Prakash Shah
Queen Mary, University of London, Law, Faculty Member
- South Asian Law, Socio-Legal Studies (Law), African Law and Legal Systems, International private law, Transnational Families, Muslim Family Law, and 17 moreIndian Law, Shariah, Law and Religion, Socio-legal studies, Religious Studies, Private International Law, Comparative Law, Islamic Law, Private International Family Law, Hinduism, Comparative Science of Cultures, Legal Pluralism, S.N. Balagangadhara, Caste, Comparative Religion, Indian studies, and Rodolphe Gasché, Europe, or the infinite Task: A Study of a Philosophical Concept Reviewed byedit
This book argues that the dominant descriptions of the 'caste system' are rooted in a Western Christian experience of India. Thus, caste studies scholarship tells us more about the West than about India. It further demonstrates the... more
This book argues that the dominant descriptions of the 'caste system' are rooted in a Western Christian experience of India. Thus, caste studies scholarship tells us more about the West than about India. It further demonstrates the imperative to move beyond this scholarship in order to generate descriptions of Indian social reality. The dominant descriptions of the 'caste system' that we have today are results of originally Christian themes and questions. They reflect European experiences of, and thinking about, Indian culture and society much more than the real state of society or its domestic understanding in India. The authors of this collection explore this hypothesis and show how it is applied beyond South Asia to the diasporic cultures that have made a home in Western countries. The book explores how caste studies has inherited its foundational assumptions from Christianity and how the inheritance of caste studies as structured by European scholarship impacts on our understanding of contemporary India and the Indians of the diaspora. This collection will be of interest to scholars and students of caste studies, India studies, religion in South Asia, postcolonial studies, history, anthropology and sociology. More on the book: This book argues that the dominant descriptions of the 'caste system' are rooted in a Western Christian experience of India. Thus, caste studies scholarship tells us more about the West than about India. It further demonstrates the imperative to move beyond this scholarship in order to generate descriptions of Indian social reality. The dominant descriptions of the 'caste system' that we have today are results of originally Christian themes and questions. They reflect European experiences of, and thinking about, Indian culture and society much more than the real state of society or its domestic understanding in India. The authors of this collection explore this hypothesis and show how it is applied beyond South Asia to the diasporic cultures that have made a home in Western countries. The book explores how caste studies has inherited its foundational assumptions from Christianity and how the inheritance of caste studies as structured by European scholarship impacts on our understanding of contemporary India and the Indians of the diaspora. This collection will be of interest to scholars and students of caste studies, India studies, religion in South Asia, postcolonial studies, history, anthropology and sociology.
Research Interests:
Against Caste in British Law discusses the salience of the caste question in UK law. It provides the background to how the caste provision came into the Equality Act 2010 and how it was reinforced in 2013. It explains the various... more
Against Caste in British Law discusses the salience of the caste question in UK law. It provides the background to how the caste provision came into the Equality Act 2010 and how it was reinforced in 2013. It explains the various interests that played a role in getting caste onto the statute book, arguing that its imperatives can be gauged by glancing at the Christian proselytism agenda in Asia. The book explains how the legal provision on caste will have damaging consequences for employers and businesses and the freedom of association of Indian communities. It refers to Indian law and debates on the caste question and explains how the Indian framework is embedded in Christian-Orientalism, therefore also constituting an unresolved theoretical problem for any law on caste. Emerging out of a first-hand engagement in advisory capacity with Indian community organizations in the UK, the book takes a stance against inclusion of caste in equality law.
