Prakash Shah
Queen Mary, University of London, Law, Faculty Member
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.
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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.
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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.
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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
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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...
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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...
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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.
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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.
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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
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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.
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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...
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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.
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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.
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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
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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 ...
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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 ...
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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
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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
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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.
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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
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Chapter 2 discusses how the idea of a caste system of India came about, tracing it back to Christian theological accounts of India, their development in Orientalist accounts during the colonial period and subsequent secularization in... more
Chapter 2 discusses how the idea of a caste system of India came about, tracing it back to Christian theological accounts of India, their development in Orientalist accounts during the colonial period and subsequent secularization in social science. It discusses how caste was linked to Hinduism in Protestant accounts of Indian religion, and to the Aryan invasion theory. Together these ideas provided the framework to view Indian social structure as caste ridden, morally corrupt and racist. It goes on to explain the premises behind the Indian legislation on caste and how these ideas have filtered into current British discourse, explaining how the Christian-Orientalist account retains contemporary salience, and provides a justification for continued Christian proselytism in India. The seemingly contradictory role of the National Secular Society, which took a stand in favour of the caste provision, is explored.
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ABSTRACT This collection discusses how official legal systems do and should respond to the reality of a plurality of family types and origins within their jurisdictions. It further examines the challenges that arise for practitioners,... more
ABSTRACT This collection discusses how official legal systems do and should respond to the reality of a plurality of family types and origins within their jurisdictions. It further examines the challenges that arise for practitioners, including lawyers and judges, when faced with such plurality. Focussing on empirical research, the volume presents legal and sociological data of unprecedented comparative depth. It also includes a discussion of how members of minority families respond to the need to organise their legal relationships, and to resolve their disputes in the shadow of official legal systems which differ from those of their familial and communal traditions. The work invites reflection, and demonstrates the urgency and complexity of the questions regarding the search for justice in the field of family life in Europe today.
Research Interests: Christianity, Canon Law, Family Law, Child Law, Diaspora and transnationalism, and 15 moreChild protection and family law, European Family, Diritto Canonico, Comparative Family Law, Droit Canonique, Family and Religion, Family Courts, European family law, Comparative Family Laws, Christian Influence in the Law, Child and Family Policy, Family Laws, Comparative Family Policy, Canon Law of the Orthodox Christian Church, and Family Breakdown and Family Policy
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Besides the more general questions of the link between culture and law, and new types of legal pluralism, this chapter explores the ways in which judges struggle when dealing with ethnic minority marriage solemnisation. Questions... more
Besides the more general questions of the link between culture and law, and new types of legal pluralism, this chapter explores the ways in which judges struggle when dealing with ethnic minority marriage solemnisation. Questions involving translocal marriage occur in a number of contingent social contexts including the phase of initial migration, spousal reunification, or marriage formation across localities. In the study on English Law and Ethnic Minority Customs Sebastian Poulter outlined the framework that forms the basis for according official legal recognition to Afro-Asian forms of marriage solemnization. The cases discussed in the chapter illustrates the inherent instability of the British systems of laws on marriage which basically underplay or deny the importance of the socio-legal sphere and, in so doing, judges have to perform gymnastics involving their own principles in order to accord or deny recognition to ethnic minority marriages. Keywords: British legal systems; ethnic minority marriages; judges; laws on marriage; legal pluralism
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This introductory chapter presents an overview of this book. This book emerges as a result of a series of lectures held at the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies in London from January to March 2006. It focuses on EU institutions and... more
This introductory chapter presents an overview of this book. This book emerges as a result of a series of lectures held at the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies in London from January to March 2006. It focuses on EU institutions and examines their production of policy documents and legal instruments in so far as they deal with the highly contested question of 'integration'. The book deals with the conceptual problems of justice for diasporic minorities and their integration. It then focuses on the controversy in Birmingham surrounding the play, Behzti, providing the global and local contexts in which the controversy took place and deals with the conceptual problems of justice for diasporic minorities and their integration. The book discusses how marriage solemnisation among ethnic minorities is treated within British legal systems and, in particular, focuses on judicial decision making. Keywords: British legal systems; diasporic minorities; ethnic diversity; judicial decision making; Socio-Legal Perspectives
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Hinduism and Law: An Introduction. Edited by Timothy Lubin, Donald R Davis and Jayanth K Krishnan. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2010, xiii + 301 pp (hardback £58) ISBN: 978-0-521-887861; (paperback £20.99) ISBN: 978-0-521-71626-0The Spirit of Hindu Law. Donald R Davis. Cambridge Univers...more
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At the present stage of international migration our European states are emphasising the control of illegal migration which the editors of and many writers in the volume under review have presented rather more politely, and correctly, as... more
At the present stage of international migration our European states are emphasising the control of illegal migration which the editors of and many writers in the volume under review have presented rather more politely, and correctly, as 'irregular migration'. (The French term sans papiers ...
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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 is given more concrete form by drawing attention to the arguable non-universality of the domain of the normative upon which legal theorists and legal pluralists generally rely for their conception of law. If the domain of the normative is not universal, law itself cannot be universal as the legal pluralists claim. Although Muslim/Islamic law appears to have gained a large number of adherents among the reconstructed components of Asian laws in Britain, the discussion shows how another component - Hindu law - cannot be ‘law’ in the manner its proponents claim. The consequences for the viability of a conception of diasporic Asian laws in Britain are then drawn out.
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The current hyperbolic preoccupation with race in the Anglosphere has provided an opportunity for some to link caste to race as though they are cognate phenomena of oppression. The depiction of Brahmins as the epitome of whiteness at the... more
The current hyperbolic preoccupation with race in the Anglosphere has provided an opportunity for some to link caste to race as though they are cognate phenomena of oppression. The depiction of Brahmins as the epitome of whiteness at the apex of the Indian caste system, is actually generated from within the same western framework that treats race as a salient difference.
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That the conflict over Kashmir is religious seems self-evident to most people who care to talk about it. Opposing sides fundamentally agree the conflict has a religious character. US President Trump may have summed it up when he said,... more
That the conflict over Kashmir is religious seems self-evident to most people who care to talk about it. Opposing sides fundamentally agree the conflict has a religious character. US President Trump may have summed it up when he said, “Kashmir is a very complicated place. You have Hindus and you have the Muslims and I wouldn’t say they get along so great.” In what sense it is a religious conflict needs better, more careful consideration, however.
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:
A critical comment on the special issue of the Journal of Legal Pluralism (2017, Vol. 49, No. 3) on ‘States of Occupation’ with specific reference to Jammu and Kashmir.... more
A critical comment on the special issue of the Journal of Legal Pluralism (2017, Vol. 49, No. 3) on ‘States of Occupation’ with specific reference to Jammu and Kashmir. aryalegal.wordpress.com/2018/10/07/an-outcast-response-to-the-journal-of-legal-pluralism-special-issue-on-states-of-occupation/
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
This article argues that India has done well to deny visas to members of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom.
