Uniform Civil Code, Identity politics and the gender equality

Context

• Once again there is a clamour to replace diverse personal laws with a Uniform Civil Code (UCC), applicable to all Indians, irrespective of religion, gender or caste. Some states (for example, Uttarakhand) are already drafting one.

What is a Uniform Civil Code?

• A Uniform Civil Code is one that would provide for one law for the entire country, applicable to all religious communities in their personal matters such as marriage, divorce, inheritance, adoption, etc.
• Article 44, one of the directive principles of the Constitution lays down that the state shall endeavor to secure a Uniform Civil Code for the citizens throughout the territory of India.
• These, as defined in Article 37, are not justiciable (not enforceable by any court) but the principles laid down therein are fundamental in governance.

Inheritance laws at present

• Hindus are governed by the 2005 Hindu Succession Amendment Act (HSAA);
• Muslims by the Muslim Personal Law (Shariat) Application Act, 1937;
• Christians and Parsis by the Indian Succession Act 1925 (amended by both communities subsequently), and
• Tribal groups are still subject to custom.

What makes unification difficult?

• Distinction in Hindu inheritance laws: Hindu inheritance distinguishes between separate property and coparcenary joint family property, giving coparceners rights by birth. No other personal law makes this distinction.
• Within Hindu law itself, states diverge: Kerala abolished joint family property altogether in 1976, but other states retained it, and matrilineal Hindus (as in Meghalaya and Kerala) have different inheritance rules from patrilineal Hindus. Even among the latter, Hindus historically governed by Dayabhagha (West Bengal and Assam) differ from those in the rest of India who were governed historically by Mitakshara.
• unrestricted right to will: The right to will is unrestricted among Hindus, Christians and Parsis, but Muslim law restricts wills to one-third of the property; and Sunni and Shia Muslims differ on who can get such property and with whose consent.
• Complex gender equal laws specifically in Muslims: for while the inheritance laws of Hindus, Christians and Parsis are largely gender equal today, under Muslim personal law, based on the Shariat, women’s shares are less than men’s, generically. Being embedded in the Koran, this complex structure of rules leaves little scope for reform towards gender equality.
• Land is treated differently from other property: The HSAA 2005, for instance, deleted the clause which discriminated against women in agricultural land, but the 1937 Shariat Act governing Muslims continues to exclude agricultural land from its purview, leaving a major source of gender inequality intact. Although Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala later amended the Shariat Act to include agricultural land, in many other states, landed property is still subject to tenurial laws which exclude Muslim women from inheriting it, contrary to their rights under the Shariat.
• Social justifications on who deserves to inherit differ: Hindus emphasise sapinda (“shared body particles” in Mitakshara and religious efficacy in Dayabhaga); other communities privilege blood or marital ties; and yet others favour proximity of children’s post-marital residence to provide parents care in old age.

Main concern: Deflection from the original aim of Gender equality

• Today, the UCC debate has become enmeshed with identity politics, deflecting it from the original aim of gender equality. And the mingling of legal reform with religious identity has sharpened political divisiveness.

Answer probably lies in: The discussions among women’s groups in the 1990s

1. Encourage each religious community to pursue its own reform for gender equality.
2. Constitute a package of gender-just laws which would coexist with personal laws, and a person could choose one or the other upon reaching adulthood.
3. Constitute a gender-equal civil code applicable to all citizens without option, based on the constitutional promise of gender equality, rather than on religious decree or custom.

Conclusion

• For a start, rather than one code covering inheritance, marriage, etc., we should discuss each separately. On inheritance, which is the most complex, a secular law based on constitutional rights will clearly go the farthest towards gender equality. Whether this is possible in today’s divisive political environment remains an open question. But at least we should restart the conversation.

‘Emergency powers’ for online content

The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) directed YouTube and Twitter to take down links sharing the BBC documentary ‘India: The Modi Question.’ The order was passed under the emergency provisions of the Information Technology Rules, 2021, for allegedly casting “as persions on the authority and credibility of the Supreme Court of India, sowing divisions among various communities, and making unsubstantiated allegations regarding actions of foreign governments in India”.

What are the emergency provisions?

1. Under the Information Technology Rules, 2021 (IT Rules, 2021), the MIB has powers to issue content takedown notices to social media intermediaries like YouTube, Twitter and Facebook in emergency situations “for which no delay is acceptable”.
2. The Rules say that “In case of emergency nature, the Secretary, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting may, if he is satisfied that it is necessary or expedient and justifiable for blocking for public access of any information or part thereof through any computer resource and…as an interim measure issue such directions as he may consider necessary to such identified or identifiable persons, publishers or intermediary in control of such computer resource hosting such information or part thereof without giving him an opportunity of hearing.”
3. These emergency notices can be issued if the MIB believes that the content can impact the sovereignty, integrity, defence, or security of India, friendly relations with foreign states or public order, or to prevent incitement to any cognisable offence.

