Adjudicating Social Death

This contribution is part of a larger investigation into the phenomena of out-casting among Hindus in South India. Here, I seek to unravel the legal trajectory of caste exclusion in the colonial court by examining the occurrence, extent and content (legal and social) of these litigations. I begin by examining the legal status of caste, as a body, under British rule. Caste exclusion being one kind of punitive sanction, among a range of other sanctions applied in situations of a severe breach in kin-caste rules, it is necessary to examine what understanding was arrived at regarding these rules and which legal treatments were applied. I then explore the occurrence of suits involving caste excommunication and present the main features of some twelve cases to get an overall sense of the nature of the litigations involving excommunication, the outcomes, the social profiles of those involved. Finally, I look more deeply into a handful of cases to assess the grievances of the (excommunicated) complainants and the strategies of the defendants. The aim is to identify the legal provisions invoked both by complainants and defendants and to unravel the reasoning of the judges caught between considerations of promoting individual civil rights, while not infringing on caste social rights

Caste · Colonialism · Criminology · Political science · Punitive damages · Sanctions · Sociology · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Law · Law in Society and Culture · South Asian Studies and Diaspora

• Worship and Conflict under Colonial Rule

  Open Access•A Appadurai•Worship and Conflict under…•1981

  Añadir item

• Courts of Law and Styles of Self in Eighteenth-Century Madras

  Open Access•Mattison Mines•Modern Asian Studies•2001

  Añadir item

• Excommunication as Everyday Event and Ultimate Sanction

  Open Access•Robert M Hayden•The Journal of Asian Studies•1983

  Añadir item

• Ideology and Ethnicity under British Imperial Rule

  Open Access•Pamela G Price, Pamela Price•Modern Asian Studies•1989

  Añadir item

• Group Membership and Group Preferences in India

  M Galanter•Journal of Asian and African…•1967

  Añadir item

• Barristers and Brahmans in India

  Open Access•Lloyd I Rudolph, Susanne Hoeber Rudolph•Comparative Studies in Society…•1965

  Añadir item

• The Administration of Hindu Law by the British

  Open Access•J Duncan M Derrett•Comparative Studies in Society…•1961

  Añadir item