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Divorced from Reality
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Well-known sociologist Imtiaz Ahmad has done well to debunk the myths surrounding the sensitive institution of marriage and divorce in Muslim community, says HUMRA QURAISHI, after speaking to the man who has edited "Divorce and Remarr iage among Muslims in India"
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Imtiaz Ahmad... .reality bytes. Photo: Sandeep Saxena.
IMTIAZ AHMAD doesn't beat around the bush, be it the conferences that he conducts or the matter he writes. The latest book he has edited - "Divorce and Remarriage Among Muslims in India" (Manohar Publications) - couldn't have been better timed. Hitting the shelves in the backdrop of the controversy around the Uniform Civil Code, it deals with the entire issue of divorce. As Ahmad says: "This book is concerned with divorce and remarriage among Muslim communities in India and focuses on divorce as a sociological phenomenon and explores the processes that are set in motion once the stability of a marriage is threatened and divorce is contemplated. The emphasis is on the factors that contribute to the breakdown of marriages, the role that kinsmen and social relations play in trying to work towards a possible reconciliation between the estranged spouses, the procedure that is followed to give effect to a divorce and the consequences that follow for the spouses, and particularly women. This perspective does not treat divorce in isolation but tries to look at it in the wider context of social structure."
Keeping with this, this sociologist treats divorce from the sociological angle and it goes to his credit for debunking the several myths that revolve around divorce, in the Muslim context. As he comments: "As to the contention that divorce in the Muslim communities in India tends to be quite often arbitrary, the evidence brought together by the contributions in this book clearly suggests that divorce is not an individual act on the part of the husband. Everywhere there is some kind of a social mechanism in place for the regulation of divorce. For one thing, the relatives or neighbours, unless they are themselves interested in a divorce coming about, mediate in the divorce process. When a divorce is contemplated the pronouncement of divorce itself takes place in the presence of relatives, village elders and some formal authority and where the husband lives in a social setting outside the zone of influence if kinsmen and community members, there is a strong possibility that the decision to pronounce and convey divorce is arrived at independently. What needs to be recognised is that even in these cases the decision to pronounce divorce may not be sudden or ad hoc. There may be a background of marital discord or alienation and the divorce is the final culmination point. Even in these case studies there is considerable evidence that suggests that divorce or separation was not a sudden development. The couples were leading an uneasy or conflict ridden existence and something precipitated the last straw so that the husband either pronounced divorce on the wife or she herself took the decision to return to her natal home ... "
Going through the case studies that the contributors have unearthed from the different parts of the country (J&K to Assam to Andhra Pradesh) is enough to provide a broad view of the state of the marriage in the Muslim community. And going through these case studies is enough to make you realise that like in other religious communities of the country, Muslim marriages are going through the sociological ups and downs and it isn't necessarily that the man is pronouncing divorce. No, in many of these case studies the woman calls for a halt of sorts. And since these are drawn from a cross section of the society, they do reflect the present day state of the institution called marriage. The importance of this book lies in the fact that through simple reading it tries to break those set myths that have been - because of the politics of the day - allowed to not just assume shape but even flourish.
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