Man and His Environment

The search for a more rational divorce law in keeping with the altered socio-economic conditions in contemporary society has constantly agitated the minds of social scientists and reformers. For more than a century the divorce law in Christian Europe as also in other parts of the world following Common Law traditions was entrenched in religious moorings. The showing of the 'fault' or 'guilt' of one of the spouses before divorce could be authorised, has been the basis. But soon it was realized that the real causes for divorce were not necessarily the grounds which the law provided. The growing awareness among the people about the irrationality and hypocrisy of the divorce law based on the doctrine of 'matrimonial guilt' gave rise to liberalization and reforms in this branch of the law. Many countries around the world have now accepted the 'breakdown of marriage' as a standard of marital dissolution. In India too the 'breakdown theory' is round the corner. The author mirrors the legal development in Anglo-American society and makes a strong case for reforms in the divorce law in India. In the words of former Justice V. R. Krishna Iyer: 'Dr. Hussain's contribution marked by well-arranged case-law, well-planned structure and well-argued thesis, is a welcome addition to the not-so-plentiful literature on comparative matrimonial law' and 'provides inter-continental raw material for social scientists to advance the cause of secular family law and strikes a forward-looking note.'