Imperial structures and insurgent agents: Historical reflections on lawyers and social movements in South Asia

This chapter argues that lawyers under British colonial rule actively advanced the cause of greater Indian participation in governance by leveraging symbolic capital through their association with the legal field, and through their associational efforts in other important arenas, including the press and the political system. The chapter demonstrates the significant contribution of lawyers to a broader political movement by focusing on the formation and trajectory of the Indian National Congress. Colonial legal institutions provided significant discursive and institutional political opportunities and threats that structured the emergence of social movements. The history of lawyers and social movements in South Asia illuminates the repressive and redemptive qualities of the law, and the successes and failures of tools of resistance. The productive alliances between colonial legal professionals and adjacent fields such as the press in constructing movement frames remain relevant for informing contemporary theories of law, social movements, and organizations under authoritarian conditions. It also showcases how the colonial reproduces itself in postcolonial cultures of power, law and resistance.