From: "Frank Conlon" <conlon@U.WASHINGTON.EDU>
To: <H-ASIA@H-NET.MSU.EDU>
Sent: Saturday, July 09, 2011 3:28 AM
Subject: H-ASIA: Court reports and Burial Grounds in Colonial Calcutta--two
queries
> H-ASIA
> July 8, 2011
>
> Query on two issues of colonial courts in 19th-20th Century Calcutta and
> on the status and maintenance of burial grounds in Calcutta
> ************************************************************************
> Ed. note: I do hope some of you with better knowledge of the structure of
> courts in colonial Bengal may share your answer with Karen as well as with
> the list; and similarly, those 'old Calcutta hands' who might have some
> insight on conversion of burial grounds. FFC
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> From: Karen Rodriguez'G <rodrigzg@illinois.edu>
>
> Hello,
>
> I address here the collective wisdom of H-ASIA members. I have two
> separate queries, both of which have come up in the final revisions of my
> dissertation.
>
> First, is anyone familiar with the court system in British Calcutta in the
> late 19th and early 20th century? Would Alipore courts be a division of
> the Calcutta High Court? I'm looking to track down litigation cases
> involving the Durgapore burial ground c. 1900-1903. In the Calcutta
> Municipal Admin Reports for 1903/1904 there is a vague reference to this
> burial ground's closure being the subject of "much litigation in the
> Alipore courts." Might this show up in the Indian Law Reports-Calcutta
> series (or does it have to be a case on appeal for it to do so), or the
> Calcutta Weekly Notes? Or is there another legal reporting series I should
> be looking for (and that's available through interlibrary loan or
> digitally)?
>
> Second, I am trying to ascertain how the old Kasia Bagan (Muslim) burial
> ground in Calcutta was turned into Woodburn Park between 1903 and 1910.
> Following a late 19th century trend in London of converting disused burial
> grounds into small public gardens, the local government in Calcutta in an
> effort to provide open space in northern Calcutta was considering the same
> idea. In the Calcutta admin reports there is reference to the municipality
> obtaining part of the old burial ground (which had been closed in 1859) to
> convert into a park, but I am puzzled that there seems to have been no
> objection or debate over this (although it seems to have stalled, with no
> reference as to why), particularly given my reading of Muslim waqf
> law--i.e., that waqf land used as a cemetery could not be used for any
> other purpose. I admit I am far from an expert on Muslim burial law, but I
> find this situation curious as there were cases in the British Indian
> courts involving the question of waqf/burial grounds, specifically where
> the court found that a landowner could not build on land that had been
> used historically as public burial ground, even if it was owned privately.
> I have exhausted several sources, including S.W. Goode's (1916) 'Municipal
> Calcutta,' the Calcutta Gazette, etc. Goode particularly doesn't mention
> any problems with this 'conversion' but his rendition is highly suspect as
> he was serving on the Calcutta Improvement Trust at the time; moreover,
> his neutral treatment of the moving of a burning ghat in 1864, which was
> actually quite controversial.
>
> Any help on these questions would be most appreciated!
>
> Sincerely,
>
> Karen Rodriguez'G
> Doctoral Candidate,
> University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
> rodrigzg@illinois.edu
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