The price of a life: blood-money claims from early modern (Mughal) India

This lecture examines a number of blood-money claims, known as 'diya' in Islamic law, from 18th- and 19th-century India. By examining richly evocative documents, written in Persian, the administrative language of the Mughal Empire, Professor Chatterjee will open up a world beyond the glittering courts of the Mughal dynasty and other regimes. She will delve instead into the hierarchies of Indian villages, the connections between the court and the countryside, the lives and deaths of social subordinates, and the surprisingly strong voices of women, demanding justice and rights.

Nandini Chatterjee is Professor of Indian History and Culture at the University of Oxford. She works on law and society in South Asia, during the colonial period as well as under the Mughal empire. Her published work includes the 2020 monograph Negotiating Mughal law: A family of landlords across three Indian empires. Professor Chatterjee is one of the editors of the English Historical Review.

Admission is free, but booking is essential.

Professor Nandini Chatterjee