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THE JOURNAL OF LEGAL PLURALISM AND UNOFFICIAL LAW, 2016
VOL. 48, NO. 3, 354-377 Routledge
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/07329113.2016.1239160 Taylor& Francis Group
SPECIAL SECTION: LEGAL PLURALISM AND ITS CONTRIBUTION TO THE GLOBAL

SOUTH-GLOBAL NORTH PARADIGM
Unifying benefits of studies in legal pluralism: accessing

actors' voices on human rights and legal pluralities in gender
violence cases in India
Tamara Relis
South Asia Centre, London School of Economics and Political Science, London, UK
ABSTRACT ARTICLE HISTORY

Studies in legal pluralism have contributed to the framing and Received 17 May2016
understanding of legal systems in the developing world. This article Accepted 18 September 2016
utilizes the conceptual framework of legal pluralism as an all KEYWORDS
embracing field in which the inter-connectedness of state and non- Human rights; legal
state laws can be more deeply explored, and through which pluralism; culture; non-state
grassroots realities including local actors' internalisation of law; gender violence
international human rights laws can be analysed. In terms
of "pluralism" this article examines some of the numerous units of
non-state law or regulation operating on the ground in addition to
or instead of formal state law. In this way, the role and contribution
of studies in legal pluralism within the global North/global South
debate becomes one that elucidates the resilience of non-state laws
and norms in the face of contemporary global changes and state
legal reforms. Working from a grounded theory paradigm, and
drawing on the discourse of women victims of violence, accused
and their families in eight states of India, the data presented
here highlight various aspects of the limits of law's capabilities,
the power of informal laws operating on the ground and the
relationship of formal law with family and community non-state
laws and norms. They further highlight how through the lens of
legal pluralism, we can more clearly assess not only the actual
workings of transnational human rights laws and domestic laws in
compliance, but also the impact and internalisation of these laws by
those whomRthey are designed to protect.
1. Introduction
Six men convicted of gang rape and murder of a 20-year-old female college student in West
Bengal. Similar crimes have plagued India in recent years. The Jan 29, 2015 barbaric rape of 15-
year-old is just the latest of a continuous series of rapes in the country ... Rape cases in India are
not isolated incidents but manifestations of discrimination that starts in the womb... .The prob-
lem of female abuse in India will only be solved by changing entrenched cultural norms that
allow the abuse and degradation of women. Unless this fact is accepted by Indian society, and
appropriate laws are enforced, any measures to overcome this situation will only be palliative
and will not solve this important problem facing the country. (Epoch Times, March 17, 2016)
CONTACT Tamara Relis e [email protected]

