Fall 2025 History UN3836 section 001

Law and Society in Colonial India

Law & Society / Colonial

Call Number 12908
Day & Time
Location
T 10:10am-12:00pm
To be announced
Points 4
Grading Mode Standard
Approvals Required None
Instructor Kalyani Ramnath
Type SEMINAR
Method of Instruction In-Person
Course Description

This course explores the relationship between law and society in colonial India. It features cases relating to marriage and divorce, property and inheritance, sedition and criminal conspiracy woven through the lives of ordinary people in nineteenth and twentieth century India. Through a range of materials, we will explore how British colonial officials reformulated what “law” was and how it was to be interpreted. We will also explore how these interpretations were understood and challenged. We will encounter judges, lawyers, and notaries that mediated the relationship between law and society, courts, and litigants, while catching a fascinating glimpse of what arguments, evidence, and sentencing looked like in these courts. As we go through our readings and attend classes, we might ask: how does this perspective from India shape our understanding of the relationship between law and colonialism, and what are its contemporary implications?

Web Site Vergil
Department History
Enrollment 0 students (13 max) as of 10:05AM Friday, April 4, 2025
Subject History
Number UN3836
Section 001
Division Interfaculty
Note ADD TO THE WAITLIST AND READ MESSAGE FROM THE INSTRUCTOR
Section key 20253HIST3836W001