What can users whose content has been impacted do?

1. While the IT Rules, 2021 prescribe recourse options for users, those are limited to actions taken by a social media company.
2. For instance, if a platform has on its own taken down some content, the user can approach the grievance officer of the platform to raise a dispute, which they are to redress within 15 days.
3. However, if a platform has taken down content on the basis of the emergency provisions in the Rules, the legislation does not offer any direct recourse. The only option users have in this case is to approach courts.

SC hearings on passive euthanasia

The Supreme Court agreed to modify its existing guidelines to make India’s “living will” — a written statement that details a person’s desire regarding future medical procedures — to make it less cumbersome. During its hearings, a Constitution Bench pulled up the central government for not making a law on “living wills”. The apex court had legalised passive euthanasia in 2018 and had held the “right to die with dignity” as part of the fundamental “Right to Life” under Article 21 of the Constitution.

What is euthanasia?

1. Euthanasia is the act of deliberately putting an end to a person’s life in order to eliminate pain or suffering.
2. Some ethicists differentiate between active and passive euthanasia. Active euthanasia, or assisted suicide, is the act of deliberately and actively doing something, such as injecting a lethal dose of a drug, to end a person’s life.
3. The Missouri School of Medicine defines passive euthanasia as “intentionally letting a patient die by withholding artificial life support such as a ventilator or a feeding tube.”
4. While the Supreme Court first tackled the question of whether the “Right to Life” includes the “right to die” in P Rathinam vs Union of India (1994) and Gian Kaur V State of Punjab (1996), it wasn’t until 2011 that debate gathered steam in its present form — whether a person who’s in a vegetative state could be euthanised.
5. In her petition before the Supreme Court, activist and author Pinki Virani asked for permission to pull out the life support of Aruna Shanbaug, a nurse who had by then spent nearly 40 years in a vegetative state after she was raped in 1973. 

Aruna Shanbaug and what the SC said

1. Shanbaug, formerly a nurse at King Edwards Hospital in Bombay, was sexually assaulted at the age of 25. She died of natural causes in 2015.
2. Although the 2011 petition to stop administering life-supporting drugs to her was dismissed, it helped the court come to its SC’s 2018 landmark verdict.
3. In that case, a Constitution Bench headed by the Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra drew the distinction between active and passive euthanasia.
4. “Active euthanasia entails the use of lethal substances or forces to kill a person, e.g. a lethal injection… Passive euthanasia entails withholding of medical treatment for continuance of life, e.g. withholding of antibiotics where without giving it, a patient is likely to die,” the court said.
5. By rejecting outright the use of active euthanasia to end life through administration of lethal substances, the apex court thereby laid down stringent guidelines under which passive euthanasia would be legally allowed via a high court-monitored mechanism, the court said.

Issue of ‘living wills’ in India

1. Although the 2018 SC order recognises passive euthanasia, the procedure on living wills has been seen as time-consuming.
2. Currently, the law states a living will should be signed in the presence of two attesting witnesses and affirmed by a judicial magistrate. In case the executor — that is, the person for whom the will is made — becomes terminally ill, a doctor overseeing treatment is mandated to constitute a board of three experts.
3. The experts must be from the fields of general medicine, neurology, psychiatry, oncology, cardiology, or nephrology with at least 20 years of experience in the medical field.
4. The medical board will decide whether to certify whether to carry out the instructions in the living will. However, this is only a preliminary opinion — once the hospital board grants permission, it asks the appropriate district collector for its sanction.
5. The collector will form a medical board comprising the chief district medical Officer and three expert doctors. If the board agrees with the hospital’s findings, the decision will be communicated to the appropriate judicial magistrate before the decision is implemented.

India entry for UNESCO World Heritage tag

Assam’s Charaideo Moidams, or royal burial mounds, are India’s only entry to UNESCO for recognition as a World Heritage site in the cultural category in 2023-24. Charaideo Moidams are mounds containing the remains of the royalty of the Ahom dynasty that ruled present-day Assam for 600 years — from the 13th century to the 19th century.

What are Moidams?

1. The Moidams contain the remains of Ahom dynasty royalty. Previously, the Ahoms were buried, but after the 18th century, they adopted the Hindu mode of cremation, and bones and ashes were enclosed in a “moidam” which is an earthen pyramid. These moidams are commonly known as the pyramids of Assam.
2. 386 Moidams have been explored so far, 90 royal burials at Charaideo are the best preserved, representative, and most complete examples of this tradition.
3. Charaideo, or the “shining town on a hill top”, was the first capital established by King Chaolung Sukapha, the founder of the dynasty, in 1229 CE.
4. Through the 600 years of the Ahom rule, the capital was shifted several times. Yet, Charaideo remained the symbolic centre of power.

