The Government of Social Life in Colonial India: Liberalism, Religious Law, and Women's RightsFrom the early days of colonial rule in India, the British established a two-tier system of legal administration. Matters deemed secular were subject to British legal norms, while suits relating to the family were adjudicated according to Hindu or Muslim law, known as personal law. This important new study analyzes the system of personal law in colonial India through a reexamination of women's rights. Focusing on Hindu law in western India, it challenges existing scholarship, showing how - far from being a system based on traditional values - Hindu law was developed around ideas of liberalism, and that this framework encouraged questions about equality, women's rights, the significance of bodily difference, and more broadly the relationship between state and society. Rich in archival sources, wide-ranging, and theoretically informed, the book illuminates how personal law came to function as an organizing principle of colonial governance and of nationalist political imaginations. |
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The Government of Social Life in Colonial India: Liberalism, Religious Law ... Rachel Sturman No preview available - 2017 |
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administration adoption Ambedkar argued Asura became benefit Bengal bill Bombay Presidency Born HCR Brahminical British India Calcutta Cambridge University Press caste Chandavarkar claims Colonial India confirmed context critique custom Dada Naik Dalits debates debt Deccan Deccan Riots defined Delhi devadasi Dipesh Chakrabarty early economic edited efforts elite emerged family property father feminist first Guha Gujarati High Court Hindu law History husband Ibid inam inheritance involved issue joint family jurisprudence Justice Khojas kulkarnis Kutchi Memons land revenue legislation liberal M. G. Ranade Mahar Maharashtra maintenance Maratha marriage Mitakshara Modern Muslim nationalist nineteenth century nonetheless officers officials ofthe Oxford University Press personal law Peshwa Phule political economy practice property forms Pune question Ramchandra Ranade’s reflected Reform reformist religious rule secular sexual Shari’at significance social relations sought specific status textual tion transformation vatan vatandar village Western India widow women women’s rights