Writing the Law

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Qazis of Baroj

How the arrival of British brought a fundamental change in the position of Qazis of Baroj

SALIENT FEATURES:

Loss of position of Qazis was not the only one, loss of livelihood as well.

Contradictions in the loss of livelihood narrative.

Qazis are lamenting the loss of position but the language they are expressing it in the form
of loss of livelihood.

Qazis of Baroj felt that they had greater chance of expressing their concern if they used the
language of loss of livelihood than loss of power.

Qazis were still getting their endowments honoured by British. Monetarily, they were still in
a good position. However, there was a loss of power and status. Hence, they put the
narrative that there was loss of livelihood

Essentially, elitist thing to believe that there was loss of power as only felt by few people.

Setting up the system of courtly system

Baroch was located at a place where = relationship between the British goes beyond many
years, Used this location - Qazis and British were working together. Intertwined.

Intrusion into private life

Parallel mechansim of registers: Powers were bifurcated. Political and Economical with the
British. Domestic and Private for the Qazis. Division of roads and powers.

Manuals replaced with the tabular registers

Genesis of the Reading:

There was a sense of loss of privilege of writing the law among the Qazis

Writing the Law 1

 Qazis of Bharoch

Interference - led to loss of livelihood and authority

Sayyid Ahmed Hussain - felt loss of livelihood to collect the fees for affiing the seal on legal
documents

Story pertains to Western Gujarat

Had been stripped of his right to attest the Wakalatanamas

Plot:

There was a shift in the EIC orientation to paperwork

It pertained to documents used by different social classes

Led to the loss of Qazi’s social and legal position

The Hussain were earlier involved in assisting the EIC to set up control in the subcontinent.

Sayyad’s Family:

Area of Western Gujarat

Involved in a lot of activities - land records, profit/gain, every single transaction goes
through this family

They had their hand in every sphere - Marriage, Death, Profit, Sale of Property.

(1)Suddenly, they are not the central focus in this story. Their role is restricted to being the
judicial officer of the court. Do not enjoy the degree of interference they had before.
Restricted to one court. Area of influence to decide extra judicial authority cases becomes
restricted. This creates a fundamental change in the way how the people see them. Family
who has been involved in this for a long time suddenly feels persecuted. (Restricted to
Private Sphere). (doctrinaire understanding of law was imposed on them.)

(2) EIC’s company attitude towards paperwork is entirely administrative and Bureaucratic.
Not looking at deriving anything from paperwork. Different from that of Sayyad’s family.
Qazis of Baroch - starting keeping a repository of that area.

Sharia was imposed on people who earlier did not follow the Shariah. Knowledge of Shariah
was very minimal. Most authentic law is Shariah. Law has remained static = over reliance
on the textual courses. Regressive.

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 With narrowing of power, the Qazis and Maulanas clung onto the Shariah. Their knowledge
of this was the only way they could retain the power. Authority stems from the fact that he is
the repository of the information.

Private sphere - Consolation Prize.

Shariah was placed at the centre and not periphery by the British.

Knowing the Country:

When the British arrived at the subcontinent, they did not have knowledge of India.

Knowing the country was a crucial issue in the decision to produce docs.

Because of Qazis Ability to read and interpretation of documents they were in a position of
power

Qazis of Bharaoch resisted attempts to appropriate their space.

Qazis mode of renumeration underwent change - under EIC they were salaried employeeds

Earlier, there were stipends and normal feels, salary= 100 Rs and Shawls.

Anything that is written - considered as more authentic

Oral History - Biases, lacks legitimacy.

Qazi Post was Hereditary:

British felt that is was important to break the cycle of Qaziship - as it was hereditary

British felt that Qazis’ knowledge was problematic. As being relevant to Muslims and not
any other Religion. Not an administrative figure, religious figure.

Madrasas - Avenues of employment reduction. Stereotype - regressive institutions.

What was the Bharuch Manual?:

Documents surpassed the doctrinaire description of Qazi work

Repository of Information: Rent, profit, fain, marriage,divorce, deeds for inheritances,

recording animal casualities.

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 British preferred a bifurcation of responsibilities.

Docs = Private Seals

Manuals provide great deal of information about what was happening with the people at that
point of time.

British - Sole Purpose - Revenue Maximisation

Introduction of Tabular Registers

Flexible narratives to rigid fill in the blanks

Rent deeds and documents became more rigid and compartmentaliszed, British obsessed
with categorizing.

Did not take into acc local practices.

Marriage deeds, the contractual nature of marriage under Islam was not read rather a
Christian English Sense of Morality and reading of marriage was imposed on native.

Interpreting the Triple Talaq to suit your circumstances

Eg: Annulment of marriage example in the reading.

Inferior role of women in Islam - Recent Development

Qazis interpreting texts to their benefit.

Changing nature of Marriage under EIC:

Marriage wa a civil contract under Islam

Qazi earlier was instrumental in pronouncing and nullifying marriage

Women were present so was the witness when the marriage was nullified her opinion was
taken and statement recorded

Deeds nullifying marriage was easily negotiated

What do you think was the larger impact of codification? Did it achieve its desired result?
What was its larger impacts on personal laws?

Writing the Law 4

 anglo-mohemmadan law - not anglo nor mohemmadan

Codification did not yield out the expected results.

British - administrative convenience, revenue maximisation

Shariat as the epicentre , Personal laws interlinked with Muslim Identity

Answer both halves of question

Personal law: far more regressive, it did not allow a debate on personal law for an extended
period of time.

Brought up for debate when it comes for discussion in the population discourse

Personal law was within the personal - There is no one assessing the plus and minuses

First time - Shah Bano Case

Daniel Latheefi Case - comes up for discussion again

Only when the personal laws is brought to the public discourse, will a debate of the pros and
cons happened

Major problem: It allowed for the closing of the chapter of personal laws. One area that
cannot be touched. Tone and tenor of personal laws remained same.

Codification did not completely achieve its purpose - Court - goes on seamlessly - it was
done for the speeding up of legal system. Codification is not allowing for the speeding up of
system

Same happens in land - Contracts between plantation owners and labourers , Are those
contracts being honoured? Are they being legally enforced? No seamless redressal of
grievances

With legally defining tenancy rights, can they be enforced in the court of law if a dispute
arose? Court did not have the extensive machinery

State interests and Individual interests are colliding.

Real problem came in enforcement.

Ingrained racisim in every aspect of the law.

Imposing these contracts became very difficult

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 Plantation owner stuck in a Quagmire

British - Exploitative, Extractive, Discriminatory

Sexual exploitation of women on plantation sites

Women who came for work on plantation sites - loose women

Women of questionable character- those women as not having a male association, guardian

elitist - law became accessible to a few, catering to a particular consistencg

Question of Racial Divergence

Large part of their perception was based on certain understandings of the native

Basic Bias - oral evidence given by the native is not truthful

Brief with bias

Bernard Cohn reading - clause - argument happening between the party and the judge.
“Natives are so prone to lie.”

Reliance of Oral Evidence over Documentary Evidence: Roots in racial bias

Drawbacks

Court fees, stamp fees, litigation was proving to be costly. For property worth 50,000, stamp
duty was 1000

They did not have judicial machinery. Judges were mainly company officials, who were
incompetent to do other things, had no knowledge of laws and could not be retired

Imposition of British notions of evidence was unreal for the masses were illiterate. Indian
legal system was time consuming.

Corruption was rife

Law tied litigants

Countryside violence maniested - Zamindar-Tenant relationship, Break down of traditional

agriculture.

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