Research Interests: Christianity, Hinduism, Equality Studies, History of Christianity, Indian studies, and 17 moreDiscrimination, Anthropology of Christianity, Missionary History, Religious Conversion, Equality and Diversity, Protestantism, Equality, Discrimination (Law), Caste and Untouchability, Indian Law, Comparative Science of Cultures, Caste, Equality and Non Discrimination, Proselytism, S.N. Balagangadhara, Equality Law, and Gautam Sen
Research Interests: Religion, Christianity, Jewish Law, Canon Law, Jewish Studies, and 103 moreFamily studies, Transnationalism, Family Law, Private International Law, Law and Religion, Muslim Family Law, Child Law, Religious Pluralism, Legal Pluralism, Religious Conversion, Minority Studies, Conflicts of Law, Private International Family Law, International Migration, Ethnic minorities, Muslim Minorities, Migration Studies, History of the Family, Transnational migration, Contemporary International Migration, International law (public and private), Transnationalism and multiple identities, Religion and Modernity, Sharia, Diaspora and transnationalism, Minority Rights, Religion and the Law, Human Rights and Legal Pluralism, Syriac Christianity, Comparative Legal Studies; Access to Justice; ADR; Comparative Family Law; Children's Rights; LGBTI rights, Child protection and family law, Religious Studies, Public International Law, Private International Law, European Union Law, Shariah, Religion and Law, family laws of Muslim states, Family policy, European Family, Diritto Canonico, Islamic Family Law, Religious Minorities, International private law, Pluralismo Jurídico, Comparative Family Law, Society, Law and Religion, Droit Canonique, Family law, child law, Diritto Privato, Diritto Internazionale Privato E Pocessuale, Diritto Di Famiglia, Legal Pluralism and Cultural Diversity, DIRITTO PRIVATO COMPARATO, Family Law - Marriage, Child and Succession - Civil/Personal Law, Shariah and Law, Theology and Religious Studies, International Migration Law, Religion, Politcs and Law, Transnational law, Ethnic and Religious Minorities, Islamic family law and Muslim feminisms, International Migrations, Religious Freedom, Private international law - Italian and EU, Family and Religion, Islam, Identity, religious minorities, Law, Religion and Public Discourse, Diritto Famiglia, Roman Catholic Canon Law, Pluralismo, Private International Law (Conflict of Laws), Family Courts, Globalization and Transnationalism, Transnational litigation, European private international law, Transnational Law, European family law, Pluralismo Juridico, Diritto Internazionale Privato, Giurisprudenza Diritto Civile E Famiglia, Comparative Family Laws, Conflicts of Laws, Christian Influence in the Law, European Law Legal Pluralism, Pluralismo Religioso, Intersection of Law Politics and Religion, Child and Family Policy, Transnational Family Law, Legal Pluralism And Judicial Politics, Colonialismo E Pluralismo Giuridico Nelle Società Musulmane, Rabbinical Court, Family Laws, Racisim/Ethnicity/Nationalism/Transnationalism, Islamic Family Law and Shari'a Courts, Conflict of Laws (Private International Law), Comparative Family Policy, Canon Law of the Orthodox Christian Church, Migration and Legal Pluralism, Gender and Muslim Family Laws, Jewish Courts / Batei Din, Legal Pluralism Multiculturalism Democracy, Legal Theory Legal Pluralism, Pluralismo Legal, and Family Breakdown and Family Policy
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
This comment offers a reflection on Vivek Ranjan Agnihotri’s film, The Kashmir Files (TKF), released in early 2022. I watched the film in a special screening in a hotel in central London a few weeks after its release. Being unable to... more
This comment offers a reflection on Vivek Ranjan Agnihotri’s film, The Kashmir Files (TKF), released in early 2022. I watched the film in a special screening in a hotel in central London a few weeks after its release. Being unable to tolerate watching the kind of events which I had anticipated the film would include, I had not intended to see it. On receiving the invitation, however, I decided to accept, bracing myself for scenes of atrocities. I am not a film critic and can’t say I know much about the conflict in Kashmir either. In that sense, I can probably count myself among the majority of the TKF’s watchers. So, the reader must beware that the following response to TKF is marred by the inadequacy of its author on several fronts. Having watched the film, I could not but help thinking about how one can gain a sense of the relevance of the film by keeping in mind the kinds of observations Venkat Rao (2014; 2018; 2021a; 2021b) makes throughout his work about Indian cultural difference. Although I cannot claim more than a passing acquaintance with that work, this comment is an attempt to think through TKF and Venkat Rao’s work together.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Advocates of multiculturalism claim that it supports the rights of cultural minorities and the public recognition of cultural differences. However, this article shows that this cannot be true of Indian culture as it has become transported... more
Advocates of multiculturalism claim that it supports the rights of cultural minorities and the public recognition of cultural differences. However, this article shows that this cannot be true of Indian culture as it has become transported to Britain, where multiculturalism actually poses a threat to it. Using the resources of the research programme of the Ghent School on the comparative study of India and Europe, this article substantiates this claim by showing how the dominant conception of cultural differences as well as the classical conception of the Indian caste system, which takes over the Indian social structures of jati, are both imported by multiculturalist thought and practice. The concretizing of multiculturalism in the form of anti-discrimination law is not only anticipated by a destructive politics of identity, but the law itself can be used to foster the destruction of Indian culture on the pretext of targeting the discriminatory caste system.
