Events

‘Their Lordships are again at great disadvantage in not knowing Sanskrit’: the Privy Council, Mīmāṃsā, and Anantakrishna Shastri

February 21, 2020 - 5pm

Neubauer Collegium

The colonial desire to continue while reforming the pre-existing practices of civil law in British India, so as to govern according to “native” legal customs, was the original driver of the creation of modern Indology. As the British legal and scholarly establishment began to codify versions in English of “Hindu law,” they incorporated various śāstras.

As a result, experts of Southern Asian texts were increasingly drawn into the imperial world created by British legal and fiduciary regimes. Their interactions with the courts can reveal something of the destiny of śāstric practice when adapted into modern settings. In this talk, Chris Minkowski will consider one example: the engagement by the formidable śāstrin Anantakrishna Shastri, with a recommendation concerning Hindu adoption made by the Privy Council to the Queen in 1899.

This event is sponsored by the Śāstram Project at the Neubauer Collegium.
Dates:
Friday, February 21, 2020 – 5:00pm
Neubauer Collegium