"Recovering the individual subject: Affection, emotion and obligation in the transmission of peasant property in Garhwal, 1890-1950" a talk by Dr. Rashmi Pant, Indraprastha College, at Teen Murti House, Teen Murti Marg > 3pm on 28th August 2012
Time : 3:00 pm
Entry : Free (Seating on First-Come First-Served basis)
Place : Seminar Room, Nehru Memorial Museum & Library (NMML), Teen Murti House, Teen Murti Marg, New Delhi
Venue Info : Events | About | Map | Nearest Metro Station - 'Race Course(Yellow Line)'
Event Details : The Nehru Memorial Museum and Library cordially invites you to The Public Lecture on ‘Recovering the individual subject: Affection, emotion and obligation in the transmission of peasant property in Garhwal, 1890-1950’ by Dr.Rashmi Pant, Indraprastha College, University of Delhi.
Abstract : In the last quarter of the nineteenth century, British-Indian jurisprudence developed a co-parcenary framework of property rights at the expense of the individual. Social theorists, jurists and administrators converged in support of collective rights of lineage and community. Specifically, “the will” was said not to exist, either in Hindu Mitakshara or in any form of Customary Law applicable to North India. Basing myself on the study of intestate property transfers by male and female peasants in Garhwal between 1890 and 1950 I will argue against this notion. I will show that peasants in the Garhwal region of North India often transferred property to a designated individual rather than allowing the holding to lapse to the co-parcenary collective. Moreover such transfers were most frequently made to, or through, close female kin, bypassing momentarily, the rule of patrilineal devolution of property.
The exercise of individual freedom was only partly dependant on juridical provisions for sale and partition that were introduced by the colonial government to develop the land market in India. I have found that local customs were in fact relied upon to facilitate such transfers. A local practice that was widely used for example, allowed land to be given in exchange for old age maintenance and performance of funeral rites. Such maintenance agreements originated outside the official realm, although it later became necessary to get such a document registered before a public official.
My analysis criticizes the notion of Custom as a rigid set of unchanging cultural practices that was put into use by officials, lawyers and magistrates in the colonial period. I propose the alternative that custom be seen as a way of mediating and negotiating with structure, than structure itself.
Customary practices could thus be deployed by individuals to indirectly endow kinswomen to whom they owed love, affection and care. They also allowed individuals to set-up or enforce care-giving for their old age in ways that are characteristic of Contract, another phenomenon that Henry Maine famously held, was fundamentally alien to Indian society.
Speaker : Rashmi Pant teaches History at Indraprastha College for Women, Delhi University. Her work critiques the construction of caste, family, village community, and property rights in the colonial period.
Related Events : Talks | History
Entry : Free (Seating on First-Come First-Served basis)
Place : Seminar Room, Nehru Memorial Museum & Library (NMML), Teen Murti House, Teen Murti Marg, New Delhi
Venue Info : Events | About | Map | Nearest Metro Station - 'Race Course(Yellow Line)'
Event Details : The Nehru Memorial Museum and Library cordially invites you to The Public Lecture on ‘Recovering the individual subject: Affection, emotion and obligation in the transmission of peasant property in Garhwal, 1890-1950’ by Dr.Rashmi Pant, Indraprastha College, University of Delhi.
Abstract : In the last quarter of the nineteenth century, British-Indian jurisprudence developed a co-parcenary framework of property rights at the expense of the individual. Social theorists, jurists and administrators converged in support of collective rights of lineage and community. Specifically, “the will” was said not to exist, either in Hindu Mitakshara or in any form of Customary Law applicable to North India. Basing myself on the study of intestate property transfers by male and female peasants in Garhwal between 1890 and 1950 I will argue against this notion. I will show that peasants in the Garhwal region of North India often transferred property to a designated individual rather than allowing the holding to lapse to the co-parcenary collective. Moreover such transfers were most frequently made to, or through, close female kin, bypassing momentarily, the rule of patrilineal devolution of property.
The exercise of individual freedom was only partly dependant on juridical provisions for sale and partition that were introduced by the colonial government to develop the land market in India. I have found that local customs were in fact relied upon to facilitate such transfers. A local practice that was widely used for example, allowed land to be given in exchange for old age maintenance and performance of funeral rites. Such maintenance agreements originated outside the official realm, although it later became necessary to get such a document registered before a public official.
My analysis criticizes the notion of Custom as a rigid set of unchanging cultural practices that was put into use by officials, lawyers and magistrates in the colonial period. I propose the alternative that custom be seen as a way of mediating and negotiating with structure, than structure itself.
Customary practices could thus be deployed by individuals to indirectly endow kinswomen to whom they owed love, affection and care. They also allowed individuals to set-up or enforce care-giving for their old age in ways that are characteristic of Contract, another phenomenon that Henry Maine famously held, was fundamentally alien to Indian society.
Speaker : Rashmi Pant teaches History at Indraprastha College for Women, Delhi University. Her work critiques the construction of caste, family, village community, and property rights in the colonial period.
Related Events : Talks | History
"Recovering the individual subject: Affection, emotion and obligation in the transmission of peasant property in Garhwal, 1890-1950" a talk by Dr. Rashmi Pant, Indraprastha College, at Teen Murti House, Teen Murti Marg > 3pm on 28th August 2012
!["Recovering the individual subject: Affection, emotion and obligation in the transmission of peasant property in Garhwal, 1890-1950" a talk by Dr. Rashmi Pant, Indraprastha College, at Teen Murti House, Teen Murti Marg > 3pm on 28th August 2012]()
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Tuesday, August 28, 2012
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