Description

This book consists of a series of three discourses in the Government Research Fellowship Lecture Series delivered by Dr Mitra Sharafi in October 2009 at the K R Cama Oriental Institute.

The first lecture on “Parsing Law: Strategy and Paradox in Zoroastrian Legal History” explores the special relationship between Parsis and law. This talk offers an overview of key patterns in Parsi legal history during the Raj.

The second lecture “Parsing Gender: The Parsi Marriage and Divorce Acts (1865 – 1940)”, addresses these two acts which created personal law for Parsis, which were proposed and drafted by Parsis.

The third lecture titled “Parsing Religion: The Rangoon Navjote Case (1925)” shows that the most extensive investigation of the question, who is a Parsi? was the Privy Council case of Saklat v Bella (also known as the Rangoon Navjote case.).

Dr Mitra Sharafi is a Canadian Scholar whose research is on Parsi legal history. After obtaining a history degree from McGill University in 1966, she went on to earn two law degrees from Cambridge and Oxford Universities. Thereafter she was awarded her doctorate in history by Princeton in 2006.

In 2007 Dr Sharafi joined the University of Wisconsin Law School where she teaches courses on contract law, legal pluralism and law and colonialism.

This book is priced at US$25, inclusive of packing, handling and air-mail postage.