“[An] erudite debut. . . . The meticulous regard for quotidian processes and overlooked cases makes for an intimate study of the sometimes befuddling world of Islamic law in British India. Scholars will find this a detailed and nuanced chronicle.”
—Publishers Weekly
“A unique contribution that demonstrates the author’s dexterity in Islamic and South Asian studies.”
—Reading Religion
“Everyday Islamic Law and the Making of Modern South Asia is an impressive accomplishment for its breadth and specificity. It would be a mandatory addition to graduate courses on South Asia, Islam, and religion. . . . By foregrounding the small questions that have big impacts in people’s lives—and that fascinated the British imperial powers—Lhost is able to capture how a system of authority both changed and remains.”
—American Historical Review
“Opening a window on a virtually unexplored domain, Elizabeth Lhost foregrounds lawmaking in South Asian Islam as a process, providing a diachronic view of how the relationship between Muslim judges and the British state developed throughout the colonial period. Lhost also gives readers an unprecedented glimpse into the everyday lives of litigants, especially women, who attempted to use the law to better their lives. A landmark study of Islamic law in any time or period.”
—Brannon Ingram, Northwestern University
“Elizabeth Lhost draws on a remarkable and largely unexplored collection of archives, many of which require rare skill sets to interpret. The result is a lively, bottom-up perspective on everyday legal encounters. For historians and legal scholars alike, this book enriches our understanding of the ongoing importance of non-state legal forums and their complex interfaces with state courts and legislation.”
—Julia Stephens, Rutgers University
“Elizabeth Lhost has explored the evolution of everyday Islamic law and its contribution to the making of modern South Asia. She rubbishes the common understanding that Islamic law was stagnant and it went into decay under the British, and shows how a group of scholars, practitioners, and ordinary individuals resisted the colonial masters in their efforts to control it. Lhost defines everyday Islamic law as ‘a cluster of overlapping and intersecting practices that developed across the nineteenth century in response to the challenges of foreign rule, in conjunction with the rise of technological modernity, and alongside the shrinking of time and space that accompanied the expansion of steam navigation and print communication’ (p. 3). She looks at how the modern state and its administrative system evolved and how it had a bearing on the understanding of ordinary folks about law and its effects on their day-to-day lives.This extensively researched volume draws upon the collections in Bharuch and Meerut of two families of qazis (judges in Islamic legal frameworks) whose lives and work spanned the precolonial, colonial and postcolonial periods. In addition, files of dar-ul-ifta (it was an institution that issued Islamic fatwas [rulings] on a case-by-case basis), postcards, pamphlets, telegrams and printed stationery. All of these, she explains, contributed significantly to the definition of everyday Islamic law in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Lhost has tried to understand law as an evolutionary process rather than a finished product. She argues that this development in South Asia had global impact and it even informed Muslim diasporas in the West.Islamic legal practitioners learnt documentation from the British, although they resisted attempts at control. Lhost discusses extensively how qazis addressed legal questions in new, public sites—like newspapers and magazines. New technologies of communication and printing and their employment by the Muslim religious institutions were significant in the evolution of everyday Islamic law.The book is structured in three parts titled ‘Professionals’, ‘Paperwork’ and ‘Possibilities’. The first two parts follow the development of Islamic legal authorities and institutions by examining the modus operandi of individual qazis and muftis. With the British authorities expanding their bureaucratic control, new conflicts over jurisdiction arose. Part three explores the consequences of these changes on the structure and practice of Islamic law. It had a bearing on the lookout of ordinary Muslims vis-à-vis Islamic legal institutions and state courts. The author maintains that ‘those practices continue to define and contribute to the making of law, state and society in modern South Asia’ (p. 248). The book begins with a short ‘Interlude’ that talks about important legislative enactments that shaped Islamic law under colonial rule: the 1772 Hastings Plan; the Queen’s Proclamation of 1858; and the Shariat Application Act of 1937.The 1772 plan for the administration of justice in India laid the ground for separate personal laws for Muslims and Hindus. ‘The plan’s textual essentialism excised Islam’s lived discursive traditions from religio-legal life’ (p. 27). Moreover, by limiting Islamic law to personal matters, it ignored its holistic nature and also the wide array of sources and methods for determining law. This plan not only brought dispute resolution under the regulation of the state-controlled legal system, but also shut out other means and locations of dispute settlement. The book traces how incrementally the British authorities tried to erode the powers and jurisdiction of the qazis as a consequence of this plan.The Proclamation of 1858 symbolically divided religion and politics, although, in practice, British India did not become a secular state. However, it made religion a space for cultural, social and legal autonomy which had implications for South Asia in the postcolonial period.The Shariat Application Act of 1937 accepted shari’a (divine guidance) as personal law and used the mechanism of the state law to make shari’a the source of that law. It brought state law and shari’a closer, but it created more complications at the operational level. It claimed to restore shari’a and to liberate Muslims from customs; however, it provided no safeguards that would ensure or protect the interpretation of shari’a. Lhost concludes that ‘the path to a better Muslim life lies not in statutory enactments and legislative proposals but in religious autonomy and exemptions from secular state law …. (p. 245).The book documents how colonial legal life was shaped mainly by the efforts of qazis and ordinary Muslims, who contributed in making Islamic law relevant for everyday life, even beyond colonial courtrooms and the boundaries of family law. When the British tried to reorder the relationship between law, society, and the state in South Asia, the professionals together with ordinary people fought back, as the colonial system in India put aside Islamic legal experts. They battled the colonial state’s authority over personal law and rejected legal codification. By weaving everyday life stories in the narrative, Lhost shows how ordinary Muslims worked together to put up this challenge.After conquering South Asia in the 19th century, the British decided to retain precolonial personnel, like qazis, while designing structures to meet their requirements. In 1864, however, Act XI abolished the position of qazi, as they were considered superfluous. This led to operational difficulties in Muslim legal practices and the British were forced to re-establish this position a decade later. However, now the legal powers associated with this position were drastically reduced and they were mainly tasked with registering marriages. All other legal matters were to be dealt with in the courts of law.Nevertheless, for ordinary Muslims, law and religion were intensely entangled. Hence, owing to the practical exigencies, which forced ordinary Muslims to come to them, the muftis, qazis and dar-ul-iftas were able to expand their influence to domains that officially fell under the authority of the colonial state. Consequentially, Islamic law became a legal system which was community-determined and not controlled by the colonial state.Ordinary Muslims reached out to Islamic scholars with their questions about almost everything related to their daily lives. They wanted to know how far their practices were consistent with Islamic principles. It was the task of muftis to research upon them and respond. These fatawas were documented for future reference. This practice was quite convenient, free of cost and satisfying for ordinary Muslims. By participating in this process, ordinary folks, albeit inadvertently, became contributors to the formation of everyday Islamic day. Such a practice continues in India even today.Jurisdictional tension between secular courts and Islamic law grew for want of codification. It intensified with the expanding jurisdiction of muftis, who earlier limited their guidance on the issue itself and how far it was Islamic, but in the second half of the 19th century, responding to popular demand, began advising people on how to pursue their legal cases and settle disputes, not only outside the courtroom, but also within it.This volume is not only an important study of the legal process in colonial India, but it has led to a richer and more nuanced appreciation of the state-society exchanges in colonial India, and the social communication that was so vital to the creation of modern South Asia. It brings forth the evolution of legal pluralism from the 18th to early 20th century in India, through an investigation of the everyday lives of Muslims. The book’s strength lies in the strong empirical basis upon which the arguments stand.”
—Mirza Asmer Beg is Professor, Department of Political Science, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh.