Custom, Identity, and the Jury in India, 1800–1832

Bibliographic Data

ID8957134
AuthorsJames A Jaffe, James Jaffe (University of Wisconsin–Whitewater, corresponding author)
Year2014
Volume57
Issue1
Pages131-155
Publication date2014-01-29
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe Historical Journal (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0018-246X • E-ISSN: 1469-5103
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0018246x13000435
OpenAlexW2116535994
LanguageEN
Citations received6
References cited17

This article analyses the reception and understanding of the Indian village council (panchayat) among East India Company officials, British politicians, and Indian intellectuals during the first third of the nineteenth century. One of the several ways in which the panchayat was imagined was as an institution analogous to the English jury. As such, the panchayat took on significant meaning, especially for those influenced by the Scottish Orientalist tradition and who were serving in India. The issue became especially salient during the 1820s and 1830s as the jury system was debated and reformed in England. In this context, there was a transnational interplay of both ideas and policies that shaped both Company rule in India as well as the first generation of Indian nationalists

Aesthetics · Archaeology · Art · Context (archaeology · Identity (music · Institution · Jury · Meaning (existential · Orientalism · Political science · Salient · Sociology · Colonialism, slavery, and trade · Historical Economic and Social Studies · History · Law · Law in Society and Culture