Negotiating Mughal Law

Abstract

Based on a completely reconstructed archive of Persian, Hindi and Marathi documents, Nandini Chatterjee provides a unique micro-history of a family of landlords in Malwa, central India, who flourished in the region from at least the sixteenth until the twentieth century. By exploring their daily interactions with imperial elites as well as villagers and marauders, Chatterjee offers a new history from below of the Mughal Empire, far from the glittering courts of the emperors and nobles, but still dramatic and filled with colourful personalities. From this perspective, we see war, violence, betrayal, enterprise, romance and disappointment, but we also see a quest for law, justice, rights and righteousness. A rare story of Islamic law in a predominantly non-Muslim society, this is also an exploration of the peripheral regions of the Maratha empire and a neglected princely state under British colonial rule. This title is also available as Open Access.

Translating Obligations: Tamassuk and Fārigh-khaṭṭī in the Indo-Persian World

“…Anand Rao Puwar was the Martha sardār reigning in Dhar 1732-6. 48 The kotwāl was in this case playing a broader judicial role that we know the post entailed in the Maratha Empire. 49 In authenticating the record of such a decision, the kamāvīsdārs, once again, were playing roles that were in evidence elsewhere in the Maratha Empire.…”

Merchants of Virtue: Hindus, Muslims, and Untouchables in Eighteenth-Century South Asia

“…It was not just for writing and accounts, as a potdār (treasurer, vernacularization of fotedār) or a muśraf (accountant, vernacularization of mushrif), that Rathor kings hired merchant groups. 80 They also held most of the highest offices in the districts of the Rathor kingdom, called parganās, such as that of governor (hākim) and the many accountant, treasurer, and scribal positions in both central and district bureaucracies. 81 The hākim was responsible for maintaining law and order within the district, which included preventing and punishing crime and banditry as well as dispensing justice in response to social or economic disputes.…”

“…80 They also held most of the highest offices in the districts of the Rathor kingdom, called parganās, such as that of governor (hākim) and the many accountant, treasurer, and scribal positions in both central and district bureaucracies. 81 The hākim was responsible for maintaining law and order within the district, which included preventing and punishing crime and banditry as well as dispensing justice in response to social or economic disputes. The governor was to keep the rajput lords in his domain obedient to the king, making sure they fulfilled their military obligations, passed on the state's share of the revenues they collected, and did not collect unjust amounts from the peasants in their estates.…”

“…Citing the merchant and priestly women's suffering, caused by their inability to fetch water due to the "polluting" presence (bhīṇṭā chuṭī had sudhī rahai or "they remain within the limits [of their quarters] for fear of ritual pollution") of the leatherworkers, mahajan Muhnot Sibhukaran decreed on behalf of the crown that the governor of Bilada should threaten the meghvāls with punishment if they did not contain their festive celebrations to their own quarters in future. 80 So, what do we make of these references to the practice of untouchability in eighteenth-century Marwar? First, these orders and petitions are a unique vantage point into the history of the practice of untouchability in the precolonial past.…”

“…There is a large body of writing on caste and untouchability in ancient and medieval South Asia tracing the origins of and changes in both phenomena. 81 For the early modern period, scholars of bhakti literature-poetry in the voice of such "untouchable" sant-poets such as Ravidas and Chokhamela as well as hagiographies and sectarian literature-have built up a picture of untouchability as an idea and a discourse. 82 These sources, however, leave open-ended the question of how untouchability was practiced in everyday life, which authorities enforced it and to what extent, and what its relationship was to historical changes particularly in early modern South Asia.…”