1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910463901103321

Autore

Subramanian Narendra

Titolo

Nation and family : personal law, cultural pluralism, and gendered citizenship in India / / Narendra Subramanian

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Stanford, California : , : Stanford University Press, , 2014

©2014

ISBN

0-8047-9090-6

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (398 p.)

Disciplina

346.5401/5

Soggetti

Domestic relations - India

Families - Political aspects - India

Women - Legal status, laws, etc - India

Religious minorities - Legal status, laws, etc - India

Law reform - India - History

Culture and law - India

Multiculturalism - India

Nationalism - India

Electronic books.

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Front matter -- CONTENTS -- TABLES AND FIGURES -- ABBREVIATIONS -- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS -- Chapter 1. INDIAN PERSONAL LAW -- Chapter 2. NATIONALISM, RECOGNITION, AND FAMILY FORMATION -- Chapter 3. OFFICIAL NATIONALISM, MULTICULTURALISM, AND MAJORITARIAN CITIZEN MAKING -- Chapter 4. RECASTING THE NORMATIVE NATIONAL FAMILY -- Chapter 5. MINORITY ACCOMMODATION, CULTURAL MOBILIZATION, AND LEGAL PRACTICE -- Chapter 6. NATIONALISM, MULTICULTURALISM, AND PERSONAL LAW -- NOTES -- REFERENCES -- INDEX

Sommario/riassunto

The distinct personal laws that govern the major religious groups are a major aspect of Indian multiculturalism and secularism, and support specific gendered rights in family life. Nation and Family is the most comprehensive study to date of the public discourses, processes of



social mobilization, legislation and case law that formed India's three major personal law systems, which govern Hindus, Muslims, and Christians. It for the first time systematically compares Indian experiences to those in a wide range of other countries that inherited personal laws specific to religious group, sect, or ethnic group. The book shows why India's postcolonial policy-makers changed the personal laws they inherited less than the rulers of Turkey and Tunisia, but far more than those of Algeria, Syria and Lebanon, and increased women's rights for the most part, contrary to the trend in Pakistan, Iran, Sudan and Nigeria since the 1970's. Subramanian demonstrates that discourses of community and features of state-society relations shape the course of personal law. Ruling elites' discourses about the nation, its cultural groups and its traditions interact with the state-society relations that regimes inherit and the projects of regimes to change their relations with society. These interactions influence the pattern of multiculturalism, the place of religion in public policy and public life, and the forms of regulation of family life. The book shows how the greater engagement of political elites with initiatives among the Hindu majority and the predominant place they gave Hindu motifs in discourses about the nation shaped Indian multiculturalism and secularism, contrary to current understandings. In exploring the significant role of communitarian discourses in shaping state-society relations and public policy, it takes "state-in-society" approaches to comparative politics, political sociology, and legal studies in new directions.