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This article examines in context the protests primarily by students at the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi, in February 2016, and the responses from an international set of academics to the stopping of the demonstrations by... more
This article examines in context the protests primarily by students at the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi, in February 2016, and the responses from an international set of academics to the stopping of the demonstrations by the JNU administration and the police. It argues that the protests supported terrorists and the responses to their stopping pose the danger of acting as ideological supports to the justification of terrorism.
Research Interests:
The UK government announced its long-awaited consultation on the caste law in March 2017. It may be time therefore to reflect upon three and more years of concerted campaign against the law. This article especially considers the role... more
The UK government announced its long-awaited consultation on the caste law in March 2017. It may be time therefore to reflect upon three and more years of concerted campaign against the law. This article especially considers the role played by UK Hindus in contesting the legislation on caste and attempts to draw out some lessons.
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In this article I claim that Hindu objections to Aslan’s documentary fail to have traction because they do not take into account the nature of religion and its relationship to Orientalism. I further argue that Aslan's documentary could be... more
In this article I claim that Hindu objections to Aslan’s documentary fail to have traction because they do not take into account the nature of religion and its relationship to Orientalism. I further argue that Aslan's documentary could be seen as part of a renascent Islamic Orientalism.
Research Interests:
This is a shortened version of a paper 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. It takes on the issue of the treatment of... more
This is a shortened version of a paper 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. It takes on the issue of the treatment of Hindus by CORAB in the context of public policy discussions in Britain more widely.
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:
In 2010 the UK became the first jurisdiction in the West to enact a provision in anti-discrimination law based on caste. Parliamentarians justified the insertion of a provision against caste discrimination in the Equality Act 2010 on the... more
In 2010 the UK became the first jurisdiction in the West to enact a provision in anti-discrimination
law based on caste. Parliamentarians justified the insertion of a provision against caste discrimination
in the Equality Act 2010 on the assumption that a caste system exists in the UK’s Indian
diaspora. While that merely gave a power to the Minister to implement the provision, an amendment
to the Act made in 2013 made implementation obligatory. Indian community organisations had no real
way of arguing against the provision. They were handicapped by the fact that if they resisted it they would
be branded as complicit in caste discrimination – as has been alleged by parliamentarians backing the
law – or practitioners of a form of apartheid. This article argues that the legislation is underpinned by
dubious and insubstantial research. The absence of a credible research base meant that for the first time
in the history of anti-discrimination law in the UK, parliament proceeded to legislate on the assumption
that a problem exists. Equally troubling was the acceptance among proponents that an adequate conceptualization
of a supposed problem, including defining caste, could be dealt with retrospectively, once
legislation was in place. Further no case was made that a mechanism like the Equality Act is appropriate
for caste discrimination. Legislators seemed largely ignorant of, or simply misrepresented, laws prevailing
in South Asian countries. In parallel to the legislation and despite the lack of implementation as yet, the
article also discusses how case law has proceeded to incorporate caste discrimination by reading it into the
provision of the existing legislation. The effort of including caste in law, whether through legislation or case
law presupposes and imports ideas of the caste system that rest on shaky foundations. The stereotype of the
caste system goes back to Christian theological accounts of India, developed further in Orientalist accounts
during the colonial period, and is incorporated in the social sciences today. These ideas led to the notions
that the Indian social structure is morally corrupt and racist, notions that continue to strongly condition
contemporary thinking on caste as reflected in the development in UK law.
law based on caste. Parliamentarians justified the insertion of a provision against caste discrimination
in the Equality Act 2010 on the assumption that a caste system exists in the UK’s Indian
diaspora. While that merely gave a power to the Minister to implement the provision, an amendment
to the Act made in 2013 made implementation obligatory. Indian community organisations had no real
way of arguing against the provision. They were handicapped by the fact that if they resisted it they would
be branded as complicit in caste discrimination – as has been alleged by parliamentarians backing the
law – or practitioners of a form of apartheid. This article argues that the legislation is underpinned by
dubious and insubstantial research. The absence of a credible research base meant that for the first time
in the history of anti-discrimination law in the UK, parliament proceeded to legislate on the assumption
that a problem exists. Equally troubling was the acceptance among proponents that an adequate conceptualization
of a supposed problem, including defining caste, could be dealt with retrospectively, once
legislation was in place. Further no case was made that a mechanism like the Equality Act is appropriate
for caste discrimination. Legislators seemed largely ignorant of, or simply misrepresented, laws prevailing
in South Asian countries. In parallel to the legislation and despite the lack of implementation as yet, the
article also discusses how case law has proceeded to incorporate caste discrimination by reading it into the
provision of the existing legislation. The effort of including caste in law, whether through legislation or case
law presupposes and imports ideas of the caste system that rest on shaky foundations. The stereotype of the
caste system goes back to Christian theological accounts of India, developed further in Orientalist accounts
during the colonial period, and is incorporated in the social sciences today. These ideas led to the notions
that the Indian social structure is morally corrupt and racist, notions that continue to strongly condition
contemporary thinking on caste as reflected in the development in UK law.
Research Interests: Christianity, Hinduism, Equality Studies, Indian studies, Law and Society, and 11 moreLaw 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
In the January 1994 issue of New Community Jim Gillsepie wrote about the problems of asylum seekers arriving via third countries, mainly in Europe, to the UK. The countries of the European Union, though not exclusively, are by and large... more
In the January 1994 issue of New Community Jim Gillsepie wrote about the problems of asylum seekers arriving via third countries, mainly in Europe, to the UK. The countries of the European Union, though not exclusively, are by and large considered by the Home Office ...
Research Interests: Sociology and Demography
This report presents a selection of results from the sociological survey conducted as part of the RELIGARE project during 2011. It reveals the views of opinion formers interviewed as part of the survey. Interview participants included... more
This report presents a selection of results from the sociological survey conducted as part of the RELIGARE project during 2011. It reveals the views of opinion formers interviewed as part of the survey. Interview participants included members of religious organisations, individuals who work in official and semi-official capacities connected to religious issues in general, a judge, a member of the British House of Lords, members of the press, and public intellectuals. See Annex I for a list of interviewees. This report first presents a background to ethno-religious diversity, starting with a brief history of recent immigration into Britain, and the current picture of ethno-religious diversity, including the role of the Census. It then provides a brief legal context explaining the relevance of the anti-discrimination and human rights legislation and a short discussion of legal pluralism in the UK. The interview results are then presented according to the areas of importance for each of the Work packages: 3 Family, 4 Workplace, 5 Public Space, and 6 State Support. While summaries for each work package are summarized in the Conclusion, general observations pertinent to the overall UK study show through a range of responses that religion is treated as a relatively marginal issue in various, arguably ‘public’, areas of life and that it needed to be seen as positive and as an issue relevant to law and policy. It needs to be acknowledged that British culture is much more than a white middle class culture. Furthermore, several respondents also expressed concern that there was an encroachment by state laws in the affairs of the religious communities and examples of this included the potential action in some countries to ban the production of kosher or halal food, and the widening scope of equality law in such a way as to jeopardize socially beneficial activities of religious groups, while concern was also expressed at the criminalization of certain practices specific to some communities.
