Gender Inequality and Religious Personal Laws in India

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CONTEMPORARY INDIA is A MULTICULTURAL society that is pluralistic with regards to religious law. Different groups in India have separate religious personal laws (RPLs), which India's secular state is reluctant to reform. However, these laws have generated debate about the meaning of gender equality in India, since all RPLs to various extents give women fewer rights than men, but Indian women have been promised equality as a constitutional right. Though the RPLs allow for inclusiveness in religion, the history of these laws in India shows that they have been used selectively as a tool of governance and often to the disadvantage of women. In the past, feminists argued that various …