Religion and personal law in secular India [electronic resource] : a call to judgment

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Larson, Gerald James.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Domestic relations.

Legal polycentricity.

Legal polycentricity--India.

Legal status, laws, etc.

Religion and state.

Religious minorities.

Local Subjects:

Domestic relations.

Legal polycentricity.

Legal polycentricity--India.

Legal status, laws, etc.

Religion and state.

Religious minorities.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (373 p.)

Place of Publication:

Bloomington, IN : Indiana University Press, 2001.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Though a directive principle of the constitution, a uniform civil code of law has never been written or instituted in India. As a result, in matters of personal law -- the segment of law concerning marriage, dowry, divorce, parentage, legitimacy, wills, and inheritance -- individuals of different backgrounds must appeal to their respective religious laws for guidance or rulings. But balancing the claims of religious communities with those of a modern secular state has caused some intractable problems f

Contents:

Contents; Preface; Introduction: The Secular State in a Religious Society; PART I The Secular State and Legal Pluralism:The Current Debate and Its Historical Antecedents; One: Religion, Personal Law, and Identity in India; Two: Religious Minorities and the Law; Three: Living with Difference in India: Legal Pluralism and Legal Universalism in Historical Context; PART II Religious Endowments, Reservations Law, and Criminal Law; Four: Religious and Charitable Endowments and a Uniform Civil Code; Five: Personal Law and Reservations, Volition and Religion in Contemporary India

Six: The Uniform Civil Code Debate: Lessons from the Criminal ProceduresPART III: Personal Law and Issues of Gender; Seven: Gender Implications for a Uniform Civil Code; Eight: The Personal and the Political: Indian Women and Inheritance Law; Nine: Observations on the Historical Destruction of Separate Legal Regimes; Ten: Who Was Roop Kanwar? Sati, Law, Religion, and Postcolonial Feminism; Eleven: "Where Will She Go? What Will She Do?": Paternalism toward Women in the Administration of Muslim Personal Law in Cont; PART IV: Cross-Cultural Perspectives

Twelve: Affirmative Action in the United States and the Reservation System in India, Some Comparative CommentsThirteen: Personal Law Systems and Religious Conflict, A Comparison of India and Israel; Fourteen: The Road to Xanadu, India's Quest for Secularism; Some Continuing Issues; Bibliographical Note; Contributors; Index

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

ISBN:

0-253-10868-3

OCLC:

56611046