My point is that the law allows for it under certain conditions; I didn't
say I know or knew of anyone who took or plans to take advantage of the
law (as far as I know, it is still not revoked).
The law *did* permit "simultaneous polygamy" under the quaintly-named
'Usages and Customs of Gentile Hindus of Goa' -- see page 156 of 'Family
Laws of Goa, Daman and Diu - Volume I'. Contrary to the widespread belief,
the "uniform" family laws of Goa contain provisions which are surprisingly
un-uniform. They not only have differing provisions (in some aspects)
based on people's religion, but even based on their caste!
It is another matter that these laws today have a strong lobby to support
them on ideological grounds ('If Muslims can do without polygamy being
allowed in Goa, why can't we enforce a similar law on them across India')
or very strong economic grounds (some can pay lower taxes on the claim
that the husband and wife have supposedly, or at least in theory, equal
shares to the income and wealth).
Check what Article 3 approved by Vsicount of S. Januario, Secretary of the
State for Naval and Overseas Affairs assented on December 16, 1880:
However, the marriage contracted by a male Gentile Hindu by
simultaneous polygamy shall not produce civil effects,
*except* in the following cases only:
(i) Absolute absence of issue by the wife of the previous
marriage until she attains the age of 25 years.
(ii) Absolute absence of male issue, the previous wife
having completed 30 years of age, and being of lower age,
ten years having elapsed from the last pregnancy....
On a related issue, in response to JC's criticism of the Manusmriti, it is
perhaps rather easy to criticise someone else's religion... The fact is
that almost all (all?) forms of religion tend to be, to some degree or the
other, rather anti-woman, and even antiquated by today's standards.
This is perhaps the major reason why religion earned such a strong
reaction to it in past centuries. Religion at various points of time has
been manipulated to support not just the caste system, but also racism,
slavery and colonialism.
Maybe the biggest challenge before all of us is to begin by criticising
the wrongs in the religion we ourselves belong to (a more diffficult
task!), so that we overall work to a more humane face for the potent force
called religion. FN
On Sat, 13 Jul 2002, The Goan Forum wrote:
> BTW: Fred Noronha wrote the following about
> infertility
>
> [PANJIM, July 12: Decades back, it was grounds for
> legally permitting polygamy in colonial Goa.]
>
> Dear Fred, do you know of ANYBODY who was permitted to
> be Polygamous because of Infertility.
>
> I know that Muslim families in Goa ( as well as in
> other places ) had/have more than one wife.
>
> I'd be surprised that the Portuguese colonialists,
> officially sanctioned Polygamy or even Bigamy.
>
> NOT after what they did to Telo!
>
> good wishes
>
> jose colaco
>
> =====
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