Journal Of South Asian Studies

In South Asia, as elsewhere, the category of ‘the public’ has come under increased scholarly and popular scrutiny in recent years. To better understand this current conjuncture, we need a fuller understanding of the specifically South Asian history of the term. To that end, this book surveys the modern Indian ‘public’ across multiple historical contexts and sites, with contributions from leading scholars of South Asia in anthropology, history, literary studies and religious studies. As a whole, this volume highlights the complex genealogies of the public in the Indian subcontinent during the colonial and postcolonial eras, showing in particular how British notions of ‘the public’ intersected with South Asian forms of publicity. Two principal methods or approaches—the genealogical and the typological—have characterised this scholarship. This book suggests, more in the mode of genealogy, that the category of the public has been closely linked to the sub-continental history of political liberalism. Also discussed is how the studies collected in this volume challenge some of liberalism’s key presuppositions about the public and its relationship to law and religion.

This book surveys the treaty practice of Asian States. It undertakes a study of nine prominent Asian States, namely Bangladesh, India, Japan, Malaysia, Nepal, People’s Republic of China, Republic of Korea, Sri Lanka and The Philippines. One chapter each deals with the treaty practice of these States by reflecting on the theoretical foundations of treaty practice at the domestic level, including a query whether the State follows the theory of monism or dualism or a mix of these two; the relationship between treaties and the Constitution; the relationship between treaties and legislation; and the relationship between treaties and domestic customary law, if any. The chapters also review the participation of the respective States in the drafting of the 1969 Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties (VCLT); position on and reservations to the VCLT; and reference of the VCLT in the treaties concluded by the States. Other aspects covered in chapters include constitutional provisions relating to treaties; domestic law, if any (for example, Nepal has a legislation on treaties); ratification process and practice; judicial practice, covering case law at the domestic level; the position of the State on the interpretation of treaties; and mechanism for the implementation of treaties at the domestic level, if any. The chapters identify leading cases, if any, relating to treaties to which the State was a party before international courts/tribunals. It deals with treaty compliance issues, including response to alleged violations of treaties; termination of treaties, if any; response to termination, if any; and participation in treaty bodies. It provides a panorama of treaties, to which the State is a party, as well as the most conspicuous treaties to which the State is not a party and the reasons thereof. The concluding chapter contains some general observations on Asian treaty practice.

What is land and how is it made? In this path-breaking study of sites in western, eastern, and southern India, Nikita Sud argues that land is not simply the solid surface of the earth. It is best understood as a materially and conceptually dynamic realm, intimately tied to the social. As such, land transitions across porous registers of territory, property, authority, the sacred, history and memory, and contested access and exclusion. While states, markets, and politics in post-liberalization India try to make land suitable for 'growth' and 'development', the relationship between the soil and institutions is never straightforward. A state attempting to order a layered topography is frequently stretched into shadowy domains of informality and unsanctioned practices. A market may be advanced, but remains precariously embedded in sociality. Politics could challenge the land-making of the state and markets. It may also effect compromises. Attempts at constructing a durable landed order thus reveal our own (dis)orders. In attempting to 'make' the land, Sud's intriguing study shows how the land simultaneously 'makes' us.

A ground-breaking exploration of exile and diaspora as they relate to place, language, religious tradition, literature and the imagination.

Explores the ways linguistic nationalism has enabled and deepened the reach of All-India nationalism. This title is also available as Open Access.