4/22/13

Thinking Through Law South Asian Histories and the Legal Archive

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Thinking Through Law
South Asian Histories and the Legal Archive

Organized by

Jawaharlal Nehru University
Delhi University
Princeton University
Nehru Memorial Museum and Library
With support from Indian Council of Historical Research

April 25-27, 2013

Day ONE: April 25, 2013
Introductory Remarks: 9.00 am – 9.15 am
Mahesh Rangarajan, Nehru Memorial Museum and Library
Janaki Nair, Jawaharlal Nehru University

SESSION I: 9. 15 am -11.15 am
Which Custom, Whose Custom?
Chair and Discussant:  Gyan Prakash, Department of History, Princeton University

Aparna Balachandran, Department of History, University of Delhi
The Many Pasts of Mamul: Custom and the City in Early -Colonial Madras
Rashmi Pant, Fellow, Nehru Memorial Museum and Library
Litigants’ Tales: Garhwal 1894-1954
Tea 11.15 -11.30

SESSION II: 11.30 am – 1.30 pm
Defining the Permissible
Chair and Discussant: Nandini Chatterjee, Plymouth University, UK
Kumkum Roy, Centre for Historical Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University
Rules and Identities: A Comparison of the Vinaya Pitaka and the Manusmrti
Nandita Sahai, Centre for Historical Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University
“To Mount or not to Mount?”: Custom, Contestation, and Law-making in Early-Modern Rajasthan
Lunch: 1.30 pm – 2.30 pm

SESSION III: 2.30 pm – 5.30 pm
Writing, Record and Legal Truths
Chair and Discussant: Shahid Amin, Department of History, University of Delhi
Tea: 3. 30 pm – 3.45 pm
Srimoyee Ghosh, Doctoral Candidate, Centre for Law and Governance, Jawaharlal Nehru University
Paper, Truth, Taxes: A Discursive History of the Early Years of Stamp Paper in India
Santosh Abraham, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, IIT Madras
Formal Writing, Questionnaires, Petitions and Recording: Colonial Governance and Law in Early British Malabar, 1792-1810


Archana Parashar, Macquarie University, Australia
Truth of Law: Construction of Legal Discourse

DAY TWO: APRIL 26, 2013
SESSION IV: 9 am -11am
THE EXTRA-ORDINARY AND THE EXCEPTIONAL
Chair and Discussant: Aparna Vaidik, Georgetown University, US
Elizabeth Kolsky, Department of History, Villanova University, US
Law and Violence on the North-West Frontier of British India
Bhavani Raman, Department of History, Princeton University
Extraordinary Law at the Colonial Frontier: Notes from the East India Company Archive
Tea: 11am -11.15 am

Session V: 11.15 am – 1.15 pm
Mobilizing the Empire: law, Labour anD the Military
Chair and Discussant: Mahesh Rangarajan, Director, Nehru Memorial Museum and Library
Neeladri Bhattacharya, Centre for Historical Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University
Violence and the Languages of law
Radhika Singha, Centre for Historical Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University
A 'Tribunal Peculiar to the Indian Army': The Great War, the Summary Court-martial and Flogging under the Indian Army Act, 1911-1921
Lunch: 1.15 pm-2.15 pm

SESSION VI: 2.15 pm – 5.30 pm
Law, Sovereignty and the practices of Governance
Chair and Discussant: Rajat Datta, Centre for Historical Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University
Tea: 3.15 pm – 3.30 pm
Farhat Hasan, Department of History, University of Delhi
The Language and Instrumentalities of Law in Mughal India
Philip Stern, Department of History, Duke University.
Legal Geography and English Sovereignty:  Bombay in the later Seventeenth Century



Rajarshi Ghose, Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Kolkata
The Social Logic of Taqlid: Debates on Islamic Legal Practice in Northern India and Bengal circa 1837-1889

DAY THREE: APRIL 27, 2013
SESSION VII: 9 am – 11 am
Law and the Politics of Women’s Rights
Chair and Discussant: Mary John, Centre for Women's Development Studies, New Delhi
Eleanor Newbigin, Department of History, SOAS
The Political Economy of Women’s Rights in Late-Colonial India
Rohit De, Department of History, Princeton University, and Post Doctoral Fellow, Cambridge University.
‘Can the Subaltern Sue?’: Sex, Work and Freedom under the Indian Constitution (1950-1965)
Tea: 11 am – 11.15 am

SESSION VIII: 11.15 – 1.15
Chair and Discussant: Kamala Sankaran, Department of Law, Delhi University

The Worker and the Legal Regime
Rachel Sturman, Department of History, Bowdoin College.
Indenture and the History of International Rights Regimes

Prabhu Mohapatra, Department of History, University of Delhi
A Moving Target: Workers in the Mirror of Law
Lunch: 1.15 pm – 2.15 pm



SESSION IX:  2.15 pm - 4.30 pm
The Religious and the legal
Chair and Discussant:  Prathama Banerjee, Centre for Studies in Developing Society
G Arunima, Women’s Studies Programme, Jawaharlal Nehru University
Customary Confusions: Law and Practice in Colonial India
Tea 3.15 pm- 3.30 pm
Janaki Nair, Centre for Historical Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University
The Moral Authority of the Matha and the Possibility of Justice

Session X: 4.30 pm – 5.15 pm
Concluding Comments
Gyan Prakash, Radhika Singha, Neeladri Bhattacharya