Sunday 2 July 2017

Darlong Customary Laws vs Gender justice-I

“A man of quality is never threatened by a Woman of equality”-
--Jill Briscoe
                          The other day I was lying on a bed in the Chemotherapy room and I knew it would take me at least 3 hours before I can climb down from there. After 10-12 minutes, I could realize that some reactions were taking place inside my body as an electrifying wave started travelling through my nerves. As a consequence of the previous dose of Chemotherapy which I was administered, my body was weak and signalling me to close my eyes and thereby to sleep. But the mind was not willing to signal the brain to cause me a sleep. Therefore I opened my tab and started reading newspaper. I was browsing through ‘The Hindu” columns and one article that really intrigued my thought was the one on “triple talaq case” which is pending in the Supreme Court of India. My thoughts started travelling faster than the flow of drugs from the needle to my vein, trying to explore the actual point of contention. Is it the plight of Indian Muslim Women? Is it the Marriage-divorce laws of Muslims or is it the Gender discrimination in the Muslim laws? Before I could get my answer, I realized that my drug dose for the day was over and my wife was standing by my side. After taking the Chemotherapy, I returned back to my place of work and started exploring more on the issue of triple talaq. Though I have had the opportunity to read “The Darlong Customary laws” earlier, I re-opened the book and started reading it. After much study and thought experiment, I realized that triple talaq case which is being argued in the apex court is the plight of every women in our society, be it Muslims, Hindus or Christians, it just a version of the same story.
Since the evolution of society, women has almost always been considered as the bearer of virtue, subdued by the dominant gender, be it in terms of marriage-divorce, decision making, property rights, etc by drawing a line of Personal/Customary laws. What is most shocking is that these Personal/Customary laws have never been challenged nor their constitutional validity contested.
Constitution is the supreme law of the land irrespective of caste, creed, religions, sex and any such laws which has the sanction of legislatures/religion/society that has failed to stand when its constitutional validity is tested upon shall automatically become invalid. On the other hand, rights of citizen is a guarantee ensured by the law of the law of the land irrespective of sex, religion, caste or age. There is no scope of escaping this mandate or turning it down on any ground unless provided by the law of the land. Without going into further discussion on this line, let us try to focus our discussion in context of our present customary laws by which we are governed socially.
The most important chapters of “The Darlong Customary Laws” which has widened my intrigued eye is the Chapter 13th titled as “Om thiam loi hur ham thu”(Laws pertaining to Crime against women)  and the 9th Chapter titled as “Nupui pasal inmak/inthen thu”(laws pertaining to divorce). Let us take some of the examples of crime against women like Rape, Gang Rape, Rape and Murder, Outraging modesty of a women etc among others for analysis and argument. The penalty coded for raping a women in our social law is 500 (Rupees five hundred) bucks, Rs. 10000/-(Ten thousand) for rape and murder, in a gang rape Rs. 500 (five hundred) bucks each by rapist, Rupees 200/- for outraging the modesty of a women and so on. What has intrigued me the most here is the mindset, philosophical ideologies which has guided the framers of such draconian Law. I have every confidence that these laws are neither based on our scriptural reference, nor any theosophical principles.  It is needless saying from the above reading that, women were merely considered as commodity with varying price tags, in case spoiled by the dominant gender and the most unfortunate of all is that, these customary laws still rule our society un-challenged and un-questioned, neither by society nor by the church. Therefore, we in spite of being well educated population, why such provisions of customary laws were never put to test or argument? I am utterly confused if the sun of gender justice is yet to rise or has long been set in our society?
(N.B:-The author is a law enforcement officer in Tripura and all the views, arguments given here are strictly personal.)

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