Table Of Content‘Routledge Readings on Law and Social Justice will be of immense use
to anyone whose study relates to social justice and public policy. Over
seven decades after the Constitution came into force the community of
transgenders, the sex workers, adivasis, women, children, the scheduled
castes and tribes, are yet to realise their rights and live with fundamental
human dignity. This volume compels practitioners and students of law
to engage with these issues. Not dealing with rights in an abstract way,
it engages with them in very practical terms, which is what we need if
Constitutional rights are to be realised.’
V.S. Elizabeth, Tamil Nadu National Law University, Trichy, India
‘Routledge Readings on Law and Social Justice is an important and much
needed collection of rich, textured, critical and updated articles on most
significant themes in law. The narratives of marginalities, rights, justice and
the legal systems emerge in a seamless flow. While each section is distinct,
the continuity among them is very well brought out. This volume is ideal as
a ready reckoner on important issues in law and justice in India.’
Ruchira Goswami, West Bengal National University of Juridical
Sciences, Kolkata, India
‘Routledge Readings on Law and Social Justice offers comprehensive
resource material for those interested in contemporary politico- legal
scholarship. The contested sites of the constitution, courts, prisons, land
or complex processes of migration, trafficking, or geographical indications
and their entanglements are covered in this volume, which makes it a
compelling read for any student of law, socio-l egal studies, legal historian
or practitioner of law. This volume foregrounds the politics and plural lives
of/ in law and becomes an essential reading for everyone who takes law,
marginality and violence seriously. It will be of extraordinary interest to
legal scholars and practitioners.’
Rukmini Sen, Dr. B.R. Ambedkar University Delhi, India
Routledge Readings on Law
and Social Justice
Routledge Readings on Law and Social Justice: Dispossessions, Marginalities,
Rights presents some of the finest essays on social justice, rights and public
policy. With a lucid new Introduction, it covers a vast range of issues and
offers a compelling guide to understanding law and socio- legal studies in
South Asia. The book covers critical themes such as the jurisprudence of
rights, justice, dignity, with a focus on the regimes of patriarchy, labour
and dispossession. The fourteen chapters in the volume, divided into three
sections, examine contested sites of the constitution, courts, prisons, land
and complex processes of migration, trafficking, digital technology regimes,
geographical indications and their entanglements. This multidisciplinary
volume foregrounds the politics and plural lives of/ in law by including
perspectives from major authors who have contributed to the academic
and/ or policy discourse of the subject.
This book will be useful to students, scholars, policymakers and
practitioners interested in a nuanced understanding of law, especially those
studying law, marginality and violence. It will serve as essential reading for
those in law, socio-l egal studies, legal history, South Asian studies, human
rights, jurisprudence and constitutional studies, gender studies, history, pol-
itics, conflict and peace studies, sociology and social anthropology. It will
also appeal to legal historians and practitioners of law, and those in public
administration, development studies, environmental studies, migration
studies, cultural studies, labour studies and economics.
Kalpana Kannabiran, is a sociologist and legal scholar, and is
Distinguished Professor at the Council for Social Development. Among
her book publications are Tools of Justice: Non- Discrimination and
the Indian Constitution (2012), Gender Regimes and the Politics of
Privacy: A Feminist Re-R eading of Puttaswamy vs. Union of India (2021),
Law, Justice and Human Rights in India: Short Reflections (2021) and
the edited volumes Violence Studies (2016) and Re- Presenting Feminist
Methodologies: Interdisciplinary Explorations (2017). Based in Hyderabad,
India, she was formerly Professor and Director at the Council for Social
Development, Southern Regional Centre, has taught at NALSAR University
of Law, and is co-f ounder of Asmita Resource Centre for Women. She is a
recipient of the VKRV Rao Prize for Social Science Research (2003) and the
Amartya Sen Award for Distinguished Social Scientists (2012), both for her
work in the field of law.
Routledge Readings
The Routledge Readings series brings together a cluster of key readings
into a single volume which capture important research directions, policy
suggestions, current trends and aspects of history and future trajectories
in the humanities and social sciences. The volumes in the series feature the
diversity of scholarship by presenting a selection of articles by experts in
their fields organized around key themes in academic disciplines and profes-
sional fields, including law, politics, international relations, regional studies,
sociology and development studies. These will provide a useful resource
for a range of subjects in the social sciences and humanities by offering a
selection of readings on a variety of issues related to theoretical and applied
research. These multidisciplinary readers include important contributions
to the respective disciplines, focusing on the key topics encountered by
undergraduates, postgraduates and scholars in social sciences and human-
ities. Each reader contains a detailed general introduction and sections
prepared by the volume editor to place the selections in context, illustrate
relations among topics, indicate developments, and point readers towards
related bibliographic material.
Key Features
• Accessible, reader- friendly volumes containing 12–1 5 selections on
contemporary and classic themes divided into sections.
• A new comprehensive Introduction with relevant sections describing
the nature and purpose of the reader while placing the readings in
context designed to aid understanding.
• Topical studies that bring together expert analyses and emerging
research in the discipline, combining a rich diversity of theoret-
ical approaches and perspectives, analytical strategies, case studies,
empirical data and policy suggestions.
• Comprehensive subject guides that will prove invaluable for
scholars, researchers, and policymakers.
Routledge Readings on Law and Social Justice
Dispossessions, Marginalities, Rights
Edited by Kalpana Kannabiran
Routledge Readings on Law, Development and Legal Pluralism
Ecology, Families, Governance
Edited by Kalpana Kannabiran
Routledge Readings on Colonial to Contemporary Northeastern India
Customary Practices, Gender and Livelihoods
Edited by Sumi Krishna
Routledge Readings on Security and Governance in Northeastern India
Resource Conflicts, Militarisation and Development
Edited by Sumi Krishna
For more information about this series, please visit:
www.routledge.com/ Routledge- Readings/ book- series/ RRE
Routledge Readings on Law
and Social Justice
Dispossessions, Marginalities, Rights
Edited by
Kalpana Kannabiran
First published 2022
by Routledge
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and by Routledge
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© 2022 selection and editorial matter, Kalpana Kannabiran; individual
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British Library Cataloguing- in- Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
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A catalog record has been requested for this book
ISBN: 978-1-03-226927-6 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-03-229012-6 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-00-329955-4 (ebk)
DOI: 10.4324/ 9781003299554
Typeset in Sabon LT Std
by Newgen Publishing UK
Contents
List of Contributors xi
Acknowledgements xiii
Introduction: Exploring the Contours of Interdisciplinary Law 1
Kalpana Kannabiran
PART I
Colonialism, Insurgency, Exodus, and the Constitution 37
1 Law and Terror in the Age of Constitution- Making 39
Ranabir Samaddar
2 The Gandhian Conception of the Constitution 65
Narendra Chapalgaonkar
3 On the Fringe: The Tribal Laws 81
Partha S. Ghosh
4 Law, Rights, and Public Policy 104
Andrea Monti and Raymond Wacks
PART II
Gendered Habitations of Precarity 137
5 The Trajectories of Work, Sexuality and Citizenship:
The Rights of the Transgender in India 139
Skylab Sahu
6 ‘Vimla to Pagal Hai!’ [Vimla is a Lunatic!] 151
Rani Dhavan Shankardass
