In/Capacitation and the Intensification of Law

Drawing on research carried out at an Islamic institution in India, this article argues that the symbolic and practical place of law has intensified in recent decades. Legal discourses and practices have become key sites of in/capacitation in this context. The article argues that law is both disciplinary and productive, in Foucault’s sense, and that for Muslim leaders it is one important mechanism for uniting Muslims, bringing them together under the authority of religious leaders rather than that of the state and its courts. The case study thus invites a reassessment of law’s productive power and its role in producing the conditions for in/capacitation.