"A Routledge India original"--Cover.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 201-213) and index.

The making of subjects on British India's north-eastern frontier / Gunnel Cederlöf -- The temperment of empire : law and conquest in the late 19th-century India / Jon Wilson -- Contagious contestations : sex work, medicine and law in colonial and postcolonial Sonagachhi / Simanti Dasgupta -- Laws and colonial subjects : the subject-citizen riddle and the making of section 295(A) / Nishant Kumar -- A homeland for 'tribal' subjects : revisiting British colonial experimentations in the Kolhan government estate / Sanjukta Das Gupta -- Conflict and governance : participation and strategic veto in Bihar and Jharkhand, India / Amit Prakash -- Refugees in India : a study of (un)equal status, treatment and prospects / Anne-Sophie Bentz -- Law, agro-ecology and colonialism in mid-Gangetic India, 1770s-1910s / Nitin Sinha.

This volume investigates how, where and when subjects and citizens come into being, assert themselves and exercise subjecthood or citizenship in the formation of modern India. It argues for the importance of understanding legal practice - how rights are performed in dispute and negotiation - from the parliament and courts to street corners and field sites. The essays in the book explore themes such as land law and rights, court procedure, freedom of speech, sex workers' mobilisation, refugee status, adivasi people and non-state actors, and bring together studies from across north India, spanning from early colonial to contemporary times. Representing scholarship in history, anthropology and political science that draws on wide-ranging field and archival research, the volume will immensely benefit scholars, students and researchers of development, history, political science, sociology, anthropology, law and public policy.