Abstract for Online Program Book (maximum 150 words)
This paper traces the birth and journey of the Hindu image, from its inception in English colonial jurisprudence to its hasty and irregular application in post-colonial India. Through a tactful use of ancient Hindu texts, colonial legislations, practices and case laws, this paper argues that the image of the Hindu deity occupies a unique position in Indian society, such that it is unfit to belong or be justified by any of the western theories of legal personhood. It is the hasty, colonial application of these theories and its subsequent development that has today created a phenomenon that can no longer be justified by the contours of law.
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