Research Interests: Religion, Christianity, Hinduism, Jainism, Sikhism, and 13 moreComparative Religion, Sociology of Religion, Religion and Politics, Law and Religion, Religious Pluralism, Legal Pluralism, Islamic Studies, Ethnic minorities, Race and Religion, Judaism, Religion and Society, Religious Studies, and Religion and Law
In this paper, I view Durkheim in two ways: in his intellectual context and as a scientist whose claims can be tested independently of that context. Durkheim’s claims on religion demonstrate his Western culturality, which constrains and... more
In this paper, I view Durkheim in two ways: in his intellectual context and as a scientist whose claims can be tested independently of that context. Durkheim’s claims on religion demonstrate his Western culturality, which constrains and qualifies those claims and limits their relevance today. His universal claims about religion actually depend on and presuppose core Christian theological themes to make them intelligible and raise questions that are possible only within a cultural context like the Western culture which is constituted by a religion: Christianity. This is made much more obvious when placing Durkheim’s claims against the theory of religion developed by Balagangadhara, whose work shows why the claim of religion as a universal derives from Christian theology, why religions are what the Semitic religions are, and why Asia as a culture has no religion. Balagangadhara’s theory solves problems that Durkheim’s work either does not address itself to or cannot explain and generates important new questions for law and religion studies. See for text: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2694566
Research Interests: Religion, Comparative Religion, Sociology of Religion, Comparative Law, Law and Religion, and 9 moreDurkheim, Emile Durkheim, Comparative Science of Cultures, Comparative Religions, Religious Studies, Religion and Law, Comparative Study of World Religions, S.N. Balagangadhara, and Anthropology of Religion
The caste system is one of the most prominent global images of Indian culture and society. However, given multiple accounts and ideas of the nature of the caste system it seems there is no coherent theory of caste out there. And yet the... more
The caste system is one of the most prominent global images of Indian culture and society. However, given multiple accounts and ideas of the nature of the caste system it seems there is no coherent theory of caste out there. And yet the picture of the caste system is regularly projected both within India and abroad. The reiteration of the caste system reinforces the impression that there is some stability to the idea. This article 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 legislation of any Western country. It argues that the caste legislation instantiates a much larger Christian-Orientalist episteme that exercises its disciplinary power against which every academic work on caste must measure up. After an examination of the debates with respect to caste during the passage of the Equality Act 2010, the article explores just how it is that, even though we appear to lack a coherent idea of the nature of the Indian caste system, we can continue to talk about its existence. It is proposed that behind the descriptions of the caste system lies the idea of sacerdotal or priestly violence as a constitutive force, and that this background idea, which finds its source in Christian theological reflections on Indian culture and society, continues to inform and lend stability to accounts of the caste system. As such, the caste system fails to provide a ‘true’ description of Indian culture and society. Seen on a broader canvass, this article contributes to the discussion on how problems of Orientalism and colonial consciousness continue to affect discussion and law-making in the contemporary world.
Research Interests: Christianity, Hinduism, Indian studies, Colonialism, Equality and Diversity, and 13 moreEquality, Caste and Untouchability, Indian Law, Christian Apologetics, India, Orientalism, Colonial Discourse, Hindu Studies, Caste, Equality and Non Discrimination, Indian caste structure and its changing trends, Hindu law, and Relevance of caste in contemporary indian society
This article is a response to Meena Dhanda’s article “Anti-castism and misplaced nativism: Mapping caste as an aspect of race" in the July/August 2015 issue of the British based journal Radical Philosophy. It proclaims itself to be the... more
This article is a response to Meena Dhanda’s article “Anti-castism and misplaced nativism: Mapping caste as an aspect of race" in the July/August 2015 issue of the British based journal Radical Philosophy. It proclaims itself to be the “philosophical journal of the independent left”. That same journal refused to carry my article because, they say, they only accept letters to the editors of up to 1,000 words. The editors further required that “within that word limit one should address the main political and/or philosophical points in her article”. They said that the piece below “does not do that, but rather loses its main political and/or philosophical claims in a range of other pointless twists and turns that render it unpublishable.” As I reproduce the same version of that article, the reader can judge whether that description fits and whether I make “pointless twists and turns”. As an alternative the editors offered that I submit a “more sustained theoretical intervention into the debate, one which perhaps incorporates a critique of Dhanda’s article”. I did not want to do that as I already have work published elsewhere in which I tackle the problem of the caste legislation in the UK, the conceptual history of the Indian ‘caste system’, and the role played by Meena Dhanda and her colleagues in supporting the introduction of the British legislation on caste. As it stands, the editors allowed Meena Dhanda to publish her article of over 7,000 words, an article that I claim is based on dubious cognitive criteria, but do not allow my right of reply. Be that as it may, the reader will see how I was compelled to reply to her article given that she does not name me specifically but refers to blogs that I have written against the principle of the caste legislation in the UK and its potential impact in practice.
Research Interests: Hinduism, Equality Studies, Indian studies, Equality and Diversity, Caste and Untouchability, and 17 moreIndian Law, Indian Politics, Hindu Philosophy, India, Dalit studies, Mahatma Gandhi, Dalit studies, Scheduled caste issues, Ambedkar Studies, Hindu Studies, Gandhian Thought, Caste, Gandhian Studies, Indian caste structure and its changing trends, Caste system, Hindu law, Anti Caste Studies, and Ambedkar
This comment examines the most recent stage of the widely reported case, Turkey v Chandok (September 2015), said to establish caste discrimination in the UK. The comment critically reviews the latest stage of the case in light of the... more
This comment examines the most recent stage of the widely reported case, Turkey v Chandok (September 2015), said to establish caste discrimination in the UK. The comment critically reviews the latest stage of the case in light of the broader context and the previous judgements in the same case. It argues that the case in fact does not establish the existence of caste discrimination even though it has been promoted as such by those involved in bringing or supporting the case and by the media.