Research Interests:
Starting with an individual report in a leading British periodical of higher education, this article fans outwards to show how the contemporary field of caste studies reflects the degeneracy of its methods and claims. Rather than... more
Starting with an individual report in a leading British periodical of higher education, this article fans outwards to show how the contemporary field of caste studies reflects the degeneracy of its methods and claims. Rather than producing knowledge about India and the so-called caste system, caste studies has worked itself into a corner by creating a set of imagined victims and perpetrators of caste oppression, atrocities, violence and discrimination, and by making unsustainable claims on legal systems and other institutions. The manifold and insurmountable problems of contemporary caste studies include its basis in the European framework for the study of India founded upon Christian theological claims, the carry-over of this account into the secularised humanities and social sciences, and its engagement in corrupted academic practices of the kind that typify grievance studies today. That an alternative account exists in the form of the research programme of SN Balagangadhara, which inspires the articles in this special issue, is good reason for rethinking and revision of the field.
Research Interests:
This chapter first discusses the inescapable fact that South Asian Muslims in Europe have formed communities that result from immigration over several decades. Most well established in Britain, and in such a way as to set the tone for how... more
This chapter first discusses the inescapable fact that South Asian Muslims in Europe have formed communities that result from immigration over several decades. Most well established in Britain, and in such a way as to set the tone for how Muslims in general are regarded, such communities have tangibly fanned out across Europe and beyond. That conditions the types of private international law questions raised and how recent developments associated with Muslims, from other parts of the world too, have put into doubt previously favoured models of multiculturalism. Secondly, some salient features of the private international law framework applicable in Britain, comparing them with those existing in the European civil law countries where different assumptions apply. In the same section, there is a very brief overview of the South Asian comparative backdrop against which can be set questions which come up in British and other European legal systems, including the basic feature of personal laws, which is the norm in South Asia but exceptional for Europe. Third, there is a focus on how the development of unofficial sharia fora in the UK, within larger comparative contexts and transnationalism, is complicating and potentially undermining the existing model of private international law and the model of official laws more generally.
Research Interests: Law, Islamic Law, Comparative Law, Multiculturalism, Political Science, and 13 moreMuslim Family Law, Legal Pluralism, Islamic Studies, Women and Gender Issues in Islam, Muslims in Europe, Private law, Muslim personal law, Women and gender in Muslim societies, Indian Muslims, Shariah, Muslim Women and Personal Law, Muslims in Western Europe, and Private Law
Research Interests:
This collection brings together papers by anthropologists, political scientists and legal specialists who consider how contemporary cultural and religious diversity challenges legal practice, how legal practice responds to that challenge... more
This collection brings together papers by anthropologists, political scientists and legal specialists who consider how contemporary cultural and religious diversity challenges legal practice, how legal practice responds to that challenge and how practice is changing in the encounter with the cultural diversity occasioned by large-scale, post-war immigration. Questions about cultural difference, and whether, or to what extent, such difference should be recognized by legal systems, have provoked much discussion among lawyers and others, and raise issues highly pertinent to current debates across the globe about integration, multiculturalism and the governance of diversity. They are also keenly contested. Well-documented controversies such as those over the demands of Sikhs to wear turbans or Muslim schoolgirls to wear the Islamic headscarf (hijab), over legislation to outlaw racial or religious hate-speech, or arranged and forced marriages, or about whether or not legal systems should...
Research Interests:
Dr Prakash Shah specialises in legal pluralism, religion and law, ethnic minorities and diasporas in law, immigration, refugee and nationality law, and comparative law with special reference to South Asia. He has published widely and... more
Dr Prakash Shah specialises in legal pluralism, religion and law, ethnic minorities and diasporas in law, immigration, refugee and nationality law, and comparative law with special reference to South Asia. He has published widely and lectured internationally in these fields. Dr Shah was Lecturer at SOAS, University of London from 1993, and Lecturer at the University of Kent at Canterbury from August 2000. He joined Queen Mary, University of London in 2002, where he is now a Reader in Culture and Law. Dr Shah is also Director of GLOCUL: The Centre for Culture and Law at Queen Mary It is widely thought that all cultures have religion. A more challenging account, by S.N. Balagangadhara, problematizes that proposition, arguing that some cultures have religion and others do not, explaining why the former account is so widely accepted. Balagangadhara’s account allows us to think about religion and cultural diversity in a more interesting way. I deal with its implications through case stud...