Who were the Ahoms?

1. The Ahoms reportedly represented a time when the “Assamese race was united and able to fight an alien, formidable force such as the Mughals”.
2. The Ahoms, who were non-Hindus, adopted the local religion, Hinduism, during the reign of Sudangpha (1397-1407).
3. It was the first time that Hinduism, which was the predominant religion outside the Ahom realm, penetrated into it right at the very top.
4. Hindu rituals, including worship of Laxmi-Narayan Shaligram in addition to the Shan idol Somdeo, began to be performed at the royal palace.

‘Immune imprinting’ making bivalent boosters less effective

Countries like the UK and the US have rolled out variant-specific or bivalent boosters, in the hope that they would provide better protection against infection in comparison to the original vaccine. However, a slew of recent studies has shown that a phenomenon in our bodies, called immune imprinting, might be making these new boosters far less effective than expected.

What is immune imprinting?

1. Immune imprinting is a tendency of the body to repeat its immune response based on the first variant it encountered — through infection or vaccination — when it comes across a newer or slightly different variant of the same pathogen.
2. The phenomenon was first observed in 1947, when scientists noted that “people who had previously had flu, and were then vaccinated against the current circulating strain, produced antibodies against the first strain they had encountered”, according to a report published in the journal Nature.
3. At the time, it was termed the ‘original antigenic sin’ but today, it’s commonly known as imprinting.
4. Over the years, scientists have realised that imprinting acts as a database for the immune system, helping it put up a better response to repeat infections.
5. After our body is exposed to a virus for the first time, it produces memory B cells that circulate in the bloodstream and quickly produce antibodies whenever the same strain of the virus infects again.
6. The problem occurs when a similar, not identical, variant of the virus is encountered by the body.
7. In such cases, the immune system, rather than generating new B cells, activates memory B cells, which in turn produce “antibodies that bind to features found in both the old and new strains, known as cross-reactive antibodies”, the Nature report said.
8. Although these cross-reactive antibodies do offer some protection against the new strain, they aren’t as effective as the ones produced by the B cells when the body first came across the original virus.

Fifth Scorpene – Class Submarine INS Vagir commissioned into the Navy

Why in the news

• The fifth Scorpene class conventional submarine was commissioned into the Indian Navy as INS Vagir on 23rd January, 2023 in the presence of Chief of Naval Staff Admiral R. Hari Kumar at Naval Dockyard Mumbai.
• The sixth and final Scorpène-class submarine built in India under technology transfer is currently undergoing sea trials and will be delivered to the Navy in 2024.
• The Navy now has 16 conventional and one nuclear submarine in service.
  • It consists of seven Russian Kilo class submarines, four German HDW submarines, five Scorpene class submarines, and the indigenous nuclear ballistic missile submarine INS Arihant.

Background

• Vagir was launched on November 12, 20 under Project 75 (P75), and was delivered to the Indian Navy on December 20, 22 following the completion of sea trials.
• Vagir has the distinction of having the shortest build time of any indigenously manufactured submarine to date.

About INS Vagir

• Vagir is the fifth of the six diesel-electric attack submarines of the Kalvari class that had been planned under Project 75.
• Vagir has been named after a predatory marine species called the Sand Fish that is found in the Indo-Pacific region.
• In 1973, a Russian submarine was inducted into the Indian Navy and named INS Vagir. The vessel was later decommissioned in 2001.
• The new submarine is capable of operating in a wide range of naval combat including anti-warship and anti-submarine operations, intelligence gathering, surveillance and naval mine laying.
• The submarine is armed with precision-guided missiles and has stealth features like advanced acoustic absorption techniques, low radiated noise levels, and hydro-dynamically optimised shape.
• The submarine is built to function in all operational environments and to cooperate with other members of a Naval Task Force.
• Torpedoes and tube-launched anti-ship missiles can be used to launch attacks, whether the target is above or below the surface.

What are the specifications of Vagir?

• The latest submarine is named after the former Vagir, a submarine that served in the Navy between 1973 and 2001 and performed a variety of operational missions.
• The new Vagir’s construction began in 2009, and it made its first sea voyage in February last year.
• The submarine, also known as the Sand Shark, was delivered to the Indian Navy in December 2022.
• Vagir represents stealth and fearlessness, as it comes with features such as an advanced acoustic absorption technique.
• Vagir will help the Indian Navy advance its maritime interests by performing a variety of missions such as anti-surface warfare, anti-submarine warfare, intelligence gathering, mine laying, and surveillance missions.