0 2016 The Journal of Legal Pluralism and Unofficial Law
THE JOURNAL OF LEGAL PLURALISM AND UNOFFICIAL LAW 355
Relationships between legal pluralism, human rights, law and culture are both complex
and political. Scholars and activists have argued that despite much legislative transforma-
tion and sustained campaigns ranging over half a century, formal laws protecting women
and growing numbers of women's courts have not resulted in substantial social change
for women, fundamental shifts in attitudes, nor reduced the daily violence and human
rights violations that many suffer (Agnes 1992, 19; Poonacha and Pandy 1999, 1;
Poonacha and Pandy 2000, 566; Grover 2011, 185; Vatuk 2013, 92). This may be due in
part to a lack of understanding of the ways in which women negotiate their claims to
justice within diverse and yet overlapping legal fields. State laws protecting women as well
as often conflicting non-state laws based on community practices of patriarchal traditions
simultaneously coexist and overlap, with the latter generally being viewed as the more
accessible and familiar (Agnes and Ghosh 2012, xxii, xxvi, 231; ICHRP 2009).
Thus, legal pluralities involving state and non-state laws affecting the individual sub-
jects of human rights play an overarching role in gender relations, justice, community
and subjectivities (Sieder and McNeish 2013, 15). Drawing on data from a new book, The
Purchase of Human Rights: Standards and Legal Pluralism in the Global South (Relis,
forthcoming), this article provides excerpts from local actors - particularly women victims
of violence and their natal family members - as a basis for analysing grassroots internal-
isation of formal state laws encompassing human rights principles that protect women.
Local actors' discourse operates as a means of understanding the impact of non-state ver-
sus formal laws and their achievement in parts of the postcolonial world. Law's cham-
pions have promised much - the spread of human rights and the rule of law, the
elimination of discrimination and the protection of the vulnerable. This article engages
law's promises and law's pathos in transnational and domestic contexts. It addresses the
impact of state versus non-state laws in emancipation and protection of the vulnerable
and questions aspects of the accomplishment of formal law in terms of its impact and
influence on its users.
The proliferation of international human rights laws such as the ICCPR (International
Convention on Civil and Political Rights, 1976) and CEDAW (Convention on the Elimi-
nation of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, 1979) coupled with globalization
and domestic laws in line with countries' international obligations include various latent
promises of change. Yet, how do actors in India - long part of the developing postcolonial
world, now deemed a middle income economy - plaintiffs/victims, defendants/accused
and their family members perceive the effect of these formal, state and supranational laws
in daily life? In the context of gender violence cases, what is the role of state versus non-
state laws in relation to local actors' case conduct? What contextual issues affect the work-
ings of these laws in legal and non-state justice systems as forms of legal pluralism? What
are the various ideologies embedded not only in legal but also quasi-legal institutions
affecting the processing of human rights cases, and particularly those relating to violence
against women? Further, in light of the aim of protecting the vulnerable, how, if at all,
have such laws "emancipated" those it seeks to protect? In terms of local actors' epistemol-
ogies, what people know, how their knowledge is acquired, and how their knowledge and
social situations affect their beliefs and actions relating to human rights and legal plural-
ism require further investigation (Woods 2010, 51-56, 71-79).
The article examines these issues through legal and lay actors' discourse on their
understandings, aims and practices during case processing of gender violence cases in
356 T. RELIS
India involving beating, burning, rape, food deprivation as a form of punishment (known
as "starvation cases"), and other forms of physical and mental abuse. Grounded in inter-
pretive theory and tracking local legal and lay actors' perceptions, conduct and experien-
ces, the manuscript examines the confluence of legal pluralism and interlegality (Santos
2002) in relation to the different hegemonic forces at play for the individual subjects of
human rights. Examining the issues from bottom-up subjective perspectives, the book
draws on the discourse of victims, accused, their families, lawyers, judges and panches
(non-state mediators) involved in gender violence cases processed in state courts (civil
and criminal magistrates, sessions, district, family courts), court-linked mediations (lok
adalats) and non-state justice mediations through NGOs, village panchayats (male-run
community mediations), mahila panchayats (women run arbitration/mediations in North
India: Delhi and in Uttar Pradesh) and nari adalats (women-run arbitration/mediations
in South India: Bangalore, rural Bijapur, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh). Both "women's
courts" conduct near identical arbitration/mediation proceedings weekly or regularly for
gender violence cases that are similar to those that go through the formal court system.1
Empirical research was conducted in eight states of India during 2005-2011. The data
derive from respondents in all main religions, including Hindu, Muslim, Jain and Chris-
tian. The dataset, in seven languages, includes 400 participant observations, interviews
and questionnaires with victims (74), accused (46), family members (30), lawyers (90),
judges (32) and non-state justice arbitrators/mediators/panches (48) (see note 1).
Despite some very valuable ethnographic research (e.g. Basu 2015; Vatuk 2013; Solanki
2011), relatively little systematic analysis exists on the practices of these non-state justice
fora, including different panchayats that mediate women's cases (Agnes and Ghosh 2012,
202). In relation to human rights debates, it is the visibility and voices of the suffering that
are of prime importance, as the basis of human rights is the experience and struggles of
individuals. Yet, these voices are lacking. As Baxi notes, there is a gap between human
rights discourse and the live experiences of "culturally constituted human-ness." There is
a need to humanize human rights, with individual biographies of the violated featuring
more prominently in human rights theory. Human rights discourse only has value if it
"gives voice to human suffering, to make it visible and to ameliorate it" (Baxi 2009, 164-
65, 173, 176, 183-85, 189, 195-96).
Utilizing the voices of the subjects of human rights laws, individual actors, this work
helps to deconstruct human rights by examining and critiquing them to expose existing
dominant power relations. Likewise, it implicitly suggests a new theoretical orientation,
an approach that goes beyond the hegemonic discourses of human rights, and privileges
the voices of the marginalized or oppressed. This type of approach has been employed in
phenomenology, postmodernism, post-colonialism (uncovering oppressive structures)
and deconstruction. This methodology assists in clarifying the types of knowledge that
have been privileged in human rights law and in the legal pluralism literature (Simmons
2011, xiii, ix, xiv).
The data presented here through a legal pluralistic lens elucidate the basic argument
that human rights have not only individual but also many collective aspects. Analyses that
focus only upon the neoliberal aspect of human rights miss important aspects of human
rights realities on the ground. Instead analyses should first focus on the collective aspects
of human rights. Human rights are rights of the individual. Yet, the law and its workings
are inevitably socially embedded, intertwined with individuals' social relationships and
social practices. This tension requires a more nuanced analysis that feeds into the norma-
tive policy domain of human rights (Von Benda Beckmann 2015).
This article provides some examples of the social embeddedness of formal laws, includ-
ing human rights laws, protecting the rights of the individual, and their influence or lack
thereof on the social regimes of family and community, caste and class. In so doing, it is
not the neoliberal aspect of human rights, but their collective aspects that act as the start-
ing point in analyses of human rights internalization and local practices in the postcolo-
nial world. The data further elucidate the nature of the powers bestowed on the "local" in
the wider context of the political economy of development.
Thus, in terms of analysis, the article argues that we must first locate the normative,
local regime in relation to human rights. Only then should we theorize the relationship
between the statutory and the customary, the global and the local, the individual and the
collective, as well as the question of how does legal pluralism speak to those wider con-
cerns? How we understand the competing normative orders and how they play them-
selves out are insufficiently focused on in the literature. Indeed, relatively little legal
scholarship bases its analyses on the actual discourse of the subjects of international
human rights law and particularly those actually involved in human rights violations cases
in the developing world in the context of legal pluralism (Relis 2011).
Highlighting nuances within the relationships of the statutory and the customary, the
global and the local, the individual and the collective, this article elucidates some of the
social contexts of victims of violence in the Indian landscape. These relationships are key
in comprehending discontinuities regularly found within the dataset between victims'
desires for and perceptions of "justice" as compared with principles of international
human rights law including concepts of equality, autonomy and choice. In so doing, the
paper elucidates the effects of actors' social contexts on their case decision-making
processes.
Human rights understandings, subjectivities, desires for, and perceptions of "justice" in
the Indian landscape - just as in many traditional societies in the developing world, in
middle income economies and in all societies - are bound up intricately within parties'
social and cultural structures. These structures include networks of family, kin, religion
and community. These networks include social norms, exert influence and affect actors'
understandings, attitudes, and conduct in relation to human rights issues and the situa-
tions they find themselves in. The enculturation within particular societies is complicated
by factors of poverty, illiteracy and development. Through the lens of legal pluralism, this
work additionally shows how we can more clearly assess not only realities on the ground
in terms of the actual workings of transnational human rights laws and domestic laws in
compliance (e.g. Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005 "PWDVA"),
but also the impact and internalization of these laws by those whom they are designed to
protect.
Section 2 describes the formal international and domestic legal frameworks protecting
women in situations of violence in India. Section 3 examines the discourse of victims and
their natal family members, reflecting women local actors' ideologies of justice and human
rights within state and non-state justice processing of their cases. I examine three issues
relating to victims' perceptions of "justice" within the context of human rights cases
involving gender violence. These include (1) victims' understanding of "human rights"
versus their aims and agendas in the processing of their cases in the various state and
358 T. RELIS
non-state justice systems they approached; (2) ideologies of "justice" in these cases as elu-
cidated through victims' discourse and (3) what court or non-state justice process they
engaged to obtain the justice they sought. Section 4 then describes the theoretical debates
and gaps in the literature on the permeation and internalization of human rights laws and
principles.
In an attempt to explain some of the preliminary findings on victims' aspirations and
perceptions of justice in their cases, and the discontinuity with international human rights
laws and prevailing implemented state laws, Section 5 provides a rare view into the micro-
realities within which victims operate. These contextual spaces are immersed with and
coloured by the perceptions, understandings and actions of actors within victims' social
and cultural structures of family, kin, community and religion. In particular, through the
discourse of victims' natal family members involved in their cases, the data highlight a dis-
turbing recurrent theme - that of the accepted "normality" of violence against women
emerging through social norms and non-state laws of family, kin and community. This
theme is elucidated through the recurrent trend of victims' natal families regularly sending
them back to their abusers and places of abuse.
2. International and domestic formal legal frameworks in India protecting

women
The overarching formal legal framework, within which local actors operate consists of
international law and domestic laws in compliance. Women's rights as human rights were
articulated in the Vienna Accord 1994 and reinforced at the Beijing Fourth World Confer-
ence on Women 1995. CEDAW is the main international convention focusing on wom-
en's human rights. Articles 2(f) and 5 of CEDAW stipulate that states must incorporate
"substantive" equality of men and women in legal systems and the actual impact of the
law. This covers both state and private actors in public and private spheres. CEDAW's
General Recommendation 19 on Violence against women speaks of "effective" access to
criminal and civil redress mechanisms and laws.
Having ratified CEDAW in 1993, India is obliged to incorporate it into its domestic
legislation. The PWDVA symbolizes India's commitment to CEDAW and its acceptance
of the recognition of women's rights as human rights (Chowdhury 2005, 98, 100, 114-
15). In India, cases involving violence against women processed in the formal justice sys-
tem are generally filed in the lower courts under section 498A of the Indian Penal Code
for "cruelty," and dowry harassment cases, section 9 of the Hindu Marriage Act 1955 (for
restitution of conjugal rights), and/or under the PWDVA in the civil courts. The PWDVA
regards gender violence in the domestic sphere as a human rights issue relating to the
right of a woman to lead a dignified existence. It includes provisions involving protection
orders, rights of residence in the matrimonial home, monetary relief, child custody
and the appointment of Protection Officers. Despite various critiques of its workings
(Hornbeck et al. 2007; Lukose 2012, 783; Gulafroz 2014, 18), the PWDVA assists India
in fulfilling its international commitments under CEDAW, the main UN convention on
violence against women.
Yet, I argue and illustrate below, that many non-state laws of family, kin and commu-
nity operating within the framework of formal legal protections frequently trump formal
law in terms of influencing actors' thoughts and actions in the conduct of their human
rights cases. This is regardless of whether cases are processed in state courts or non-state
justice mechanisms. From local actors' perspectives, non-state laws operate not in tension
with state law, but in a more nuanced dance. Despite many being cognisant of prevailing
state laws - some more aware of international human rights laws protections than
others - formal laws emerge then disappear within their thoughts and decision-making
processes in terms of their conduct within their cases. In contrast, for local actors it is
non-state laws that are palpable for them, that touch them daily within the micro-realities
of their lives.
Utilizing the framework of legal pluralism enables a deep examination of these issues
from actors' perspectives in the developing world. Indeed, notwithstanding the formal
laws in place, large numbers of civil and criminal cases, including those involving human
rights violations, are not taken to the formal courts for various reasons. These include:
lack of knowledge of courts, rights or how to formulate claims, illiteracy, problems of
access including physical distance and lack of resources, and fear or lack of trust in the
formal justice system (UNDP 2010). The poor and marginalized as well as others may
also reject official institutions for historical and cultural reasons. Formal courts may seem
intimidating, alien and frightening. Additionally, many formal justice systems include
structural impediments to the full realization of human rights. These impediments consist
of uneven resource allocation, criminality, patronage and nepotism, ignorance and inepti-
tude, and various biases including those of class, caste, ethnicity and gender (Garling
2004, 2, 7, 13, 54). Thus many human rights cases are regularly processed in quasi-legal
non-state justice regimes in the legally pluralistic postcolonial world.
In the context of India, it has been argued that issues of social stratification coupled
with geographic isolation result in the formal legal system frequently being accessible only
to the middle and upper classes. Even those who are aware of legal remedies are usually
disinclined to pursue them. There are also issues of police corruption and fear of social
repercussions, which impede access to formal justice systems (Shah 2003, 221-228).
For those that approached the formal state justice system, research by the Association
for Advocacy and Legal Initiatives in India indicated that formal laws failed citizens in
accessing universally endorsed human rights enshrined in the Constitution of India. Like-
wise, it found that police officials utilized procedural laws to deny women the realization
of their right to choice and decision-making. Central to the issue of women's human
rights has been the state's lack of accountability for violations in the personal sphere
(Agnes and Ghosh 2012, 110-11).
Thus, although human rights law makes the state the main mechanism for social pro-
tection, the poor and marginalized are often ambivalent toward state institutions, with
many viewing the law as a vehicle for powerful interests. Consequently, they often choose
to place their trust in informal and customary processes, which may be perceived as acces-
sible, familiar, low-risk and culturally comfortable. Hence, many cases involving human
rights are settled through quasi-legal, non-state mechanisms of conflict resolution in vari-
ous forms (Stacy 2009, 3-4, 44, 171; Twining 2009, 163).
Yet, there is a dearth of data from local actors' perspectives on how, if at all, interna-
tional human rights norms and domestic state laws in compliance are being deployed in
case processing in non-state justice systems as well as in the lower courts of developing
states where most cases that reach any formal justice systems are processed (Relis 2011,
360 T. RELIS
551). The reliance on quasi-legal, non-state mechanisms in human rights cases are also
insufficiently examined in the international human rights literature. As Erika Techera
notes, "International law plays an important part in establishing norms and standards
that inform national law and policy. However, it has failed to effectively address many of
the specific needs of legally pluralist nations" (Techera 2010). Indeed, the nexus between
international human rights and legal pluralism is in need of far greater examination from
developing world actors' perspectives. Although human rights permeation and legal plu-
ralism are interrelated, their relationship is complex. Thus, one might argue that to be
accepted in a pluralistic environment, human rights norms might need to be expressed in
another idiom (K. Knopp 2011, email). The data here provide some examples of the con-
fluence of human rights, legal pluralism and interlegality - whereby individuals feel sub-
ject to different sets of laws or norms which themselves have precarious relations with
each other (Santos 1987, 297-99).
3. Conceptions of justice and human rights in legally pluralistic in India

Differences between state and non-state justice courts and mediations have been analysed
in depth in the literature on legal pluralism (Galanter and Krishnan 2003; Roberts and
Palmer 2005). In the context of human rights cases, on the basis that a culturally plural
universalism in human rights is an acceptable aim, I argue that there exists an important
need for a new integrated analytical framework. This framework must be grounded not
only in the perspectives of postcolonial actors or those oppressed, but must simulta-
neously imbed their epistemologies within the realities of human rights case processing in
the legally pluralistic global South. This involves not only formal courts but also quasi-
legal non-state justice systems processing human rights cases as well as laws of family,
kin, community and religion (Roberts and Palmer 2005, 13). Understanding local case
processing nuances is important in analysing the acceptance and application of interna-
tional human rights at grassroots levels (Stacy 2009, 414-416). In the Indian setting, for
local actors formal state law and courts, and community-based non-state laws coexist,
overlap and affect most aspects of life. Although uniform, courts are often viewed as for-
mal, alien and expensive versus pluralistic community practices that are more familiar
and fluid due to language, kinship and community ties (Agnes and Ghosh 2012, x, xx).
Victims' networks of family, kin, community and religion are deeply infused within
local traditional, cultural (although heterogeneous and evolving) and/or religious ide-
ologies and norms whose tenets often conflict with those of universalist international
human rights principles and laws. As the data below suggest, these micro-realities
include social norms, exert influence and affect actors' understandings, attitudes and
conduct in relation to human rights issues. Indeed, psychological research indicates
that individuals are greatly influenced by their social situations, whether they are
aware of it or not (Ross 1977, 173; Gilbert and Malone 1995, 21-38). Yet, despite
their importance to international human rights norm diffusion, acceptance and inter-
nalization, human rights law and scholarship have not been adequately infused/
imbued with these realities. Examining grassroots effects on human rights practices
through a legal pluralism lens is key to accessing micro-realities that are often
overlooked.
Throughout the eight states of India covered in my research, interviews and participant
observations provided evidence of transnational activists and domestic NGO's discussing
developments relating to human rights in the higher courts, and articulating human rights
concepts such as "equality", "autonomy" and "choice" to those who came before them.
This included parties, their families, witnesses and community members giving evidence.
This was done both verbally, as well as through leaflets in local languages and posters on
the walls of their premises. Indeed, Mahila Samakhya, the NGO overseeing the Nari Ada-
lats studied, has been argued to equip poor Dalit and Adivasi women in particular to chal-
lenge social and gender discrimination and exclusion. This is something they do by
addressing gender and social barriers through education and increasing their public par-
ticipation. This was similarly the case with the mahila panchayats in Delhi. In their regular
pushes for compromise, these spaces of women's courts have been criticized as solidifying
certain gender norms and socio-economic inequalities that they claim to combat (Lemons
2010, 59, 87-88; Vatuk 2013, 92). Basu points out that problems are minimized to main-
tain marriage and social relations, viewed as the favoured economic basis for women
(Basu 2015, 213, 216).
Still, these NGOs processing gender violence cases, at the same time vernacularized
human rights principles and worked to make them meaningful in local contexts (Merry
2006, 46-47, 142, 156-57; Merry 2006a, 38). Yet, throughout the dataset, when interview-
ing victims and their families, much of the discourse of victims of violence on their moti-
vations and objectives in formal courts and quasi-legal justice mechanisms suggested
little, if any, human rights "emancipation." When comparing victims' perceptions of
and aims for "justice" in local contexts with global visions of universal human rights
enshrined in the normative language of international human rights laws such as CEDAW
and the ICCPR, serious discontinuities existed (Relis 2011, 535).
Indeed, as I have argued earlier, notwithstanding state enactments of laws in line with
international human rights obligations, as well as the dissemination of human rights con-
cepts by transnational activists and domestic NGOs, victims' lack of human rights "eman-
cipation" was underscored in their discourse on their motivations and agendas in
approaching formal courts and quasi-legal justice regimes (Relis 2011, 512; Relis 2012, 9).
As Merry notes, despite significant efforts to teach people that they have rights, including
human rights, without positive feedback, their consciousness of or reliance on rights tends
to disintegrate. Thus, the extent to which an individual adopts a consciousness of legal
entitlement in any legal regime depends on its response to his or her requests for help
(Merry 2015, 72).
Poor, less-educated victims of violence who had undergone quasi-legal case processing
in mahila panchayats (women's courts) under the auspices of local NGOs, stated that
they had either never heard of human rights or if they had (through hearing of them in
the women's courts), lacked a basic understanding of their meaning. 2 This trend was not-
withstanding the fact that the mahila panchayat's paralegals and panches (arbitrators/
mediators) were trained in and employed international human rights principles in case
processing, visited numerous villages providing inhabitants with information on human
rights, displayed human rights scenarios on the walls of their institutions and distributed
human rights information leaflets in local languages to parties.3 A recurrent theme
amongst victims of significant violence related to their predominant subjectivities as
362 T. RELIS
family and community group members, whose conceptions and desires for "justice" often
appeared at odds with those of individual subjects of human rights protections.
For example:
Nari Adalat case, Bijapur, Karnataka, Plaintiff, victim of violent beatings, food deprivation,
degradation
WHAT HELP DID YOU SEEK WHEN YOU WENT TO NARI ADALAT? To settle my life
by getting back to my husband's place . . DO YOU WISH TO RETURN TO YOUR MATRI-
MONIAL HOME? Yes, of course WHY DO YOU FEEL SO? What will I do here? People will
bad mouth me . . They will ridicule my family . . Look how they have left her daughter . .
and things like that . .
. . My wish is that I have to go and live with my husband . . Initially, I absolutely didn't feel
like going back. Madam (mediatorlpanche)told me if he is cruel then you can procure finan-
cial assistance from him and get married again. But I said no.
Mahila Panchayat case, Delhi, Plaintiff S, violence victim - They made me do a lot of house-
hold work, I slogged day and night, and they did not give me food to eat . . That does not
matter. But I cannot tolerate the bringing of other woman in front of me and ... so much
beating . . He keeps beating me all the time. Am I a cow or a buffalo that they keep beating
me? I cannot tolerate this any more ... getting beaten up from husband who does not give
me food and the in-laws also beat up [crying]. IF HE STOPS ALL THIS ARE YOU READY
TO GO TO HIM? Yes, why not? . . I wish that we have a family . . and everything becomes
normal, why would not I want this? An Indian woman would always want that, we have
been bought up in our house and family with this thinking that only the husband's house is
our house . . I will forget everything, it is the duty of every wife to stay with her husband in
one house.[cries]
IF YOU DO NOT GET A PROPER VERDICT HERE, AND IF YOU GO TO ADALAT

