Krishnamurti's case : child guardianship and sexuality in colonial India

This thesis examines the 1912 Besant v. Narayaniah case as a microhistory of colonial anxieties over perceived sexual deviance, race relations and class in India. Prior to becoming active in politics in 1913, the prominent Theosophist Annie Besant was involved in a lawsuit brought against her by Jid...

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Main Author: Tan, Fidellithy
Other Authors: Jessica Bridgette Hinchy
Format: Final Year Project
Language:English
Published: Nanyang Technological University 2021
Subjects:
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/10356/147256
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Institution: Nanyang Technological University
Language: English
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spelling sg-ntu-dr.10356-1472562023-03-11T20:12:10Z Krishnamurti's case : child guardianship and sexuality in colonial India Tan, Fidellithy Jessica Bridgette Hinchy School of Humanities JHinchy@ntu.edu.sg Humanities::History Humanities::History::Asia This thesis examines the 1912 Besant v. Narayaniah case as a microhistory of colonial anxieties over perceived sexual deviance, race relations and class in India. Prior to becoming active in politics in 1913, the prominent Theosophist Annie Besant was involved in a lawsuit brought against her by Jiddu Narayaniah. Narayaniah’s two sons had been in the custody of Besant since 1909, due to the theosophist Charles Webster Leadbeater identifying the older son, the future Indian philosopher Jiddu Krishnamurti, as the next World Teacher at a young age. While the court initially ruled in favour of Narayaniah, Besant would succeed in the subsequent appeal and regain custody of the boys. The case was sensationally covered in the press, due to Leadbeater’s supposed homosexuality, as well as widespread local support for Narayaniah. Through a close reading of newspaper articles and legal records, this thesis argues that the discourse surrounding the case reveals how colonial judicial intervention in child custody was propelled by concerns over sexuality and race. By examining conceptions of childhood, anxieties over homosexuality and colonial networks, this microhistory provides insight into how these multiple strands converged in early twentieth century colonial India. Bachelor of Arts in History 2021-03-31T07:30:47Z 2021-03-31T07:30:47Z 2021 Final Year Project (FYP) Tan, F. (2021). Krishnamurti's case : child guardianship and sexuality in colonial India. Final Year Project (FYP), Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. https://hdl.handle.net/10356/147256 https://hdl.handle.net/10356/147256 en application/pdf Nanyang Technological University
institution Nanyang Technological University
building NTU Library
continent Asia
country Singapore
Singapore
content_provider NTU Library
collection DR-NTU
language English
topic Humanities::History
Humanities::History::Asia
spellingShingle Humanities::History
Humanities::History::Asia
Tan, Fidellithy
Krishnamurti's case : child guardianship and sexuality in colonial India
description This thesis examines the 1912 Besant v. Narayaniah case as a microhistory of colonial anxieties over perceived sexual deviance, race relations and class in India. Prior to becoming active in politics in 1913, the prominent Theosophist Annie Besant was involved in a lawsuit brought against her by Jiddu Narayaniah. Narayaniah’s two sons had been in the custody of Besant since 1909, due to the theosophist Charles Webster Leadbeater identifying the older son, the future Indian philosopher Jiddu Krishnamurti, as the next World Teacher at a young age. While the court initially ruled in favour of Narayaniah, Besant would succeed in the subsequent appeal and regain custody of the boys. The case was sensationally covered in the press, due to Leadbeater’s supposed homosexuality, as well as widespread local support for Narayaniah. Through a close reading of newspaper articles and legal records, this thesis argues that the discourse surrounding the case reveals how colonial judicial intervention in child custody was propelled by concerns over sexuality and race. By examining conceptions of childhood, anxieties over homosexuality and colonial networks, this microhistory provides insight into how these multiple strands converged in early twentieth century colonial India.
author2 Jessica Bridgette Hinchy
author_facet Jessica Bridgette Hinchy
Tan, Fidellithy
format Final Year Project
author Tan, Fidellithy
author_sort Tan, Fidellithy
title Krishnamurti's case : child guardianship and sexuality in colonial India
title_short Krishnamurti's case : child guardianship and sexuality in colonial India
title_full Krishnamurti's case : child guardianship and sexuality in colonial India
title_fullStr Krishnamurti's case : child guardianship and sexuality in colonial India
title_full_unstemmed Krishnamurti's case : child guardianship and sexuality in colonial India
title_sort krishnamurti's case : child guardianship and sexuality in colonial india
publisher Nanyang Technological University
publishDate 2021
url https://hdl.handle.net/10356/147256
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