Law & Legal Studies

Reclaiming personhood: subjecthood and property relations in Hindu succession laws

Reclaiming personhood: subjecthood and property relations in Hindu succession laws

This essay tries to problematise Hindu intestate succession and inheritance by using Hegel’s personality theory of property.

Author

Dikshit Sarma Bhagabati, Student, Jindal Global Law School, O.P. Jindal Global University, Sonipat, Haryana, India.

Summary

This essay tries to problematise Hindu intestate succession and inheritance by using Hegel’s personality theory of property. In Hegel’s conception, property is a prerequisite for the self-actualisation of individuals.

The abstract, self-conscious person ontologically acquires a sense of being by externally manifesting its personhood in property. This forms the basis for a general right to property. Using this Hegelian framework, I will focus on the dynamics of women’s personhood in Hindu personal laws, primarily in the Hindu Joint Family and the property-holding unit of the coparcenary.


Published in: NUALS Law Journal

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