Research Interests:
Research Interests: Christianity, Hinduism, History, Equality Studies, Indian studies, and 12 moreLaw and Society, Law and Religion, Equality and Diversity, Indian Diaspora (Migration and Ethnicity), Caste and Untouchability, Orientalism, Orientalism and Religion, Hindu Studies, Caste, Equality and Non Discrimination, Caste and Politics in India, and Caste Based Discrimination
This chapter discusses some salient features of the private international law framework applicable in Britain and compares it with that of the European civil law countries where different assumptions apply. It then provides a brief... more
This chapter discusses some salient features of the private international law framework applicable in Britain and compares it with that of the European civil law countries where different assumptions apply. It then provides a brief overview of the South Asian comparative backdrop against which some questions which come up in British and other European legal systems can be set, including the basic feature of personal laws which is the norm in South Asia but exceptional for Europe. It discusses the how South Asians in Europe have formed communities that result from immigration over several decades, including how that has conditioned the types of private international law questions raised and how recent developments associated with Muslims question previously favoured models of multiculturalism. Lastly, there is a focus on how the development of unofficial sharia fora in the UK, within a larger comparative context, is complicating and potentially undermining the existing model of private international law.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
The caste system is one of the most prevalent and powerful markers of Indian culture and society and is associated with Hinduism. In 2013 a clause against caste discrimination was inserted into the Equality Act 2010. Based on his recent... more
The caste system is one of the most prevalent and powerful markers of Indian culture and society and is associated with Hinduism. In 2013 a clause against caste discrimination was inserted into the Equality Act 2010. Based on his recent research, Prakash Shah argues that this legislation is underpinned by dubious research and if implemented would impact severely on the Indian communities in Britain. The image of the caste system is rooted in Christian theological and Orientalist accounts of India and legislation in Britain is part of a wider campaign to interfere in India’s internal affairs.
Research Interests:
Research Interests: Buddhism, Hinduism, Comparative Religion, Asian Studies, Japanese Studies, and 15 moreComparative Law, History of Religion, Japanese Religions, History of India, Indian studies, Japanese Buddhism, Comparative Secularism, Indian Law, Indian Politics, India, Japanese Law, Hindu Studies, Hindu law, Japanese Religion, and Anthropology of Religion
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
The caste system is one of the most prominent global images of Indian culture and society. ‘When thinking about India it is hard not to think of caste’, says Nicholas Dirks (2001, 3) when opening his book on caste. The picture of the... more
The caste system is one of the most prominent global images of Indian culture and society. ‘When thinking about India it is hard not to think of caste’, says Nicholas Dirks (2001, 3) when opening his book on caste. The picture of the caste system is regularly projected both within India and increasingly so in Western settings such as the United Kingdom and United States where Indians have settled over the last few decades. The constant iteration of the caste system reinforces the impression that there is some stability to the idea and that its referent is existent. At the same time, multiple accounts and ideas of the nature of the caste system exist (e.g. Banerjee-Dube 2008), and there is, it appears, no consistent and coherent theory of caste out there (Jalki and Pathan 2015). Several chapters in this book question the classical conception of the caste system. This chapter examines one such invocation of the caste system in the context of the enactment of the Equality Act 2010 in the United Kingdom which contains the first provision on caste discrimination in the anti-discrimination legislation of any country, as well as in the linked case law.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
The concept of ‘Asian laws in Britain’ was proposed in the 1990s by a leading scholar of South Asian laws, Werner Menski, within the larger framework of legal pluralism. This article explores the reasons why it might be an attractive... more
The concept of ‘Asian laws in Britain’ was proposed in the 1990s by a leading scholar of South Asian laws, Werner Menski, within the larger framework of legal pluralism. This article explores the reasons why it might be an attractive description and the possible reasons for its shortcomings, as well as a brief assessment of its take up more widely among scholars, officials, the communities to which it refers and others. The article examines the viability of this conception of Asian laws in the British diasporic sphere by entering the broader debate between the proponents of legal pluralism and their naysayers, identifying the main lines of dispute and its productive results as well as their limits in helping to make progress towards a theory of law. The mutual accusations of ethnocentrism, Eurocentrism or parochialism among the debate’s protagonists are discussed in order to identify how legal pluralists may be open to the charges they level against their opponents. The discussion i...
