Colonial justice in British India Elizabeth Kolsky

By:

Kolsky, Elizabeth

Material type: Text

TextLanguage: English Series: Cambridge studies in Indian history and society ; 17.Publication details: Cambridge ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 2010.Description: xi, 252 pages : illustrations, maps ; 24 cmISBN:

9780521190787

Subject(s):

DDC classification:

954.035 KOL

Contents:

White peril : law and lawlessness in early colonial India -- Citizens, subjects, and subjection to law : codification and the legal construction of racial differences -- Indian human nature : evidence, experts, and the elusive pursuit of truth -- One scale of justice for the planter and another for the coolie : law and violence on the Assam tea plantations -- A judicial scandal : the imperial conscience and the race against empire.

Summary: This book examines the lesser-known history of white violence in colonial India. By foregrounding crimes committed by a mostly forgotten cast of European characters - planters, paupers, soldiers and sailors - the author argues that violence was not an exceptional but an ordinary part of British rule in the subcontinent. Despite the pledge of equality, colonial legislation and the practices of white judges, juries and police placed most Europeans above the law, literally allowing them to get away with murder. The failure to control these unruly whites revealed how the weight of race and the imperatives of command imbalanced the scales of colonial justice.

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Holdings
Item type	Current library	Collection	Call number	Status	Date due	Barcode
General Books	CUTN Central Library History & Geography	Non-fiction	954.035 KOL (Browse shelf(Opens below))	Available		36401

White peril : law and lawlessness in early colonial India --
Citizens, subjects, and subjection to law : codification and the legal construction of racial differences --

Indian human nature : evidence, experts, and the elusive pursuit of truth --

One scale of justice for the planter and another for the coolie : law and violence on the Assam tea plantations --

A judicial scandal : the imperial conscience and the race against empire.

This book examines the lesser-known history of white violence in colonial India. By foregrounding crimes committed by a mostly forgotten cast of European characters - planters, paupers, soldiers and sailors - the author argues that violence was not an exceptional but an ordinary part of British rule in the subcontinent. Despite the pledge of equality, colonial legislation and the practices of white judges, juries and police placed most Europeans above the law, literally allowing them to get away with murder. The failure to control these unruly whites revealed how the weight of race and the imperatives of command imbalanced the scales of colonial justice.

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