Legally Dispossessed

Book excerpt: This path-breaking study of women's experience of litigation under personal laws (those that cover marriage and inheritance) raises vital questions of identity and citizenship. Why is it so difficult to disentangle woman 'as subject/citizen imbued with rights from that of being daughter, sister, wife, widow and the symbol of a community'? Why is it that both Hindu and Muslim women are unsuccessful in their claims for property despite appealing to different personal laws? By shifting the focus from the text of the law to an ethnography of litigation -- the nature of disputes, the attitudes of lawyers, the experiences in court, the logic of judgements, and so on -- the analysis highlights the crucial factors that are obscured in abstract discussions of 'rights'.