Deepa Das Acevedo
Biographic Data
| ID | 117176 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Deepa Das Acevedo |
| GIVEN NAMES | Deepa |
| FAMILY NAME | Das Acevedo |
| SIGNATURE | DAS ACEVEDO D |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Alabama |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-7836-4072 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 17 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 26 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 16 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2012 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
Introduction
Cultivating Attentiveness to Law in India through Legal Anthropology
This Article reviews and analyses scholarship at the intersection of anthropology and law. The first half of the Article provides context for understanding the boundaries, animating concerns, and tensions that have characterised the anthropology of law as an area of interdisciplinary inquiry. We focus especially on the subdiscipline’s Anglo-American history and show how a promising early period of engagement dissipated as both anthropologists and…
Preface
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content.
Deities’ Rights
A brief commotion arose during the hearings for one of twenty-first-century India’s most widely discussed legal disputes, when a dynamic young attorney suggested that deities, too, had constitutional rights. The suggestion was not absurd. Like a human being or a corporation, Hindu temple deities can participate in litigation, incur financial obligations, and own property. There was nothing to suggest, said the attorney, that the same deity who en…
Postscript
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
What’s Law Got To Do with It
Among law and society fields, legal anthropology has experienced markedly high highs and low lows. Its parent disciplines, law and anthropology, have fluctuated from intense and productive engagement with one another to mutual disregard for each other’s ways of knowing. Most commentary on the trajectory of this interdisciplinary relationship has bemoaned anthropology’s (ir)relevance to legal scholarship, but this introduction and the symposium es…
Disciplinary Deities and How to Please Them
After more than half a century of law and society scholarship, two recent volumes propose to survey and advance the field. Edited by Mariana Valverde, Kamari Clarke, Even Darian-Smith, and Prabha Kotiswaran, The Routledge Handbook of Law and Society (2021) draws on an international list of contributors to refocus law and society scholarship on fresh topics and themes. The Research Handbook on Modern Legal Realism (2021), edited by Shauhin Talesh,…
Autocratic legalism in India
Authoritarianism in Indian State, Law, and Society
While India possesses features conventionally associated with liberal democracies, it has lately been understood to suffer from "democratic backsliding". Commentators have used descriptions like "authoritarianism", "electoral autocracy", "ethnic democracy" and "totalitarianism" to understand the current moment in Indian history. The framework of "autocratic legalism" illuminates the dynamics of centralization of power but there are also elements …
From Mythic Saviours to #MeToo at the Indian Supreme Court
The Indian Supreme Court has long enjoyed an almost mythic reputation for progressive and creative jurisprudence, but a series of recent scandals is beginning to erode this well-settled authority. One of the most troubling of these incidents has been an allegation of sexual harassment and intimidation by a Court staffer against then sitting Chief Justice of India (CJI) Ranjan Gogoi. This article draws on media analysis and ethnographic research c…
Beyond the Algorithm
In Beyond the Algorithm: Qualitative Insights for Gig Work Regulation, Deepa Das Acevedo and a collection of scholars and experts show why government actors must go beyond mass surveys and data-scrubbing in order to truly understand the realities of gig work. The contributors draw on qualitative empirical research to reveal the narratives and real-life experiences that define gig work, and they connect these insights to policy debates being fough…
Just Hindus
What happens when courts reach “good” outcomes through “bad” reasoning? Are there limits to consequentialist jurisprudence? The Indian Supreme Court’s recent decision in IYLA v. State of Kerala offers important insights on both issues. IYLA , decided in September 2018, held that the Hindu temple at Sabarimala may not ban women aged ten to fifty from its premises even though devotees argue the exclusion is religiously mandated. Reactions to IYLA h…
Changing the Subject ofSati
Charan Shah's 1999 death was widely considered to be the first sati, or widow immolation, to have occurred in India in over twenty years. Media coverage of the event focused on procedural minutiae-her sari, her demeanor-and ultimately, several progressive commentators came to the counterintuitive conclusion that the ritually anomalous nature of Charan's death confirmed its voluntary, secular, and noncriminal nature. This article argues that the "…
Temples, Courts, and Dynamic Equilibrium in the Indian Constitution
Must all states have fixed constitutional identities? Does democracy necessarily entail citizen-sovereignty? This paper uses ethnographic data from India to argue that the answer to both questions is “no.” In the aftermath of a massive stampede in 2011, the Kerala High Court initiated an overhaul of the complex executive, legislative, and judicial network that governs the famous Hindu temple at Sabarimala. The court’s conflicting goals were to av…
Divine Sovereignty, Indian Property Law, and the Dispute over the Padmanabhaswamy Temple
Secular governance in India was meant to have incorporated religion within public life, but the implementation of 'Indian secularism' has in important ways been premised on separating religious and secular lifeworlds. Public Hindu temples, whose assets and operations are managed by a melange of statutory bodies, courts, and state governments, exemplify this puzzling situation. The 2011 discovery of treasures within the Padmanabhaswamy temple in T…
