Partha S. Ghosh is Senior Fellow at the Institute of Social Sciences, New Delhi, India. Formerly, he was Professor of South Asian Studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi; Senior Fellow at the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library; ICCR Chair Professor at the Victoria University; Visiting Professor/Humboldt Fellow at Heidelberg University; and Ford Scholar at the University of Illinois. He had a long stint as Research Director at the Indian Council of Social Science Research. His most recent books are BJP and the Evolution of Hindu Nationalism: Savarkar to Vajpayee to Modi (2017) and Migrants, Refugees and the Stateless in South Asia (2016). He has contributed chapters to many edited volumes and published extensively in professional journals, magazines and newspapers.

• List of Tables. Preface to the Second Edition. Preface to the First Edition. Acknowledgements 1. Introduction: Issues and Concepts 2. The Evolution of the Indian Discourse 3. It is Politics, Stupid! 4. On the Fringe: The Tribal Laws 5. The South Asian Mosaic 6. The Wider Context 7. Conclusion. 8. Old Wine in the Old Bottle. Appendices. Glossary. Bibliography. Index

‘This book is important because it helps us understand the complex political choices that might be made in the area of personal law in South Asia.’Muneer Mustafa, Contemporary South Asia, 18(3), September 2010