It is a national disgrace that the first PM of India - Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru had the guts, gall and gumption to abolish polygamy by which a man can marry more than one woman among Hindus way back in 1955 by enacting the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955 for which I truly applaud him as it has immensely helped in controlling the population of Hindus to a very large extent but no one could do the same for Muslims.

This despite the irrefutable fact that Dr BR Ambedkar in his Hindu Code Bill 1951 very strongly advocated for retention of polygamy among Hindus and it was to be just a ground of divorce. But Pandit Nehruji showed immense courage and went ahead with abolishing polygamy as also polyandry by which a woman can marry more than one men for which Hindus must always remember him with full gratitude and thank him always for playing the most pivotal role in ensuring that the Hindu's population is controlled to a very large extent.

One can understand that Pandit Nehruji in his 17 year rule didn't want to offend the sentiments of Muslims as the country was reeling fresh from the wounds of partition on grounds of religion as those who preferred to stay in India were completely in favour of India! But what about the other Prime Ministers? Lal Bahadur Shastri was PM for just 2 years so one can understand that why he could not take decision and we had 1965 war also in his term!

But what about Mrs Indira Gandhi who ruled for 16 years? Again, we can think of many reasons. What about Morarji Desai? He also ruled for just a little more than 2 years. What about Chaudhary Charan Singh? He ruled for just about 6 months! What about Rajiv Gandhi? He ruled for just 5 years! What about VP Singh? He ruled for just about less than a year! What about Chandrashekhar? He also ruled for just few months.

What about PV Narasimha Rao? He also ruled for just 5 years. What about Atal Bihari Vajpayee? He also ruled for just about 6 years? What about HD Deve Gowda? He ruled for just about 10 months or so. What about Inder Kumar Gujral? He ruled for just about 11 months. What about Dr Manmohan Singh? But he too could not take any decision on abolishing polygamy just like polyandry all across India.

Then came Narendra Damodardas Modi in 2014. He abolished triple talaq in 2019 among Muslims which Pakistan abolished decades back in 1961 and so also many Muslim countries abolished it long time back. But he too in his nearly 8 year rule has till now showed absolutely no sign of abolishing polygamy among Muslims even though none other than the eminent former Union Cabinet Minister in Rajiv Gandhi's Cabinet and present Kerala Governor - Arif Mohammad Khan has time and again advocated for abolition of polygamy among Muslims. We are nearing 75 years of independence but still can anyone really say that we are still reeling from partition wounds and so polygamy should not be abolished among Muslims even now? Should we wait till 100 years of independence for polygamy to be abolished among Muslims also?

As we all know and as mentioned earlier, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehruji took the single biggest and the most commendable step of controlling the population of Hindus by restricting Hindus to just one marriage. Prior to Pandit Nehruji's government framing "The Hindu Marriage Act, 1955", Hindus both men and women could earlier prior to this Act being enacted could marry as many as they wanted and there was just no limit on either men or women. Lord Krishna had 16,108 wives as was reported in The Times of India newspaper in 2018. Similarly Ashoka also had thousands of wives and so was the case with not just kings but even among the common man and women.

There was just no limit and both men and women had the liberty even during British rule and so also in Mughal rule, Sultanate rule and earlier also dating back to thousands of years as in Mauryas rule and so on to marry as many as they wanted. But Pandit Nehruji brought down both Hindu men and women to just one which is the most commendable step since independence ever taken by any PM for which Hindus must always be grateful to Pandit Nehruji!

This alone explains why I always refer to Pandit Nehruji as the "Real Reformer of Hindus" but Pandit Nehruji didn't touch Muslims as the country then was reeling fresh from the partition wounds and Nehruji didn't want to do anything that would create insecurity among Muslims in any manner! But what about the other PM who ruled after Nehruji till PM Narendra Damodardas Modi who is ruling since last more than 7 years and 7 months?

But my best friend Sageer Khan differed with me on this. He was strongly critical of Pandit Nehruji's decision to impose monogamy on Hindus alone. He said in 1995 that, "What is UN? It is ruled by just US and UK. France, China and Russia are just servants of US and UK and China got permanent membership because of US and UK. Who created India and got it partitioned in 1947 on the basis of religion?

It is again UN ruled by US and UK. UN loves Pakistan and hates India. So never get surprised that why Taliban aided, abetted and armed by Pakistan have taken over Afghanistan and UN watching with smile on face! Hindus, Shia Muslims, Sikhs, Indian Muslims who migrated to Pakistan called Mohajjirs are raped, insulted, punished and then killed! Yet UN is proud always of Pakistan as it is the brain child of US and UK who rule UN and who want to crush India as patriotic Indians especially Hindus in large numbers forced Britishers to leave India.

