ARTICLE: Pallavi RAGHAVAN, Partition: An International History (The International History Review, Volume XLI, Issue 5)

(Source: Taylor & Francis Online)

Pallavi Raghavan (Ashoka University) has published “Parition: An international history” in the latest issue of The International History Review.

In trying to assemble the structure through which bilateral relations between India and Pakistan could be conducted, policy makers drew heavily from European models of inter-state peace-making evolved in the inter-war decades. The aftermath of the break-up of large multinational empires along ethnic-majoritarian lines posed administrative questions that were, in many ways, also similar to the aftermath of the partition of the subcontinent along religious lines. In this article, I attempt to relate these developments with the signing of the Nehru–Liaquat Pact of 1950, between the governments of India and Pakistan. According to this Pact, both governments would now be accountable to one another for the protection of their minorities in the Bengal province. I argue that this approach to dealing with the question of minority populations after a partition, had been initially developed by the League of Nations, and that emulating these models were part of an attempt by India and Pakistan to borrow from, but also further refine models of European statehood for their own purposes after their partition. This article attempts to evaluate the extent to which these expectations were met in the making of a ‘minorities’ regime’ in South Asia.

The full article can be read here

BOOK: Julia STEPHENS, Governing Islam - Law, Empire and Secularism in South Asia (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018). ISBN 9781107173910, £ 62.99

(Source: Cambridge University Press)

Cambridge University Press has just published a book which looks at the relation of colonial laws to contemporary struggles between Islam and secularism.

ABOUT THE BOOK

Governing Islam traces the colonial roots of contemporary struggles between Islam and secularism in India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. The book uncovers the paradoxical workings of colonial laws that promised to separate secular and religious spheres, but instead fostered their vexed entanglement. It shows how religious laws governing families became embroiled with secular laws governing markets, and how calls to protect religious liberties clashed with freedom of the press. By following these interactions, Stephens asks us to reconsider where law is and what it is. Her narrative weaves between state courts, Islamic fatwas on ritual performance, and intimate marital disputes to reveal how deeply law penetrates everyday life. In her hands, law also serves many masters - from British officials to Islamic jurists to aggrieved Muslim wives. The resulting study shows how the neglected field of Muslim law in South Asia is essential to understanding current crises in global secularism.

Provides a historical foundation for understanding contemporary debates about Islam, law, and secularism

Combines colonial legal archives with vernacular legal sources

Explains why Islamic law has occupied such a pivotal role in global debates about the relationship between religion and the state

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Julia Stephens, Rutgers University, New Jersey

Julia Stephens is Assistant Professor in the Department of History at Rutgers University, New Jersey. Her research and teaching span the fields of modern South Asian history, law, Islam, colonialism, and gender. Her writings have appeared in History Workshop Journal, Law and History Review, Modern Asian Studies, and the Journal of British History.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

List of maps and figures

Acknowledgments

Note on translation, transliteration, and abbreviations

Introduction

1. Forging secular legal governance

2. Personal law and the problem of marital property

3. Taming custom

4. Ritual and the authority of reason

5. Pathologizing Muslim sentiment

6. Islamic economy – a forgone alternative

Conclusion

Select bibliography

Index.

More information with the publisher