Customary Law in Village India

Abstract

Like every other Indian village, Shivapur is a bi-legal village. When it suits them, individually and collectively, the villagers make use of customary law as well as the “modern” Westernized law established by the state. Being very close to the city of Dharwar, the headquarters of the district court and the judicial machinery, they are aware of some of the implications of modern law which are different from that which they have been used to for generations. They have resorted to the new law in litigations pertaining to land tenure and partition of family property. At present, two cases of partition and eight cases of land tenure are pending in the law court, besides a criminal complaint in connection with a fight that occurred a year ago during the Holi festival, the festival of the sprinkling of coloured water.