I wanted to flag two articles that both provide important ways of thinking about law the state and our colonial legacy.
Siddharth Narain in EPW traces the history of sedition laws and asks pertinent questions about the role that it plays in the Indian republic.
Jeff Redding in “Institutional v. Liberal Contexts for Contemporary Non-State, Muslim Civil Dispute Resolution Systems” examines a Supreme Court petition that challenges the constitutionality of the mushrooming Shariat courts and Dar-ul-Qaza courts in India to highlight what he describes as the institutional turn in Indian legal pluralism.
Both articles ask key questions about the role states should play in regulating lives of its citizens.