Kalpana Kannabiran – författare

Widely regarded as one of the most eminent legal thinkers of his time, Upendra Baxi is a leading scholar on matters relating to human rights, legal and social theory, and comparative constitutional law and theory. A set of four volumes, Law, Justice, Society: Selected Works of Upendra Baxi documents and critically engages with his thoughts and writings over four decades. The volumes are a collection of Baxi's essays and lectures centred on the major themes of his writings: human rights, constitutionalism, law and society, and legal education. Structurally, the essays in each volume are introduced by the volume editor, an expert in the field, who provides an assessment of Baxi's works over the years. Each volume informs the reader with an interview conducted between the editor and Baxi, contextualizing the latter's research and discussing the themes covered. The respective volumes essentially conserve and reflect on pedagogic and research contributions made by Baxi to the concepts of law, justice, and society.The first volume, edited by Amita Dhanda, examines Baxi's writings on the contemporary discourses on the nature of human rights. The second volume, edited by Arun Thiruvengadam, presents a selection of Upendra Baxi's works on the broad theme of constitutionalism. The third volume, edited by Kalpana Kannabiran, presents a selection of Upendra Baxi's work, illustrative of his intellectual engagements and writing over five decades, in the field of the sociology of Indian law. The fourth volume,edited by Amita Dhanda, shows how Baxi's writings reflect his vision of studying law in context and training students as soldiers of constitutional justice.

This book tracks the trajectory of gender in the social sciences and humanities through an exploration of the challenges and contradictions that confront contemporary feminist analysis as well as future directions. Drawing on research in India, the essays in the volume engage with the subject in imaginative ways, each one going beyond documenting the persistence of gender inequality, instead raising new questions and dilemmas while unravelling the complexities of the terrain. They also interrogate extant knowledge that has ‘constructed’ women as ‘agentless’ over the years, incapable of contesting or transforming social orders – by taking a close look at gendered decision-making processes and outcomes, sex for pleasure, health care practices, content and context of formal schooling or the developmental state that ‘mainstreams’ gender. Do existing feminist methodologies enable the understanding of emerging themes as online sexual politics, transnational surrogacy or masculinist ‘anti-feminist’ sensibilities? The feminist methodologies delineated here will provide readers with a toolkit to assess the criticality of gender as well as its nuances. The work foregrounds the importance of intersectionality and builds a case for context-specific articulations of gender and societies that destabilize binary universals.This volume will be useful to scholars and researchers across the disciplines of the social sciences and humanities, especially gender studies, women’s studies, feminism, research methodology, education, sociology, political science and public policy.

The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in a mass exodus of India’s migrant workers from the cities back to the villages. This book explores the social conditions and concerns around health, labour, migration, and gender that were thrown up as a result of this forced migration.The book examines the failings of the public health systems and the state response to address the humanitarian crisis which unfolded in the middle of the pandemic. It highlights how the pandemic-lockdown disproportionately affected marginalised social groups – Dalits and the Adivasi communities, women and Muslim workers. The book reflects on the socio-economic vulnerabilities of migrant workers, their rights to dignity, questions around citizenship, and the need for robust systems of democratic and constitutional accountability. The chapters also critically look at the gendered vulnerabilities of women and non-cis persons in both public and private spaces, the exacerbation of social stratification and prejudices, incidents of intimidation by the administration and the police forces, and proposed labour reforms which might create greater insecurities for migrant workers.This important and timely book will be of great interest to researchers and students of sociology, public policy, development studies, gender studies, labour and economics, and law.

The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in a mass exodus of India’s migrant workers from the cities back to the villages. This book explores the social conditions and concerns around health, labour, migration, and gender that were thrown up as a result of this forced migration.The book examines the failings of the public health systems and the state response to address the humanitarian crisis which unfolded in the middle of the pandemic. It highlights how the pandemic-lockdown disproportionately affected marginalised social groups – Dalits and the Adivasi communities, women and Muslim workers. The book reflects on the socio-economic vulnerabilities of migrant workers, their rights to dignity, questions around citizenship, and the need for robust systems of democratic and constitutional accountability. The chapters also critically look at the gendered vulnerabilities of women and non-cis persons in both public and private spaces, the exacerbation of social stratification and prejudices, incidents of intimidation by the administration and the police forces, and proposed labour reforms which might create greater insecurities for migrant workers.This important and timely book will be of great interest to researchers and students of sociology, public policy, development studies, gender studies, labour and economics, and law.