Background of the Kalvari Class

• Vagir is a Kalvari-class submarine, which also includes the INS Kalvari, INS Khanderi, INS Karanj, INS Vela, and INS Vagsheer.
• Kalvari and Khanderi were commissioned in 2017 and 2019, respectively, and Vela and Karanj were inducted in 2021.
• Vagir has now been commissioned, and Vagsheer was launched in 2022 and is expected to be inducted next year.
• The current Kalvari-class submarines are named after previously decommissioned classes of submarines called Kalvari, which included the Kalvari, Khanderi, Karanj, and Vela classes – comprising Vela, Vagir, and Vagshir.
• The now-decommissioned Kalvari and Vela classes were among the first submarines in the post-independence Indian Navy, belonging to the Foxtrot class of Soviet origin.
• Vagir, like Kalvari, is named after a predatory marine species, the Sand Fish. Khanderi was named after an Island Fort built by Chhatrapati Shivaji that played an important role in his Navy.
• Karanj is also named after an island located south of Mumbai.

What is the Significance?

• Vagir will be the Navy’s third submarine in less than 24 months. This is a significant accomplishment that demonstrates the maturation of India’s shipbuilding industry and the maturation of our defense ecosystem.
• It is also a shining example of our shipyards’ expertise and experience in constructing complex and complicated platforms.
• These aspects also serve to reaffirm the Indian Navy’s unwavering commitment and steadfast determination to become a fully Atma Nirbhar force by 2047.

What is Project 75? Around the time of the Kargil War in the late 1990s, a three-decade plan for domestic submarine construction in cooperation with foreign parties took shape. This plan was known to have two independent series of submarine-building lines, codenamed Project 75 and Project 75I (approved in 2007).At an estimated cost of ₹ 43,000 crores, the project calls for the domestic manufacturing of six Scorpene-Class assault submarines, which weigh 1,500 tonnes and can dive to a depth of 300 metres fitted with the most advanced Air Independent Propulsion technology.The programme has enabled indigenous defence producers to collaborate with top international defence corporations in developing cutting-edge military platforms and lessen reliance on imports.A $3.75 billion agreement was inked in October 2005 under which the Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Limited (MDL) was contracted to build six Scorpene submarines with technical support from the Naval Group of France.The first submarine in the series, INS Kalvari, entered service with the Indian Navy in December 2017, followed by INS Khanderi in September 2019, INS Karanj in March 2021, and INS Vela in November 2021.Vagsheer, the sixth and final submarine, is anticipated to be delivered to the Navy by the end of 2023.

Strategic Importance

• India currently operates one nuclear-powered Chakra submarine and two other nuclear-powered Arihant submarines, as well as submarines from three Diesel Electric classes — Kalvari, Shishumar, and Sindhughosh — some of which are aging.
• The nuclear-powered and diesel-electric submarines play specific roles in Carrier Battle Groups, which are formations of ships and submarines led by Aircraft Carriers.
• According to the basic principles of submarine deployment and the minimum requirement for India to create strategic deterrence, there is a specific number of submarines of both types that India must have in active service.
• India currently has fewer submarines than is required, with some more of both types under construction. India currently has a less-than-ideal number of submarines, with many new ones in various stages of construction.
• In the late 1990s, around the time of the Kargil war, a three-decade plan for indigenous submarine construction took shape, which is known to have two separate series of submarine building lines – codenamed Project 75 and Project 75I – in collaboration with foreign entities.
• The Ministry of Defence is also known to have established a roadmap for indigenous design and subsequent construction of submarines, which will add to the Navy’s arsenal.

Further Enhancement

• Vagsheer, the sixth and final Scorpene class submarine built by Mazgaon Dock Shipbuilders Limited (MDL), was launched into water in April 2022 and is expected to be delivered to the Navy by the end of 2023.
• Six Scorpene submarines are being built by the MDL under Project-75, with technology transferred from the Naval Group of France under a $3.75 billion deal signed in October 2005. The project is about four years behind schedule.
• The first submarine, INS Kalvari, was commissioned in December 2017;
  • the second, INS Khanderi, in September 2019;
  • the third, INS Karanj, in March 2021; and
  • the fourth, INS Vela, in November 2021.
• Similarly, the tender for six more advanced conventional submarines under Project-75 is in the Request For Proposal (RFP) stage but has been delayed.
• Due to delays in submarine induction, the SSK-209s (German HDWs) and EKMs (Russian Kilos) are being put through the Medium Refit Life Certification process, which will give them an additional 10 to 15 years of life.
• To increase endurance, the Navy has planned to install Air Independent Propulsion (AIP) modules on all Scorpene submarines as they undergo refit in the coming years, beginning with INS Kalvari.
• The Defence Research and Development Organization is working on an indigenous AIP module.