Illustrating the Indian Penal Code. Banner for Leila Neti vertical bar Illustrating the Indian Penal Code: Bigamy in Law and Literature

Leila Neti | Illustrating the Indian Penal Code: Bigamy in Law and Literature

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Lecture

Tue, Feb 24, 2026

4:30 PM – 6 PM EST (GMT-5)

Louis A. Simpson International Building, Room A71

Princeton, NJ 08544, United States

Details

Illustrating the Indian Penal Code Poster. Flyer for Leila Neti vertical bar Illustrating the Indian Penal Code: Bigamy in Law and Literature
This talk begins with the premise that the Indian Penal Code (1862) served as a surrogate constitution under colonial law. Lacking a framework for civil rights, the Law Commissioners sought to bring clarity to the law by supplementing the criminal code with extensive notes and "illustrations." While the IPC aspired to universality in substantive law, the illustrations, in practice, worked in opposition to this goal. Using hypothetical narratives, the illustrations painted a portrait of Indians as habitually criminal and unruly in their appetites and affections. The tension between the IPC’s universalist rhetoric and its persistent recourse to racial difference is exemplified in the laws dealing with marriage. Focusing especially on bigamy, the talk will examine how the threat of colonial contamination both worked to discipline the Indian population and to reinforce marital normativity in England.

Where

Louis A. Simpson International Building, Room A71

Princeton, NJ 08544, United States

Speakers

Leila Neti's profile photo

Leila Neti

Irma and Jay Price Professor of English

Occidental College

Leila Neti is the Irma and Jay Price Professor of English at Occidental College.  She specializes in Victorian literature, contemporary Anglophone literature, and law and literature.  Her book Colonial Law in India and the Victorian Imagination (Cambridge UP, 2021) explores the shared cultural logic of both legal opinions and novels during the Victorian era. She is currently co-editing (with Marco Wan) The Cambridge Handbook of Postcolonial Law and Literature. Her published articles have appeared in various journals and edited collections.

Hosted By

Program in South Asian Studies | View More Events
Co-hosted with: Princeton Institute for International & Regional Studies, Program in South Asian Studies (OWNER)