Law and Identity in Colonial South Asia: Parsi Legal Culture, 1772–1947This book explores the legal culture of the Parsis, or Zoroastrians, an ethnoreligious community unusually invested in the colonial legal system of British India and Burma. Rather than trying to maintain collective autonomy and integrity by avoiding interaction with the state, the Parsis sank deep into the colonial legal system itself. From the late eighteenth century until India's independence in 1947, they became heavy users of colonial law, acting as lawyers, judges, litigants, lobbyists, and legislators. They de-Anglicized the law that governed them and enshrined in law their own distinctive models of the family and community by two routes: frequent intra-group litigation often managed by Parsi legal professionals in the areas of marriage, inheritance, religious trusts, and libel, and the creation of legislation that would become Parsi personal law. Other South Asian communities also turned to law, but none seem to have done so earlier or in more pronounced ways than the Parsis. |
Contents
| 1 | |
Colonial Parsis Go to Court | 37 |
Two Patterns | 84 |
The Inheritance Acts | 127 |
The Matrimonial Acts | 165 |
The Parsi Chief Matrimonial | 193 |
Other editions - View all
Law and Identity in Colonial South Asia: Parsi Legal Culture, 1772–1947 Mitra Sharafi Limited preview - 2014 |
Law and Identity in Colonial South Asia: Parsi Legal Culture, 1772-1947 Mitra Sharafi No preview available - 2016 |
Common terms and phrases
Asia Bella Bombay High Court British India Burma Burmese Chief Matrimonial Court child marriage civil Colah colonial courts Colonial India coverture criminal Dadabhai Naoroji Darukhanawala Davar Defamation Delhi Desai Dinshah disputes elite English law European Gujarati Hindu Hinnells History husband Ibid inheritance intestacy intestate intestate’s intragroup Islamic JCPC case papers Jijibhai judicial Justice Karaka late colonial legal profession legislation libel suits Lincoln’s Lincoln’s Inn litigation London Marriage and Divorce married Mistry Modi Mumbai Muslim non-Parsi Oxford Palsetia Parsee Parsi Chief Matrimonial Parsi community Parsi jury Parsi law Parsi lawyers Parsi legal Parsi Marriage Parsi matrimonial court Parsi Panchayat Patel and Paymaster PCMC Notebook Persian personal law plaintiffs PMDA priests Privy Council prostitution racial Rangoon religion religious rule Saklat Sharafi social solicitors South Asian statute Stausberg Surat Trial by Jury trust suits twentieth century University Press Vachha Vimadalal Wadia wife wives women WRTOS Zoroastrian