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Custom and the Courts: Ensuring Women's Rights to Land, Jharkhand, India
Author(s) -
Rao Nitya
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
development and change
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.267
H-Index - 93
eISSN - 1467-7660
pISSN - 0012-155X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-7660.2007.00413.x
Subject(s) - legitimation , operationalization , statutory law , politics , sociology , polarization (electrochemistry) , law , public administration , political science , law and economics , epistemology , philosophy , chemistry
Based on field research in Dumka district, Jharkhand, this article examines the mechanisms through which women operationalize their rights to land. It questions the polarization of legitimation systems into statutory codes and customary practices, as operating independent of each other, and demonstrates the political and temporal situatedness of ‘law’, and the processes of hybridization that allow for the actualization of a legal right, by providing it social recognition and validity. The article explores the choice of different arenas by women for making their claims, with the choice of a particular arena depending not just on access and resource availability, but also on the women's social positionality.