Hindu Law

Hindu Law
Author: Werner Menski
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 668
Release: 2008-09-10
Genre: Law
ISBN: 0199088039

This book presents a study on a postmodernist analysis of classical Hindu law, which has become neglected due to the modernist assumptions about the increasing irrelevance of ‘religious’ legal systems. The book is split into three parts. The first part focuses on the historical and conceptual background of Hindu law, while the second part concentrates on five facets of Hindu law that go beyond tradition and modernity, namely the Hindu marriage law, child marriage, polygamy, divorce, and the maintenance law. Finally, the third part presents a concluding analysis to the preceding chapters, where it presents the postmodern condition of Hindu law.

Marriage of Hindu Widows

Marriage of Hindu Widows
Author: Īśvaracandra Bidyāsāgara
Publisher:
Total Pages: 154
Release: 1864
Genre: Marriage
ISBN:

The Hindu Family and the Emergence of Modern India

The Hindu Family and the Emergence of Modern India
Author: Eleanor Newbigin
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 279
Release: 2013-09-19
Genre: History
ISBN: 1107434750

Between 1955 and 1956 the Government of India passed four Hindu Law Acts to reform and codify Hindu family law. Scholars have understood these acts as a response to growing concern about women's rights but, in a powerful re-reading of their history, this book traces the origins of the Hindu law reform project to changes in the political-economy of late colonial rule. The Hindu Family and the Emergence of Modern India considers how questions regarding family structure, property rights and gender relations contributed to the development of representative politics, and how, in solving these questions, India's secular and state power structures were consequently drawn into a complex and unique relationship with Hindu law. In this comprehensive and illuminating resource for scholars and students, Newbigin demonstrates the significance of gender and economy to the history of twentieth-century democratic government, as it emerged in India and beyond.

Revisiting Personal Laws in Bangladesh

Revisiting Personal Laws in Bangladesh
Author: Faustina Pereira
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 299
Release: 2019-03-19
Genre: Law
ISBN: 9004357270

The People’s Republic of Bangladesh is centrally located in South Asia and is one of the eight countries that constitute the South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation (SAARC). In 2010, the South Asian Institute of Legal and Human Rights Studies in Dhaka (SAILS) initiated the ‘Combating Gender Injustice’ research study to investigate how the Christian, Hindu and Muslim communities in the country are affected by the laws and customs governing their personal lives. The aim was to engage in a dialogue with the stakeholders the results of which would provide a basis to formulate recommendations for law, policy and procedural reform. These reports have been reproduced in this volume in updated and revised form. Moreover, in order to offer a more complete overview of the ethnic and religious minorities concerned, a chapter has been added on the personal laws of the Buddhist community, the third largest religious community in Bangladesh. Finally, the volume offers much needed information on the laws and customs of the indigenous peoples of the Chittagong Hill Tracts, communities following traditional rules and customs in the remote and hilly region of the country. The gender-insensitive personal laws prevalent in South Asian societies will continue to be debated for generations to come. This unique volume gives a voice to the different religious and ethnic communities affected by the current laws and practices in force in Bangladesh. The reader will find an overview and gain understanding of the legal issues that need to be addressed in each case.

Enslaved Daughters

Enslaved Daughters
Author: Sudhir Chandra
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 363
Release: 2008-02-27
Genre: Law
ISBN: 0199088780

This is the second edition of a remarkable study of a young woman's defiant stand against Hindu orthodoxy and the colonial legal establishment in the late nineteenth century India. It revolves around a suit for 'restitution of conjugal rights' filed against Rukhmabai, who was married at age eleven and refused to go and live with her husband. This lucid and engaging account captures the dramatic unfolding of the litigation, as well as the huge social and political debate set off by it. The narrative skilfully weaves together the details of the case with larger issues of gender and law, colonialism, culture, reform, and modernity. This edition includes a new Afterword in which the author analyses a vexatious libel case into which the rival party dragged Rukhmabai with a view to breaking her will, even before the original suit has been settled. This book will interest students and scholars of gender studies, family law, feminist perspective of history, legal history, and also general readers.

Hindu Women and Marriage Law

Hindu Women and Marriage Law
Author: Monmayee Basu
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Total Pages: 202
Release: 2001
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN:

"This book will be of interest to general readers, social workers, and students of gender studies and modern social history."--BOOK JACKET.

She Comes to Take Her Rights

She Comes to Take Her Rights
Author: Srimati Basu
Publisher: SUNY Press
Total Pages: 324
Release: 1999-02-25
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 9780791440964

Using the contemporary workings of property law in India through the lives and thoughts of middle-class and poor women, this is a study of the ways in which cultural practices, and particularly notions of gender ideology, guide the workings of law. It urges a close reading of decisions by women that appear to be contrary to material interests and that reinforce patriarchal ideologies. Hailed as a radical moment for gender equality, the Hindu Succession Act was passed in India in 1956 theoretically giving Hindu women the right to equal inheritance of their parents’ self-acquired property. However, in the years since the act’s existence, its provisions have scarcely been utilized. Using interview data drawn from middle-class and poor neighborhoods in Delhi, this book explores the complexity of women’s decisions with regard to family property in this context. The book shows that it is not passivity, ignorance of the law, naiveté about wealth, or unthinking adherence to gender prescriptions that guides women’s decisions, but rather an intricate negotiation of kinship and an optimization of socioeconomic and emotional needs. An examination of recent legal cases also reveals that the formal legal realm can be hospitable to women’s rights-based claims, but judgments are still coded in terms of customary provisions despite legal criteria to the contrary.