Page 96 - Communication Processes Volume 3 Communication Culture and Confrontation

The Indian Legal System 71

of law in the villages, and the royal courts did not extend their powers
very much in the countryside.
During the pre-British period, at the village level, local councils
served both legislative and judicial functions. These forums were mainly
of two forms: caste panchayats (usually consisting of the prominent
men of the caste) and village panchayats (Cohn 1965; Minturn and
Hitchcock 1966). It is also important to mention the tribal councils
among tribal communities of the Indian subcontinent. Although the
groups’ composition and the level at which they operated are differ-
ent, the exclusion of women is common to these institutions. Women
had little to say either in framing the rules made by these councils or
concerning the process by which these rules were enforced. This im-
plies that disputes that involved women were settled by male author-
ities and male-made rules. There were exceptions, such as the Santal
tribals (Archer 1984) or the Bhats (Luchinsky, Unpublished) in Uttar
Pradesh, where women were allowed to attend tribal council meetings.
In rural Maharashtra local councils were not the only legal institu-
tions before the British colonization. Some regional kings had their own
system of courts sometimes ruling along with the caste council. This was
the case of the Peshwa court in Pune. Contrary to the image of ancient
India where most women were traditionally deprived of their rights,
rulings of caste councils and the ones of the Peshwa courts were not
always detrimental to them. The following examples demonstrate the
plurality of conflict resolutions instances, the coexistence of local and
royal punishments, as well as the diverse interpretations of women’s
rights and duties.

Legal Records from the Late Eighteenth Century
under the Peshwas

1
In the late eighteenth century (1767–91), the city of Pune was the
administrative and political centre of the Maratha confederacy. The
head of the Pune police (and the city’s municipal commissioner) was
the kotwal, appointed by the Peshwa, the de facto head of the confed-
eracy. As government agent, the kotwal was the keeper of the social
values of the people of Pune (Wagle 1998: 51). The laws he administered
found their origins at the Peshwa government level. These laws
covered several categories of offences and were applied to the hetero-
geneous communities. What is particularly interesting from a legal