Research Interests:
This article discusses the role played by British Hindus in contesting legislation against caste discrimination. It gives an account of their limited objections to the law on caste by placing them within the context of British... more
This article discusses the role played by British Hindus in contesting legislation against caste discrimination. It gives an account of their limited objections to the law on caste by placing them within the context of British multiculturalism and the constraints that brings. It introduces some considerations concerning the form their objections to the legislation take, and explains their objections in terms of their inability to contest the premises behind the Western construction of Hinduism and of the caste system.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
ABSTRACT This article offers a reading of Jakob De Roover's important book, Europe, India and the Limits of Secularism (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2016). It invokes the way in which the English courts have re-described Sikh... more
ABSTRACT This article offers a reading of Jakob De Roover's important book, Europe, India and the Limits of Secularism (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2016). It invokes the way in which the English courts have re-described Sikh tradition as religion in order to illustrate the relevance of Jakob De Roover's hypothesis about secularism, explaining its dependence on Christian theology and its inbuilt normative dynamic, which reframes tradition and poses a lethal threat to it.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
ABSTRACT Interviews conducted with leading actors in England asking a range of questions about religious diversity and the legal framework and, in particular, about reasonable accommodation, helped identify a number of areas of concern.... more
ABSTRACT Interviews conducted with leading actors in England asking a range of questions about religious diversity and the legal framework and, in particular, about reasonable accommodation, helped identify a number of areas of concern. There was some doubt about whether specific legal provision should be brought in to guarantee reasonable accommodation. However, there was broad support for having the principle adopted in the practice of employers, whereas some preferred the current informality rather than the principle being enforced through litigation. None of the respondents came up with illustrations outside Judaism, Christianity or Islam. The results are consistent with recent critical studies showing that the assumption in social sciences that religion is a universal has been imported from theology. Religion-based questions only pick out certain phenomena specific to some cultures and an inevitable skew is created when asking such questions because they make sense only within an Abrahamic religious framework. Although enabling the identification of some aspects of culture considered to merit reasonable accommodation on the grounds of religion, the results also pose questions about the adequacy of current standard research methodologies which assume that religion is a universal.
Research Interests: Christianity, Comparative Religion, Comparative Law, Anthropology, Communication, and 15 moreEmployment Law, Employment Relations, Conflict, Discrimination, Anthropology of Christianity, Diplomacy, Conscience, Christian Ethics, Discourse of multiculturalism, Employment, Citizenship, Employment Discrimination, Discrimination Law, Employment Policy, and Anthropology of Religion
Research Interests: Ethnic Studies, Critical Legal Theory, Discrimination, Ethnic and Racial Studies, French Law, and 15 moreIslam, Ethnicity, Ethnic Relations, Ethnic Identities, Discrimination Law, Human Rights and Minority Rights, Indirect Discrimination, Hijab, Belgian Congo, Anthropology of Religion, Dressing, Burqa, Covering of Face, Covering of Hair, and Chador
Research Interests: Christianity, Hinduism, Economics, Equality Studies, History of Christianity, and 15 moreIndian studies, Discrimination, Anthropology of Christianity, Missionary History, Equality and Diversity, Equality, Caste and Untouchability, Indian Law, Comparative Science of Cultures, Discrimination Law, Caste, Equality and Non Discrimination, Proselytism, Equality Law, and Gautam Sen
Research Interests: Ethnic Studies, Intellectual Property, Legal History, Liberalism, Legal Pluralism, and 15 moreEthnic and Racial Studies, Cultural Rights, Cultural Diversity, Alternative Dispute Resolution, Human Rights and Legal Pluralism, Immigrants, Kurds, Cultural and Religious Diversity, Legal Pluralism and Cultural Diversity, Kishore Mahbubani, Bhikhu Parekh, Legal Hybridity, Common Law and Civil Law Mixes, Legal Anthroplogy, and Legal Pluralsim
Interviews conducted with leading actors in England asking a range of questions about religious diversity and the legal framework and, in particular, about reasonable accommodation, helped identify a number of areas of concern. There was... more
Interviews conducted with leading actors in England asking a range of questions about religious diversity and the legal framework and, in particular, about reasonable accommodation, helped identify a number of areas of concern. There was some doubt about whether specific legal provision should be brought in to guarantee reasonable accommodation. However, there was broad support for having the principle adopted in the practice of employers, while some preferred the current informality rather than the principle being enforced through litigation. None of the respondents came up with illustrations outside of Judaism, Christianity or Islam. The results are consistent with recent critical studies showing that the assumption in social sciences that religion is a universal has been imported from theology. Religion-based questions only pick out certain phenomena specific to some cultures and an inevitable skew is created when asking such questions because they only make sense within an Abrah...