It was UK who did not forget its defeat and so again advised Nehru our first PM to disregard the advice of Dr BR Ambedkar who favoured retention of polygamy in his Hindu Code Bill 1951 and he did accordingly by abolishing polygamy and polyandry among Hindus and also heeded to UK's decision to not abolish polygamy among Muslims so that slowly Muslims become majority and Hindus become minority and India never gets stability and they could again come back to rule India. Why monogamy imposed only on Hindus alone? Muslims enjoy maximum liberty in India all over the world and it is Muslims who can still indulge in polygamy even though Nehru abolished it among Hindus in 1955. This is most unfair and must be strongly condemned.

Why Hindus are forced to become Muslims to marry more than once? Polygamy should have been abolished for both or for none but Nehru very wrongly imposed monogamy only on Hindus which is most disgraceful and cannot be ever justified. Similarly why Muslims fight with Hindus in Ayodhya, Kashi and Mathura which have been Hindu worshipping sites since ages. Should Ram temple be built in Mecca, Medina or in Ayodhya? Muslims should never fight over Ayodhya, Kashi and Mathura which since thousands of years have been Hindus sites of pilgrimages just like Mecca and Medina are for Muslims.

Muslims should be treated on par with Hindus and polygamy should be abolished among us also. This will greatly help in controlling the population also in our country. When Hindus can be brought down to one both male and female then why can't Muslim males be also not brought down to one and Muslim females are already one as they unlike men cannot marry more than one? Centre and our law makers must give it a serious thought!"

For far too long this most pressing issue of uniform civil code has been hanging fire and our law makers have just callously preferred to always look the other way around on it. Why is it that film actor Dharmender had to become Muslim to marry a second time? Why is it that the son of former Chief Minister of Haryana - Bhajan Lal named Chander Mohan also had to change his name to Chander Mohammed and so also Anuradha Bali had to assume a Muslim name Fizza and convert to Islam just to marry each other as Chander was already married and in Hindu religion one cannot marry than one? There are millions of such cases where the conversion is purely on the temptation to marry more than one women! Why can't this most dirty sham which is root cause of many conversions also end once and for all? Why can't law be same for one and all? Will it not help control population also if monogamy is imposed on one and all?

To put it mildly: When Hindus can be made to shun polygamy and polyandry in 1955 then why can't the same be done among Muslim men in 2021? My best friend Sageer Khan also always wanted Muslims to abolish polygamy as it is a bad practice and cannot be ever condoned! Sageer Khan also used to often ask: "Why Centre trembles to do anything on this score? Why can't monogamy be imposed equally on people of all religion alike when Nehru could impose it only for Hindus way back in 1955? It has become a fashion to marry more than one. This is the root cause of increase in population in India." Centre must seriously ponder on it.

If Centre takes decisive action and after 75 years of independence summons the courage to abolish polygamy among people of all religions just like Pandit Nehruji summoned to do the same for Hindus in 1955 not just among men but also among women that is abolishing both polygamy and polyandry then population can be controlled to a great extent! But what an unbeatable irony that in last 75 years of independence no PM nor any Supreme Court Judge has gathered the guts, gall and gumption to call a spade a spade and abolish polygamy among people of all religion as my best friend Sageer Khan always advocated also!

Of course, it goes without saying that using force to control population can never be feasible nor advisable! It would only worsen the situation further! We all saw how late Sanjay Gandhi who during Emergency in 1975-77 had thought that he could control population by using forcible methods of sterilisation floundered as he enjoyed unbridled powers and Congress party also lost power as people certainly didn't approve of it in any way. It must be underscored that Centre as also the States must now launch more awareness campaign to ensure that the people themselves become more aware of the dangerous consequences of over population and should work most actively in this direction!

In addition, Centre and States must give more and more concessions to those families where the children are just one or two. This can certainly go a long way in motivating others to follow suit! But both Centre and States ought to be more proactive on it as population explosion is the most serious problem confronting India since last many years! It merits no reiteration that a dormant snail like approach would only serve in further exacerbating this problem further which our country can ill afford at this juncture! So now the ball is clearly in the court of the government!

It must be strictly ensured that child marriages does not take place to achieve fertility decline and this holds true especially in villages and remote areas where we keep hearing increasing incidents of child marriages taking place even now! There has to be zero tolerance on child marriages as it is because of child marriages that a women has many children and that too very early in her life! If child marriage is seriously and strictly checked it will ensure that population is also checked to a great extent.

Not just this, the marriage age must also be increased to 25 for both men and women and not just to 21 as we see being done in case of women. This can go a long way in ensuring that both men and women attain maturity when they marry and in their early youth don't indulge in the mistake of having many children. This can again prove to be a big leap in the direction to control population to a great extent!

In conclusion, it is high time and now polygamy should be completely abolished in India among people of all religion and all communities and all castes and all tribes just like Pandit Nehruji abolished it among Hindus in 1955! But the moot question certainly is: Can any PM ever dare to do what Pandit Nehruji did not do? Impose monogamy on one and all and not just Hindus alone as he did in 1955! Of course, the ball is in Centre's court! It is for the Centre to take initiative on this count also!

Sanjeev Sirohi, Advocate,
s/o Col BPS Sirohi, A 82, Defence Enclave,
Sardhana Road, Kankerkhera, Meerut - 250001, Uttar Pradesh