In the years since independence, the Indian subcontinent has witnessed an alarming rise in violence against marginalized communities, with an increasing number of groups pushed to the margins of the democratic order. Against this background of violence, injustice and the abuse of rights, this book explores the critical, ‘insurgent’ possibilities of constitutionalism as a means of revitalising the concepts of non-discrimination and liberty, and of reimagining democratic citizenship.The book argues that the breaking down of discrimination in constitutional interpretation and the narrowing of the field of liberty in law deepen discriminatory ideologies and practices. Instead, it offers an intersectional approach to jurisprudence as a means of enabling the law to address the problem of discrimination along multiple, intersecting axes. The argument is developed in the context of the various grounds of discrimination mentioned in the constitution — caste, tribe, religious minorities, women, sexual minorities, and disability. The study draws on a rich body of materials, including official reports, case law and historical records, and uses insights from social theory, anthropology, literary and historical studies and constitutional jurisprudence to offer a new reading of non-discrimination.This book will be useful to those interested in law, sociology, gender studies, politics, constitutionalism, disability studies, human rights, social exclusion, etc.

Routledge Readings on Law and Social Justice: Dispossessions, Marginalities, Rights presents some of the finest essays on social justice, rights and public policy. With a lucid new Introduction, it covers a vast range of issues and offers a compelling guide to understanding law and socio- legal studies in South Asia. The book covers critical themes such as the jurisprudence of rights, justice, dignity, with a focus on the regimes of patriarchy, labour and dispossession. The fourteen chapters in the volume, divided into three sections, examine contested sites of the constitution, courts, prisons, land and complex processes of migration, trafficking, digital technology regimes, geographical indications and their entanglements. This multidisciplinary volume foregrounds the politics and plural lives of/ in law by including perspectives from major authors who have contributed to the academic and/ or policy discourse of the subject. This book will be useful to students, scholars, policymakers and practitioners interested in a nuanced understanding of law, especially those studying law, marginality and violence. It will serve as essential reading for those in law, socio- legal studies, legal history, South Asian studies, human rights, jurisprudence and constitutional studies, gender studies, history, politics, conflict and peace studies, sociology and social anthropology. It will also appeal to legal historians and practitioners of law, and those in public administration, development studies, environmental studies, migration studies, cultural studies, labour studies and economics.

Routledge Readings on Law, Development and Legal Pluralism presents some of the finest essays on social justice, environment, rights and governance. With a lucid new Introduction, it covers a vast range of issues and offers a compelling guide to understanding the harm and risk relating to biodiversity, agro-ecology, disaster and forest rights. The book covers critical themes such as ecology, families and governance and establishes the trajectory of contemporary ecology and law in South Asia. The thirteen chapters in the volume, divided into three sections, trace violence and marginality in the plurality of families and their laws in India, as well as discuss community-based just practices. With debates on development, governance and families, the book highlights the politics and practices of law making, law reform and law application. This multidisciplinary volume foregrounds the politics and plural lives of/in law by including perspectives from major authors who have contributed to the academic and/ or policy discourse of the subject.This book will be useful to students, scholars, policymakers and practitioners interested in a nuanced understanding of law, especially those studying law, marginality, kinship and indigeneity studies. It will serve as essential reading for those in law, socio-legal studies, environment studies and ecology, social exclusion studies, development studies, South Asian studies, human rights, jurisprudence and constitutional studies, gender studies, history, politics, conflict and peace studies, sociology and social anthropology. It will also appeal to legal historians and practitioners of law, environmentalists and those in public administration.

Routledge Readings on Law and Social Justice: Dispossessions, Marginalities, Rights presents some of the finest essays on social justice, rights and public policy. With a lucid new Introduction, it covers a vast range of issues and offers a compelling guide to understanding law and socio- legal studies in South Asia. The book covers critical themes such as the jurisprudence of rights, justice, dignity, with a focus on the regimes of patriarchy, labour and dispossession. The fourteen chapters in the volume, divided into three sections, examine contested sites of the constitution, courts, prisons, land and complex processes of migration, trafficking, digital technology regimes, geographical indications and their entanglements. This multidisciplinary volume foregrounds the politics and plural lives of/ in law by including perspectives from major authors who have contributed to the academic and/ or policy discourse of the subject. This book will be useful to students, scholars, policymakers and practitioners interested in a nuanced understanding of law, especially those studying law, marginality and violence. It will serve as essential reading for those in law, socio- legal studies, legal history, South Asian studies, human rights, jurisprudence and constitutional studies, gender studies, history, politics, conflict and peace studies, sociology and social anthropology. It will also appeal to legal historians and practitioners of law, and those in public administration, development studies, environmental studies, migration studies, cultural studies, labour studies and economics.

