Shah-Bano-eng

Foreword
The Shah Bano Hullabaloo in India
Danial Latifi
There are a billion Muslims spread over many countries in every
continent of the globe. Indonesia has the largest number. Next comes
India with a seventh of this tally. Third comes Bangladesh and fourth
Pakistan. The religious centre of the Islamic world is Mecca. Its
intellectual centre is Cairo. The Shiites have their centre in Iran. In
many countries Muslims form a majority. In some they constitute
minorities. In some western countries they are reported to be the
group with the highest growth-rate. Yet everywhere there is a paucity
of information about them. The seemingly inexplicable reaction of a
volatile section of Muslims on an issue like the Shah Bano 1 case that
appeared to be of small importance to non-Muslims did nothing to
contribute to enlightenment.
Many in India and abroad who were shocked at the seemingly
excessive reaction of some Muslims over the Shah Bano case are
unaware that in 1995 the Bangladesh High Court at Dhaka gave an
even stronger and more far-reaching judgment, securing alimony to
divorced women, based upon the same verse of the Quran (II:241)
that caused such a hullabaloo in India in 1985. This judgment seems to
have been accepted without protest by the overwhelmingly Muslim
population of Bangladesh.
What did the Shah Bano case decide? The only new point of law
decided by the Supreme Court of India in that case is best stated in the
words of the learned judges themselves. After setting out some verses
of the Holy Quran, notably chapter II verse 241, and the translation of
these by various scholars, including Abdullah Yusuf Ali, the learned
judges (Y.V. Chandrachud, C.J.; D.A. Desai, E.S. Venkatramiah, O.
Chinappa Reddy, and Ranganath Misra JJ.) observed:
1. Mohd. Ahmad Khan v. Shah Bano Begum, (1985) 2 Supreme Court Cases 556 = All
India Reporter 1985 Supreme Court 945. The full judgment is reproduced below,
pp. 75-89.
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