(COURT) THEN, WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM THERE? A DIVORCE? [crying] Why
would I want a divorce? How can I stay at my parent's place? If I was unmarried, then I can
stay at my parent's place. I would want my house and family to grow, my parents-in-law
behave well with me, and I can serve them well ... take care of them. Just that they should
not inflict violence on me ... I want to stay in this house.
Female victims in less-educated and lower socio-economic groups regularly repeated

that notwithstanding any violence, their husbands 'were their gods.' Consequently, disem-
powerment appeared to be internalized on various levels (Relis 2011, 539). In contrast,
violence victims who were more educated and/or in better financial situations were less
willing to accept perceived inequities, with some seeking divorce and to 'move on' from
their situations of violence. Still, case aims often included desires for reparations to their
natal families as well as to themselves. Overall, the discourse of both groups of victims
generally indicated that fundamental human rights principles such as equality and auton-
omy were of little relevance to their daily life situations. Moreover, although both groups
viewed human rights to be positive, they were perceived as primarily of use on an inspira-
tional level and not relevant on a practical level in terms of their own case realities and life
situations.
Victims discourse on their aims and objectives for the processing of their cases regu-
larly highlighted the experience of human rights violations against them as being
embedded within family and community. Views of "justice" appeared to be somewhat

removed from a vision of individual human rights protected by the state. Other studies
similarly found inabilities of women to exit family and community networks and to have
an independent relationship with the state as subjects of the law (Agnes and Ghosh 2012,
xx). This accords with views of human rights possessing an individualist orientation, far
removed from societies where individuals self-identify as part of collectivities. The notion
of rights has been tied to economic individualism, as first expounded by Hobbes and
Locke, and later recast by Kant, with individualism being closely linked to autonomy.
Autonomy indicates the technical, social and psychological ability to obtain information
and to use it as the basis for making decisions about one's private concerns. Critics have
also problematized human rights in the South Asian context, on the basis that these socie-
ties are based on duties and obligations rather than rights (Prabhu 1988; Anderson and
Guha 1998, 4-5). If human rights ideologies were viewed as encompassing also human
dignity, which is broader, local actors' perspective may change (Sharma 2006, 78, 81-84).
As Coomeraswamy explains, for many women the sense of identity is filtered through
their experience as women, living with group collectivities primarily governed by men.
They may have to submit to discriminatory practices, be governed by discriminatory
laws, customs and habits that re-inscribe the subordinate status of women within the hier-
archy of their religion, ethnic or tribal identity. Many women acquiesce, since their group
identity is seen as the most important aspect of their lives. Others resist, only to be
branded as traitors or "bad women" who bring the group into disrepute (Coomaraswamy
2005, 24).
The formal legal system's response to violence against women is structured around
society's goals in immediate deterrence and punishment of abusers and separation of
abusers from their partners. But the goals of a woman subjected to abuse globally may be
very different (Goodmark 2012, 5-6). For instance, both in the instant study as well as
elsewhere it was found that criminal proceedings for cruelty under section 498A, IPC
were viewed by women victims as a place for negotiations and mediations as opposed to a
strict penal provision, despite the non-compoundable, i.e. non-negotiable nature of the
crime. In rape cases, Pratiksha Baxi shows that despite strict formal laws, rape cases were
routinely "compromised", i.e. settled out of court - despite not being recorded in final
judgments, with compromise or settlement not being legal in rape cases in India. This is
known as non-compoundable offenses (Agnes and Ghosh 2012, xi, xx; Baxi 2012, 246).
Indeed, the issues of women's rights in India have been negotiated and rewritten for over
two centuries. Thus, it appears that the demand for gender equality cannot be met solely
through granting uniform rights to women through formal law. This, in part, may be due
to the workings of patriarchy within civil societies and their complex relationship with
state justice where they are normalized and essentialized (Agnes et al 2004, ix-x).
The excerpts further demonstrate that women have ideals about their role as wives,
embodying, a particular gendered subjectivity (Basu 2015, 215). There are also practical
reasons for staying with the in-laws. Both ideals and practical reasons have their roots in
centuries long established security networks, reliant on religion and kinship systems. As a
result, women and men are arguably overall not benefiting from more autonomy due to
the current economic boom in India. In other words, who can have a "plan B" if they do
not follow the local norms? Indeed, in the context of personal laws in India which accept
gender discrimination and violate womens' fundamental rights, Sezgin examines the
364 T. RELIS
Special Marriage Act 1954. It provides civil marriage and divorce law for those who do not
want to be subject to state enforced religious laws. He found, that of those aware of it,
most were hesitant to use the Act due to prevailing socio-cultural sanctions against the
use of secular state law for family. Thus, he argues that an individual's right of exit from
her cultural and normative community is usually a hollow right, which exists solely on
paper (Sezgin 2013,188, 202-203, 214).
An important piece of the puzzle and an intrinsic part of actors' micro-realities are the
structural systems of kinship and socio-economic organizations local actors are situated
in. It has been argued that demographic and economic pressures have resulted to a degree
in traditional kinship systems being overruled in favour of "unconventional marriages
that are uniting rural, illiterate Indians across boundaries of region, language, religion and
even caste" (Kaur 2004, 2595). Yet, in India, as in most developing societies, kin relation-
ships still constitute for the majority of people the prime avenue of access to such scarce
social resources as information, economic assistance and political support (Mondal 2012).
Kinship systems refer to the way and means by which social ordering takes place. Cate-
gories of kinship are used to define social relationships - distinct types of social behaviour
and particular patterns of expectations, belief and values. These social relations may be of
authority, subordination and economic exchange (commonly dowry). Punishments for
contravening customary kinship rules and marriage norms are strict throughout. In urban
areas where traditional practices of arranged marriage are often not followed, couples are
frequently excommunicated, illustrating how traditional rules are paramount throughout
India (Grover 2009, 2) and how marriage is viewed as a social contract between two
groups rather than a private contract between two individuals (Mody 2002, 247).
Kinship systems include terms of acknowledged rules regarding marriage and methods
of organizing marriage relations between groups. Although a broad picture of kinship pre-
vails all over India, there are some variations between the Sanskritic North (e.g. Delhi, UP)
and Dravidian South India. It has been posited in terms of gender relations, that women
have a relatively higher level of female autonomy and better demographic performance
(birth and death rates) in South India (including Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh) versus in
the North (including Delhi, UP). In the North, families tend to affiliate with a separate set
of people to whom they are not already linked to effectuate inter-group alliances, with the
bride's family usually of perceived "inferior" social status. Women usually have no choice
in the matter. The fact that the in-marrying female comes from another group means that
in some ways she is viewed as a threat: her behaviour must be closely watched; she must
be re-socialized so that she comes to identify her own interests with those of her husband's
kin. Senior family wives tend to dominate young in-marrying wives. The sexuality of
females is very rigidly controlled. Restriction on female personal movements and "protec-
tion" from other males may take the form of seclusion (i.e. purdah). Additionally, emo-
tional ties between husband and wife constitute a potential threat to the solidarity of the
patrilineal group.
In the South India, patrilineal and patrilocal joint family systems dominate, and fami-
lies seek to strengthen existing kin ties within their group through marriage, i.e. endoga-
mous marriages, usually to someone already close to the family. Under southern kinship,
both bride and groom's family have largely equal status. Marriage does not symbolize
women's separation from her natal home. Both the woman's sexuality and her personal
movements are less rigidly controlled. Women interact with their natal kin more regularly
than in the North and there is less need to repress and re-socialize females in their affinal
home. Therefore, married girls in the South are subject to less norms of behaviour than
those in the North (Mondal 2010; Dyson and Moore 1983, 24, 26, 36, 44; Kaur 2004,
2595-2596; Moore 2014, 253). Yet, while there are marked differences in kinship systems
and marriage customs across India, there are broadly speaking certain widespread similar-
ities. This explains the fact that few, if any, differences have been found in terms of actors'
discourse on the topics covered in the present study. The excerpts below from victims'
family members in both regions highlight this fact.
4. Gaps in the theoretical literature on internalization of human rights

principles and norms
In terms of the theoretical debates on human rights laws internalization, both norm diffu-
sion theory in the international relations and socio-legal literatures and vernacularization
theory in the law and anthropology literature analyse the permeation of international
human rights laws and norms at different levels. Yet, neither include in their analyses the
lived contextual realities of individuals who are the subjects of international human rights
(Relis 2011, 524; Merry 2006; Risse and Sikkink 1999, 1-8, 11, 33). Norm diffusion theory
attempts to explain the internalization of international human rights principles domesti-
cally to state institutions, state actors and ultimately to the polity at large. More recent
research on social norms indicates that norms affect behaviour and can result in compli-
ance without people having to internalize them (Woods 2010, 73-74). However, the inter-
national norm diffusion literature concentrates primarily on the interaction between
transnational social movement activists and governments. The literature does not exam-
ine the boundaries between global ideas and those of local groups, and in particular does
not focus on local individuals' perceptions of international human rights norms in devel-
oping world contexts (Stacy 2009, 4-6, 12-35).
Vernacularization theory in the law and anthropology literature expands on norm dif-
fusion theory relating to the permeation of human rights, taking it one level down. Sally
Merry illustrates how transnational activists and national elites (e.g. human rights lawyers,
social activists, academics, and community and NGO leaders) disseminate and translate
international human rights ideas, legal categories and norms into local terms to deal with
particular issues such as gender violence. These ideas and norms are then situated within
local contexts, cultures and values including structures of power and meaning. The aim is
to make these ideas and norms part of local legal and grassroots consciousness. Merry
argues that this incorporation enables human rights to be effective, as this process fosters
the gradual emergence of a local rights consciousness among grassroots groups. However,
Merry notes that it is unclear whether these translations and the dissemination of interna-
tional human rights ideas actually achieve their emancipatory aims, particularly as they
relate to increasing human rights subjectivities for victims of violence and others (Merry
2006). Merry's work is predominantly about how human rights are translated into the
vernacular. This differs from the focus of the present study.
To address this gap, I provide here examples of interpretive accounts from local actors on
their contextual realities within their conduct of these cases. Such knowledge is critical in
order to innovatively engage the controversies in international human rights theory and
practice as well as the some of the debates in the legal pluralism literature (Relis 2011, 516).
366 T. RELIS
5. Formidable powers of social and cultural structures and customary laws

operating on the ground: sending victims back to abusers
In attempting to understand the findings discussed in Section 3, within the context of the
formal legal framework and the theoretical debates on the internalization of domestic and
international human rights laws and norms, this Section examines some of the prelimi-
nary findings through the discourse of victims' family members involved in human rights
cases processed in both formal courts and non-state justice mechanisms. Since great num-
bers of cases of individuals in all social classes do not reach formal justice systems (Holden
2008, 16; Vatuk 2013, 81-82; Vatuk 2001), examining the issues through a legal pluralism
lens allows for a more holistic and realistic picture of some of the operating realities and
issues affecting both the functioning and internalization of human rights norms and laws
on the ground.
In relation to regulation of the family, it has been shown that as the state attempts to
extend its authority, state law is received, resisted, adapted or integrated into societal laws
(Solanki 2011, 327). Yet, as demonstrated by the quotes below from victims' family mem-
bers, the data elucidate the formidable effects of norms on the ground embedded within
victims' social structures of family, kin and community on decision-making and process-
ing of human rights violations against women. Most cultures globally are patriarchal. To
various degrees, each exhibits reluctance to recognize sex equality rights in the family.4
These non-state laws and norms were seen to regularly overshadow the formal laws in
place protecting women in these situations. Indeed, incidences of natal families sending
victims back to their abusers and places of abuse, was a recurrent theme within the data-
set, particularly in the lesser educated groups across all religions, both in urban and rural
settings.
5.7. Jaipurfamily court case involving beating, food deprivation,attempted

