Here's what I think, or know about the situation. I am not a Muslim but I appreciate some aspects of their society in India, as well as those of all other religious groups in India.
Population growth amongst Muslims:
Muslims may have the right from Al-Quran to marry more than one wife. It was a historical necessity following the fierce wars of the 7-10th centuries in what we call the near-East. But I myself have several Hindu friends and acquaintances (senior IPS/IAS officers, and ex-rajas) who have one or two wives, some from respectable families of the same caste, the women having been abandoned by their own husbands for other women, others from lower castes. So, I can establish the fact that Hindus also have several wives, both in rural and urban areas. Among Kulin Brahmins of Bengal where only hypergamy is allowed, males till recently had so many wives that they couldn't remember their names and locations. The wives therefore could not establish their rights, except to die with Brahminical funeral rites. There is no count or recognition of the legal or illegitimate children they spawned. (However, presently, most Muslims I know, in academia, have only one wife!)
The difference between the two communities is that in Islamic polygamy, all the wives have rights to maintenance for themselves and their children and a share in the husband's property if he predeceases them. Among my Hindu friends, the 'other' wives may be called 'Rakhael', 'kept', even 'Randi' by society and the first wife. I don't think they have a legal right to maintenance for themselves and the children they may produce. Look at the trouble N. D. Tewari's son had to claim his paternal origin and rights, which he denied and which were ultimately settled by DNA tests.
Secondly, the main reason that Muslims have a higher population growth rate is not because they have significantly more children but because they do not practice female foetal abortion, killing of newborn girl children or starvation and denial of medical aid to female infants. I personally know Haryanvi Hindus who have had to rescue and rear their nieces from parents who wanted them to die of neglect, disease or starvation. Just look at the under-5 male-female child ratio in districts like Jhajjar, next door to Delhi, in Census 2011. Also in prosperous, urban Gujarat. Muslim populations, both rural and urban, are also poorer, so they have less access to FW and modern birth control facilities. Please do examine these statistics if you want to debate with me.
Muslims of both sexes can perform talaq. Husbands do not have to indulge either in bride burning, wife killing, or abandonment of female children, and all girls go to school, at least till they become literate. So, in the Muslim society that I'm familiar with, girls and women receive the same care, academic encouragement and rights as their male cohorts.
Among Paharis in Uttarakhand and Himachal, Hindu women of all castes can and do practice polyandry. Like Draupadi did. Do you object to that too?
UCC:
Hindus in India have the most exclusive Civil Code, which only applies to themselves! Its primary focus is the maintenance of the HUF. For example, on inheritance matters, till recently daughters, married or otherwise, seldom had paternal property rights granted to them after a parent's death. Only male heirs had these. Widows had rights only to maintenance. After decades of work by economist Bina Agarwal and others, widows and daughters were granted their legitimate property rights from the Supreme Court of India, including rights to agricultural lands.
Article 370:
This Article was the basis on which Maharaja Hari Singh acceded to the Union of India. Its abrogation cannot be done by any authority or body other than the Constituent Assembly of J&K state. However, the Constituent Assembly was dissolved in 1951 after the forced accession to India. Please remember, those who wanted Azaadi then and those who framed J&K's separate Constitution were mostly Kashmiri pandits, Dogras and other Hindus. All Kashmiris, Hindu, Muslim, Buddhist and tribal, felt they had a different ethnic and cultural identity from the Hindu dominated, caste stratified regions of the rest of India.
There are therefore grave implications of the unilateral abrogation of Article 370 by the Republic of India. The case that would be put forward against it would then go on indefinitely for decades and reach international courts and the UN again particularly since it would be cruelly enforced by an army under AFSPA and untrained paramilitaries like BSF, CRPF, ITBD AND CISF. IN FACT, other nations including our 'Enemy No. 1' China, and world power alliances under a UN mandate could actually take over the area to conduct that referendum that every Kashmiri on both sides of the LOC knows was promised to his/her people.
Would that solve any problems for India, Kashmir, or the region??
Kindly put aside your Hindu-centric male chauvinist worldview for a while, study the issues and historical origin of all points of view carefully and rethink your absolutist, and, in my perception, 'RSS influenced' solutions to these problems. Solutions have to be acceptable to all parties in a political dispute in this day and age, particularly one that has led to armed conflict. And do remember, the nuclear option touted by the unlettered saffron brigade would destroy your own North India completely.
Joya Roy
