Prof. Dr. Anindita Chakrabarti

My project involves an ethnographic foray into the field of law and religion. In India, the condition of legal pluralism is framed within the constitutional commitment of the secular, democratic state. Article 29 (1) of the Indian Constitution promises that “any section of the citizens residing in the territory of India or any part thereof having a distinct language, script or culture of its own shall have the right to conserve the same.” The Islamic courts (Darul Qaza) function within this constitutional framework. The decrees of these courts are not enforceable and act as advisory. Every citizen has the right to approach the civil court as and when deemed necessary. This context of judicial pluralism exists in uncomfortable tension with the Directive Principles of the Constitution of India’s commitment to the formulation of a uniform civil code. While the issue of personal law of religious minorities, especially of Muslims, has been the cynosure of the uniform civil code debate, there is paucity of ethnography on the procedure of adjudication in both civil and religious courts and the litigants’ experience of conflict resolution. The present project draws on ethnographic material from the religious and civil courts of two cities – Kanpur and Lucknow – in northern India. It attempts to show how the manifold patterns and processes operative within the judicial system portray a unique form of India’s “tryst” with secularity.I will be using the ethnographic method for this project. It is planned to interview women who have approached (or chose not to approach) the courts in contexts of divorce or maintenance. In addition to undertaking observation and interviews, we shall also look into the court records, both at the civil and religious courts.