Anglo-Hindu law

Anglo-Hindu law is the case law that developed in British India, through the interpretation of the Hindu scriptures and customary law in the British courts.[1]

The first phase of Anglo-Hindu law started in 1772,[2] and lasted till 1864, during which translations of ancient Indian texts along with textual interpretations provided by court-appointed Hindu Pandits were the basis of jurisprudence.[3] During the same period, the Anglo-Muslim law for Indian Muslims was similarly extracted from Quran with interpretation provided by Muslim Qadis.[4] The second phase of Anglo-Hindu law started in 1864, when the Hindu Pandits along with Muslim Qadis were dismissed due to growing inconsistencies in interpretation of texts and suspicions of corruption.[2][4] The existing case law, along with textbooks that systematised it, were used for jurisprudence.[3][5] The Anglo-Hindu law was also extended and modified by a series of Acts between 1828 and 1947, which were based on political consensus rather than religious texts.[6]

  1. ^ Rocher, Indian Response to Anglo-Hindu Law (1972).
  2. ^ a b Rocher, Creation of Anglo-Hindu law (2010).
  3. ^ a b Davis, Historical overview of Hindu law (2010).
  4. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference Anderson was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ Cohn, Colonialism and Its Forms of Knowledge (1996), pp. 74–75
  6. ^ Smith, India as a Secular State (1963), pp. 276–277.