Government

The Last Jury Trial in India

It’s April, 1959, a respected naval commander comes back from time at sea to find out that his wife is having an affair. Despondent and angry, he drives to the apartment of his wife’s lover to talk to him. The lover ends up dead. The murder trial of Commander Kawas Nanavati captivated Bombay, but when the jury verdict came out, many were outraged. They thought the jury system was to blame. The trial came to be known as “The Last Jury Trial in India” and it became a lightning rod for concerns about the jury being corrupted by prejudice and the media. In this four-part series, Sonali Chakravarti, a professor of political theory at Wesleyan University, follows the idea of trial by jury from colonial India to the drafting of the Constitution to India’s courts today, and asks what is lost when ordinary people no longer decide who is guilty. Find more information on the series at https://lastjurytrialpodcast.com/

Latest Episodes:

Episode 1: The Pulse of the People Nov 13, 2026

Show notes

It’s April, 1959, a respected naval commander comes back from time at sea to find out that his wife is having an affair. Despondent and angry, he drives to the apartment of his wife’s lover to talk to him. The lover ends up dead. The murder trial of Commander Kawas Nanavati captivated Bombay because it had everything—sex, betrayal, intrigue. When the jury verdict came out, many were outraged and they thought the jury system was to blame. The trial came to be known as “The Last Jury Trial in India” because it heralded the end of the jury in India and became a lightning rod for concerns about the jury being corrupted by prejudice and the media.

The Last Jury Trial in India is a four-part series hosted by Sonali Chakravarti, professor of government at Wesleyan University.

Find more information on the series at https://lastjurytrialpodcast.com/

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Trailer: The Last Jury Trial in India Nov 13, 2026

Show notes

Trailer for The Last Jury Trial in India is a four-part series hosted by Sonali Chakravarti, professor of government at Wesleyan University.

Find more information on the series at https://lastjurytrialpodcast.com/

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.