It is a political study of the controversy surrounding the issue of the uniform civil code vis-a-vis personal laws from a South Asian perspective.

At the centre of the debate is whether there should be a centralized view of the legal system in a given society or a decentralized view, both horizontally and vertically.

This issue is entangled within the threads of identity politics, minority rights, women's rights, national integration, global Islamic politics and universal human rights. Champions of each category view it through their own prisms, making the debate...