LEGAL PLURALISM IN SOUTH ASIA: THE SUSTAINABLE ROLE OF CUSTOMARY LAW IN MODERN LEGAL SYSTEMS

Abstract

This research explores the phenomenon of legal pluralism in the South Asian legal system with special emphasis on the continued relevance aspect and resilience of customary law within modern legal frameworks. Despite the formal establishment of state-tuned legal systems derived largely from colonial legacies and aftermath postcolonial codification, customary norms—rooted in diverse indigenous traditions with religious practices, and community eccentric adjudication which continue to shape the lived legal realities of millions across the region. So by drawing on comparative analyses from jurisdictions in India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Nepal, and Sri Lanka basically this study evokes the complex interplay between state made law and non-state powerful orders & customs. The paper examines how customary law works both in complement to and in time of political tension with formal legal systems particularly in areas such as personal laws land tenure regardless resolution and access to justice. This paper further investigates how courts and legislatures negotiate the legitimacy and admissibility of customary norms, principles and how such negotiations are influenced by factors including identity politics, rural-urban sub divides, gender dynamics and legal reform agendas for a long time. This paper further investigates how courts and legislatures negotiate the legitimacy and admissibility of customary rituals including principles and how such negotiations are influenced by factors including identity politics, religion, rural-urban sub-divides, gender dynamics, social justice and legal reform agendas for a long time. It further highlights how customary governance and indigenous regional jurisprudence interact with formal laws how legal hybridity shapes normative authority representing pluralism and how these frameworks collectively influence state legitimacy of pluralistic society and access to justice.