burning - victim's relative/brother(age 37, farm labourer, educated to 70th
standard/grade)
. . She went there and lived with relaxation for 5-6 months and had a delivery . . DO THEY
HAVE ANY CHILD? No. They don't have a child. A dead child was born to her during
delivery. He kicked at the foetus. During delivery, her husband started drinking wine and
beat her a lot. He used to beat her till she fainted. Sometimes he broke the cooler, he broke
the TV, tore her clothes . . showed her the scissors and threatened to stab her with it . .
Frightened, she came back to her parents' home. Then my brother calmed her . . My brother
gave him a vehicle.
. . HOW DID HE USED TO BEAT HER? Sometimes he stamped his legs on her when he
was drunk, then also through hands. WHAT WAS THE REASON OF THIS MISBE-
HAVIOUR? They needed dowry. He used to torture her daily and asked her to bring so
many amounts of rupees on some day. My brother gave him money also.
... My brother was on duty in a school as a high school teacher. The husband of our daughter
also went there and collapsed as he was in a drunken condition ... My brother negotiated
with him . . and then we sent back our daughter with him. But only after three days, he went
back to his old ways and started beating her, finishing her, burning her . . HOW DID HE
TRY TO BURN HER? WITH CANDLE? With Kerosene ... HE POURED KEROSENE
OVER HER?... His mother helped him ... Then our daughter screamed and the neighbours
came in. She narrated the entire incident to us over the telephone ... Then my brother went
to her place and tried to settle the matter but of no avail ... Then he came back home with
our daughter. Later he made our daughter understand and sent her back... ONE DAY
AFTER POURING KEROSENE YOU SENT HER BACK. She stayed there for three
months... But he started beating her again. This time our daughter came back home alone
and started crying ... We are ready to send back our daughter but he beats her, does not give
food to eat, harasses us a lot ... He tortures her daily ... Tired, we filed a case against him.
5.2. Hyderabadpolice station 498a IPC criminalcase, including mediation
-
involving beating with belt, biting, attempted burning, attempted murder-
victim's brother(age 24, businessman, educated to sixth class/grade)
THE REASON WHY THIS DISPUTE OCCURRED They would hit my sister ... they tried
to burn her, kill her from the second floor of the building also. WHO WAS INVOLVED . .
Her mother in law, her husband's elder brother ... all the four brothers would torture, and
her sister in law ... would also torture the child. WHAT WAS THE REASON OF ILL
TREATMENT As far as I can understand dowry, for the money ... after we gave so much
they demanded from the child more money ... Giving dowry, money is crime in our society.
Still it is there, it's against our society.
. . The first fight that happened after 6-7 months of marriage.Our younger brother was com-
ing from tuition around 5.30 in the evening and these people had dragged our sister on the
road and were hitting her ... The in-laws, they would hit her and remove her from the house
during the night, drag her out of the house, hit her with belt, her husband's elder brother, sis-
ters mother in law, they all together would torture our sister, tell her to get fifty thousand
from her house or they would do this and that.
. . They have a joint family. They made her do all household work and outside work both . .
and she would not be given food on time, hit her all the time, the hitting was getting much
more with her ... The 2-3 brothers would ... teach the younger brother to hit his wife drag
her on the road and hit her. The neighbour would inform us that our sister was hit last night.
... The girl would come to our house and never said anything to us. She tolerated all; but
when it crossed the limits did she discuss with us all that they demanding money for the car
you did not give in the marriage, so now they are asking for the money for the car.
She showed us the marks of being of being bitten by them, so we thought its only fifty thou-
sand rupees, we took loan from state bank, our mother works there, so we took loan of fifty
thousand and gave it to her in laws ... After we gave the in laws kept the girl nicely for 2-3-6
months kept her well and again her in-laws tortured her, hit her... remove her from the
house at night at 12 midnight ... left her on road, not give her food for 2-3 days, treat her
like a servant ...
The following case offers a further example of community living, with the entire family
being enmeshed in the violence and decisions on what to do about it. It involved beating,
loss of shelter and food deprivation, as well as violence by mother-in-law and sister-in-
law. The case highlights the situation of violence and degrading treatment being
368 T. RELIS
intertwined with family and community living, affecting victims' actions and normative
decisions.
The case also highlights a further recurring theme of victims' natal family members
often take over the decisions of what to do about the violence and what, if any, help to
pursue from the justice system or elsewhere. In this way, "access to justice" becomes a
mirage where channels may exist, but grassroots realities including non-state laws of fam-
ily, kin and community trump, leaving formal laws in the background, literally accessible,
but, in fact, inaccessible. For a variety of reasons, and particularly their natal families'
wishes, violence victims did not turn to the courts. Merry's research on the Nari Adalats
in Gujarat, similarly found that despite a range of legal options available through the legal
system, of those battered women who took action, many did not turn to any formal legal
forum, but sought help within systems of family and neighbourhood (Merry 2015, 78-79).
5.3. Rural Bijapur, Karnataka.Nari Adalat (women's court/community mediation

with all women mediators) servicing mainly low caste and tribal women
Victim's mother (age 40, no formal schooling, housewife)-
We sent our daughter to her husband's house ... Her mother-in-law has literally left her on
the road and has gone away ... Afterwards my daughter somehow had managed to see us in
the market and she followed us to the house. They never fed her contently. She was even
restricted to talk to her husband. She told us all these things ... We just ignored the things
and we kept her with us for about a month. After one month, what could we do but to send
her back because it doesn't look proper if we keep a grown up, married daughter in our
house.
We both husband and wife took her, left her there at her husband's house and came back.
The mediator person who has helped us in settling her marriage advised us to leave her there
for the next two months...
HAVE THEY TORTURED HER ... ? Yes. Her mother-in-law has troubled her a lot by beat-
ing her. Then even her sister-in-law has beaten her.
We left her and came back. They have totally neglected her by not even letting her inside the
house and by not giving her food ... They made her sit on the open road outside and shut the
door; ... When we again went back to see what has happened, my daughter was still sitting in
the same place where we had dropped her ... We told those people clearly that we have given
our daughter to them and it is their responsibility to look after her carefully.
The following case further highlights how the laws of family and community trump
formal laws on the ground. These non-state laws pervade victims' realities and thought
processes, normative determinations and de facto actions. They infuse understandings,
desires and decisions.
5.4. Rural Bijapur, Karnataka.Nari Adalat. Mother of victim (educatedto second

standard/grade,age 40)
My daughter has given birth to a girl child, girl child, madam (a slight emphasis in her tone).
It's a two year old child. It's a girl child ... The man has been fighting with my daughter badly
. . He beats her up, he has an affair with his sister-in-law . . They have stolen everything that
she had with her. The man, brainwashed by his elder brother and sister-in-law . . When we
send our daughter back, he says he refuses to take her in. He says go to the court or do any-
thing, but I just don't want her.
5.5. Plaintiffdaughter (educatedto fifth standard/grade,embroidery work)

... When my mom wanted to send me back ... We, accompanied by some people from the
society, went to his house. But he refused out right to take me in and told us that we can go
to the court or do what we want.
The final cases illustrate a further recurrent theme that emerged from victims' dis-
course: their perceptions of the violence inflicted upon them as being inflicted upon the
whole of their natal families. As such family and community non-state laws very often
influenced not only victims' perceptions of their cases, but also their decisions in terms of
what state or non-state justice processes to pursue as well as their conduct during case
processing. This supports earlier research, which showed that women rarely approached
formal legal institutions without the support of their family and community elders (Agnes
and Ghosh 2012, 202).
5.6. Jodhpurvillage panchayat, then ok adalat (court-linkedmediation) and

finally criminalcourt for 498A IPC. Victim (age20, educated to 70th standard/
grade)
My in-laws really tortured me, and so did my husband. He came under the influence of his
mother and they all ganged up against me and really troubled me ... WHY DID HE DO
THIS? He did so as he thought that he would re-marry where he would get more dowry on
the advice of his mother ... WAS THERE ANY PHYSICAL ABUSE? Plenty ... He beat me a
lot under the influence of his mother. He would beat me over small issues ... Once while I
was cooking, my mother-in-law came and pushed me from the back. My saree edge caught
fire, but for God who protected me I would have been finished by now.
SO YOU FILED (in court) I wanted to file but my father, brothers said there is too much
expense in legal action and kept explaining to sort it out mutually... My father did say don't
tell everything lest the family ties completely break up and
they feel that all stuff has been made public, so speak less.
5.7. Delhi mahilapanchayat (women's community mediation/court), Delhi-victim

