in Historical Sociology [25 May 2021]
https://doi.org/10.1111/johs.12328
In-Situ Displacement: Institutional Practices and the Making of the Hindu Other
by Shelley Feldman
*Professor Shelley Feldman Senior Scholar, Max Weber Kolleg for kultur- und sozialwissenschaftliche Studien, Universität Erfurt, Erfurt Germany.
Abstract
This paper introduces the concept of in-situ displacement-displacement without mobility-as an analytic for understanding the place of Hindus in Muslim majority East Bengal, East Pakistan, and Bangladesh, a national formation that is best defined as one of a changing identification with Pakistan and India, and, subsequently, as a sovereign country in South Asia. Elaborating the contributions of Corrigan and Sayer on state formation and law, the paper highlights the importance of the judiciary as constitutive of the meanings that attend to belonging in the body politic. Evidence for this argument comes from court cases in the Dacca Law Review.