None of this correspondence existed in colonial India. Yet, the IDA of 1869 was enacted as a religious law for the Christian community. The model derived from the English divorce law, which was a major legislative innovation that was duly transferred to India in 1869. However, when the legislature of a long-independent India enacted an amendment to this law in 2001 and it insisted on retaining the “religious” grounds of divorce, it is surprising that legal scholars do not see this as incredulous.