Future Journal of Social Science
Abstract
What role(s) can the state play when cultural rights come into conflict with women’s rights? This article compares conceptions of the state in the normative literature against two empirical cases of multicultural debate in modern India: Islamic law in the 1980s and Hindu law in the 1950s. I find that three conceptions of the state found in the normative literature—oppressive, facilitative, and vacated states—are only partially supported in the empirical cases, which proffer some support for the state as oppressive, but little or none for the state as facilitative or vacated. They also indicate a fourth model not found in the normative literature: an ameliorative state. My analysis thus suggests that simplified conceptions of states as ‘good’ or ‘bad’ for women’s rights, found in some normative literature, find little empirical support in actual cases of multiculturalism and women’s rights in India.
Recommended Citation
Williams, Rina V.
(2023)
"Good State, Bad State: Gender, Multiculturalism and Religious Law in India,"
Future Journal of Social Science: Vol. 2:
Iss.
1, Article 1.
Available at:
https://digitalcommons.aaru.edu.jo/fjss/vol2/iss1/1
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