Developments in Hindu Law from the Colonial to the Present
Hinduism and law have often been understood as Hindu law: A body of fixed positive law and legal hermeneutics that can be used to govern the lives of Hindus. Marriage, adoption, inheritance, property, and contract are just some of the vast areas of private and public life which colonial officials classified under the rubric of Hindu law and attempted to regulate using Sanskrit texts and native scholar-translators. Which texts were used, in what v…
Secularism in the Indian Context
Indian constitutional framers sought to tie their new state to ideas of modernity and liberalism by creating a government that would ensure citizens' rights while also creating the conditions for democratic citizenship. Balancing these two goals has been particularly challenging with regard to religion, as exemplified by the emergence of a peculiarly Indian understanding of secularism which requires the nonestablishment of religion but not the se…
Secularism in the Indian Context
Indian constitutional framers sought to tie their new state to ideas of modernity and liberalism by creating a government that would ensure citizens' rights while also creating the conditions for democratic citizenship. Balancing these two goals has been particularly challenging with regard to religion, as exemplified by the emergence of a peculiarly Indian understanding of secularism which requires the nonestablishment of religion but not the se…
What’s Law Got To Do with It
Among law and society fields, legal anthropology has experienced markedly high highs and low lows. Its parent disciplines, law and anthropology, have fluctuated from intense and productive engagement with one another to mutual disregard for each other’s ways of knowing. Most commentary on the trajectory of this interdisciplinary relationship has bemoaned anthropology’s (ir)relevance to legal scholarship, but this introduction and the symposium es…
Divine Sovereignty, Indian Property Law, and the Dispute over the Padmanabhaswamy Temple
Secular governance in India was meant to have incorporated religion within public life, but the implementation of 'Indian secularism' has in important ways been premised on separating religious and secular lifeworlds. Public Hindu temples, whose assets and operations are managed by a melange of statutory bodies, courts, and state governments, exemplify this puzzling situation. The 2011 discovery of treasures within the Padmanabhaswamy temple in T…
Autocratic legalism in India
Authoritarianism in Indian State, Law, and Society
While India possesses features conventionally associated with liberal democracies, it has lately been understood to suffer from "democratic backsliding". Commentators have used descriptions like "authoritarianism", "electoral autocracy", "ethnic democracy" and "totalitarianism" to understand the current moment in Indian history. The framework of "autocratic legalism" illuminates the dynamics of centralization of power but there are also elements …
Just Hindus
What happens when courts reach “good” outcomes through “bad” reasoning? Are there limits to consequentialist jurisprudence? The Indian Supreme Court’s recent decision in IYLA v. State of Kerala offers important insights on both issues. IYLA , decided in September 2018, held that the Hindu temple at Sabarimala may not ban women aged ten to fifty from its premises even though devotees argue the exclusion is religiously mandated. Reactions to IYLA h…
Disciplinary Deities and How to Please Them
After more than half a century of law and society scholarship, two recent volumes propose to survey and advance the field. Edited by Mariana Valverde, Kamari Clarke, Even Darian-Smith, and Prabha Kotiswaran, The Routledge Handbook of Law and Society (2021) draws on an international list of contributors to refocus law and society scholarship on fresh topics and themes. The Research Handbook on Modern Legal Realism (2021), edited by Shauhin Talesh,…
From Mythic Saviours to #MeToo at the Indian Supreme Court
The Indian Supreme Court has long enjoyed an almost mythic reputation for progressive and creative jurisprudence, but a series of recent scandals is beginning to erode this well-settled authority. One of the most troubling of these incidents has been an allegation of sexual harassment and intimidation by a Court staffer against then sitting Chief Justice of India (CJI) Ranjan Gogoi. This article draws on media analysis and ethnographic research c…
Temples, Courts, and Dynamic Equilibrium in the Indian Constitution
Must all states have fixed constitutional identities? Does democracy necessarily entail citizen-sovereignty? This paper uses ethnographic data from India to argue that the answer to both questions is “no.” In the aftermath of a massive stampede in 2011, the Kerala High Court initiated an overhaul of the complex executive, legislative, and judicial network that governs the famous Hindu temple at Sabarimala. The court’s conflicting goals were to av…
Secularism in the Indian Context
Indian constitutional framers sought to tie their new state to ideas of modernity and liberalism by creating a government that would ensure citizens' rights while also creating the conditions for democratic citizenship. Balancing these two goals has been particularly challenging with regard to religion, as exemplified by the emergence of a peculiarly Indian understanding of secularism which requires the nonestablishment of religion but not the se…
Developments in Hindu Law from the Colonial to the Present
Hinduism and law have often been understood as Hindu law: A body of fixed positive law and legal hermeneutics that can be used to govern the lives of Hindus. Marriage, adoption, inheritance, property, and contract are just some of the vast areas of private and public life which colonial officials classified under the rubric of Hindu law and attempted to regulate using Sanskrit texts and native scholar-translators. Which texts were used, in what v…
