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The Hindu Undivided Family and the Regime(s) of Accumulation in Independent India

The Hindu Undivided Family and the Regime(s) of Accumulation in Independent India

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The Hindu Undivided Family and the Regime(s) of Accumulation in Independent India
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<strong>CENTRE FOR THE STUDY OF LAW AND GOVERNANCE Jawaharlal Nehru University</strong> SEMINAR SERIES <strong>CHIRASHREE DAS GUPTA</strong> Associate Professor, CSLG on <strong>The Hindu Undivided Family and the Regime(s) of Accumulation in Independent India</strong> <strong>Abstract : </strong>The singular political action in the first decade after independence was the codification of Hindu Personal laws as the starting point in 'nation-building' – a political process that continued for almost nine years from 1947 to 1956. This had very significant implications for the subsequent institutionalisation of the Hindu Undivided Family as the unit of organisation of the family run business group along with inter-locked corporate entities through taxation and corporate governance laws between 1956 and 1961. While the organisation of the 'business house' was sanctified through multiple legislations spanning corporate and tax laws and forms the object and subject of studies in 'corporate governance', the institution of the 'family' has fallen in the ambit of 'personal laws'. The first is significant in the organising of the institutional basis of concentration of capital combining the modalities of ownership, control and labour deployment. The second has implications for both accumulation and concentration. The relationship between the two and the regimes of accumulation in India after 1947 has largely remained unexplored but is crucial to the legal sanctity of the social basis of capitalism in India in its specific loci in the interstices of patriarchy, religion, caste and property. <strong>Friday, 9 October 2015</strong> <strong>About the Speaker:</strong> Chirashree Das Gupta is Associate Professor at the Centre for the Study of Law and Governance at Jawaharlal Nehru University New Delhi. Her research and teaching has been focused on different dimensions of the political economy of state society relations and the role of law in the political economy of accumulation in trade, finance and industrialization and public policy. She is currently working on the relationship between personal laws, tax and corporate governance in India. Her doctoral thesis at SOAS was on the relationship between state and capital in India after independence. Earlier, she had been a faculty member at Ambedkar University Delhi; Asian Development Research Institute, Patna; and the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. Her major publications have been in the Cambridge Journal of Economics, and Economic and Political Weekly. Her book on state and capital in independent India is forthcoming from Cambridge University Press.

A warm welcome to the modified and updated website of the Centre for East Asian Studies. The East Asian region has been at the forefront of several path-breaking changes since 1970s beginning with the redefining the development architecture with its State-led development model besides emerging as a major region in the global politics and a key hub of the sophisticated technologies. The Centre is one of the thirteen Centres of the School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi that provides a holistic understanding of the region.

Initially, established as a Centre for Chinese and Japanese Studies, it subsequently grew to include Korean Studies as well. At present there are eight faculty members in the Centre. Several distinguished faculty who have now retired include the late Prof. Gargi Dutt, Prof. P.A.N. Murthy, Prof. G.P. Deshpande, Dr. Nranarayan Das, Prof. R.R. Krishnan and Prof. K.V. Kesavan. Besides, Dr. Madhu Bhalla served at the Centre in Chinese Studies Programme during 1994-2006. In addition, Ms. Kamlesh Jain and Dr. M. M. Kunju served the Centre as the Documentation Officers in Chinese and Japanese Studies respectively.

The academic curriculum covers both modern and contemporary facets of East Asia as each scholar specializes in an area of his/her interest in the region. The integrated course involves two semesters of classes at the M. Phil programme and a dissertation for the M. Phil and a thesis for Ph. D programme respectively. The central objective is to impart an interdisciplinary knowledge and understanding of history, foreign policy, government and politics, society and culture and political economy of the respective areas. Students can explore new and emerging themes such as East Asian regionalism, the evolving East Asian Community, the rise of China, resurgence of Japan and the prospects for reunification of the Korean peninsula. Additionally, the Centre lays great emphasis on the building of language skills. The background of scholars includes mostly from the social science disciplines; History, Political Science, Economics, Sociology, International Relations and language.

Several students of the centre have been recipients of prestigious research fellowships awarded by Japan Foundation, Mombusho (Ministry of Education, Government of Japan), Saburo Okita Memorial Fellowship, Nippon Foundation, Korea Foundation, Nehru Memorial Fellowship, and Fellowship from the Chinese and Taiwanese Governments. Besides, students from Japan receive fellowship from the Indian Council of Cultural Relations.