Religion and Law in Independent India

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This important volume is a major contribution to the interface between religion and law in independent India. The result of a cooperative international project, this multidisciplinary volume includes essays by eminent jurists, legal scholars, historians of religions, political scientists and Sanskritists from India and abroad.

This revised and updated edition has new essays on subjects such as the structure of religion and law in India; legal issues affecting the Sikh community; public endowments; and issues relating to caste and conversions.

Robert D. Baird is Professor Emeritus, History of Religions, University of Iowa. Author of Category Formation and the History of Religions (1972), Indian and Far Eastern Religious Traditions (1972), and Essays in the History of Religions (1991). Professor Baird has also edited and contributed to Methodological Issues in Religious Studies (1975) and Religion in Modern India (first published in 1981, fourth revised edition in 2005). He has also contributed articles in the areas of methodology and the study of religion, modern Indian religious movements, and religion and law.

An international and multidisciplinary conference on Religion and Law in Independent India was held at the University of Iowa on October 10-13, 1991. This conference was organized by the editor under the sponsorship of the School of Religion of the University of Iowa. A wide range of programs and departments within the University of Iowa, as well as several external institutions contributed significantly to the funding of this project. Without this broad-based cooperation the conference would not have been possible, for we did not believe such a conference would be viable without bringing a reasonable number of distinguished Indian scholars into the discussion. Among those whose contributions made this possible were the School or Religion, College of Law, the Center for International and Comparative Studies, the Center for Asian and Pacific. Studies, Office of Academic Affairs, South Asia Studies Program, Department of Geography, Department of History, Global Studies Program, Women in International Development and Kala Mandali.

As for funding our distinguished Indian contributors, The Islamic Council of Iowa made it possible to bring Professor Tahir Mahmood, and the Ford Foundation made it possible for Vasudha Dhagamwar to include the conference as part of her research assignment at Oxford University. Upendra Baxi, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Delhi participated as part of his designation of Ida Beam Distinguished Professor, which included further lectures on his part at the College of Law and Department of Geography. The College of Law supported the cost of bringing Chief Justice P.N. Bhagwati, and the Center for Asian and Pacific Studies sponsored V.S. Rekhi.