This paper studies the trends in the interpretation of Islamic Law in India with particular reference to the Fatawa literature of Deoband. It relates mainly to two important concepts in the interpretation of Islamic law: bid'ah and ijtihad. The introduction gives the historical background of the fatawa literature and analyzes the concepts of bid'ah and ijtihad, postulating working definitions for these concepts. The first chapter summarizes and the second analyses the arguments in the relevant fatawa. The study concludes that the relevant inventions and new social practices were not considered bid'ah and that the reasoning in these fatawa was based on analogies made to similar previous cases in fiqh literature. Such interpretations adhered strictly to the letter of the law.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2008. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 277-315).

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The British colonial administration in India transformed Muslim law in the nineteenth century through the three concurrent processes of translation, legislation, and adjudication. Although Indian Muslims were gradually displaced in their traditional position as interpreters of that law in the role of muftis, discerning and applying the shari'ah according to Hanafi principles of fiqh, they nonetheless played a vital role in the transformation of Muslim law. Towards the end of the nineteenth century, Muslim participation became more noticeable and significant as they moved into increasingly influential positions in the British judicial administration. Syed Mahmood (1850-1903) was a pioneer in this movement, being one of the first Indian Muslims to study law and become a barrister in England, being the first non-European member of the Allahabad Bar, and being the first Indian Muslim appointed to any High Court in British India. During his tenure as judge of the High Court at Allahabad, he wrote numerous judgments on matters of civil law, including matters which the British regime had determined were to be governed by Muslim law, or rather, by the amalgam of Muslim and English law called "Anglo-Mohammedan law" into which it had been transformed. He understood certain aspects Muslim law, especially criminal law and laws of evidence, to have been abrogated by British law in India, but stoutly resisted the incursion of English law and promoted the acceptance of Muslim law as the customary law in other areas. His critique of the British administration of justice in India and his persistent independence of thought while serving on the High Court brought him into conflict with his fellow judges. He was eventually forced to resign in 1892, but his recorded judgments in the Indian Law Reports continued to provide an authoritative exposition of Muslim law for succeeding generations of jurists. In addition to elucidating the transformation of Muslim law

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In this thesis, I focus on the relationship between gender and nation in post-colonial India, through the lens of Muslim women, who are located on the margins of both religious community and nation. The contradictory embrace of a composite national identity with an ascriptive religious identity, has had critical consequences for Muslim women, to whom the state has simultaneously granted and denied equal citizenship. The impact is felt primarily in the continuing disadvantage of women through the denial of gender equality within the family. The state's regulation of gender roles and family relationships in the 'private sphere', inevitably has determined women's status as citizens in the public sphere. / In this context, the notion of citizenship becomes a focus of any exploration of the legal status of Muslim women. I explore the idea of citizenship as a space of subaltern secularism that opens up the possibility for Indian women of all faiths, to reclaim a selfhood, free from essentialist definitions of gender interests and prescripted identities. I evaluate the realm of constitutional law as a counter-hegemonic discourse that can challenge existing power structures. Finally, I argue for the need to acknowledge the hybridity of culture and the modernity of tradition, to emphasise the integration of the colonial past with the postcolonial present. Such an understanding is critical to the feminist emancipatory project as it reveals the manner in which oppositional categories of public/private, true Muslim woman/feminist, Muslim/Other, Western/Indian, and modern/traditional, have been used to deny women equal rights.

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