Research Interests: Hinduism, Indian studies, Discrimination, Caste and Untouchability, Indian Law, and 9 moreIndia, Employment Discrimination, Caste, Equality and Non Discrimination, Caste system, Relevance of caste in contemporary indian society, Hinduism and folk religion, Hinduism and Christianity in India, and Discrimination and Social Exclusion
What is the fate of legal transplants when they arrive from one culture to another? Using the theoretical framework of legal transplantation developed by Masaji Chiba and the theory of religion developed by S.N. Balagangadhara the problem... more
What is the fate of legal transplants when they arrive from one culture to another? Using the theoretical framework of legal transplantation developed by Masaji Chiba and the theory of religion developed by S.N. Balagangadhara the problem is tested with two different types of indigenous law, in Japan and India, which do not have religion. When certain kinds of legal ideas, embedded as norms within the Western culture, which is constituted by a religion, Christianity, enter non-Western cultures that do not have religion, those ideas break down, become distorted, absurd or nonsensical, and induce conflict. The secular state engages in the process of suppressing what it implicitly regards as false religion or idolatrous practices. As Chiba foresaw, this process can even lead to the identity postulate of a legal culture being altered or destroyed.
Research Interests: Religion, Buddhism, Hinduism, Comparative Religion, Philosophy Of Religion, and 22 moreHistory of Religion, Japanese Religions, History of India, Religion and Politics, Indian studies, Japanese Buddhism, Secular Ideology, Secularization, Politics of Secularism, Indian Law, Secularisms and Secularities, Indian Politics, India, Japanese Law, Secularism, Atheism/Secular Studies, Legal Transplants, Hindu law, S.N. Balagangadhara, Japanese Religion, Religion and secularism, and Secular
Today, we are in a position to tackle in much more interesting ways the question of religious diversity and how that relates to law. If we ‘naively’ formulate it into a problem about how state laws and international laws approach and deal... more
Today, we are in a position to tackle in much more interesting ways the question of religious diversity and how that relates to law. If we ‘naively’ formulate it into a problem about how state laws and international laws approach and deal with the fact of religious diversity we would have to decide first what religious diversity is. Therefore we would have to deal with what precisely the ‘fact’ of religious diversity entails. This allows us to discuss the problem in at least two ways. The first way, is the predominant and generally taken for granted idea that all cultures have religion. This is widely accepted at least within Western culture and among the Westernized intellectuals in non-Western cultures. This can be seen easily, for example, from anthropological reports, proclamations by states about the religious diversity within their jurisdictions, or by international actors like the Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief. A long or short list of such religions existing across the world may be given. Official discussion tends to remain at the level of ‘world religions’ but more ‘refined’ accounts can be found in anthropological work. Then there is another less popular and more challenging account, provided by Balagangadhara, which problematizes the proposition that religion is a cultural universal, and which holds that some cultures have religion and others do not. This latter account also explains how the dominant position of religion as a cultural universal has come to be so widely accepted. In this chapter, I briefly explore the implications of this second account, by Balagangadhara, for the first, which is no longer tenable scientifically, even though it is widely subscribed to. Balagangadhara’s account allows us to think about cultural diversity, and the problem of religion within that diversity, in a more interesting way than the dominant account does. I then briefly deal with its implications for the study of cultural diversity and law through some case studies, which allow us to consider what happens when a religious culture like the West meets a pagan culture, viz. the Indian culture. This can help us build a hypothesis of how Western law takes part in and promotes, in secularized form, the idea of Indian traditions as ‘false religions’.
Research Interests:
A debate on poverty and caste discrimination in India took place in the British House of Lords on Wednesday 26 November 2014. While the debate ostensibly brought together the themes of poverty and caste, its implications range well beyond... more
A debate on poverty and caste discrimination in India took place in the British House of Lords on Wednesday 26 November 2014. While the debate ostensibly brought together the themes of poverty and caste, its implications range well beyond them to encompass the issues of foreign interference in India, reservations and, above all, proselytization, one of the top current political and social issues in India. India needs to raise the matter at the highest diplomatic level.
Research Interests: Religion, Christianity, Comparative Religion, History of Christianity, International Development, and 16 moreReligion and Politics, Indian studies, Freedom of Religion, Religious Conversion, Parliamentary Studies, Secularization, Foreign Aid, Indian Law, Church and State, Caste, International Aid and Development, Effects and influence of foreign aid in developing countries, Post-Secular Theory, Indian Traditions, Caste Based Discrimination, and Politics of International Development
What is the fate of legal transplants when they arrive from one culture, the Western culture, which is religious, to another culture that has no religion? Using the theoretical framework of legal transplantation developed by Masaji Chiba... more
What is the fate of legal transplants when they arrive from one culture, the Western culture, which is religious, to another culture that has no religion? Using the theoretical framework of legal transplantation developed by Masaji Chiba and the theory of religion developed by S.N. Balagangadhara the problem is tested with two different types of indigenous law, drawn from cultures - Japan and India. Dysfunctional effects result when certain kinds of legal ideas, embedded as norms within the Western culture, which is constituted by a religion, Christianity, are transplanted into those non-Western cultures that do not have religion. Religion and the ideas linked to it (such as the freedom of religion and the separation of religion and state) break down, and become distorted, absurd or nonsensical, and potentially conflict-inducing when placed in a culture without religion. This occurs as the secular state engages in the process of suppressing what it implicitly regards as false religion or idolatrous practices existing within the indigenous culture of a people. As Chiba foresaw, this process can even lead to the identity postulate of a legal culture being altered or destroyed.
Research Interests: Religion, Hinduism, Comparative Religion, Asian Studies, Japanese Studies, and 25 moreComparative Law, Religion and Politics, Indian studies, South Asian Studies, Law and Society, Law and Religion, Legal Theory, Shinto Studies, Legal Pluralism, Modern and Contemporary Japan, Secularization, Politics of Secularism, Comparative Secularism, Indian Law, Secularisms and Secularities, India, Religious Studies, Religion and Law, Secularism, Hindu Studies, Post-Secular Theory, Hindu law, S.N. Balagangadhara, Masaji Chiba, and Anthropology of Religion
The Equality Act 2010 creates a potential new ground of discrimination on grounds of ‘caste’. Section 9(5) of the Equality Act provides the power for a statutory instrument to be passed to make caste “an aspect of race”. This will allow... more
The Equality Act 2010 creates a potential new ground of discrimination on grounds of ‘caste’. Section 9(5) of the Equality Act provides the power for a statutory instrument to be passed to make caste “an aspect of race”. This will allow legal claims for damages to be brought for caste discrimination. The process for bringing the legislation into effect has started. This note provides an introduction to the caste provision and outlines its anticipated effects, mainly for Asian businesses and employers. It has been drafted on behalf of the Coalition for Dialogue (CfD).