Routledge Readings on Law, Development and Legal Pluralism presents some of the finest essays on social justice, environment, rights and governance. With a lucid new Introduction, it covers a vast range of issues and offers a compelling guide to understanding the harm and risk relating to biodiversity, agro-ecology, disaster and forest rights. The book covers critical themes such as ecology, families and governance and establishes the trajectory of contemporary ecology and law in South Asia. The thirteen chapters in the volume, divided into three sections, trace violence and marginality in the plurality of families and their laws in India, as well as discuss community-based just practices. With debates on development, governance and families, the book highlights the politics and practices of law making, law reform and law application. This multidisciplinary volume foregrounds the politics and plural lives of/in law by including perspectives from major authors who have contributed to the academic and/ or policy discourse of the subject.This book will be useful to students, scholars, policymakers and practitioners interested in a nuanced understanding of law, especially those studying law, marginality, kinship and indigeneity studies. It will serve as essential reading for those in law, socio-legal studies, environment studies and ecology, social exclusion studies, development studies, South Asian studies, human rights, jurisprudence and constitutional studies, gender studies, history, politics, conflict and peace studies, sociology and social anthropology. It will also appeal to legal historians and practitioners of law, environmentalists and those in public administration.

This book tracks the trajectory of gender in the social sciences and humanities through an exploration of the challenges and contradictions that confront contemporary feminist analysis as well as future directions. Drawing on research in India, the essays in the volume engage with the subject in imaginative ways, each one going beyond documenting the persistence of gender inequality, instead raising new questions and dilemmas while unravelling the complexities of the terrain. They also interrogate extant knowledge that has ‘constructed’ women as ‘agentless’ over the years, incapable of contesting or transforming social orders – by taking a close look at gendered decision-making processes and outcomes, sex for pleasure, health care practices, content and context of formal schooling or the developmental state that ‘mainstreams’ gender. Do existing feminist methodologies enable the understanding of emerging themes as online sexual politics, transnational surrogacy or masculinist ‘anti-feminist’ sensibilities? The feminist methodologies delineated here will provide readers with a toolkit to assess the criticality of gender as well as its nuances. The work foregrounds the importance of intersectionality and builds a case for context-specific articulations of gender and societies that destabilize binary universals.This volume will be useful to scholars and researchers across the disciplines of the social sciences and humanities, especially gender studies, women’s studies, feminism, research methodology, education, sociology, political science and public policy.

In the years since independence, the Indian subcontinent has witnessed an alarming rise in violence against marginalized communities, with an increasing number of groups pushed to the margins of the democratic order. Against this background of violence, injustice and the abuse of rights, this book explores the critical, ‘insurgent’ possibilities of constitutionalism as a means of revitalising the concepts of non-discrimination and liberty, and of reimagining democratic citizenship.The book argues that the breaking down of discrimination in constitutional interpretation and the narrowing of the field of liberty in law deepen discriminatory ideologies and practices. Instead, it offers an intersectional approach to jurisprudence as a means of enabling the law to address the problem of discrimination along multiple, intersecting axes. The argument is developed in the context of the various grounds of discrimination mentioned in the constitution — caste, tribe, religious minorities, women, sexual minorities, and disability. The study draws on a rich body of materials, including official reports, case law and historical records, and uses insights from social theory, anthropology, literary and historical studies and constitutional jurisprudence to offer a new reading of non-discrimination.This book will be useful to those interested in law, sociology, gender studies, politics, constitutionalism, disability studies, human rights, social exclusion, etc.

This collection of essays examines the racialized and gendered effects of contemporary politics of belonging, issues which lie at the heart of contemporary political and social lives. It encompasses critical questions of identity and citizenship, inclusion and exclusion, emotional attachments, violent conflicts and local/global relationships. The range - geographically, thematically and theoretically - covered by the chapters reflects current concerns in the world today. A timely contribution to the ongoing debates in the field, it will be a valuable companion to scholars working in the areas of multiculturalism, globalisation and culture, race and ethnic studies, gender studies and studies of post-partition societies.