Contours of Legal History in India | NLSIU-MPI (LHLT) Conference
NLSIU Bengaluru
Thursday, March 27, 2025
The National law School of India University (NLSIU) and Max Planck Institute for Legal History and Legal Theory are organising a conference on Contours of Legal History in India from March 27 to 28, 2025.
About the Conference
Emerging research on legal history in India has emphasised upon the dynamic life of law, going beyond its doctrinal imperatives, and highlighting histories of petitioners, lawyers, and litigants both in the courtrooms and outside it. Legal historical research includes new archives and methodologies for rethinking the relationship of law with society – that is, between the normative imaginings rooted in the realm of ideas and intellectual legacies and the everyday experiences of law rooted in mundane operations. Contours of Legal History in India: Pedagogy and Research is the first workshop co-organised by the Max Planck Institute for Legal History and Legal Theory, Frankfurt (Germany) and National Law School of India University, Bengaluru (India) that will bring together researchers, scholars, and students to discuss the new imperatives in the field of legal history in India. In the recent clamour to “decolonise”, pre-colonial pasts have often been rendered timeless, while the postcolonial moment has been interpreted as a replica of a “monolithic colonial”. How do we analyse the colonial genealogies of law in contemporary India? What about the precolonial iterations of law in the modern? What are the intersections of historical and legal methodologies and sources? What constitutes legal history in India? How does research intervene in, instruct, create pedagogical practices in both law and history?
Aim of the Conference
The aim of the 2-day conference is to bring together diverse groups of scholars and researchers, across ranks and specialisations. Our interest is in creating opportunities for conversations around legal history research in India and the world. One of the key highlights of our 2-day event are the early career researcher writing workshops through which we facilitate mentorship opportunities for scholars located in India. Our plenaries and roundtables create opportunities for conversations around historiography of legal history in South Asia, legal history pedagogies, and new approaches towards studying the embeddedness of law in history, society, and politics. The workshop is a step towards connecting communities of legal historians across the world in order to facilitate future projects that will enrich our knowledge of legal history in the global south, particularly India.
Schedule
9:00 AM
Registration
9:30-10:30 AM | Training Center, Ground Floor
Welcome Note – Dr. Kena Wani, Assistant Professor, National Law School of India University
Welcome Address – Prof. (Dr.) Sudhir Krishnaswamy, Vice Chancellor, National Law School of India University, Bengaluru
Introductory Address – Prof. Stefan Vogenauer, Director, Max Planck Institute of Legal History and Legal Theory (mpilhlt), Frankfurt, Germany
10:15-10:30 AM
Refreshments
10:30 AM-12:00 PM | Training Center, Ground Floor
PANEL 1: COLONIAL HISTORIES AND LEGAL ARCHIVES
Chair: Gitanjali Surendran (Professor, O.P. Jindal Global University)
Speakers :
Tanika Sarkar (Retd. Professor, Jawaharlal Nehru University)
Radhika Singha (Retd. Professor, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Visiting Professor, Shiv Nadar University)
Aparna Balachandran (Assistant Professor, University of Delhi)
12:00 PM-1:30 PM
Lunch
1:30-3:30 PM | Training Center, Ground Floor
PANEL 2: PRE-MODERN PASTS IN SOUTH ASIAN LEGAL HISTORY
Chair: Samyak Ghosh (Assistant Professor, NLSIU)
Speakers:
Rachel Verghese (Assistant Professor, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay)