(age 30, never attendedschool, illiterate,house cleaner)
IF YOU DO NOT GET A DECISION HERE, WILL YOU GO TO THE COURTS? No, I
can't go. SUPPOSE YOUR HUSBAND ... CARRIES ON BEATING YOU ... No, I still
would not want to go ... WHY SO? In our people there is no character of the girl left after
doing that. A girl is not expected to go to courts amongst our people ... We don't believe in
going to the courts.
370 T. RELIS
5.8. Delhi mahilapanchayatcase (women's community mediation/court)-victim

(age 26, never attendedschool)
I suppose because of my infertility . . my husband subjected me to physical harassment.
They abused me badly . . WHO WERE INVOLVED? My husband, and my in-laws. WHAT
MADE YOU DECIDE TO GET HELP BY GOING TO MEDIATION OR THE LEGAL SYS-
TEM? My father and mother decided to approach the mahila panchayat (women's commu-
nity court/mediation) to seek justice. They were told by someone to seek justice from a
mahila panchayat because they deal with such cases and in almost all cases women get jus-
tice. WHO TOOK THE DECISION TO SEEK THIS HELP? My mother took this decision.
DID YOU GO TO A POLICE STATION TO FILE A COMPLAINT? No I have not because I

was afraid that my family reputation would be at stake and police will again harass me and
my parents. Apart from that I was fearful that my in-laws being influential might cause harm
to my parents especially my younger sister whose school is near to my husband's place.
WAS MEDIATION MANDATORY OR VOLUNTARY? I think, for me, it was a mixture of

both as parents made it mandatory for me although I was ... resistant.
In an effort to understand these findings, one should bear in mind that for many in tra-
ditional societies the extended family and immediate community provide social security
while stressing responsibilities and collective duties for members. They socialize and
impart values, simultaneously controlling and disciplining their members including arbi-
trating and mediating conflict (Garling 2004, 51). The associated norms within these
social conditions perform a regulatory function that constrains individuals' behaviour
through community enforcement (Bicchieri 2005, 3; Woods 2010, 54, 57).
Other research into gender violence in India deriving from data from women and other
witnesses found that natal family and community tried to neutralize, minimize and trivial-
ize gender violence, maintaining that marriage and family are sacrosanct. Natal support to
report violence and register a case was received by women only as a very last resort, when
it was considered that the violence had escalated to unacceptable levels, and all the alter-
natives of pleading, discussions and negotiations had failed. In another study, data from
police records found strong patriarchal ideology within families, supported by communi-
ties, which categorized women into "good" and "bad" daughters, not as consenting adults.
Thus, women have to acquiesce to family norms so as to receive social security and pro-
tection in return. "Good" daughters and daughters-in-law were spoken of as "tolerant,
accepting, adjusting and submissive". Indeed, when individual rights are set-up against
group identity and communal norms, women tend to retract from their legal claims at an
individual level in support of community identity (Agnes and Ghosh 2012, x, 224, 225).
As Merry argues, societies define acceptable and unacceptable forms of violence and
determine which kinds of violence should be punished. Any person's vulnerability to vio-
lence depends on the extent to which social institutions define this violence as illegitimate
and set-up mechanisms for controlling it. Additionally, in theorizing gender violence,
although patriarchy justifies and enables it, it is also deeply rooted in cultural understand-
ings of gender and power. The performance of gender identities means acquiescing to vio-
lence or treating it as inevitable. Otherwise, victims face exclusion and pressures from kin
(Merry 2009, 11, 16, 19, 23). Feminist scholars have debated the minimum economic,
social and psychological conditions under which women might be able to refuse or
renegotiate their social arrangements. In terms of women's agency in these matters, liberal
approaches to gender justice have been criticized for being overly romanticized in lacking
sensitivity of how power relations are produced. The notion of the autonomous, self-
determining individual, naively assumes victims' capacities to see through the discourse
of the dominant. Women may challenge patriarchal norms, but may also reinforce and
accommodate them for continuity and stability, as seen here (Sieder and McNeish 2013,
18-19; Kandiyoti 1998, 147; Charrad 2010, 517-522). Thus, effective gender justice must
emanate from the community itself, and a contextual approach to rights discourse must
recognize the social realities and non-state laws and norms to be overcome (Parmar 2013,
226).
The data presented here focus on social actors and how they interact with, shape and
imbue meaning in non-state laws and norms of family, kin and community on the one
hand, and state laws and legal institutions on the other. These excerpts elucidate the dif-
ferent ways legal, but primarily extra-legal laws, norms and discourses are being used to
somewhat challenge, but primarily reinforce gendered forms of exclusion within the
dynamics at play in these contemporary legally pluralistic contexts. The data further eluci-
date how the connections between law, rights and gender relations are often over-simpli-
fied. Indeed, the legal, political and social contexts where human rights and development
initiatives are promoted are insufficiently understood. Diverse rights may be invoked, but
the extent to which they are realizable depends on multiple factors including power rela-
tions at play at grassroots levels (Sieder and McNeish 2013, 1-2, 14).
6. Conclusion
Regarding legal pluralism as a key concept in a postmodern view of law, this article has
provided some elucidation of how subordinate systems subvert or evade the dominant
system (Santos 1995, 456). In utilizing the conceptual framework of legal pluralism to
examine practical applications of human rights, the data here also have both normative
and theoretical implications in terms of current understandings of localized rights talk
and usage versus universal human rights claims. For example, as Sezgin notes, from a nor-
mative perspective, communities may have different conceptualizations and understand-
ings of principles such as "equal treatment" to those embodied in secular domestic and
international human rights laws. Consequently, they may not consider themselves bound
by those rules (Sezgin 2013, 52).
Although formal law provides a means to access safety, it is clearly not the sole arbiter
that determines women's rights. Despite awareness of formal laws, many women access
state law and the courts only as a last resort if at all, and regularly after engagement with
non-state justice mechanisms. "CEDAW considers the co-existence of multiple legal sys-
tems - with customary and religious laws governing personal status and private life, and
prevailing over positive law and even constitutional provisions of equality - a matter of
grave concern" (UN 2004). Yet, formal laws and state courts have not been widely effec-
tive in resulting in the social transformation needed to protect women's human rights
(Agnes and Ghosh 2012, ix-x; Basu 2015, 216). In fact, evidence suggests that of those
who do approach the formal system in India, many are barred at the admission stage. For
those who continue, they must surmount hurdles throughout the process including
repeated adjournments, high costs and a system that has been criticized as not recognizing
372 T. RELIS
women's suffering (Nagaraj 2012, 201). The findings here highlight the complex relation-
ship between formal human rights laws and informal norms of conduct. Thus, together
with critical issues of implementation of state laws, the private spheres of family, kin and
community must be a direct focus of engagement (Agnes and Ghosh 2012, xi-xii, xix-xx).
Indeed, on a macro level, human rights may have transformed the way we conceive and
situate the individual within the community and in relation to the state. Yet, the issue of
community as an object of study and locus of normativity needs to be further decon-
structed in the context of grassroots human rights attitudes and practices (Provost and
Sheppard 2013, 1-4). The voices of victims and their natal families highlight some of the
normative, entrenched obstacles to effective enforcement of formal human rights protec-
tions: those embedded in informal, non-state law, community norms and codes of con-
duct. The subjective experiences of community living shed new light on human agency as
consequently affected.
Transnational and global dynamics have increased possibilities for people to appropri-
ate rights discourses, with NGO's and social movements working to increase women's
legal consciousness and amplify their demands for justice. Yet, as highlighted in the
excerpts provided here, there is always a concomitant need to analyse context, local
agency and understandings on the ground. Grassroots realities in most states, and particu-
larly in developing postcolonial societies are plural, with overlapping legal systems and
multiple social authorities including those of caste or tribal elders, community, family and
religious leaders. Their power and influence may result in rights extended to all citizens
not being viewed as legitimate or relevant to those who urgently require them in order to
transform oppressive social relations. Recognizing the interplay between structures and
agency in these processes as linked to inequalities that exist in the distribution of resources
and opportunities highlights the limits of formal law in these contexts. It also casts doubt
on the effectiveness of a focus on the state through which to enforce changed rules and
norms (Manji 1999, 439; Sieder and McNeish 2013, 21-22).
Informing contemporary development theory, these data show how women's lives are
shaped by these overlapping and often competing legal and normative orders including
state law, "customary" laws (often meaning different things), transnational norms and
various informal norms and rules, many of which are ambiguous, and often detrimental
(Sieder and McNeish 2013, 1). The data here suggest that at least in some circumstances,
state domestic laws in compliance with international treaties, public education and ver-
nacularization are insufficient to convert normative human rights standards into grass-
roots lived realities, nor to transmute quotidian conduct. Societal change and legal reform
are mutually constitutive, ongoing processes of political negotiation (Basu 2015, 215).
In offering several contextual perspectives of law, needs and rights bound up within
social and cultural structures, the excerpts provided here offer a modest example of some
of the micro-realities affecting international human rights practice on the ground in the
context of legal pluralism in the developing world. Data from local actors further enable a
more nuanced understanding of local actors' needs and epistemologies in relation to state
and non-state justice in these cases (Relis 2011, 511-512). The focus on actors' voices
highlights paradoxical gaps in the literatures. It additionally creates a new space to explore
the convergence of supranational and transnational legal orders, international develop-
ment, states, civil society and realities on the ground.
This view into the particularities of actors' lived micro-realities, further underscores the
importance of understanding and taking greater account of the dynamics of the overlap-
ping normative, rule-encompassing social fields in which individuals are constituted and
socialized. This is a necessary prerequisite to theorizing and resolving issues relating to
the practice of human rights in state and non-state justice. These social fields consist of
rules as well as various means of inducing compliance. They range from state or custom-
ary law to socio-legal spaces including community, family or other groups in which indi-
viduals are constituted and socialized (Relis 2011, 513-514). In-depth knowledge of these
social fields furthers our understanding of individuals' attitudes and conduct in relation
to international human rights laws and the violations they face (Woods 2010, 74). It pro-
vides the substance necessary to theorize issues relating to compliance with statutory ver-
sus customary laws relating to human rights.
As such, this article argues for the need to first locate the normative, local regime in
relation to human rights, and then theorize the relationship between the statutory and
the customary. The data here elucidate the need for greater acknowledgement of the
limits of formal law's capabilities, and the power of informal socio-cultural non-state
laws including those of family, kin and community operating on the ground. Such
acknowledgement would provide broader scope for understanding why, notwithstand-
ing the many successes of the international human rights regime, human rights still
have difficulty in being perceived as relevant in the daily lives of many (Relis 2011,
543, 550-551; Stacy 2009, 3-4).
Notes
1. The women's courts, being mahila panchayats and Nari Adalats, are run by domestic NGOs
Action India and Mahila Samakya, respectively. Both organizations receive funding and train-
ing from transnational human rights organizations and others including the UN, Oxfam, the
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, USAID, Global Rights and the Dutch government through
the Indo-Dutch Program.
2. Consistent with norm diffusion theory, the paralegals and arbitrators in the women's courts
receive regular training firmly rooted in international human rights laws and principles by
various transnational actors, international entities and those from Western countries linked
to this funding. This knowledge is then translated into their case processing approaches
as well as into local language informative leaflets for parties and posters on the walls of
their courts.
3. The mahila panchayats are advertised to the public as an easy to reach and low cost (or free),
time-saving mechanism by which women can access justice in view of India's formal court sys-
tems being notoriously backlogged and corrupt. The mahilapanchayats focus is generally on
poor sectors of society and marginalized populations who live in slum-like resettlement colo-
nies on city outskirts. Likewise, the nari adalats are mostly successful with poorer sectors of
society. Interview with Gouri Chowdhury, Action India Director, New Delhi (18 July 2006 and
10 August 2006); Interview with Naseem, Action India Senior Manager, New Delhi (18 July
2006 and 25 July 2006); Interview with Arti Paralegal, New Delhi (19 July 2006); Interview
with Dr Neela Mukerjee, U.N. Dev. Programme, New Delhi (21 July 2006); Interview with
Veena Poonacha, SNDT, Mumbai (31 July 2006).
4. The focus on actors' socio-economic status including education, purposely omitting caste iden-
tities was a considered choice of the study. Caste identities have purposely not been included,
not only on the basis that caste is a constructed category, but also due to the fact that many
individuals discard their caste identities in their daily practices.
374 T. RELIS
Acknowledgments
This essay draws on preliminary analysis of empirical research conducted in eight states of India
during 2005-2011 subsequent to funding through British Academy Award PDF/2006/64 at the
London School of Economics Department of Law and Columbia University Law School; and fund-
ing from the Economic Social Research Council Award PTA-026-27-0979. I would like to thank
profusely all respondents who shared their time and their stories, as well as my eight teams of
research assistants throughout India. Their names are unfortunately too many to list, but without
them this research would certainly not have been possible. I would like to thank too my very dear
and erudite mentors, the late Professor Simon Roberts and Professor Nicola Lacey (LSE, Law), as
well as my colleagues at the LSE South Asia Centre, Dr. Mukulika Banerjee and Dr. Nilanjan Sarkar.
Similarly, without them this research would not have been possible. Parts of this article were pre-
sented at the Law and Society Conference 2015, Seattle, the Meeting of the Commission on Legal
Pluralism, Mumbai 2015, and the Conference on Non-State Law, Manipal University, India 2015.
Clearly there are inherent risks in extrapolating without qualification from one location to another.
Thus, this article makes no claims as to the representativeness of the present data in terms of other
individuals and societies in developing or middle income nations.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Funding
British Academy [award number PDF/2006/64]; Economic Social Research Council [award number
PTA-026-27-0979].
ORCID
TamaraRelis http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8162-6560
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SPECIAL SECTION: LEGAL PLURALISM AND ITS CONTRIBUTION TO THE GLOBAL