Research Interests: Christianity, Comparative Religion, Employment Law, Employment Relations, DISCRIMINATION AT WORK, and 15 moreDiscrimination, Diaspora, Diaspora Studies, Anthropology of Diaspora, Diaspora and transnationalism, Employment Discrimination, Discrimination Law, Comparative study of religion, Employment Policy, Census, Cultural and Religious Diversity, Census data, Conscientious Objectors, Employment Equity and Workplace Discrimination, and Anthropology of Religion
In this comment, I draw attention to why legislation against caste discrimination came to be passed in 2013 even though a serious case for it had not been established. Drawing on parliamentary debates, this short article explains the push... more
In this comment, I draw attention to why legislation against caste discrimination came to be passed in 2013 even though a serious case for it had not been established. Drawing on parliamentary debates, this short article explains the push to legislate without due consideration by reference to the persistence of Orientalism in British culture and its linked notions of the corruption of Indian culture and society.
Research Interests: Christianity, Africa, Colonialism, Caste and Untouchability, Anthropology of Colonialism, and 15 moreBritish Imperial and Colonial History, Colonial Discourse, Anti Caste Movements, Asia, Caste, Colonial History, Colonial Studies, America, British Colonialism, Colonial Knowledge, Anti Caste Studies, Anthropology of Religion, Caste In the Indian Diaspora, Colonialism and Imperialism, and Anthroploglogy
Muslims in Western countries have tried to preserve and transmit their worldview in various ways. Especially in the countries of the Anglosphere, Muslims have built institutions designed with legal ends in mind. Efforts to limit the role... more
Muslims in Western countries have tried to preserve and transmit their worldview in various ways. Especially in the countries of the Anglosphere, Muslims have built institutions designed with legal ends in mind. Efforts to limit the role of shari‘a in Western countries can be seen as measures designed to preserve ‘secular’ Western law by constraining transmission and limiting interpretive possibilities within its jurisdictional range. These constraints and limitations are accomplished by invoking public policy, or distorting, or excluding Muslim law in other ways. A swathe of legislation has recently been enacted, or is in the process of being passed, to limit the interaction of official organs with the activities of these Muslim bodies, and to restrict the activities of Muslim institutions. The position of Muslims as members of a non-dominant population also makes them the objects of certain ‘instructional’ initiatives. These result in subtle shifts within Muslim law which attempt to preserve the Islamic grundnorm, while adjusting interpretations of Islamic law to align with a Western normative account. Illustrated through a short description of the career of ‘forced marriage’, the transformation of experience through the adoption by Muslims of the account produced by Western culture is referred to as a variant of what Balagangadhara identifies as ‘colonial consciousness’.
Research Interests: Islamic Law, Islamic Contemporary Studies, Muslim Family Law, Colonialism, Legal Pluralism, and 15 moreIslamic Studies, Muslim Minorities, Muslims in Europe, Islam, Law and culture, Sharia, Colonial Discourse, Colonial Studies, Law and Cultural Diversity, Comparative Sociolegal Systems, Colonialism and Imperialism, Colonial Consciousness, Legal Theory Legal Pluralism, Pluralismo Legal, and Muslim Christian Relation
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests: Christianity, Comparative Religion, Ethnic Studies, Discrimination, Ethnic and Racial Studies, and 15 moreEthnic minorities, Comparative Secularism, Islam, Globalisation And Minority Rights, Ethnicity, Bible, Ethnic Identities, Alternative Dispute Resolution, Discrimination Law, Christian Theology, Alternative dispute resolution processes, Hadith, History of Arabic Science, Ethnic Minorities, and Interpretation of Holy Texts
The British expansion into non-European territories brought about a profound change in the way Englishness and Britishness came to be conceived. Rulership over a global domain brought with it an unclear but extremely potent consciousness... more
The British expansion into non-European territories brought about a profound change in the way Englishness and Britishness came to be conceived. Rulership over a global domain brought with it an unclear but extremely potent consciousness of difference which marked ...
Research Interests:
INTRODUCTION Immigration law has become a very specialized field of administrative law with its own legislative framework and unwritten rules. 1 There is now a growing number of specialist immigration solicitors and a specialist section... more
INTRODUCTION Immigration law has become a very specialized field of administrative law with its own legislative framework and unwritten rules. 1 There is now a growing number of specialist immigration solicitors and a specialist section of the Bar which concentrates on ...
