{"title":"Official discretion, errors, and oversights: legal bureaucracy and the question of justice in twentieth-century India","authors":"J. Wani","doi":"10.1017/S1356186322000207","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/S1356186322000207","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Late colonial juridical practice in India was prone to bureaucratic errors and shared with the police a fundamental disinterest in the liberty of ordinary people. This article tells the politically marginal but highly revealing story of how a series of errors during the arrest and subsequent detention of an elderly man called Peter Budge—an innocent bystander in a situation of heightened communal tensions—led to a momentary scandal in the United Provinces administration in the year 1947–48. Peter's case disappeared between the cracks of bad record-keeping, leading to his lengthy and unlawful detention. It raises important questions about the complementary relation between law and violence, and the fictitious nature of public-order laws. In contrast to the scholarship that has discussed the spectacular violence of the state, this article looks at the ‘other’ acts of violence of the state and argues that the everyday reality of public-order enforcement is key to understanding the nature and operations of the late colonial and post-colonial state.","PeriodicalId":17566,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society","volume":"33 1","pages":"389 - 400"},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2022-11-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46330267","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Arts and Crafts of the Hunza Valley in Pakistan. Living Traditions in the Karakoram By Jürgen Wasim Frembgen. 110 pp. Karachi, Oxford University Press, 2017.","authors":"Augusto S. Cacopardo","doi":"10.1017/S1356186322000281","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/S1356186322000281","url":null,"abstract":"In Rivers of the Sultan: The Tigris and Euphrates in the Ottoman Empire","PeriodicalId":17566,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society","volume":"33 1","pages":"548 - 550"},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2022-11-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43578006","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Imperial wet nurses in the reign of Mughal Emperor Akbar","authors":"Balkrishan Shivram","doi":"10.1017/S1356186322000189","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/S1356186322000189","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Mughal chronicles frequently refer to royal Mughal infants being entrusted to wet nurses for breastfeeding and nurturing. The women chosen for this purpose were invariably the wives of important Mughal officials. It was believed that the quality of milk the baby received determined its future disposition. Therefore, these nurses needed to possess desirable psychological qualities and moral temperaments. They were accorded a high status and usually established a lasting relationship with their charges. As a result, the children of the emperor developed a close association with their wet nurses and their families who, in turn, became the staunchest supporters of their wards. The success, influence, and prestige of these families depended on the political fortune of the royal child they had cared for. If the prince became an emperor, they gained immense power and prestige both in life and death. They were honoured with elaborate funerals and buried in imperial tombs. This article argues that the rationale behind the use of wet nurses by Mughal royalty during Emperor Akbar's reign was not simply a medical or physiological one, it was equally a political instrument for forging ties between prominent families and royalty.","PeriodicalId":17566,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society","volume":"33 1","pages":"351 - 368"},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2022-10-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49092365","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Maine's comparative jurisprudence in British Sinology: George Jamieson's interpretation of China's lack of wills","authors":"Rui Liu","doi":"10.1017/S1356186322000177","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/S1356186322000177","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Nineteenth-century comparative sciences profoundly informed Sinology, but this field remains largely unexplored. Despite recent attention to the comparative study of Chinese religion, researchers have overlooked the comparative spirit underpinning British understanding of Chinese law. This article addresses this oversight by focusing on George Jamieson's (1843–1920) translation and interpretation of Chinese inheritance law in the Qing Dynasty (1636–1912). Drawing on Henry Maine's (1822–1888) comparative jurisprudence, Jamieson reflected upon China's lack of the legal concept of wills, which was a starting point for him to decipher the different developmental routes of Roman and Chinese law. As a parallel to Maine's comparison of Hindu and Roman law, Jamieson compared Chinese with Roman law, revealing that sacrificial duties to ancestors and underdevelopment of the legal profession were key factors contributing to China's legal particularities.","PeriodicalId":17566,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society","volume":"33 1","pages":"297 - 316"},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2022-10-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44917831","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"A rise and fall of a Chaghadaid community: demographic growth and crisis in ‘late-medieval’ Semirech'ye (Zhetysu), circa 1248–1345","authors":"Philip Slavin","doi":"10.1017/S135618632200044X","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/S135618632200044X","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract This article analyses long-term population dynamics—growth, decline, sex- and age-composition—in Chaghadaid-era Central Asia in the context of the ‘Late-medieval Crisis’. It is based on a unique dataset of 630 epitaphs from two East Syriac (‘Nestorian') graveyards in the Semirech'ye region (Northwest Tian Shan, North Kyrgyzstan), boosted by archaeological and osteological evidence from the same graveyards. This epigraphic corpus is truly unique in the sense that this is the only surviving data that allow the undertaking of such a quantitative reconstruction of pre-modern Central Asian demography. A close analysis of the corpus, based on the ‘excess mortality’ method, reveals rapid demographic growth between circa 1270 and 1330, despite frequent short-term mortality crises, caused, most likely, by a combination of environmental and political factors. The population growth came to a sudden halt because of a major plague outbreak in 1338–1339, killing about three-quarters of the local population, and initiating what was known as the Black Death of 1347–1353 in West Eurasia and North Africa. The analysis of sex and age ratios indicates that the local population regime was heavily male-dominated. The plague of 1338–1339 targeted primarily younger women, most likely due to pregnancy-related hazards; conversely, in other crisis years, adult males were more susceptible. The findings of the article are wrapped into the wider context of the ‘Late-medieval Crisis’.","PeriodicalId":17566,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society","volume":"33 1","pages":"513 - 544"},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2022-10-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46919363","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Power and Politics of Representation: Picturing Elite Women in Ilkhanid Painting – CORRIGENDUM","authors":"Mehreen Chida-Razvi","doi":"10.1017/s135618632200075x","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/s135618632200075x","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":17566,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2022-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49662380","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"JRA volume 32 issue 4 Cover and Back matter","authors":"","doi":"10.1017/s1356186322000657","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/s1356186322000657","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":17566,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society","volume":" ","pages":"b1 - b4"},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2022-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44646191","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Silver Stream in the Foreground – CORRIGENDUM","authors":"E. Sims","doi":"10.1017/s1356186322000761","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/s1356186322000761","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":17566,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2022-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49395835","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"JRA volume 32 issue 4 Cover and Front matter","authors":"","doi":"10.1017/s1356186322000669","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/s1356186322000669","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":17566,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society","volume":" ","pages":"f1 - f3"},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2022-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44675956","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Illustration of Mīrkhwānd's Tārīkh-i Rauḍat al-ṣafā, RAS Ms. P. 38 – CORRIGENDUM","authors":"Charles Melville","doi":"10.1017/S1356186322000736","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/S1356186322000736","url":null,"abstract":"The celebrated universal Islamic history, M ī rkhw ā nd ’ s T ā r ī kh-i Rau ḍ at al- ṣ af ā , written in Herat in the late Timurid period, became a model for later Persian histories, but has not yet been the subject of any substantial critical analysis as a work of historical literature, or in terms of its manuscript transmission. Although numerous copies exist of different volumes of the text, only a handful have been illustrated, providing another dimension to the reception and ‘ reading ’ of the chronicle. This paper focuses on the fourth volume of M ī rkhw ā nd ’ s history, on the Persian dynasties up to the rise of Timur, four copies of which have been illustrated, among them the Royal Asiatic Society ’ s manuscript no. P. 38. After detailing the ten pictures in the manuscript, the article concludes with a dis-cussion of their character and purpose.","PeriodicalId":17566,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society","volume":"32 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2022-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45969460","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}