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STEPHENS “This book is nothing less than a landmark in its lucid, subtle, and persuasive arguments about the transformation JULIA STEPHENS of Islamic law in its encounter with colonial legal discourses and institutions. Basing herself on an archive of extraordinary breadth, Stephens revises old assumptions about Muslim law and about the consequences of colonial governance at every Governing Islam turn. This analysis of the past illuminates a present in urgent Governing Islam Governing need of fresh understanding.” K Law, Empire, and Y Barbara D. Metcalf, University of California, Davis M C “Governing Islam is a masterful and compelling book that Secularism in South Asia PPC explores modern South Asia’s Muslim legal history through ideas about religion, economy, gender, custom, colonialism, and socialism. Using primary sources in multiple languages, Julia Stephens reveals the many layers of law for Muslims. The result is simply superb – a fascinating portrait of vernacular, colonial, and post-colonial legal cultures, all intertwined and with plenty of intriguing twists.” GOVERNING ISLAM – Mitra Sharafi, University of Wisconsin Law School “A major work of scholarship that brings together the history of law, religion, and family in British India to tell the story of STEPHENS South Asian secularism. Erudite and sophisticated in tone, this is a much-needed monograph at a time when the idea of secular India faces its gravest threat.” Seema Alavi, Professor of History, Delhi University 9781107173910 Cover illustration: Bangladesh Lady Justice, courtesy of Associated Press/ A.M. Ahad Cover designed by Hart McLeod Ltd i Governing Islam Governing Islam traces the colonial roots of contemporary struggles between Islam and secularism in India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. The book uncovers the paradoxical workings of colonial laws that promised to separate secular and religious spheres, but instead fostered their vexed entanglement. It shows how religious laws governing families became embroiled with secular laws governing markets, and how calls to pro- tect religious liberties clashed with freedom of the press. By following these interactions Stephens asks us to reconsider where law is and what it is. Her narrative weaves between state courts, Islamic fatwas on ritual performance, and intimate marital disputes to reveal how deeply law penetrates everyday life. In her hands law also serves many masters – from British off cials to Islamic jurists to aggrieved Muslim wives. The resulting study shows how the neglected f eld of Muslim law in South Asia is essential to understanding current crises in global secularism. Julia Stephens is Assistant Professor in the Department of History at Rutgers University, New Brunswick. Her research and teaching span the f elds of modern South Asian history, law, Islam, colonialism, and gender. Her writings have appeared in History Workshop Journal, Law and History Review , Modern Asian Studies , and Journal of British History. 99781107173910_pi-210.indd781107173910_pi-210.indd i 331-Mar-181-Mar-18 112:24:512:24:51 PPMM iii Governing Islam Law, Empire, and Secularism in South Asia Julia Stephens Rutgers University, New Jersey 99781107173910_pi-210.indd781107173910_pi-210.indd iiiiii 331-Mar-181-Mar-18 112:24:512:24:51 PPMM iv University Printing House, Cambridge CB2 8BS, United Kingdom One Liberty Plaza, 20th Floor, New York, NY 10006, USA 477 Williamstown Road, Port Melbourne, VIC 3207, Australia 314– 321, 3rd Floor, Plot 3, Splendor Forum, Jasola District Centre, New Delhi – 110025, India 79 Anson Road, #06- 04/ 06, Singapore 079906 Cambridge University Press is part of the University of Cambridge. It furthers the University’s mission by disseminating knowledge in the pursuit of education, learning, and research at the highest international levels of excellence. www.cambridge.org Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/ 9781107173910 DOI: 10.1017/ 9781316795477 © Julia Stephens 2018 This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. First published 2018 Printed in the United Kingdom by Clays, St Ives plc A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library . Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data Names: Stephens, Julia Anne Title: Governing Islam : law, empire, and secularism in south Asia / Julia Stephens, Rutgers University, New Jersey. Description: Cambridge, United Kingdom ; New York, NY : Cambridge University Press, 2018. | Based on author’s thesis (doctoral - Harvard University, 2013) issued under title: Governing Islam : law and religion in colonial India. | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identif ers: LCCN 2018002368 | ISBN 9781107173910 (hardback) Subjects: LCSH: Muslims – Legal status, laws, etc. – India – History – 19th century. | Muslims – Legal status, laws, etc. – India – History – 20th century. | Law – India – Islamic inf uences – History – 19th century. | Law – India – Islamic inf uences – History – 20th century. | India – History – British occupation, 1765–1947. Classif cation: LCC KNS2107.M56 S84 2018 | DDC 342.5408/529700904–dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018002368 ISBN 978- 1- 107- 17391- 0 Hardback ISBN 978- 1- 316- 62628- 3 Paperback Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external or third- party internet websites referred to in this publication and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate. 99781107173910_pi-210.indd781107173910_pi-210.indd iivv 331-Mar-181-Mar-18 112:24:522:24:52 PPMM vii Contents List of Maps and Figures page viii Acknowledgments ix Note on Translation, Transliteration, and Abbreviations xiii Introduction 1 1 Forging Secular Legal Governance 22 2 Personal Law and the Problem of Marital Property 57 3 Taming Custom 86 4 Ritual and the Authority of Reason 105 5 Pathologizing Muslim Sentiment 132 6 Islamic Economy: A Forgone Alternative 155 Conclusion 184 Select Bibliography 191 Index 211 vii 99781107173910_pi-210.indd781107173910_pi-210.indd vviiii 331-Mar-181-Mar-18 112:24:522:24:52 PPMM 1 Introduction In 1995, a group of veiled Muslim women took to the streets carrying market scales to protest the Indian government’s failure to protect Muslim minorities (see Figure 1 ).1 The immediate context was the third anniversary of Hindu extremists tearing down the Babri Masjid, a Mughal-era mosque. Yet the women’s protest brought into a common frame two seemingly timeless and powerful symbols – scales of justice and veils. Scales of justice convey the neutrality of secular law.2 As tools of commercial calculation, scales are also associated with the economy. The protesters’ veils, in contrast, suggest Muslim piety, traditional gender roles, and communal identity. By linking Islamic veils and market scales to secular justice, these women brought into dialogue ethical discourses – about culture and economy, religion and secular law – that are often kept apart and f gured as oppositional. The women’s protest was so striking because it ran against the current of contemporary coverage, which typically portrays Muslim religiosity as a barrier to secular law. These sentiments were fueled by a series of legal controversies in the 1980s, including the passage of the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Divorce) Act and the ban on Salman Rushdie’s Satanic Verses . A review of the editorial pages of the Times of India, India’s largest English- language daily, provides a snapshot of how coverage of these events opposed Islam and secularism. In 1986 the ominous title 1 “Liberhan Report on Babri Demolition,” photo 7 of 7, NDTV.com , accessed April 7, 2015, www.ndtv.com/ photos/ news/ liberhan- report- on- babri- demolition- 1039/ slide/ 7 . The use of the common balance to invoke symbolic scales of justice has reappeared as a trope in protests marking the anniversary of the destruction of the Babri Masjid. For images of this practice in other protests, see “India in Pictures,” image 6 of 9, The Wall Street Journal , December 7, 2011, accessed April 7, 2015, www.wsj.com/ articles/SB10 001424052970204770404577083283971161516 ; “Revisiting Ayodhya,” image 8 of 14, Hindustan Times , December 6, 2012, accessed April 7, 2015, www. hindustantimes.com/ photos/ india/ ayodhya/ Article4- 969382.aspx . 2 Of course scales of justice also have been associated with images of divine justice, but today are more likely to evoke secular imaginaries. Dennis E. Curtis and Judith Resnik, “Images of Justice,” The Yale Law Journal 96, no. 8 (July 1, 1987): 1727– 72. 1 99781107173910_pi-210.indd781107173910_pi-210.indd 1 331-Mar-181-Mar-18 112:24:522:24:52 PPMM 2 2 Introduction Figure 1. On December 6, 1995 in New Delhi Muslim women carried scales of justice to demand compensation for the victims of the riots that occurred after the destruction of the Babri Masjid in 1992. Photograph courtesy of Doug Curran and Getty Images. of an editorial warned: “After the Muslim Bill: The Secular State in Peril.” 3 In another article Girilal Jain, the editor of the Times of India from 1978 to 1988, lamented: “The reality … is that liberalism does not command too many customers among the more articulate Muslims, with the result that fanatics manage to carry the community with them.” 4 The destruction of the Babri Masjid by a crowd of Hindu activists in