The Nehru Memorial Museum and Library
cordially invites you to a Conference
at 9:00 a.m. on Thursday-Saturday, 25-27 April, 2013
in the Seminar Room, First Floor, Library Building
on
'Thinking through Law:
South Asian histories and the legal archive'
in association with
Prof. Neeladri Bhattacharya,
Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi,
Dr. Rashmi Pant, Fellow, NMML,
Prof. Janaki Nair,
Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi,
Dr. Aparna Balachandran,
University of Delhi, Delhi,
Prof. Bhavani Raman,
Princeton University, USA.
Concept note:
The law in South Asian historical writing has had a specific presence, with more attention being paid to legislative processes than case law, to the effects of law rather than its performance, to legal outcomes rather than judicial reasoning, and to judicial processes rather than the new subject positions offered by the law. While reflections on law and society animate the work of sociologists, anthropologists and political scientists (as well that of feminists across these disciplines), the time is ripe for a more self- conscious reflection on the law among historians.
What does a deeper engagement with historical issues bring to the study of the law? How can a critical reflection on law and legal sources illuminate, and perhaps even challenge our understanding of the discipline of history? The realm of the law, with its prodigious textual traditions and productions, its incitements to speak, and the range of subjectivities it generates, has recently begun to interest historians of all periods in India, though, given the proliferation of the archive, the modern period has perhaps seen the most energetic engagements.
The proposed conference on South Asian histories and the legal archive hopes to present and engage with recent scholarship on the law in different historical periods, and to generate new tools of historical analysis and perspectives for future reflection.
9.00 a.m.– 9.15 a.m.
Inaugural Session
Chair and welcome address by
Prof. Mahesh Rangarajan,
Director, NMML.
Introductory remarks by
Prof. Janaki Nair,
9.15 a.m.- 11.15 a.m.
Session 1:
Which custom, whose custom?
Chair and Discussant: Prof. Gyan Prakash, Princeton University , USA
Speakers:
Dr. Aparna Balachandran, University of Delhi Delhi
‘The many pasts of Mamul: Custom and the city in early-colonial Madras
Dr. Rashmi Pant, Fellow, NMML,
‘Litigants’ tales: Garhwal 1894-1954’
Session 2: Defining the permissible
Chair and Discussant: Dr. Nandini Chatterjee, Plymouth University , UK
Speakers:
Prof. Kumkum Roy,
‘Rules and identities: A comparison of the Vinaya Pitaka and the Manusmrti’
Prof. Nandita Sahai,
‘To mount or not to mount?:
Custom, contestation and law-making in early modern Rajasthan’
1.30 p.m.- 2.30 p.m.
Lunch
2.30 p.m.- 5.30 p.m.
Session 3: Writing, record and legal truths
Chair and Discussant:
Prof. Shahid Amin, University of Delhi Delhi
Speakers:
Ms. Srimoyee Ghosh,
‘Paper, truth, taxes: A discursive history of the early years of stamp paper in India
3.45 p.m. -5.30 p.m
Dr. Santosh Abraham, Indian Institute of Technology Madras
‘Formal writing, questionnaires and petitions: Colonial governance and law in early-British Malabar 1792-1810’
Prof. Archana Parashar, Macquarie University , Australia
‘Truth of law: Construction of legal discourse’
Session 4: The extra-ordinary and the exceptional
Chair and Discussant: Prof. Aparna Vaidik, Georgetown University , USA
Speakers:
Prof. Elizabeth Kolsky,
‘Law and violence on the north-west frontier of British India ’
Prof. Bhavani Raman, Princeton University , USA
‘Extraordinary law at the colonial frontier: Notes from the East India Company archive’
11.00 a.m.- 11.15 a.m. Tea Break
11.15 a.m.– 1.15 p.m.
Session 5: Mobilizing the empire: Law, labour and the military
Chair and Discussant: Prof. Mahesh Rangarajan, Director, NMML.
Speakers:
Prof. Neeladri Bhattacharya, Jawaharlal Nehru University New Delhi
‘Violence and the languages of law’
Prof. Radhika Singha, Jawaharlal Nehru University New Delhi
‘A ‘tribunal peculiar to the Indian Army’: The Great War, the summary court-martial and flogging under the Indian Army Act, 1911-1921’
1.15 p.m.- 2.15 p.m. Lunch
2.15 a.m.– 5.30 p.m.
Session 6: Law, Sovereignty and the Practices of Governance
Chair and Discussant:
Prof. Rajat Datta, Jawaharlal Nehru University New Delhi
Speakers:
Prof. Farhat Hasan, University of Delhi Delhi
‘The language and instrumentalities of law in Mughal India
Prof. Philip Stern, Duke University , USA
‘Legal geography and English sovereignty: Bombay
Dr. Rajarshi Ghose, Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Kolkata
‘The social logic of Taqlid: Debates on Islamic legal practice in northern India Bengal circa 1837-1889’
Session 7 Law and the politics of women’s rights
Chair and Discussant: Prof. Mary John, Centre for Women's Development Studies, New Delhi
Speakers:
Dr. Eleanor Newbigin, School of Oriental London
‘The political economy of women’s rights in late-colonial India
Dr. Rohit De, Princeton University , USA Cambridge University
‘Can the subaltern sue?’: Sex, work and freedom under the Indian Constitution (1950-1965)’
Session 8 The worker and the legal regime
Chair and Discussant: Prof. Kamala Sankaran, University of Delhi Delhi
Speakers:
Dr. Rachel Sturman, Bowdoin College , USA
‘Indenture and the history of international rights regimes’
Dr. Prabhu Mohapatra, University of Delhi Delhi
‘A moving target: Workers in the mirror of law’
Session 9 The religious and the legal
Chair and Discussant:
Dr. Prathama Banerjee, Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, Delhi
Speakers:
Dr. G. Arunima, Jawaharlal Nehru University New Delhi
‘Customary confusions: Law and practice in colonial India
Prof. Janaki Nair, Jawaharlal Nehru University New Delhi
‘The moral authority of the Matha and the possibility of justice’
Session 10 Conclusion
Concluding Remarks:
Prof. Udaya Kumar,
Senior Fellow, NMML.
Prof. Gyan Prakash,
Prof. Neeladri Bhattacharya,
Prof. Radhika Singha,
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