The many lives of defamation: outcasting, panchayats, and local jurisdiction in India, 1880–1930

This article examines how English defamation law underwent significant changes in colonial India. It tracks various civil cases involving Indians who sued for defamation arising from being either outcast or subject to personal insult. In doing so, it outlines the development of a distinctly Anglo-Indian jurisprudence of defamation law, which saw Indian justices, litigants, and respondents argue for a widened aperture of the law which accounted for Indian emotions, sentiment, and caste obligations. It demonstrates that by examining defamation lawsuits in late 19th and early 20th century India, we can see how libel gets re-translated in ways that rendered it distinctive from other common law usages. This paper argues that by examining the interaction between defamation, panchayat jurisdiction, and social/caste organizations, we gain new insights into how colonial legal regimes were moulded by the very cultures over which they purportedly ruled.