Research Interests:
This article is based on a fieldwork project conducted by the authors in the Mugla region of western Turkey. The region is the locale for a significant level of settlement by British people, within the wider context of settlement by... more
This article is based on a fieldwork project conducted by the authors in the Mugla region of western Turkey. The region is the locale for a significant level of settlement by British people, within the wider context of settlement by groups of other EU nationals in western Turkey. Based on a series of interviews with British settlers and Turkish locals, it examines the factors which affect the process of legal adaptation of the former group. It identifies and discusses the place of British settlers within the larger Turkish legal order, their integration into Turkish life, and the extent to which different socio-legal disabilities and advantages affect this process. The article also casts some light on the extent to which, given the level of British immigration into the area, Turkish officialdom is prepared for their presence.
Research Interests: Anthropology of Tourism, Diasporas, Immigration, Immigration Studies, Migration Law, and 15 moreMigration, Immigration Law, Diaspora, European Immigration and Asylum Law, Diaspora Studies, Contemporary International Migration, Anthropology of Turkey, Diaspora and transnationalism, Citizenship, Expatriates, history of Turkish law, Expatriate Adjustment, European Diaspora, British diaspora, and Migration Anthropology
Research Interests:
David Keane has not understood the arguments in my book. Whilst it does articulate a position against the caste provision of the Equality Act, it is not for the reasons or on the grounds that he thinks. His reading of my book raises... more
David Keane has not understood the arguments in my book. Whilst it does articulate a position against the caste provision of the Equality Act, it is not for the reasons or on the grounds that he thinks. His reading of my book raises questions as to how far proponents of the legislation are really able to take on the lessons of critiques of their support for it. My book critiques Keane’s position on the caste legislation as well as that of his close collaborators, who have helped engineer the law, and subsequently justified it, not least through their participation in the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) reports on caste. Although Keane argues that the EHRC team of which he was a part did not have a mandate to question the principle of the legislation, they could easily have done so had they considered the legislation was badly thought through. They could have even reported that the legislation, although by then in place, is simply unworkable and would have disastrous consequences for the communities of concern in my book. They do neither and, examining the EHRC reports closely, one will see passages justifying the legislation and advocating its problem-free implementation, with the widest possible scope and therefore the narrowest possible exemptions and exceptions. In so doing, they ignore the consequences the law would have, which I identify at some length in my book, whilst Keane’s review skirts that discussion. The EHRC reports that Keane co-authored are therefore not merely a fait accompli but actively endorse the EHRC’s own support of the legislation, and its widest possible application, expressed well before reports issued forth from the National Institute for Economic and Social Research and the EHRC’s own ‘independent’ investigation. Our national equality body and the researchers it hired to write the reports on caste had declared their pro-legislation proclivities well before researching the matter rather like Keane’s collaborator in parliament, Lord Lester, who complained why legislation had to await research, which in his view was not required. It is not merely a matter of adequate research, as Keane suggests, but the structural context
Research Interests:
Chapter 6 turns to a recent case, Chandhok v Tirkey (2014), in which the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) decided that caste may already be part of UK equality law. It discusses the background to the case, the way in which the case was... more
Chapter 6 turns to a recent case, Chandhok v Tirkey (2014), in which the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) decided that caste may already be part of UK equality law. It discusses the background to the case, the way in which the case was argued and decided by the EAT, and draws out possible implications. The discussion includes an examination of the stance of parties during this litigation and the potential contradictions given that the Equality Act provision on caste has not yet been implemented. The case creates difficulties given that it is now unclear what the reach of the existing law is and a question remains whether the Equality Act’s provision on caste should be brought into force. The account draws on documents revealed by the intervening party, the EHRC.
