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Author Saxena, Saumya, author.

Title Divorce and democracy : a history of personal law in post-independence India / Saumya Saxena
Published Cambridge, United Kingdom ; New York, NY : Cambridge University Press, 2022
©2022

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Description 1 online resource (xvi, 377 pages) : illustrations
Contents Introduction -- Personal law and the making of modern religion, 1946-56 -- Committees, codes, and customs : renegotiating personal law, 1957-69 -- Social movements, national emergency, and the custody of the Constitution, 1967-79 -- Muslim law, Hindu nationalism, and Indian secularisms, 1980-92 -- The court in context, 1992-2000s -- From the courtroom to the courtyard : the public life of personal law, 2000-present -- Conclusion
Summary "This book demonstrates that family law, arguably the most visible sphere of such contestation, emerged as a particularly hospitable arena for conversations between religious and legal regimes, to institute the normative framework that could govern the domestic lives of citizens. The work illustrates how the codification of religious personal laws permitted the Indian state to enter into an intimate dialogue with citizens, largely mediated through religion. Thus, through this process, the state also secured monopoly over determining what constituted religion, as well as the right to determine the validity and scope of religious practices. This book therefore suggests that religious personal law played a key role in determining the legal place for religion in India's secular democracy. The controversy on the issue of personal law has contributed to a unique evolution of both the rule of law and the doctrine of secularism in twentieth century India. By tracing the response of legislature, the courts, and civil society movements to the question of cultural rights and notions of abstract citizenship, this book exhibits how the translation of marriage and divorce laws of Hindu, Muslim, and Christian communities into statutes introduced new questions on the tenuous links between the law and the sacred, as well as on the problematic rhetoric of the reformative potential of law"-- Provided by publisher
Notes Based on author's thesis (doctoral -- University of Cambridge, 2017) issued under title: Politics of personal law in post-independence India c.1946-2007
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index
Notes Description based on online resource; title from digital title page (viewed on September 01, 2022)
Subject Domestic relations -- India
Legal polycentricity -- India
Religion and state -- India
Muslims -- Legal status, laws, etc. -- India
Hindus -- Legal status, laws, etc. -- India
Christians -- Legal status, laws, etc. -- India
LAW / General.
Christians -- Legal status, laws, etc.
Domestic relations
Hindus -- Legal status, laws, etc.
Legal polycentricity
Muslims -- Legal status, laws, etc.
Politics and government
Religion and state
SUBJECT India -- Politics and government -- 1947- http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85064944
Subject India
Form Electronic book
LC no. 2022020701
ISBN 9781108653459
1108653456
1108999654
9781108999656