Nandini Chatterjee (Professor, University of Oxford)
Farhat Hasan (Professor, University of Delhi)
Robert Travers (Professor, Cornell University)
3:30-4:00 PM
Refreshments
4:00-5:30 PM | NAB 201
Keynote: Professor Mitra Sharafi (University of Wisconsin-Madison)
Title: Fear of the False: Forensic Science and the Law of Crime in Colonial South Asia
6:00 PM
Dinner
9:00-10:30 AM | Training Center, Ground Floor
PANEL 3: LAW IN THE MARGINS
Chair: Aparna Balachandra (Assistant Professor, Delhi University)
Speakers:
Rohit De (Associate Professor, Yale University)
V. Geetha (Independent Researcher and Activist)
Reeju Ray (Researcher Max Planck Institute of Legal History and Legal Theory, and Associate Professor O.P.Jindal Global University On Leave)
10:30-11:00 AM
Refreshments
11:00 AM-12:30 PM | Training Center, Ground Floor
PANEL 4: LAW IN PRACTICE
Chair: Sophy KJ (Associate Professor, National Law University Delhi)
Speakers:
Jinee Lokanita (Professor, Drew University)
Rahela Khorakiwala (Assistant Professor, BITS Law School)
Arvind Narrain (Visiting Faculty, NLSIU)
12:30-1:30 PM
Lunch Break
1:30 PM – 4:30 PM | CRL01 & CRL11 (Library Basement)
WRITING WORKSHOPS
GROUP 1
Moderator: Reeju Ray
Co-authors: Ishita Ghosh (Academic Fellow NLSIU) and Vijay Kishore Tiwari (Assistant Professor NUJS)
Paper title: ‘From Testimonial Erasure to Valorizing Able-Nationalism: Mapping Indian Republic’s Social Contract with Disabled’
Author: Chunthailiu Gonmei (PhD Scholar, NALSAR Hyderabad)
Paper Title: ‘Scheduled Areas: A Colonial Legacy?’
Author: Angbin Yasmin (Assistant Professor of History at Hamdard Institute of Legal Studies & Research New Delhi)
Paper Title: ‘The Question of Legal Personhood and Women during Medieval India’
Author: Mayuri Patankar (PhD Scholar, National Law University Meghalaya)
Paper Title: ‘Religious Sovereignty: The Intersections of Gond Cosmology and Legal Frameworks
Author: Jigyasa Meena (Assistant Professor at the Department of History and Culture, University of Rajasthan)
Paper Title: ‘British Paramountcy and Negotiated Sovereignty: The International Courts of Vakils in Colonial Rajputana’
GROUP 2
Moderator: Matilde Cazzola (Fixed Term University of Bologna, Affiliate Researcher mpilhlt)
Author: Anushka Roy (PhD Research Scholar Indian Institute of Technology Delhi)
Paper Title: ‘The Missing Corpse and Coroner’s Inquest : Tracing the Development of Medico-legal Death Investigation System and its Public Perception in the 19th century Colonial India’
Author: Ragini Surana (PhD Researcher, mpilhlt)
Paper Title: ‘Restitution and Illegality’
Author: P Arun (Post Doctoral Researcher, Harvard University)
Paper Title: ‘From Telegraph Law to Telecommunications Law: The History of Communications Surveillance in India’
Author: Jadumani Mahanand (Assistant Professor, O.P. Jindal Global University)
Paper Title: ‘Justice as a Method of Inquiry in Ambedkar’s Critique of Caste as Law in the Pursuit of Transformative Constitutionalism’
Author: Vivek ND (PhD Scholar, University of Hyderabad)
Paper Title: ‘Law as Science: The Epidemic Diseases Act (1897) and the Politics behind the Science’
Author: T.H. Vishnu (PhD Candidate, NALSAR Hyderabad)
Paper Title: ‘State, Market, and Penal Control in Post-Colonial Company Law in India, 1947-1979’
4:30-5:00 PM
Refreshments
5:00-6:30 PM | Training Center, Ground Floor
Roundtable on Legal History in the Classroom
Moderator: Megha Sharma, (Assistant Professor, NLSIU)
Sophy KJ (Associate Professor, National Law University Delhi)
Aparna Balachandran (Assistant Professor, University of Delhi)
Stefan Vogenauer (Director, mpilhlt)
Gitanjali Surendran (Professor, O.P.Jindal Global University)
Srijan Mandal (Assistant Professor, NALSAR Hyderabad)
Closing Remarks:
Anwesha Ghosh (Assistant Professor NLSIU)
Samyak Ghosh (Assistant Professor NLSIU)