International Workshop: Religion and the Courts in India and South Asia

Priest & Village Head with Lawyer. Shimla, 2012, D.Berti

The ANR Programme “Just-India” (Justice and Governance in Contemporary India and South Asia – http://www.just-india.net), supported by the Centre for Himalayan Studies, organizes a two day international workshop in Paris on June 18-19, 2012, for debating about how Courts in South Asia deal with religion, in practice.

In the case of India, the Constitution provides the framework for total secularism; however, it is not without some contradictions inherited from the nation’s history, and the state is directly involved in various ways in the direct administration of different religious institutions. Moreover, the Constitution recognizes a plurality of personal codes, according to religious affiliation. By focusing on the courts’ action and decisions, on the arguments, on the vocabulary in which they are couched, on the legal strategies used by the parties concerned and by the Court, on pressure from society, on the social and political stakes involved in the decisions, or on the long-term consequences of rulings, the aim of this workshop is to reach a more comprehensive understanding of the role of the judiciary in the effective implementation of the Constitution’s secular ideal.

[9/6/2012: Click here for the abstracts.]

For more information: http://www.just-india.net/?q=node/225

Organizers:

Gilles Tarabout: gtarabout(at)free.fr

Raphaël Voix: raphael.voix(at)gmail.com

Daniela Berti: dberti(at)vjf.cnrs.fr