The time frame of this period of Hindu law begins with the formal independence of India from Great Britain on August 14, 1947, and extends up until the present.
Nehru's efforts led to contentious debates over the so-called Hindu Code Bill, which he offered in the Indian parliament, as a way to fix still unclear elements of the Anglo-Hindu law.
Criticism of the document is based on the belief that the laws in the Hindu Code bill should apply to all citizens regardless of religious affiliation.
[2] Therefore, it is assumed that all Indians who are not Muslim, Jewish or Christian are Hindu, disregarding personal religious laws of followers of Buddhist, Jain, Sikh and other religions, creating controversy within these communities.
[3] India is based on the British common legal system, thus the courts rely heavily on stare decisis, or precedent, when deciding cases.
Modern Hindu law relies on the interpretation of judges and their ability to decipher mitigating factors within each legal situation.
Not only do they provide the foundation for future legal cases but they also make a statement about the state of the country and what direction it wants to lead.
Known as the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act (1971), the law allowed Indian women to legally obtain abortions.
This was not the case, as there was significant opposition from various Hindu politicians, organizations, and devotees who saw themselves unjustly singled out as the sole religious community whose laws were to be reformed.
[7] Nehru and his supporters insisted that the Hindu community, which comprised 80% of the Indian population, first needed to be united before any actions were taken to unify the rest of India.
Therefore, the codification of Hindu personal law became a symbolic beginning on the road to establishing the Indian national identity.
[9] The Hindu Code Bills are still controversial among some communities, including women's, nationalist, and religious groups.
However, now many, including Nivedita Menon, argue that it is "misleading...to claim that Hindu personal law was reformed [in the 1950s].
The judges that preside over the district courts in India are state bureaucrats, not religious priests or scholars.