Rohit De

Mr. De s research will compare the approaches of Western European courts to the Indian Supreme Court on the question of cultural rights for Muslim minorities. Battles over identity are issues often fought in the public sphere through uneasy political relationships and marginalization of minorities, but such battles can also have their roots in a court of law. This has been increasingly true for Muslim minorities. While the Indian state attempts to create legal distinctions for the exercise of cultural rights, such as the existence of separate family courts, European courts tend to leave all cultural expression in the private sphere, even going so far as to ban headscarves in French public schools.