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. Programme Schedule Thursday, 25 April, 2013 9.00 a.m. a.m. 9.15 Inaugural Session Chair and welcome address by Prof. Mahesh Rangarajan, Director, NMML. Introductory remarks by Prof. Janaki Nair, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi 9.15 a.m.- 11.15 a.m. Session 1: Which custom, whose custom?

Chair and Discussant: Speakers:

Prof. Gyan Prakash, Princeton University, USA. 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 11.15 a.m. 11.30 a.m. 11.30 a.m. 1.30 p.m. Chair and Discussant: Speakers: Tea Break Session 2: Defining the permissible Dr. Nandini Chatterjee, Plymouth University, UK Prof. Kumkum Roy, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi Rules and identities: A comparison of the Vinaya Pitaka and the Manusmrti Prof. Nandita Sahai, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi To mount or not to mount?: Custom, contestation and law-making in early modern Rajasthan 1.30 p.m. 2.30 p.m. p.m.p.m.2.30 5.30 Lunch Session 3: Writing, record and legal truths Prof. Shahid Amin, University of Delhi, Delhi Ms. Srimoyee Ghosh, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi Paper, truth, taxes: A discursive history of the early years of stamp paper in India Tea Break

Chair and Discussant: Speakers:

3.30 p.m.

p.m.-3.45

3.45 p.m

p.m.

-5.30Dr. 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 Friday, 26 April, 2013

9.00 a.m. 11.00 a.m. Chair and Discussant: Speakers:

Session 4: The extra-ordinary and the exceptional Prof. Aparna Vaidik, Georgetown University, USA Prof. Elizabeth Kolsky, Villanova University, USA 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 Prof. Mahesh Rangarajan, Director, NMML.

Chair and Discussant:

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.

p.m.-

2.15

Lunch

2.15 p.m.

a.m.

5.30

Session 6: Law, Sovereignty and the Practices of Governance Prof. Rajat Datta, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi Prof. Farhat Hasan, University of Delhi, Delhi The language and instrumentalities of law in Mughal India Tea Break

Chair and Discussant: Speakers:

3.15 p.m. 3.30 p.m.

p.m.-3.30

p.m.-5.30Prof. Philip Stern, Duke University, USA Legal geography and English sovereignty: Bombay in the later seventeenth century Dr. 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

Saturday, 27 April, 2013 9.00 a.m. a.m.-11.00 Session 7 Law and the politics of womens rights Prof. Mary John, Centre for Women's Development Studies, New Delhi Dr. Eleanor Newbigin, School of Oriental and African Studies, London The political economy of womens rights in latecolonial India Dr. Rohit De, Princeton University, USA and Post Doctoral Fellow, Cambridge University Can the subaltern sue?: Sex, work and freedom under the Indian Constitution (1950-1965) 11.00 a.m. 11.15 a.m. a.m.-11.15 a.m.-1.15 Tea Break Session 8 The worker and the legal regime Prof. Kamala Sankaran, University of Delhi, Delhi. 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 1.15p.m.-2.15p.m. Lunch

Chair and Discussant: Speakers:

Chair and Discussant: Speakers:

Session 9

2.15p.m.-4.30p.m. Chair and Discussant: Speakers:

The religious and the legal Dr. Prathama Banerjee, Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, Delhi. Dr. G. Arunima, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. Customary confusions: Law and practice in colonial India Tea Break

3.15p.m.-3.30p.m.

3.30p.m.-4.30p.m. Prof. Janaki Nair, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi The moral authority of the Matha and the possibility of justice 4.30p.m.-5.30p.m. Chair: Concluding Remarks: Session 10 Conclusion Prof. Udaya Kumar, Senior Fellow, NMML. Prof. Gyan Prakash, Princeton University, USA Prof. Neeladri Bhattacharya, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi Prof. Radhika Singha, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi

All are welcome. Those wishing to have their names added to the e-mail list may please e-mail us at: nmmldirector@gmail.com