Temples, Courts, and Dynamic Equilibrium in the Indian Constitution
Must all states have fixed constitutional identities? Does democracy necessarily entail citizen-sovereignty? This paper uses ethnographic data from India to argue that the answer to both questions is “no.” In the aftermath of a massive stampede in 2011, the Kerala High Court initiated an overhaul of the complex executive, legislative, and judicial network that governs the famous Hindu temple at Sabarimala. The court’s conflicting goals were to av…
Divine Sovereignty, Indian Property Law, and the Dispute over the Padmanabhaswamy Temple
Secular governance in India was meant to have incorporated religion within public life, but the implementation of 'Indian secularism' has in important ways been premised on separating religious and secular lifeworlds. Public Hindu temples, whose assets and operations are managed by a melange of statutory bodies, courts, and state governments, exemplify this puzzling situation. The 2011 discovery of treasures within the Padmanabhaswamy temple in T…
Beyond the Algorithm
In Beyond the Algorithm: Qualitative Insights for Gig Work Regulation, Deepa Das Acevedo and a collection of scholars and experts show why government actors must go beyond mass surveys and data-scrubbing in order to truly understand the realities of gig work. The contributors draw on qualitative empirical research to reveal the narratives and real-life experiences that define gig work, and they connect these insights to policy debates being fough…
Just Hindus
What happens when courts reach “good” outcomes through “bad” reasoning? Are there limits to consequentialist jurisprudence? The Indian Supreme Court’s recent decision in IYLA v. State of Kerala offers important insights on both issues. IYLA , decided in September 2018, held that the Hindu temple at Sabarimala may not ban women aged ten to fifty from its premises even though devotees argue the exclusion is religiously mandated. Reactions to IYLA h…
Changing the Subject ofSati
Charan Shah's 1999 death was widely considered to be the first sati, or widow immolation, to have occurred in India in over twenty years. Media coverage of the event focused on procedural minutiae-her sari, her demeanor-and ultimately, several progressive commentators came to the counterintuitive conclusion that the ritually anomalous nature of Charan's death confirmed its voluntary, secular, and noncriminal nature. This article argues that the "…
From Mythic Saviours to #MeToo at the Indian Supreme Court
The Indian Supreme Court has long enjoyed an almost mythic reputation for progressive and creative jurisprudence, but a series of recent scandals is beginning to erode this well-settled authority. One of the most troubling of these incidents has been an allegation of sexual harassment and intimidation by a Court staffer against then sitting Chief Justice of India (CJI) Ranjan Gogoi. This article draws on media analysis and ethnographic research c…
Disciplinary Deities and How to Please Them
After more than half a century of law and society scholarship, two recent volumes propose to survey and advance the field. Edited by Mariana Valverde, Kamari Clarke, Even Darian-Smith, and Prabha Kotiswaran, The Routledge Handbook of Law and Society (2021) draws on an international list of contributors to refocus law and society scholarship on fresh topics and themes. The Research Handbook on Modern Legal Realism (2021), edited by Shauhin Talesh,…
Autocratic legalism in India
Authoritarianism in Indian State, Law, and Society
While India possesses features conventionally associated with liberal democracies, it has lately been understood to suffer from "democratic backsliding". Commentators have used descriptions like "authoritarianism", "electoral autocracy", "ethnic democracy" and "totalitarianism" to understand the current moment in Indian history. The framework of "autocratic legalism" illuminates the dynamics of centralization of power but there are also elements …
Preface
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content.
Deities’ Rights
A brief commotion arose during the hearings for one of twenty-first-century India’s most widely discussed legal disputes, when a dynamic young attorney suggested that deities, too, had constitutional rights. The suggestion was not absurd. Like a human being or a corporation, Hindu temple deities can participate in litigation, incur financial obligations, and own property. There was nothing to suggest, said the attorney, that the same deity who en…
Postscript
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
What’s Law Got To Do with It
Among law and society fields, legal anthropology has experienced markedly high highs and low lows. Its parent disciplines, law and anthropology, have fluctuated from intense and productive engagement with one another to mutual disregard for each other’s ways of knowing. Most commentary on the trajectory of this interdisciplinary relationship has bemoaned anthropology’s (ir)relevance to legal scholarship, but this introduction and the symposium es…
Cultivating Attentiveness to Law in India through Legal Anthropology
This Article reviews and analyses scholarship at the intersection of anthropology and law. The first half of the Article provides context for understanding the boundaries, animating concerns, and tensions that have characterised the anthropology of law as an area of interdisciplinary inquiry. We focus especially on the subdiscipline’s Anglo-American history and show how a promising early period of engagement dissipated as both anthropologists and…
Introduction
Political science (13 works) · Law (12 works) · Sociology (12 works) · Law (7 works) · Philosophy (7 works) · Politics (7 works) · Hinduism (6 works) · Law in Society and Culture (6 works) · Judicial and Constitutional Studies (5 works) · Religious studies (5 works)