Chapter 5 exposes the transnational dimensions of the caste question, including the role played by the caste provision in international relations and law. It examines how transnational activism for proselytism is a key reason why caste... more
Chapter 5 exposes the transnational dimensions of the caste question, including the role played by the caste provision in international relations and law. It examines how transnational activism for proselytism is a key reason why caste has emerged in the discourse of the Churches, Dalit organizations, and Parliament. The UK legislation is part of a wider campaign going back at least to the 2001 World Conference against Racism where an attempt was made to bring caste and race together in international law. This chapter shows how the European Parliament and UN human rights organs have been brought into play to highlight caste discrimination, to pressure India to amend its laws to enable Christians to gain more access to caste-based reservations.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
ABSTRACT Review article of, “The Heathen in His Blindness…”: Asia, the West and the Dynamic of Religion and Reconceptualizing India Studies, by S.N. Balagangadhara
Research Interests: Christianity, Hinduism, Comparative Religion, Anthropology, History of Religion, and 15 moreCultural Theory, Colonialism, Culture, Ancient Greek Religion, Cultural Diversity, Brahmanism, History of Colonial India, British Imperial and Colonial History, Cultural Differences, Classical Indology, Hindu Studies, Colonial Studies, Colonial Knowledge, Anthropology of Religion, and Colonialism and Imperialism
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
GLOCUL: Centre for Culture and Law Queen Mary, University of London
Research Interests:
The Indian caste system is an ancient, pervasive institution of social organization within the subcontinent – or is it? Dr. Prakash Shah (Reader in Culture and Law at the Queen Mary University of London, UK) speaks to Dr. Raj Balkaran... more
The Indian caste system is an ancient, pervasive institution of social organization within the subcontinent – or is it? Dr. Prakash Shah (Reader in Culture and Law at the Queen Mary University of London, UK) speaks to Dr. Raj Balkaran about his co-edited work, Western Foundations of the Caste System (Palgrave Macmillan, 2017). Ranging from ancient Indian history to modern British law, the contributions to this book advance a provocative thesis, namely, that what we refer to as Indian caste is more a function of Western Christian encounters with India than anything historically occurring on Indian soil. Could this be the case? Could the caste system constitute a projection born of Western interpretive bias rather than an ancient Indian indigenous social institution?
Research Interests:
The freedom of religion is enshrined in binding international instruments at the UN and regional levels. To that extent one can, of course, claim that it is a fundamental right. Yet some recent critical studies are claiming that freedom... more
The freedom of religion is enshrined in binding international instruments at the UN and regional levels. To that extent one can, of course, claim that it is a fundamental right. Yet some recent critical studies are claiming that freedom of religion is also an impossibility. Put differently, the claim may take the following form: because freedom of religion is an idea that first finds expression in a Christian theological context using it compels one to do theology. This presentation is aimed at fleshing out a variation of such a claim. It accepts that the freedom of religion first came about in a Christian theological context. However, to say that is not enough of an argument against its universal application. We require more. We have to answer questions about what its foundation in a theological context entails. In other words: why does the fact that religious freedom was once enunciated in Christian theology prevent it being accessible to people from different cultures around the world who may not be Christians? How would such an argument withstand the counter-claim that, even though a once-Christian idea, religious freedom is today a secular human rights concept that traverses cultural boundaries and is invoked by peoples of all cultures throughout the world?
Research Interests:
Research Interests: Religion, Christianity, Comparative Religion, Sociology of Religion, Islamic Law, and 13 moreTransnationalism, Religion and Politics, Private International Law, Islamic Contemporary Studies, Muslim Family Law, Islamic Studies, Muslim Minorities, Christian Ethics, Muslims in Europe, Transnational migration, Diaspora and transnationalism, Transnational litigation, and Anthropology of Religion
This paper was presented at the Zutshi-Smith Symposium on the Commission on Religion and Belief on British Public Life (CORAB), University of Bristol, 15-16 December 2016.
Research Interests:
In caste studies today there is certainty about the existence of a caste system in India. This certainty extends to the existence of such a system in the Indian diaspora. However, whenever an assessment is attempted as to what the... more
In caste studies today there is certainty about the existence of a caste system in India. This certainty extends to the existence of such a system in the Indian diaspora. However, whenever an assessment is attempted as to what the properties of the caste system are, we encounter anomalies. Yet the awareness of anomalies does not lead to the questioning of why there is certainty about the existence of the system. This lecture given by Prakash Shah at the Indian Council for Historical Research, New Delhi on 9 November 2016, presents the results of collaborative research which is due to be shortly published as a book. The research shows that when the caste system idea is interrogated more deeply one cannot maintain the stance that such a system exists in India at all. Rather, we can now show that the idea of an Indian caste system is a feature of Western culture and its way of coming to terms with its experience of India. Hence our book bears the title, Western Foundations of the Caste System (eds. Martin Farek, Dunkin Jalki, Sufiya Pathan and Prakash Shah). We can now show that contemporary ideas about the caste system and the certainty about its existence are dependent on Christian theological reflections on Indian society and culture. Multiple questions are consequently raised about what various movements in India said to be fighting the caste system, what the laws and policies of caste-based reservation, what legislation against caste atrocities, and what the recent law against caste discrimination in the UK, are really meant to be doing. If their foundations are false then critical new questions should also arise about what our understanding and future study of India should be concerned with.