Explainer: What could the Uniform Civil Code look like in Assam?

Barely a week after the Hemanta Biswa Sarma-led NDA stormed back to power, the state government has begun working on its priorities. In a press conference on Wednesday, the CM said that Assam is now preparing to become one of the few Indian states to implement the Uniform Civil Code, or UCC. 

Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has confirmed that the Assam Cabinet has approved the draft UCC Bill and that it will be introduced in the Assembly on May 26.  

But Assam’s version of the UCC will not be identical to those in states like Uttarakhand or Gujarat, two other BJP-ruled states that have implemented their own versions of the UCC. 

The Chief Minister has repeatedly said that Assam will have its own “Assam model” of the UCC. According to him, the proposed law has been “customised” to suit the realities of the state.  

So what exactly is Assam proposing?

The government says the law will focus on:

• compulsory registration of marriages and divorces,
• banning polygamy,
• fixing a minimum marriage age,
• inheritance rights for women,
• and regulation of live-in relationships.  

And, the Assam CM has made it clear that the ‘ways of practising religion’ do not, and will not, come under the purview of the UCC. 

So, for example, how you offer your prayers, or your traditional system of getting married, will not be impacted. If you belong to a religion, you will still be allowed to get married the way you wanted to. 

Except, maybe, you may not be able to afford catering due to the price of commercial gas cylinders, but that is a discussion for some other day. 

The Assam government has also linked the move to its earlier crackdown on child marriage and polygamy.

Over the last few years, the state has carried out large-scale police operations against alleged child marriages, with the BJP government presenting it as a social reform agenda.

But the biggest political message from the Chief Minister is this: tribal and indigenous communities will remain outside the ambit of the UCC.

Sarma has said this repeatedly since 2024. He has argued that Assam’s ethnic diversity and constitutional protections require a different approach.  

This means Assam’s UCC is not really “uniform” in the literal sense. Instead, it appears to be a selective civil code that targets specific areas of personal law while avoiding direct confrontation with protected tribal customs.

And that raises the big question: if major communities are exempted, how extensive will the UCC actually be?

Chapter 2: Why indigenous people have been left out

To understand Assam’s approach, one must understand the political and constitutional reality of the Northeast.

Assam, as some of you might know, is home to dozens of indigenous and tribal communities with their own customary laws, marriage systems, inheritance traditions and social structures. 

Many of these protections are tied to the Constitution itself.

Several tribal communities in Assam and the wider Northeast enjoy protections under the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution, which gives autonomy to tribal councils in specific regions. These protections were designed to preserve indigenous identity, land rights and customary practices.

A sweeping Uniform Civil Code applied equally across all groups would almost certainly trigger resistance from tribal organisations and student bodies.

That is why the Assam government has made a political calculation: exempt indigenous communities and avoid opening a larger ethnic conflict.

The Chief Minister has specifically said that “all tribal people in Assam, both in hills and plains, will remain outside the purview of the UCC.”  

This is politically significant because Assam’s indigenous politics have historically revolved around identity protection.

Questions around land, migration, language and demographic change dominate political discourse in the state. In such an environment, any attempt to interfere with tribal customary systems could be seen as an attack on indigenous autonomy.

There is also another layer here.

The BJP has spent years building alliances with tribal and indigenous communities in Assam. Alienating these groups ahead of future elections would carry political risks.

So, by exempting tribal communities, the government appears to be trying to balance two objectives:

• projecting itself nationally as a government implementing the UCC,
• while regionally assuring indigenous communities that their traditions will remain protected

Critics, however, argue that this creates a contradiction.

If large sections of the population are excluded, can the law still be called a Uniform Civil Code?

Some legal experts argue that what Assam may eventually implement could resemble a targeted reform package rather than a truly universal civil code.

Others say this reflects the practical reality of governing a deeply diverse state where one-size-fits-all laws are difficult to enforce.

In many ways, Assam’s UCC debate is not just about civil law. It is about identity, ethnicity and political negotiation.

Chapter 3: Why this matters politically to Himanta Biswa Sarma

For Himanta Biswa Sarma, the UCC is not just a legal reform issue. It is also a major political project. The BJP has long supported the idea of a Uniform Civil Code nationally. It has been part of the party’s ideological agenda alongside issues such as Article 370 and the Ram Temple movement.

By moving ahead with the UCC in Assam, Sarma positions himself as one of the BJP’s strongest ideological leaders in the Northeast. This is especially important because he has just returned to power for a second consecutive term, becoming the first non-Congress leader in Assam to achieve that milestone.  

The timing also matters.

Sarma has increasingly framed Assam politics around themes of identity protection, demographic anxiety and land reclamation. Recently, he pledged to intensify eviction drives and reclaim large areas of allegedly encroached land, describing Assam’s “land, identity and future” as non-negotiable. The UCC fits into this broader political narrative.

Supporters of the BJP argue that the move represents social reform, gender justice and legal uniformity. Critics, however, see it differently. They argue that selective implementation — especially focusing on issues like polygamy and Muslim personal law — turns the UCC into a politically targeted project rather than a universally applied reform.

There is also a national dimension. If Assam successfully passes and implements its version of the UCC, it will give the BJP another example to showcase ahead of future national debates on personal laws and constitutional reform.

But Assam’s version may also expose the limits of the UCC idea itself. Because once tribal exemptions, customary protections and regional exceptions are added, the idea of a single “uniform” code becomes more complicated.

That may ultimately become the central question in Assam: Is this truly a Uniform Civil Code? Or is it a politically negotiated civil reform package with selective application?

And the answer to that question may shape not just Assam’s politics, but the future of the UCC debate across India.

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