Research Interests: Entrepreneurship, Hinduism, Equality Studies, Indian studies, South Asian Studies, and 25 moreEquality and Diversity, Equality, Caste and Untouchability, Indian Law, South Asian Religions, Asian Business, South Asian Diasporas, India, Dalit studies, Anti Caste Movements, Entrepreneurship Education, Hindutva, Hindu Studies, Entreprenuership, Caste, Equality and Non Discrimination, Caste system, Hindu law, Relevance of caste in contemporary indian society, Asian business cultures, Anti Caste Studies, INDIAN BUSINESS ETHICS, Indian Business Structure and Functions, Micro and Small Business Entrepreneurship, and Indian Family Business
Research Interests: Religion, Christianity, Hinduism, Comparative Religion, Anthropology, and 36 moreHistory of Religion, Indian studies, Cultural Theory, Religion and Colonialism, Roman Religion, Colonialism, Culture, Religious Conversion, Post-Colonialism, History of Religions, British Imperial and Colonial History (1600 - ), Ancient Greek Religion, Cultural Diversity, Religious History, Brahmanism, History of Colonial India, India, History of Religious Studies, Religious Studies, Orientalism, Cultural Differences, Classical Indology, Hindu Studies, Indology, Colonial Studies, Proselytism, S.N. Balagangadhara, Colonial Knowledge, Post Colonial Theory, Indology, sanskrit Studies, Indian History, Anthropology of Religion, Proselytization, Indology: Indian Philosophy, Religious Studies /Indology, Buddhism & Hinduism, and Colonialism and Imperialism
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 23 moreIslamic Studies, Women and Gender Issues in Islam, Muslim Minorities, Muslims in Europe, Islam, Muslim-Christian Relation, Law and culture, Sharia, Colonial Discourse, Women and gender in Muslim societies, Shariah, Sociolegal studies, Contrast Between Western & Islamic Law, Colonial Studies, Shariah and Law, S.N. Balagangadhara, Law and Cultural Diversity, Comparative Sociolegal Systems, Colonialism and Imperialism, Colonial Consciousness, Sociolegal Research, Legal Theory Legal Pluralism, and Pluralismo Legal
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: Religion, Christianity, Hinduism, Jainism, Sikhism, and 77 moreComparative Religion, History, Sociology, Sociology of Religion, Geography, Theology, Colonialism (History), Postcolonial Studies, Religion and Politics, Indian studies, Religion and Colonialism, Africa, Law and Religion, Theory of Religion, Politics, Religious Pluralism, Colonialism, Culture, Missionary History, Religious Conversion, Religion & the Public Sphere, Mission Studies, Theology and Culture, Indian Diaspora (Migration and Ethnicity), Faith, British Imperial and Colonial History (1600 - ), Caste and Untouchability, Empire and Colonialism (Literature), Religious Experience, Sikh Studies, India (Anthropology), Sciences, Post-Colonial Theory, Anthropology of Colonialism, History of Colonial India, Neo-colonialism, British Imperial and Colonial History, Religious Studies, Colonial Discourse, Imperialism, Latin America, Anti Caste Movements, Conversion, Europe, Missionary, Dalit studies, Scheduled caste issues, Political Sciences, Indian Diaspora, Missions, Asia, Caste, Colonial History, European Imperialism and Colonialism, Oceania, Colonial Studies, Hindu law, Proselytism, Relevance of caste in contemporary indian society, America, Theology and Religious Studies, British Colonialism, Colonial Knowledge, Sikhs, Anti Caste Studies, Social History of Jain Community, Anthropology of Religion, History of Colonialism, Indian Diaspora Studies, Dalit Sikhs, Religious Studies /Indology, Caste In the Indian Diaspora, Indian Diaspora In the West, Hindus, Buddhism & Hinduism, Colonialism and Imperialism, Anthroploglogy, and Metropole
Research Interests: European Studies, Transnationalism, Immigration, Immigration Studies, Migration, and 53 moreImmigration Law, Nationalism, Immigration And Integration In Europe, European Union Citizenship, European Union citizenship (Political Science), East Africa, East Africa (History), European Union, Citizenship (Political Science), Immigration and Emmigration, European Integration (Area Studies), Immigration History, Indian Diaspora (Migration and Ethnicity), European Immigration and Asylum Law, European Union Law, Citizenship Theory, European Union (International Studies), History of Citizenship, Immigration Policy (Immigration History), Ethnicity, Social Class, South Asian Diaspora, South Asian Diasporas, Empire, Theories of Citizenship, South Asian Diaspora (History), Immigration and Citizenship, Migration, Emigration and Immigration, Citizenship, Identity, Nationality, Eastern Africa, Transnational Studies, Conflict and security, Indian Diaspora, Nation-State, European union enlargement, Immigrant integration, Refugees, migration and immigration, Post Colonial Theory, Nationality Laws, Indian and South Asian diaspora, The Concept of Nationality, Muticulturalism, 1948 British Nationality Act, Immigration Status & Nationality, European Union Policies, Governance and Democracy, Colonialism and Imperialism, Nationalism and Decolonization, Belonging and Citizenship, Ethnicity and Nationality, and Nation building and State making
Research Interests: Religion, Hinduism, Comparative Religion, Sociology of Religion, Sports Medicine, and 37 morePhilosophy Of Religion, Education, Exercise Physiology, Yoga, Yoga Philosophy, Law and Religion, Theory of Religion, American Religion, Education Policy, Hypoxia, Secularization, Health, Comparative Secularism, Secularisms and Secularities, Separation of Church and State, Physical Education, Swimming, Bioenergetics, Hindu Philosophy, Sport, Yoga Meditation and Learning, Physical Education, Sports Sciences,sports Psychology, Exercise Science, Secularism, Hindu Mythology, Yoga Therapy, Atheism/Secular Studies, Triathlon, Sport Science, S.N. Balagangadhara, Religion and secularism, Sports and Exercise Sciences, Physical and health education, Altitude, Anthropology of Religion, Rajiv Malholtra, and Aquatic Sports
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, 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: Religion, Christianity, Hinduism, Sikhism, Comparative Religion, and 89 moreSociology, Sociology of Religion, Ethnic Studies, Islamic Law, Jewish Law, Comparative Law, Anthropology, International Relations, Philosophy, Communication, Multiculturalism, Philosophy Of Religion, Jewish Studies, Employment Law, Theology, International Law, Human Rights, Religion and Politics, International organizations, Employment Relations, Conflict, Workplace Spirituality, Security, Global employment issues, Law and Religion, Theory of Religion, Islam and Human Rights, Nationalism, Islamic Education, Workplace Studies, Sociology of islam, Discrimination, Non-discrimination, Anthropology of Christianity, Islam in Europe, Freedom of Religion, Minority Studies, Diplomacy, Feminism, Minority cultures, Islamic Studies, Multiple Discrimination, Conscience, Ethnic minorities, Muslim Minorities, Christian Ethics, Media, Discrimination (Law), Islamic History, Islam, Islamic feminism, Discourse of multiculturalism, Multicultural Psychology, Muslim diasporas in Europe and the US, Employment, Ethnicity, Sikh Studies, Judaism, Religious Persecution, Sikh diaspora, Sharia, Racial and ethnic discrimination, Minority Rights, Religion and the Law, Sikh identity and politics, Intercultural dialogue, Gender and Islam, Citizenship, Identity, The Politics of Identity, the Politics of Recognition, Multiculturalism, Employment Discrimination, Peace, Minorities, Religion and Law, Religion and State, Religion & Spirituality at the Workplace, Freedom, Hadith, Muslims, Jews, Employment Policy, Anti-discrimination law, Population Trends, Punjab Studies, Sikhs in Europe, Freedom of Conscience, Freedom of Religion and Conscience, Sikhism and Equality, and Anthropology of Religion
