Race, Religion and Law in Colonial India

Trials of an Interracial Family

Bibliographic Data

ID19913660
AuthorsChandra Mallampalli (0009-0002-0616-3532, Westmont College, corresponding author)
Year2011
Publication date2011-11-21
Open AccessYes
TypeBOOK
VenueRace, Religion and Law in Colonial India (SOURCE_BOOK)
PublisherCambridge University Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1017/cbo9780511998416
OpenAlexW4255751574
ISBN9780511998416
Open LibraryOL25149658M
LanguageEN
Citations received14

How did British rule in India transform persons from lower social classes? Could Indians from such classes rise in the world by marrying Europeans and embracing their religion and customs? This book explores such questions by examining the intriguing story of an interracial family who lived in southern India in the mid-nineteenth century. The family, which consisted of two untouchable brothers, both of whom married Eurasian women, became wealthy as distillers in the local community. A family dispute resulted in a landmark court case, Abraham v. Abraham. Chandra Mallampalli uses this case to examine the lives of those involved, and shows that far from being products of a 'civilizing mission' who embraced the ways of Englishmen, the Abrahams were ultimately - when faced with the strictures of the colonial legal system - obliged to contend with hierarchy and racial difference

Colonial rule · Colonialism · Genealogy · Hierarchy · Political science · Race (biology) · Sociology · Colonialism, slavery, and trade · Gender Studies · History · Law · 19th century · Bellary (District) · Bellary (India : District) · India · Inheritance and succession · LAW · Legal polycentricity · Matthew Abraham (d.1842) · Social conditions · Trials, litigation

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