Abstract
This paper examines how access to law studies in British India challenged social stratifications within the colony, from the 1850s up to the 1940s. It highlights the impact of educational trajectories—colonial, imperial and global—on social positions and professional careers. Universities in British India have included faculties of law since the foundation of the first three universities in 1857. Although numerous native students enrolled at these Indian institutions, some of them chose to pursue their legal training in the imperial metropole. Being admitted into an Inn of Court, they could consequently become barristers, a title that was not available for holders of an Indian degree. This dual system differentiated degree-holders, complexifying the colonial hierarchy in a way that was sometimes denounced by both the colonized and the imperial authorities. Last but not least, access to higher education also impacted gendered identities: academic migration at times allowed some Indian women to graduate in Law but these experiences remained quite exceptional until the end of the Second Word War.
Highlights
This paper examines how access to law studies in British India challenged social stratifications within the colony, from the 1850s up to the 1940s
Access to higher education impacted gendered identities: academic migration at times allowed some Indian women to graduate in Law but these experiences remained quite exceptional until the end of the Second Word War
The first law faculties of British India were organized in 1857. They took part in the shaping of a colonial higher education system in this South Asian colony, based on three universities located in Calcutta, Bombay and Madras1, legal training was not a complete novelty at that time
Summary
The first law faculties of British India were organized in 1857. They took part in the shaping of a colonial higher education system in this South Asian colony, based on three universities located in Calcutta, Bombay and Madras , legal training was not a complete novelty at that time. Former schools and colleges have already included the study of law scriptures to their curricula since the late 18th century (Deer 2005): in 1781, the Calcutta Madrassa— known as Muhammadan College—was created by the de facto Governor General of Bengal Warren Hastings after a Muslim memorandum begging for the “instruction of young students in Muhammadan Law and in such other sciences as were generally taught in madrassas” (Sen 1991). The decade of 1850 still matches the creation of an independent law curriculum integrated within a larger university system that attracted many students up to the 1947 independence
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