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 Abrahamic religious framework. While enabling the identification of some aspects of culture considered to merit reasonable accommodation on 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: Religion, Christianity, Hinduism, Comparative Religion, Sociology of Religion, and 52 moreJewish Law, Jewish Studies, Employment Law, Equality Studies, Research Methodology, Research Design, Employment Relations, Indian studies, DISCRIMINATION AT WORK, Workplace Studies, Discrimination, Diaspora, Equality and Diversity, Intercultural interaction at workplace, Equality, Multiple Discrimination, Indian Diaspora (Migration and Ethnicity), Method and Theory in the Study of Religion, Muslims in Europe, Discrimination (Law), Diaspora Studies, Islam, Minorities In The Workplace, Judaism, Sikh diaspora, Anthropology of Diaspora, Diaspora and transnationalism, Jewish Cultural Studies, Modern Judaism, Work and Employment, Employment Discrimination, Religious Studies, Comparative study of religion, Wellbeing in the Workplace, Religious Diversity, Muslims, Jews, Employment Policy, Census, Anti-discrimination law, Migration and religious diversity, Cultural and Religious Diversity, Census data, Sikhs in Europe, Islam and Muslims, S.N. Balagangadhara, Reasonable Accommodation, Sikhs, Reasonable Accomodation, Conscientious Objectors, Employment Equity and Workplace Discrimination, and Anthropology of Religion
Research Interests: Hinduism, Jainism, Sikhism, Censorship, Nationalism, and 38 moreColonialism, Discrimination, Caste and Untouchability, Sikh Studies, Racial and ethnic discrimination, Empire, History of Colonial India, Employment Discrimination, Dalit studies, Minorities, Imperialism, Caste and Gender Issues in Indian Culture and Literature, Conflict and security, Indian Oral Traditions, Caste, Anti-discrimination law, Gandhi, Caste system, Sikhs in Europe, Communal Violence, S.N. Balagangadhara, Post Colonial Theory, Sikhs, Ambedkar, Rajiv Malholtra, Untouchability, Conflicts In India, Casteism, Indian State, Ambedkar Cartoon, Religious Tolerance, Hindus, Governance and Democracy, Colonialism and Imperialism, Nationalism and Decolonization, Belonging and Citizenship, Ethnicity and Nationality, and Nation building and State making
A reconfiguration of law is taking place in the contact between Western and Muslim law. While Muslim law is itself a complex, pluralistic amalgam of different legal ‘bricks,’ in the context of the struggle for Islam to be acknowledged as... more
A reconfiguration of law is taking place in the contact between Western and Muslim law. While Muslim law is itself a complex, pluralistic amalgam of different legal ‘bricks,’ in the context of the struggle for Islam to be acknowledged as a legitimate source of value pluralism in the Western context, the religious aspects of Muslim law, with their doctrinal justifications, are brought into sharper relief. The English case shows that customs among Muslims are suppressed in this process of ‘shariatization.’ Beyond that, even Muslim doctrines are being placed under the spotlight in various ways. These changes are taking place not simply because Muslims are living as nondominant communities in Europe, where they are under the gaze of the dominant culture and seen as potential or actual violators of human rights and the rule of law. Relying on the ‘dynamic of religion’ as theorized by Balagangadhara (‘The heathen in his blindness…’ Asia, the West, and the dynamic of religion, 1994, Leiden, E. J. Brill), these processes are seen as outcomes of the collision between two religious cultures, the Islamic and the Western, and they tell us more about the nature of religion itself.
Research Interests: Religion, Comparative Religion, Ethnic Studies, Islamic Law, Theory of Religion, and 27 moreMuslim Family Law, Religion & the Public Sphere, Ethnic and Racial Studies, Secularization, Ethnic minorities, Muslims in Europe, Comparative Secularism, Islam, Muslim diasporas in Europe and the US, Muslim-Christian Relation, Bible, Ethnic Identities, Quran, Sociology of Religion, Laicity, and Secularisation, Islamic Law and Legal Theory, Christian Theology, sociology of religion, Secularization, Secularism, Islam and Secularism, Relgious and Ethnic Minorities, Hadith, S.N. Balagangadhara, Muslim Philosophy, Religion and secularism, History of Arabic Science, Muslim Theology, and Interpretation of Holy Texts
Research Interests: Islamic Law, Legal History, Islamic Education, Legal Pluralism, Islamic Studies, and 11 moreEthnic minorities, Muslim Minorities, Muslims in Europe, Cultural Diversity, Plurality, Legal Pluralism and Cultural Diversity, Mixed Legal Systems, Legal Hybridity, Common Law and Civil Law Mixes, Legal Anthroplogy, and Post Colonial Legal Influences
Research Interests: Ethnic Studies, Intellectual Property, Legal History, Liberalism, Muslim Family Law, and 32 moreRace and Ethnicity, Nationalism, Turkish Nationalism, Legal Pluralism, Ottoman Studies, Ethnic and Racial Studies, Women and Gender Issues in Islam, Muslim Minorities, Gender and religion (Women s Studies), Muslim diasporas in Europe and the US, Cultural Rights, Cultural Diversity, Minorities in Turkey, Alternative Dispute Resolution, Human Rights and Legal Pluralism, Immigrants, Plurality, Kurds, Cultural and Religious Diversity, Legal Pluralism and Cultural Diversity, Kishore Mahbubani, Bhikhu Parekh, Mixed Legal Systems, Nationalism In the Balkans, Minorities and State Policies, Ottoman Millet System, Legal Hybridity, Common Law and Civil Law Mixes, Legal Anthroplogy, Post Colonial Legal Influences, Politics of Cultural Heritage, and Legal Pluralsim
During the 2000s, the dress of Muslim women in Muslim-minority countries in Europe and elsewhere became increasingly a matter for debate and, in several instances, the subject of legislation. In France, a ban on the wearing of the... more
During the 2000s, the dress of Muslim women in Muslim-minority countries in Europe and elsewhere became increasingly a matter for debate and, in several instances, the subject of legislation. In France, a ban on the wearing of the headscarf
in places of education (2004) was followed in 2010 by the law criminalizing the wearing of the face-veil (usually but inaccurately referred to as the ‘burqa’) in public space. Other countries have enacted similar legislation. Muslim women’s dress has historically been a controversial matter in Muslim-majority countries, too, most recently in North Africa following the Arab Spring, but the present paper concentrates on the movement against face-veiling in Western Europe, documenting what has been happening and analysing the arguments proposed to justify criminalizing this type of garment. In doing so, the paper explores the implications for our understanding of contemporary (ethnically and religiously) diverse societies and their governance.
