The messaging in Uttarakhand’s UCC
With several states indicating that they’ll follow Uttarakhand’s limited UCC model, it is clear the BJP has found a workable solution
There are two takeaways from the implementation of the Uniform Civil Code (UCC) in Uttarakhand this week. The first is political. It sets the ball rolling on the last of the BJP’s core ideological goals. With its electoral success over the last decade, the party had achieved two of the three aims at the heart of its foundational moment — the abrogation of Article 370 that gave special status to Jammu and Kashmir, and the building of a Ram temple at the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid disputed site in Ayodhya. The third goal, a pan-India UCC, is a work in progress. For decades, it was considered outlandish, given India’s fractured polity, and legally complex, given the maze of faith-based and secular laws that govern the country. But with several states indicating that they’ll follow Uttarakhand’s limited UCC model, it is clear the BJP has found a workable solution. This not only allows it to keep out of legal and social tangles but also signals that the 2024 electoral setback has not blunted its ideological edge.
The social aspect is trickier. UCC was considered a third rail in Indian politics because of the fear of majoritarian values overwhelming minority traditions. This is why the Constituent Assembly didn’t enact it and included in the non-justiciable directive principles of state policy. Only time will tell how UCC in Uttarakhand fares on this count. Will interfaith unions become harder to register? Will disputes between personal laws and UCC be decided fairly? Will live-in couples battle greater bias? Will involving the authorities in private matters prove counterproductive? The answers to these will decide how history remembers this moment.
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