Page 94 - Communication Processes Volume 3 Communication Culture and Confrontation

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The IndIan LegaL SySTem: a UnIqUe

CombInaTIon of TradITIonS,

PraCTICeS and modern VaLUeS∗

Karine Bates

Introduction

Throughout its history the Indian legal system has not presented a
uniform set of structures and sources of law to solve conflicts. This
explains why, in many cases, clan and caste panchayats rendered deci-
sions on concurrent issues with the courts established by the princes
of an area and later on by the British colonizers. In order to capture
the complexity of the changes that occurred in the various instances of
dispute resolutions, the interplay between different interpretations and
sanctions of Hindu law by some rulers and by the post-independence
legal system in India will be examined.

∗ The research on which this chapter is based was funded by the Social Sciences
and Humanities Research Council of Canada, the Alma Matter Fund of the
McGill University and the Centre for Society, Technology and Development,
Department of Anthropology, McGill University. Another part of the fund-
ing comes from the Government of India (GoI) through the India Studies
Program of the Shastri Indo-Canadian Institute (SICI). Neither the GoI nor
SICI, nor other granting agencies, necessarily endorses the views expressed
herein. Special thanks to Prof. Donald Attwood for reading and commenting
on drafts of this chapter.