Law and the Image

Love in a Colonial Climate: Marriage, Sex and Romance in Nineteenth-Century Bengal

Thu, 23 Jun 2011 16:48:33 +0000

Dublin Core

Title

Love in a Colonial Climate: Marriage, Sex and Romance in Nineteenth-Century Bengal

Subject

Cultural Studies/ Asian Studies

Description

A study of the 19th century Bengali society and the changing notions of marriage, conjugality and companionship ushered in through an acquaintance to Western worldviews through colonial rule.

Creator

Tapan Raychaudhuri

Source

Modern Asian Studies, Vol. 34, No. 2, (May, 2000), pp. 349-378.

Publisher

Cambridge University Press.

Date

2000

Contributor

The Media Lab

Rights

JSTOR
http://www.jstor.org/stable/313067

Format

PDF

Language

English

Document Item Type Metadata

Text

Child Marriage and its impact of the child bride's life through personal accounts.
Suppressed sexuality and closed households facilitating extra-marital relations which, even when found were suppressed within the family to prevent "public" denouncement of the family name.
the widow's plight.
Victorian puritan ethos among the Brahmos and the western-educated. Suppression of sexuality as "vulgar",a stand point incommensurate with certain devotional modes and practises prevalent even in Hinduism which ar steeped in sexual discourses.
The lure of "romance" in the post-Hindu College reformist era. Liberalism and introduction to western notions of companionship through literature. The lure mostly unrequitted, yet call for "women's education" rises in which underlies the desire for an "educated companion".

Original Format

PDF

Love in a Colonial Climate_Marriage Sex and Romance in NineteenthCentury Bengal.pdf

Review: Bratacharini

Thu, 23 Jun 2011 16:40:44 +0000

Dublin Core

Title

Review: Bratacharini

Subject

Film review

Description

Review of the film Bratacharini published in the Kartik, 1362 (Nov-Dec, 1955) issue of the Chitrabani magazine.

Creator

Anon.

Source

The Nandan Library, West Bengal Film Centre

Publisher

Chitrabani (Kartik, 1362)

Date

1955

Contributor

The Media Lab

Format

PDF

Language

Bengali

Document Item Type Metadata

Text

The review criticizes the film for the dated nature of its basic theme and storyline i.e. problems in marriage between different castes, which it states is hardly relevant at the period. Yet, it acknowledges the attempt due to the success it achieves in presenting its theme to extract maximum sympathy from the viewer.

Original Format

Paper

Review_Bratacharini.pdf

The Subject of Law and Subject of Narratives.

Thu, 23 Jun 2011 15:26:00 +0000

Dublin Core

Title

The Subject of Law and Subject of Narratives.

Subject

Subaltern Studies/ History

Description

The essay confronts a problem of political thought approached through the question of cruelty inflicted on Hindu widows of Bengali middle-class families.

Creator

Dipesh Chakrabarty

Source

Habitations of Modernity: Essays in the Wake of Subaltern Studies, Pp. 101-114.

Publisher

Permanent Black, India.

Date

2002

Contributor

The Media Lab

Format

PDF

Language

English

Document Item Type Metadata

Text

The essay confronts a problem of political thought approached through the question of cruelty inflicted on Hindu widows of Bengali middle-class families. As the harrowing descriptions of oppression raise a mixture of sadness, horror and anger in the author along with a desire and the will to intervene, he questions these emotions in the light of the knowledge of violence on which the state and its laws are founded. He speaks of the violence of the same modernity that teaches us to think of the law as a key instrument of social justice.