Is anti-veiling legislation a protest against what is interpreted as an Islamic practice unacceptable in liberal democracies, a sign of a wider discomfort with non-European otherness, or an expression of an underlying racism articulated in cultural terms?
Whatever the reason, is criminalization an appropriate response? An Appendix notes some topics for further research.
in places of education (2004) was followed in 2010 by the law criminalizing the wearing of the face-veil (usually but inaccurately referred to as the ‘burqa’) in public space. Other countries have enacted similar legislation. Muslim women’s dress has historically been a controversial matter in Muslim-majority countries, too, most recently in North Africa following the Arab Spring, but the present paper concentrates on the movement against face-veiling in Western Europe, documenting what has been happening and analysing the arguments proposed to justify criminalizing this type of garment. In doing so, the paper explores the implications for our understanding of contemporary (ethnically and religiously) diverse societies and their governance.
Is anti-veiling legislation a protest against what is interpreted as an Islamic practice unacceptable in liberal democracies, a sign of a wider discomfort with non-European otherness, or an expression of an underlying racism articulated in cultural terms?
Whatever the reason, is criminalization an appropriate response? An Appendix notes some topics for further research.
Research Interests: Religion, Sociology of Religion, Ethnic Studies, Islamic Law, Racial and Ethnic Politics, and 37 moreReligion and Politics, Legal Anthropology, Critical Legal Theory, Race and Ethnicity, Religious Pluralism, Legal Pluralism, Discrimination, Religion & the Public Sphere, Minority Studies, Ethnic and Racial Studies, French Law, Minority cultures, Islamic Studies, Women and Gender Issues in Islam, Religious communication, Discrimination (Law), Islam, Islamic Political Thought, Ethnicity, Ethnic Relations, Ethnic Identities, Racial and ethnic discrimination, Minority Rights, Religious Studies, Human Rights and Minority Rights, Indirect Discrimination, Muslim Women, Hijab, Belgian Congo, Veil Ban in France, Anthropology of Religion, Dressing, Burqa, Covering of Face, Covering of Hair, Niqab, and Chador
Western and Muslim law. Muslim law is itself a complex, pluralistic amalgam of different legal ‘bricks’, and in the context of the struggle for Islam to be acknowledged as a legitimate source of value pluralism in the Western context, the... more
Western and Muslim law. Muslim law is itself a complex, pluralistic amalgam of different legal ‘bricks’, and in the context of the struggle for Islam to be acknowledged as a legitimate source of value pluralism in the Western context, the religious aspects of Muslim law, with their doctrinal justifications, are being foregrounded. With the English case as the main focus, I further argue that customs among Muslims are suppressed in this process of ‘shariatisation’. Beyond that, even Muslim doctrines are being placed under the spotlight in various ways. These changes are taking place as a result of Muslims living as nondominant communities in Europe, where they are under the gaze of the dominant culture and are judged to be potential or actual violators of human rights and the rule of law. Relying on Balagangadhara’s (2005) explanation of the ‘dynamic of religion’, I present these processes as an outcome of the collision of two religious cultures, the Islamic and the Western.
An updated and revised version of this paper is published in the Journal of Legal Pluralism (2013).
An updated and revised version of this paper is published in the Journal of Legal Pluralism (2013).
Research Interests: Christianity, Ethnic Studies, Islamic Law, Racial and Ethnic Politics, Law and Religion, and 19 moreRace and Ethnicity, Religious Pluralism, Discrimination, Minority Studies, Ethnic and Racial Studies, Minority cultures, Islamic Studies, Ethnic minorities, Islam, Globalisation And Minority Rights, Ethnicity, Sharia, Alternative Dispute Resolution, Minority Rights, Religion and the Law, Religious Studies, Discrimination Law, Shariah, and Alternative dispute resolution processes
This article is based on a fieldwork project conducted by the authors in the Muğla 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 Muğla 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: Tourism Studies, Anthropology of Tourism, Migration mobilities, Transnationalism, Diasporas, and 30 moreImmigration, Immigration Studies, Migration Law, Migration, Immigration Law, Diaspora, Socio-legal studies, Turkish and Middle East Studies, Travel & Tourism, Turkey And Europe, Sustainable Tourism, Migration Studies, Diaspora Studies, Sociology of Migration, Transnational migration, Contemporary International Migration, Migration (Anthropology), Modern Turkey, Anthropology of Turkey, Non-Muslim Minorities in Turkey, Minorities in Turkey, Transnational Communities, Turkey (Anthropology), Diaspora and transnationalism, Socio-Legal Studies (Law), Immigration and identity (Anthropology), Expatriates, Self-Initiated Expatriates, Expatriate Adjustment, and British diaspora
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Research Interests: Islamic Law, Family Law, Private International Law, Law and Religion, Muslim Family Law, and 13 moreLegal Pluralism, Socio-legal studies, Ethnic minorities, Muslims in Europe, Sikh Studies, South Asian Diaspora, South Asian Diasporas, Socio-Legal Studies (Law), Polygamy, Transnational Families, International private law, Hindu law, and Sikhs in Europe
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Research Interests: Transnationalism, Private International Law, Muslim Family Law, Legal Pluralism, Private International Family Law, and 8 moreEthnic minorities, Migration Studies, Transnational migration, Transnationalism and multiple identities, Diaspora and transnationalism, Human Rights and Legal Pluralism, Transnational Families, and Transnational litigation
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This article examines how the adoption of children under Hindu law in India is regarded by British private international law and immigration law. Through an analysis of case-law, it focuses particularly on how British judges regard the... more
This article examines how the adoption of children under Hindu law in India is regarded by British private international law and immigration law. Through an analysis of case-law, it focuses particularly on how British judges regard the legitimacy of exclusion by the British immigration control system of children who have been adopted under a ‘foreign’ legal system which essentially permits private adoption arrangements. Examining the background to the regime of Indian Hindu law adoptions (which applies to Sikhs aswell asHindus), and the private international law and immigration rules which apply to such adoptees in the UK, the article finds some evidence in the judicial decisions of a more activist, human rights-based, plurality-conscious position being taken. However, tracking the case-law further, the article
concludes that such activism has not been followed through in more recent decisions leaving the conflictual position between transnational adopters and British legal systems largely unresolved.
concludes that such activism has not been followed through in more recent decisions leaving the conflictual position between transnational adopters and British legal systems largely unresolved.
