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Love Jurisdiction
in The Cambridge Journal of Anthropology
Author:
Perveez Mody
Perveez Mody
University of Cambridge pm10012@cam.ac.uk
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This article examines claims about the substantive importance of black letter law for those having marriages of choice in India and offers a critique of the ways in which legal procedure is manipulated. The law is 'bent' not only by the courts and the police to undermine the intentions of legislators and to uphold conservative communal values but also by ordinary people who seek to promote their own agendas and to make moral and instrumental claims. These can make significant space for individual desires and self-choice in the realm of intimate relationships. 'Love jurisdiction' is used to explore this process of 'intermanglement' through which love, romantic relationships and moral rights in relationships get entangled (and sometimes mangled) through legal statute, procedures and everyday practices.