Autorentext
Julia Stephens is Assistant Professor in the Department of History at Rutgers University, New Jersey. Her research and teaching span the fields 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 the Journal of British History.

Klappentext

Stephens argues that encounters between Islam and British colonial rule in South Asia were fundamental to the evolution of modern secularism.

Zusammenfassung
Tracing the roots of contemporary debates about Islam, law, and secularism to colonial patterns of legal development, Julia Stephens reveals how contradictions within secular governance have led to persistent instabilities in the evolution of Islamic legal institutions in modern South Asia.

Inhalt

List of maps and figures; Acknowledgments; Note on translation, transliteration, and abbreviations; Introduction; 1. Forging secular legal governance; 2. Personal law and the problem of marital property; 3. Taming custom; 4. Ritual and the authority of reason; 5. Pathologizing Muslim sentiment; 6. Islamic economy - a forgone alternative; Conclusion; Select bibliography; Index.