Never before has family law come under such a heightened discourse in India and immense global scrutiny. Judgments delivered by the higher judiciary and law/policy changes have recently informed, shaped and re-drawn the contours of family law on a wide range of issues including physical and mental cruelty within marriage, adultery, child custody, adoption, surrogacy, financial arrangements within marriage and upon divorce, succession, inheritance and property rights. Most such issues have been couched within the normative model of a hetero-patriarchal family. In such a context, authoring a book on family law and capturing the essence of its current complexities and nuances is a Herculean task that has been accomplished by Malavika Rajkotia, in her seminal work Intimacy Undone.
A typical textbook on family law contains a detailed discussion on statutory provisions, along with their historical background, interspersed with judicial interpretations of the same. It is usually a narrative of law as it exists and applied. However, Intimacy Undone is highly refreshing in its unconventional approach in discussing some of the most contested issues in family law. It combines sound academic research with a law practitioner’s experiences, ensconced in a gender perspective. While meandering through the labyrinths of family law in India and critically analysing their far-reaching consequences, the book brings alive to the reader compelling facts about court room dynamics, complex negotiations with clients outside the court room, the many pressures faced by women and men trapped in unhappy marriages, the intensely adversarial social and legal battles along with their emotional ramifications, the litigants’ anxieties and priorities, judges’ dilemmas and perspectives, and lawyers’ concerns and strategies. This insightful perspective that a law practitioner alone can bring to the fore, makes the book invaluable.
Where did one last come across a book on family law that is interspersed with vivid descriptions of the lived realities of ordinary men and women including the author’s own mamaji (maternal uncle) and his tryst with a failed marriage? Since when have we read, in a text on family law, John Milton’s letter to the British Parliament in 1643 passionately advocating the right of every man to divorce his wife (stemming from his anger and loneliness on being deserted by his wife), Bertrand Russell’s suggestion of freeing marriage from morals by free licensing of extra-marital relations (by men), and the conservative President Rajendra Prasad’s anxiety in preserving custom rather than improving women’s rights through the Hindu Code Bill, coupled with the author’s frank and vivacious critique to each of their responses (pp. 9-12)? How many of us knew that Caroline Norton was instrumental for the three significant legislative reforms in English family law in the 1800s? And that the trigger was her personal loss of various matrimonial rights including child custody and property rights, exacerbated by a loss of reputation when her husband created a controversy over her friendship with the erstwhile Prime Minister of England, Lord Melbourne? (pp. 3-4). Can one really be blamed then, for finding this book not only informative and insightful, but also a compelling and fascinating read?