India

India: Website launch for the Centre for Study of Society and Secularism

In 1993, concerned over growing communalism and the need to redefine the concept of secularism for a cohesive society, a group of eminent academics, social activists and prominent citizens mobilised and formed the CSSS.

India: Stand in solidarity with the women of Gujarat on 8th March

Urgent call for action.

India: Stand in solidarity with the women of Gujarat on 8th March

As you are probably planning activities around International Women’s Day, 8th March, WLUML strongly urges you to refocus international attention, protests and solidarity on the ongoing genocidal process taking place in the Indian state of Gujarat since late February 2002.

Dossier 22: The Need for Codification and Reform in Muslim Personal Law in India

The question of Muslim personal law has become not only a question of Muslim identity but also a question with deeper political implications. The Muslim leadership doggedly resist any reform in certain aspects of the law particularly pertaining to marriage and divorce and the Hindu communal leadership would not accept anything short of complete abolition of personal law pertaining to Muslims.

Dossier 20: Indian Islam and Reform Movements in Post-Independence India

We have to take stock of various developments which took place in India in last fifty years of our independence. It is also important to take stock of developments among Muslims in this period, especially with reference to reform movements in Indian Islam.

India opted to be a secular country and this decision had several repercussions. Right at the stage of constitution making there were debates about uniform civil code. There were heated discussions. Muslim members opposed adoption of uniform civil code. Ultimately a compromised was accepted.

Dossier 18: Customary Practices Among Muslims in Gomia, Bihar

Background

Bihar is among the most socially and economically backward states in India. Social inequality in Bihar is amply visible. In order to illustrate the socio-economic context within which underprivileged groups (including Muslim communities) exist in Bihar, it is necessary to highlight a few statistics from the state. While there does not exist a direct causal relationship between customary practice and socio-economic conditions, both are also not mutually exclusive.

Dossier 18: Lihaf* (The Quilt)

Editor’s note: This famous short story by the late Ismat Chugtai (1915-1991) was written in 1941 and banned by the then State Government on charges of obscenity. Ismat Chugtai challenged this decision and won her law suit.

Dossier 14-15: The Campaign for Women’s Emancipation in an Ismaili Shia (Daudi Bohra) Sect of Indian Muslims: 1929-1945

Introduction

At the beginning of the women’s emancipation struggle among the Muslims of the Indian sub-continent access to education and the campaign against Purdah were the main points. The late nineteenth and the first half of the twentieth centuries were characterized by considerable debate on these issues in the Muslim community, throughout India. The reform effort by men on behalf of women was sparked by the considerable progress made by other communities in India and was inspired by changes taking place in Muslim countries of the Middle East.

India: Militants set deadline for women to quit jobs

A militant group in Rajouri has asked Muslim women to quit their jobs by January 25 and stay home, or face punishment, including death.

India/USA: The foreign exchange of hate

A detailed investigative report on the use of American corporate funds by the US based India Development and Relief Fund to promote the projects of Hindu supremacist groups in India.