(Source: Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen)
We learned of a call for papers for a workshop on law
in relation to 17th and 18th century colonial
institutions. Here the call:
28 January 2019, Radboud University Nijmegen (Netherlands)
Organized by: Dries Lyna, Luc Bulten (both Radboud University
Nijmegen) and Leonard Hodges (King’s College London)
In partnership with Alicia Schrikker (Leiden University) &
International Institute for Asian Studies
Discussant: Nandini Chatterjee (University of Exeter)
Law has long been recognised as one of
the most important fields for understanding the creation and maintenance of the
colonial state in South Asia. Historians have shown how both criminal and civil
law were a means for subjugating and governing colonised populations, as legal
codes and property regimes served to maintain the social order and legitimise the
extractive capacity of the colonial state. Recent research shifted away from
this top-down perspective, and close attention to the actions of indigenous
litigants has revealed how local populations used colonial legal systems to
serve their own interests, with a great deal of present-day work focusing on legal
pluralism. Yet the vast majority of this literature has addressed the question
of law and colonialism in South Asia through the lens of the British colonial
experience, privileging a particular path with all its subsequent implications
for how we conceptualise the trajectory of South Asian history. In addition,
the strong focus on British 19th-century institutions seems to have
blurred the possible influence of their early modern (or even pre-colonial)
predecessors.
This one-day workshop seeks to
complicate teleological readings of law and its relationship to colonial
institutions and state-making by drawing on contexts beyond and before British
domination in the subcontinent. By evoking the ‘uses of law’ we hope to capture
both the constraints and opportunities the creation of colonial institutions
posed for a wide range of people, whether colonial administrators, local
elites, merchants, farmers or widows.
Central questions in this workshop
are:
-
How did pluralistic settings affect
the development of colonial institutions, and in what ways did these
institutions appropriate and transform indigenous legalities?
-
How might local actors have sought to
contest or benefit from particular colonial institutions?
-
And to what extent is it possible to
capture indigenous agency when meditated through colonial institutions?
We therefore invite researchers to
consider law in relation to 17th- and 18th-century colonial
institutions, broadly defined, including courts of law, trading companies,
religious missions and tax administrations. We welcome proposals from both
junior and senior scholars with different geographical backgrounds, and
comparative studies are certainly encouraged. Abstracts (max. 300 words) should
be sent to southasianlawradboud@gmail.com before
October 22, 2018. Decisions on
acceptance of presentations will be communicated no later than October 29,
2018. For more information, contact one of the workshop’s organisers.
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