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Research Interests: Islamic Law, South Asian Studies, Private International Law, Muslim Family Law, South Asia, and 13 moreLegal Pluralism, Gender, International Migration, Ethnic minorities, South Asian Diasporas, Law in South Asia, Islamic Law and Legal Theory, South Asian Law, Marriage Migration, Bangladeshis, South Asians, Transnational litigation, and Transnational Family Law
This paper focuses on the chapter on India in An-Na'im's Islam and the secular state. It first sets out the general context of An-Na'im's writing and his specific commitment in Islam and the secular state to distinguish between the... more
This paper focuses on the chapter on India in An-Na'im's Islam and the secular state. It first sets out the general context of An-Na'im's writing and his specific commitment in Islam and the secular state to distinguish between the secularity of the state, on the one hand, and the basically private realm of shari'a. This forms the basis of An-Na'im's contention that shari'a and state law should be kept separate and that the state is not competent to enforce shari'a. The paper then goes on to examine the basis for secularism in India's experience of British colonialism, and locates its roots in India's encounter with British Protestantism. The discourse of secularism has survived in post-colonial India and become a constitutional commitment, although its theological underpinnings continue to exacerbate ethno-religious conflict. The answer to such conflict must lie outside the domain of the opposition between religion and secularism therefore, and potentially in India's long consciousness of pluralism, including legal pluralism. As an example of the continued vitality of such pluralism the issue of courts and judging in the Muslim law context is taken up, with a focus on some controversial litigation in matters of Muslim personal law. These examples actualize the claim of the paper that An-Na'im's thesis in Islam and secular state may actually not be workable in concrete contexts outside of the theological premises which underpin it.
Research Interests: Religion, Islamic Law, South Asian Studies, Religion and Colonialism, Muslim Family Law, and 11 moreColonialism, Indian Law, Postcolonial theory (Cultural Theory), Law in South Asia, Secular, secularism and secularization, India, Orientalism, Islamic Law and Legal Theory, Secularism, South Asian Law, and S.N. Balagangadhara
With a focus on Britain, this paper discusses some theories of legal pluralism in light of Western multicultural societies. It then explores the increasing salience of religion within Britain and how religion has become the subject of... more
With a focus on Britain, this paper discusses some theories of legal pluralism in light of Western multicultural societies. It then explores the increasing salience of religion within Britain and how religion has become the subject of recent legislation and court decisions. It is argued that the quest for a space for Muslims within British multiculturalism explains this increasing focus on religion. The paper then goes on to provide a critique of the focus
on religion which, it is argued, leads to only a partial recognition of the complexity of legal pluralism.
on religion which, it is argued, leads to only a partial recognition of the complexity of legal pluralism.
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Abstract: Orthodox positivist concepts of public and private international law, as well as' domestic'state laws, privileging official legal orders and state elites, are increasingly called into question... more
Abstract: Orthodox positivist concepts of public and private international law, as well as' domestic'state laws, privileging official legal orders and state elites, are increasingly called into question by the global dispersal of people through migration. Significantly, Afro-Asian ...
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This article reviews the main patterns of Asian migration to Europe and the ways in which Europe today has become multicultural with Afro-Asian legal diversities. It discusses the limited role which Asian states have played in these... more
This article reviews the main patterns of Asian migration to Europe and the ways in which Europe today has become multicultural with Afro-Asian legal diversities. It discusses the limited role which Asian states have played in these processes of emigration and settlement. It further examines the status of the laws transplanted by Asian migrants and their descendants in Europe and the ways in which Asian diasporas in Europe are engaging in new hybrid patterns of socio-legal navigation and reconstruction. The article is critical of European legal orders as not having reacted adequately to these patterns of Asian legal reconstruction but also urges Asian legal scholars to investigate this underexplored field in more detail.
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The Archbishop of Canterbury’s speech on Civil and Religious Law in England in February 2008 provoked and range of responses from outrage to sympathy. The speech aimed to delineate the contours of a new relationship between the ‘law of... more
The Archbishop of Canterbury’s speech on Civil and Religious Law in England in February 2008 provoked and range of responses from outrage to sympathy. The speech aimed to delineate the contours of a new relationship between the ‘law of the land’ and religious law, particularly Muslim law or shari’a. This article aims to explore the extent to which the Archbishop’s ideas can bear fruit under current conditions of thinking and teaching about law. It places the Archbishop’s speech in the context of historical and existing regimes of legal plurality whereby states recognise more than one legal order. It then goes on to examine some of the detail in the Archbishop’s speech and examines the responses to it. Finally, the article examines the constraints and opportunities in achieving the greater level of attention to religious law which the Archbishop advocated within the framework of British legal systems.
Research Interests: Islamic Law, Muslim Family Law, Legal Pluralism, Muslims in Europe, Muslim diasporas in Europe and the US, and 8 moreAlternative Dispute Resolution, Religious Studies, Islamic Law and Legal Theory, Shariah, Church of England, Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR), Anglican Christianity, and Anglican Church
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Shah: Legal pluralism 19 when there were officially no controls upon UK or Commonwealth nationals; others managed to obtain some sort of per-mission to remain as workers or business persons, refugees or dependent family members. Then,... more
Shah: Legal pluralism 19 when there were officially no controls upon UK or Commonwealth nationals; others managed to obtain some sort of per-mission to remain as workers or business persons, refugees or dependent family members. Then, there is a significant pro-portion ...
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First published in Great Britain 2005 by Glass House Press, The Glass House, Wharton Street, London WC1X 9PX, United Kingdom Telephone: + 44 (0)20 7278 8000 Facsimile: + 44 (0)20 7278 8080 Email: info@cavendishpublishing.com Website: ...
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Research Interests: Islamic Law, South Asian Studies, Legal Anthropology, Private International Law, Muslim Family Law, and 9 moreLegal Pluralism, Expert evidence, Muslims in Europe, South Asian Diaspora, South Asian Diasporas, Human Rights and Legal Pluralism, Transnational Families, International private law, and Transnational law
An academic directory and search engine.
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'Religion'is a Western construct which, when transplanted to Asian countries, has led to a transformation of indigenous traditions and given rise to ethno-religious forms of identification. This article discusses... more
'Religion'is a Western construct which, when transplanted to Asian countries, has led to a transformation of indigenous traditions and given rise to ethno-religious forms of identification. This article discusses the continuing influence of'religious' identities among ...
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First published in Great Britain 2000 by Cavendish Publishing Limited, The Glass House, Wharton Street, London WC1X 9PX, United Kingdom Telephone: +44 (0)20 7278 8000 Facsimile: +44 (0)20 7278 8080 Email: info@cavendishpublishing.com... more
First published in Great Britain 2000 by Cavendish Publishing Limited, The Glass House, Wharton Street, London WC1X 9PX, United Kingdom Telephone: +44 (0)20 7278 8000 Facsimile: +44 (0)20 7278 8080 Email: info@cavendishpublishing.com Website: ...