The Centrality of Hindu Morality in Both Defending and Accusing South Asians
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Soledad Garcia Jubala was the wife of Julio Jubala, they had both gotten married in New Mexico. What was not known at the time was that Jubala already had a wife back in India called Nami Singh. After Jubala’s tragic death, both these women were contesting for their inheritance, often using similar strategies to malign and delegitimize their relationship with Jubala. Nami and Jubala’s marriage was arranged back in India when they were still children and they spent significant time apart when Jubala moved to the States. Although they consummated the marriage and were bonded legally, Soledad sought to delegitimize their bond and the obligations it carried by stressing the repungnancy of the circumstance of child marriage. Soledad tied the Hindu custom of marriage to an illegitimate and invalid union that should not be respected in court, which would make her Jubala’s only legitimate spouse and the inheritor of his wealth. Nami Singh, in her own right tried to project Jubala’s second marriage as illegitimate, continuously portraying Soledad as a concubine who helped her husband through hard times but had no legal marital relationship to him. The courts ultimately took Nami’s side, seeing as her marriage to Jubala was still valid at the time of his arrival in the US, but granted inheritance to Jubala and Soledad’s children who were seen as legitimate.
The concept of Hindu morality especially when it comes to marriage was employed again to defend Don Sing who was accused of sodomy. In this case, his lawyer P.L. Verma defended him as a devout Hindu husband who being faithful to his wife, could not commit sodomy. Additional characteristics of generosity and humanitarian spirit were put forward in Sing’s defence. The idea was that Sing, a devout, pious and generous Hindu husband, could never commit sodomy because it went against the Hindu moral code of faithfulness to one’s spouse, and thus the charges against him should be dropped.
In this way the concept of Hindu morality was brought up by legal forces to both accuse and delegitimize as well as defend South Asians in court.