Religion and Law: A Quick Start
India is one of the largest democracies in the world. The Indian legal system is a common law system. Indian culture is diversified and comprised of multicultural societies, practicing different religions and speaking different regional languages.
The 42nd Amendment of the Constitution of India, enacted in 1976, added the word ‘Secular’ to its Preamble. India became a secular nation, and secularism in India means equal treatment to all religions by the law.
The main religions in India are Hindu, Muslim and Christian. India is the birthplace of four religions Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism, they all fall under Hindu religion and Hindu law. The majority of population are Hindus. The main marriage law in India is The Hindu Marriage Act, 1955, the law relating to marriage among Hindus. Ceremonial marriage is essential and the registration is optional under this Act. It applies to anyone who is not Muslim, Christian, Jew or Parsi by religion.
The Special Marriage Act, 1954, provides a special form of marriage in certain cases solemnizing marriage by Hindus, non-Hindus and foreigners marrying in India who opt out of the ceremonial marriage under their respective personal laws. Registration is a must under this Act. This legislation governs people of all religions in India irrespective of their personal belief. Divorce can also be obtained by non-Hindus under this Act.
The Indian Succession Act, 1925, is applicable to all testamentary succession in India, unless parties chose to govern by their respective religious law applicable to them, such as, for Hindus, Hindu Succession Act, 1956. (Source: Anil Malhotra and Ranjit Malhotra).
Hindu Law E-Resources
-
Indian Kanoon.org .Open access: no password needed, provides information regarding the Hindu Marriage Act , 1955.
-
Encyclopedia of HinduismOpen source: Online encyclopaedia of Hindu Law
-
Hindu law : as interpreted by the judges in India and the Privy CouncilFIU members only: available via:LLMC
Muslim Law E-Resources
-
The Muslim Personal LawOpen access: no password needed, provides information regarding The Muslim Personal Law (Shariat) Application Act, 1937
-
Encyclopaedia of IslamOpen access: Encyclopaedia of Islamic Law
Books
-
Religion and Law in Independent India
by
ISBN: 9788173045882Publication Date: 2005Publisher's description: "This revised and updated edition has new essays on subjects such as the structure of religion and law in India; legal issues affecting the Sikh community; public endowments; and issues relating to caste and conversions". -
Religion, Law and Power
by
ISBN: 9781843312345Publication Date: 2007-01-01Publisher's description: "This book constructs an anthropological history of a subaltern religious formation, Mahima Dharma of Orissa, a large province in eastern India". -
Multiculturalism and religious identity : Canada and India by
ISBN: 9780773543744Publication Date: 2014-08-05Publisher's description: "contemporary analysis of how the Canadian and Indian states each approach religious diversity through social and political policies, as well as how religion and secularism meet both philosophically and politically in contested public space". -
A History of State and Religion in India
by
ISBN: 9780415580663Publication Date: 2012-04-02e-book
ISBN: 9780203126943
Publisher's description: " It offers a challenging argument about the role of the state in religious life in a historical continuum, and identifies points of similarity and contrast between periods and regimes". -
The Wheel of Law
by
ISBN: 9780691122533Publication Date: 2005-04-03e-book: http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt7rmm6
Publisher's description: " In The Wheel of Law: India's Secularism in Comparative Constitutional Context, Jacobsohn offers the first in-depth and scholarly treatment of the subject of secularism in India in decades and is the only book to compare secularism in Indian, U.S., and Israeli contexts". -
The Aga Khan Case
by
ISBN: 9780674066397Publication Date: 2012-10-31e-book: http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt2jbx79
Publisher's description: "The Aga Khan Case focuses on a nineteenth-century court case in Bombay that influenced how religious identity was defined in India and subsequently the British Empire". -
The New Oxford Companion to Law
by
ISBN: 9780199290543Publication Date: 2008Publisher's description: "Providing greater depth than can be found in legal dictionaries but always accessible to the non-specialist, entries in the Companion cover all areas of law and legal systems and are extensively cross-referenced for ease of navigation". -
Muslim Law in Modern India
by
ISBN: 9789380231136Publisher's description: "his book revolves around the culture of Muslim community, where the issue of divorce for the momen community is at stake.
To protect their rights this Law was formulated, under the Muslim Women Protection of Rights on Divorce Act, 1984". -
Family Law Lectures: Family Law II
by
ISBN: 978-8180386763Publisher's description: "Covers all major aspects of the law of succession relating to Hindus, Muslims, Christians and Parsis.
Examines, in particular, fundamental concepts dealing with the joint family, coparcenary, partition, interstate succession as well as the law relating to gifts, wills and inheritance". -
The Hindu Family and the Emergence of Modern India
by
ISBN: 9781107037830Publication Date: 2013-09-19Publisher's description: "Between 1955 and 1956 the Government of India passed four Hindu Law Acts to reform and codify Hindu family law". "The Hindu Family and the Emergence of Modern India considers how questions regarding family structure, property rights and gender relations contributed to the development of representative politics, and how, in solving these questions, India's secular and state power structures were consequently drawn into a complex and unique relationship with Hindu law". -
Women and the Law in India
by
ISBN: 0195667670Publication Date: 2004-01-15Publisher's description: " The omnibus forms a comprehensive and significant study for understanding why progressive laws, once passed, continue to be implemented in such a limited manner. It highlights that legislation even in the past fifty years have not brought equality". -
Hindu Women's Property Rights in Rural India
by
ISBN: 9780754646167Publication Date: 2007Publisher's description: " The omnibus forms a comprehensive and significant study for understanding why progressive laws, once passed, continue to be implemented in such a limited manner. It highlights that legislation even in the past fifty years have not brought equality". -
The Government of Social Life in Colonial India
by
ISBN: 9781107010376Publication Date: 2012-06-29Book description: "This important new study analyzes the system of personal law in colonial India through a reexamination of women's rights. Focusing on Hindu law, it challenges existing scholarship, showing how - far from being a system based on traditional values - Hindu law was developed around ideas of liberalism, and that this framework encouraged questions about gender equality, and more broadly the relationship between state and society". -
Reclaiming the Nation
by
ISBN: 9780802092786Publication Date: 2008Publisher"s description: "Living in pluralist India has had critical consequences for Muslim women who are expected to follow a determined and strict code of conduct". Available to FIU community via the JStor database. Print edition at GL, call number HQ1170 .N34.
