Kriti Kapila, "Nullius The Anthropology of Ownership, Sovereignty, and the Law in India," (University of Chicago Press, 2022)

Nullius is an award-winning anthropological account of the troubled status of ownership in India and its consequences for our understanding of sovereignty and social relations. Though property rights and ownership are said to be a cornerstone of modern law, in the Indian case they are often a spectral presence. Kapila offers a detailed study of paradigms where proprietary relations have been erased, denied, misappropriated.  The book examines three forms of negation, where the Indian state de facto adopted doctrines of terra nullius (in the erasure of indigenous title), res nullius (in acquiring museum objects), and, controversially, corpus nullius (in denying citizens ownership of their bodies under biometrics). The result is a pathbreaking reconnection of questions of property, exchange, dispossession, law, and sovereignty.Nullius is the winner of the 2024 Bernard S. Cohn Prize,  Association of Asian Studies. South Asian Studies Podcast Indian History Podcast Indian Anthropology Podcast Nullius by Kapila Property rights in India Ownership and sovereignty in India Anthropological study of India Terra nullius in Indian law Res nullius and Indian museum objects Corpus nullius and biometrics in India Dispossession in Indian history Indian state and indigenous erasure Sovereignty and social relations in India Indian law and property rights Award-winning Indian anthropology book Bernard S. Cohn Prize winner Indian legal anthropology Modern law and property in India Anthropological accounts of ownership Indian state and citizen rights Museum acquisitions and Indian heritage South Asian legal and social studies Exchange and dispossession in India Sovereignty studies in South Asia