 2022 https://www.newslaundry.com/2022/02/17/inadequate-reportage-no-shortage-of-opinion-where-does-big-media-stand-on-the-hijab-row Misinterpreting the high court’s order, fanning the flames, the rare nuanced take – we saw it all.
It began on December 28, when six students of the Women's Government Pre-University College in Udupi were not allowed to enter their classroom wearing a hijab. Now, with the arguments being heard currently in the Karnataka High Court, the controversy poses several challenges to the media.
Will the media help tamp down emotions or add fuel to the fire that has already been lit? Will it, as seems inevitable in the highly polarised communal situation prevailing in Karnataka and elsewhere, ratchet up the blame game, creating false binaries such as Muslims vs Hindus, hijab vs saffron, etc? Or will it report with responsibility and context?
Soon, politics took over. The Campus Front of India, which is affiliated to the Social Democratic Party of India, spoke up on behalf of the Muslim students in Udupi. It was only a matter of time before other actors entered the fray, principally the Hindu Jagarana Vedike, which is a part of the Sangh Parivar and has been active on a number of incendiary communal issues in Udupi and nearby districts of Karnataka. This region has been in the news for years with such right-wing groups hounding Hindu-Muslim couples and raising the bogey of “love jihad”.
This report (TNM investigation: How Hindutva group mobilised saffron-clad students at Udupi college :) in the News Minute is particularly revelatory as it establishes that what was attempted to be portrayed as a spontaneous reaction by Hindu students to the demand of Muslim students for their rights was, in fact, stage-managed. The scarves and turbans were made available, and then collected once the media had given the demonstration coverage.
Civil Society New, New Delhi
Published: Feb. 29, 2024
SOCIAL reforms have for long eluded Indian Muslims because of an obdurate clergy. Among the few willing to take them on has been Zakia Soman and women activists of the Bharatiya Muslim Mahila Andolan working with her. But their efforts have met with little success and the established order has been able to brush them off. https://civilsocietyonline.com/interviews/ucc-is-right-on-polygamy-wrong-on-moral-policing/
Now, a law ushering in a Uniform Civil Code (UCC) in Uttarakhand does away with polygamy, sets 18 as the marriageable age for girls and, in addition to the earlier abolition of triple talaq, outlaws unilateral divorce.
Soman says she has no option but to welcome the UCC in the absence of voluntary reforms within the Muslim community. But she worries about social issues being used for political ends by the BJP. Moral policing is also a matter of concern. The UCC is both good and bad in parts, she says in an interview to Civil Society.
Uttarakhand thus becomes the first state in independent India to pass a common law on marriage, divorce, inheritance and even live-in relationships between two consenting adults. https://thewire.in/government/talking-uniform-civil-code
According to the note which seems to have been disregarded, the Bill was built along the patriarchal Hindu law template and retained several discriminatory aspects that would deny women an equal agency . The leaders of the Muslim community have also protested over the UCC overtaking Muslim personal laws. The new law lacks clarity for both groups and that may cause heavy snarls when it is implemented.
It seems to promote intrusive moral policing and may result in discriminatory harassment of adults in a relationship that has been considered autonomous and consensual. Some of the rules may become clearer when gazetted but the compulsory registration of live-in relationships is full of explosive landmines.
by Mrinal Pande
12/02/2024
Justice for All, Not One Law for All: What the Constitution Says on Uniform Civil Code https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LeDow2aEAJA Dil se with Kapil Sibal.
The Nagaland assembly has unanimously adopted a resolution against a Uniform Civil Code (UCC), seeking an exemption for the state if such a Code is brought in. The Bharatiya Janata Party is a partner in the Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party-led government in the state.
The resolution stated that the apparent objective of a UCC “is to have a single law on personal matters such as marriage and divorce, custody and guardianship, adoption and maintenance, succession and inheritance”. This would pose a threat to Naga customary laws and social and religious practices “that will be in danger of encroachment in the event of imposition of UCC”,
13/09/2023
Subcategories
Hate Crime
Hate Speech / Incitement to violence
Hate Speech Maharashtra
PUCL Maharashtra has decided to showcase information on Hate Speech in Maharashtra as presented in the different websites, social media of Civil Society organisations and concerned individuals. Each one has their own style of documentation and each one is a shining node. We hope to have a decentralised platform which will valorise whatever work individuals an organisations are doing, such that while they do their regular work of posting, creating websites, blogs, data directories, such that it can be searched, and researched, and help activist (information activist, if you will) curate this content into learning modules, state of the art reports.. letting a thousand nodes glow.
250811-Jalgaon-lynching of Pathan after being seen with Hindu woman at cafe
A 21-year-old Muslim man was on Monday beaten to death allegedly by members of a Hindutva group in the town of Jamner in Maharashtra’s Jalgaon district. The perpetrators allegedly assaulted Suleman Rahim Khan Pathan after he was seen with a Hindu woman from the same village at a cafe
250114-Yavatmal
Two Muslim-owned restaurants in Wani, Yavatmal, were forcibly shut down by members of the Bajrang Dal
2501XX-Mumbai-Kurla
At the “Samrast Yatra” event in Kurla, Mumbai, organised by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and Bajrang Dal, a Jain monk disseminated hate speech rife with anti-Muslim propaganda.
250200-Rane
Rane’s speeches continued throughout the month of February, spreading more hateful conspiracy theories, and even suggesting that if Muslims “looked at Hindus in an incorrect manner,” they would face consequences. He stated that, “Our government is very bad. What is going on around I am aware of everything. You don’t have to struggle. Wherever something wrong is happening, wherever someone tries to slaughter a cow, wherever someone tries to smuggle, wherever green snakes try to wriggle, just make one call, and leave the rest of the arrangements to me., https://cjp.org.in/the-role-of-leaders-in-spreading-divisive-rhetoric/