Unifying benefits of studies in legal pluralism: accessing

ABSTRACT ARTICLE HISTORY

CONTACT Tamara Relis e [email protected]

2. International and domestic formal legal frameworks in India protecting

3. Conceptions of justice and human rights in legally pluralistic in India

IF YOU DO NOT GET A PROPER VERDICT HERE, AND IF YOU GO TO ADALAT

Female victims in less-educated and lower socio-economic groups regularly repeated

embedded within family and community. Views of "justice" appeared to be somewhat

4. Gaps in the theoretical literature on internalization of human rights

5. Formidable powers of social and cultural structures and customary laws

5.7. Jaipurfamily court case involving beating, food deprivation,attempted

5.2. Hyderabadpolice station 498a IPC criminalcase, including mediation

5.3. Rural Bijapur, Karnataka.Nari Adalat (women's court/community mediation

5.4. Rural Bijapur, Karnataka.Nari Adalat. Mother of victim (educatedto second

5.5. Plaintiffdaughter (educatedto fifth standard/grade,embroidery work)

5.6. Jodhpurvillage panchayat, then ok adalat (court-linkedmediation) and

5.7. Delhi mahilapanchayat (women's community mediation/court), Delhi-victim

5.8. Delhi mahilapanchayatcase (women's community mediation/court)-victim

DID YOU GO TO A POLICE STATION TO FILE A COMPLAINT? No I have not because I

WAS MEDIATION MANDATORY OR VOLUNTARY? I think, for me, it was a mixture of

Solanki, G. 2011. Adjudication in Religious Family Laws: CulturalAccommodation, Legal Pluralism,

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