Original Format

Paper

The Subject of Law and Subject of Narratives.pdf

Mr and Mrs 55 â€“ 05

Thu, 23 Jun 2011 15:09:32 +0000

Dublin Core

Title

Mr and Mrs 55 â€“ 05

Subject

Feature film clip

Description

Dir: Guru Dutt
Producer: Guru Dutt Films Pvt. Ltd.
Screenplay: Abrar Alvi
Editing: Y.G. Chawhan
Cinematography: V.K. Murthy
Music: O.P. Nayyar
Art: D.R. Yadhav
Cast: Madhubala; Guru Dutt; Lalita Pawar; Johnny Walker; Yasmin; Kumkum; Tuntun; Cuckoo; Moni Chatterjee; Al Nasir; etc.
Distributors: Ultra Distributors Pvt. Ltd.

synopsis: Anita (Madhubala) is a normal urban young girl, with visions of love and romance, yet restrained by her aunt Sita Devi, an avowed man-hater and a crusader for Women's Rights and the impending legalisation of the Divorce provision. However Anita's deceased father stipulates in his will that Anita will inherit his fortune only if she marries within a month of turning 21. Sita Devi decides to contrive a marriage "contract" with a willing and preferably poor man, who would agree to divorce for a payment, so that Anita gets both her wealth and her independence. She hires Preetam (Guru Dutt), a struggling cartoonist, to marry Anita, unaware that the two had met and Preetam was already in love with her. When Anita finds out he is her hired husband, who has agreed to marry for financial gains, he falls in her eyes. Preetam, frustrated at not being able to see Anita after the marriage, carries her off to his brother's house in a nearby village. Anita is deeply influenced by Preetam's sister-in-law, a perfect traditional Indian housewife, yet is extricated by her aunt and brought back to the city. Feeling that Anita doesn't reciprocate his feelings, Preetam fabricates evidence against himself so that his divorce with Anita will come about easily and decides to leave Bombay. Preetam is much maligned in court but by now Anita realizes how much she loves him. She defies her aunt and rushes to the airport to stop Preetam from leaving. Anita and Preetam are reunited.

Creator

Guru Dutt

Source

DVD

Date

1955

Contributor

The Media Lab

Format

AVI

Language

Hindi

Moving Image Item Type Metadata

Transcription

The aunt, Seeta Devi pulls Anita to the marriage registrar's desk. The registrar asks Anita if she had consented to the marriage under force or duress. Anita briefly looks at her aunt before saying no. Preetam is asked if he had gone through the clauses. Then Preetam is asked to say aloud that he accepted Anita Verma as his lawfully wedded wife. Anita angrily goes through her lines as well, and asks rapidly where to sign. As the two sign the document, the saxophone can be heard to play in the background score underlining the comic, yet "Western" theme of the proceedings of a "civil marriage". As the witnesses sign, Preetam follows Anita out of the chambers even before the stunned registrar had been able to congratulate them on their marriage.

Original Format

DVD

Duration

01:07 mins

Compression

AVI

Producer

Guru Dutt Films Pvt. Ltd.

Director

Guru Dutt

The Judicial Recognition of Custom in India.

Thu, 23 Jun 2011 14:33:24 +0000

Dublin Core

Title

The Judicial Recognition of Custom in India.

Subject

Legal studies

Description

The article compares legal perspectives and norms between Britain and India to establish that the distinction drawn by English lawyers between "custom" and "usage" that does not exist in India.

Creator

Lindesay J. Robertson

Source

Journal of Comparative Legislation and International Law, Third Series, Vol. 4, No. 4, (1922), pp. 218-228

Publisher

Cambridge University Press on behalf of the British Institute of International and Comparative Law.

Date

1922

Contributor

The Media Lab

Rights

JSTOR
http://www.jstor.org/stable/753149.

Format

Paper

Language

English

Document Item Type Metadata

Text

The article compares legal perspectives and norms between Britain and India to establish that the distinction drawn by English lawyers between "custom" and "usage" does not exist in India. There being in England no such thing as a " personal law," in the sense in which that expression is used in India, English rules as to the necessary proof and characteristics of customs and usages, cannot usefully be applied. As a result the confusion manifested in the English law on the subject, becomes worse confounded when sought to be applied in Indian Courts. "Usage" and "custom" being synonymous terms as applied to the personal law of a Hindu or Mohammedan, their identity should be judicially recognized, and appropriate rules framed for their enforcement, without regard to the distinctions and refinements of English Law.

Original Format

Paper

The Judicial Recognition of Custom in India.pdf