Universität Wien

140146 UE Seminar on Regional Cultures and Social History in Modern India (2018S)

5.00 ECTS (2.00 SWS), SPL 14 - Orientalistik, Afrikanistik, Indologie und Tibetologie
Continuous assessment of course work

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Note: The time of your registration within the registration period has no effect on the allocation of places (no first come, first served).

Details

max. 24 participants
Language: English

Lecturers

Classes (iCal) - next class is marked with N

  • Tuesday 10.04. 13:30 - 15:30 Seminarraum 5 ISTB UniCampus Hof 4 2C-O1-34
  • Tuesday 17.04. 13:30 - 15:30 Seminarraum 5 ISTB UniCampus Hof 4 2C-O1-34
  • Tuesday 24.04. 13:30 - 15:30 Seminarraum 5 ISTB UniCampus Hof 4 2C-O1-34
  • Tuesday 08.05. 13:30 - 15:30 Seminarraum 5 ISTB UniCampus Hof 4 2C-O1-34
  • Tuesday 15.05. 13:30 - 15:30 Seminarraum 5 ISTB UniCampus Hof 4 2C-O1-34
  • Tuesday 29.05. 13:30 - 15:30 Seminarraum 5 ISTB UniCampus Hof 4 2C-O1-34
  • Tuesday 05.06. 13:30 - 15:30 Seminarraum 5 ISTB UniCampus Hof 4 2C-O1-34
  • Tuesday 12.06. 13:30 - 15:30 Seminarraum 5 ISTB UniCampus Hof 4 2C-O1-34
  • Tuesday 19.06. 13:30 - 15:30 Seminarraum 5 ISTB UniCampus Hof 4 2C-O1-34
  • Tuesday 26.06. 13:30 - 15:30 Seminarraum 5 ISTB UniCampus Hof 4 2C-O1-34

Information

Aims, contents and method of the course

Titel:
Colonial Laws and Indian Society in the Nineteenth and Twentieth centuries: Aims, Contents and Method of the Course

This course aims to discuss the effect of the colonial laws and the legal system on the Indian society. It will raise specific questions regarding imperialism, colonialism, colonial legal system, the rule of law, legal pluralism, national movement, sovereignty and justice. How did the Indians respond to the transplantation of an alien legal system in India? India, on the eve of colonial rule, was governed by a multiplicity of laws and how the attempts at codification and homogenization by the colonial rulers will lead to the reification of the personal laws. The imperial legal system will evoke different responses from the governed. The paper will also examine the various social legislations around women and efforts at ‘modernity’.
Some of the original legislations, case-laws and other sources will be discussed in the course to understand the vision of the Indian legislators and the imperial policymakers. There is a vast repertoire of sources available for this paper, from newspapers to archival, case-laws, Law Commissions, Constituent Assembly Papers, etc.

Topics
• Introduction: Imperialism and Colonialism
• Orientalism and the Colonial Jurisprudence
• The Rule of Law and Hegemony
• The Colonial Legal System
• Colonial Land Settlements and Property
• Legal Pluralism and Personal Laws
• Classifying, Criminalizing and Dehumanizing People
• Prisons and the Colonial Laws
• Women, Legislations and Modernity
• Law and National Movement
• The Making of Indian Constitution

Assessment and permitted materials

Minimum requirements and assessment criteria

Examination topics

Reading list

1. Cohn, Bernard, Colonialism and its Forms of Knowledge, Princeton University Press, 1996.
2. Cooper, Frederick, Colonial in Question: Theory, Knowledge, History, University of California Press, 2005.
3. Dube, Saurabh and Anupama Rao ed., Crime Through Time, Oxford in India Reading, New Delhi, 2012.
4. Foucault, Michel, The Archaeology of Knowledge, Routledge, Reprinted 2003, 2004.
5. Galanter, Marc. Law and Society in Modern India. Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1989.
6. Guha, Ranajit, The Small Voice of History, Permanent Black, Ranikhet, 2010, pp.271-303.
7. Nair, Janki, Women and Law in Colonial India: A Social History (Kali for Women, Published in Collaboration with the National Law School of India University, Bangalore, 1996).
8. Sumit Sarkar and Tanika Sarkar, ed. Women and Social Reform in Modern India, Vols. I & II, Permanent Black, 2016 (5th Impression).
9. Sherman, Taylor C. (ed.), State Violence and Punishment in India, New York: Routledge, 2010
10. Sleeman, Sir William Henry, Rambles and Recollections of an Indian Officer, Hatchard, London, 1844.

Association in the course directory

IMAK5A

Last modified: Mo 07.09.2020 15:34