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The Emergence of the Female Criminal in India: Infanticide and Survival Under the Raj by Padma Anagol Female crime was often part of a limited range of strategies for survival available to subordinated groups in oppressive situations.Infanticide was not somethingwhichwas undertakenlightly,by cold, heartless women.Whileno-one supportedchildkilling, womenin suchsituations were faced with a stark choice: kill the child and survive, or allow it to live, knowing that this would not ensure the survival of either mother or child. women's options were limited by social customs that restricted their access to remarriage; it was often an unavoidable survival strategy for widows. EMERGENCE OF THE INFANTICIDAL WOMAN InfanticideAct in 1870 blame placed exclusively on the woman, unlike with female infanticide where it was on the leader of the group involved a public debate began after Indian-language newspapers published the growing number of convictions for the crime of infanticide. Sentence was death. womens groups got together to protest this. argued that men arent blameless. Social problems need to be dealt with home for widows etc. infanticideoccurred when either male or female children were born out of wedlock, more often than not to widows.different from female infanticide. Female infanticide was considered, by the rulers during the East India Cos reign, as an act arising out of a pernicious Hindu custom practised by Rajput clans so efforts were made to dissuade the Rajputs. But infanticide was considered murder. Female infanticide considered a social practice so head of household accountable. Infanticide was by woman addition blame because of her depraved and perverted maternal instincts By the 1870s the Bombay government was able to detect infanticide through the system-atic registration of the pregnancies of unmarried women and widows, the investigation of unusual deaths of infants, and close checks on the move-ments of midwives and prostitutes, all boosted by promises of rewards and promotions to police officials

Infanticide could provide the authoritieswith exemplarynarratives of the superiorityof the civilizedWest over the depraved sentiments and debased civilization of the East Discussions about infanticide and its direct link to prohibition of widow remarriage presented an opportunity for the British authorities to develop a strategy of cultural control The Widow Remarriage Act of 1856 retained penaltyof capitalpunishment for infanticide. The judiciary attempted to pressure Indian society into practising widow remarriage Female offenders provided an entry into the forbidden space, allowing police to intervene where they were normally excluded from the Indian home Indian woman committing infanticide is the opposite of all the values of a good Victorian woman a helpless, tender, and frail creature with every gentle feeling strongly developed in her by nature Judges argued that widows contended, should turn to religion and charitable works with resignation and fortitude like their European counterparts. SOCIETY AND INFANTICIDE Articulaterepresentativesof Indianmale opinion on the subject was Sir T. MadhavaRao Rao argued that infanticide was committed by young widows, denied the rights of marital life by caste rules, who being youthful could not overcome their passions and instincts. This led to conception, delivery and ultimately the crime itself. The motive, as he understood it, was not a profit-seeking one like many other crimes. Rather, the mother's dread of social opinion was so great that her natural Infanticideand Survival affectionfor the childwas suppressed, leading her to sacrificeits life in order to escape censure. Thus, he argued, 'her respect for social opinion is much stronger than even her affection for her child' Indianmen shifted responsibility away from Hindu religion and society and fixed it solely on the woman said that they killed their children in a temporary state of insanity after child birth, that they were lliterate and didnt know morality or relig ion

MadhavaRao instead of sentencing the woman to death, make an example of her, put her in jail publicly so other women know the consequences. The public nature will be exactly what the woman in question wanted to avoid, which is why she killed her child, so he thought it an apt punishment. Indian men uninterested in combatting the social problems that lead to infanticide. Peshwa courts (pre-British courts under indigenous rulers in Maharashtra) Adulterouswives were punished and under the Peshwas, at worst, driven out if town. Usually, the punishment was a fine for an amount dependingon the financialcircumstances of the woman.However, there are no recorded instances of women who aborted foetuses or committed infanticide being punished severely.Infanticidewas more usually dealt with by local communities through caste and village councils, and this was the situation which the British encountered Even though Hindu religion and morality stressed the greatest restraint on the conduct of widows, whenever there was a lapse, customary practice had established a norm whereby as long as the widow concealedthe fact of her unchastity,she continued to be tolerated by society. This attitude resulted in indians asking brits to give lenient sentences to the accused women. A child out of wedlock was a problem for the whole family excommunication from caste. Also economic problems this child would compete with the legitimate ones for property. Who would get it? So family often made the decision to kill the child. Sometimes a man did it. Often the mother was made to. But inequality in sentencing.Male offenders were charged only in the role of an abettor under Section 303 relating to the secret disposal of the body. The mother, on the other hand, was held solely responsible for the crime. She was charged separately under three sections: Section 301 - for culpable homicide amounting to murder; Section 302 - for exposure and/or abandonment of the child; and Section 303 - for secret disposal of the body.The essentialprinciple governing the law appears to have been that the mother alone had a motive to commit child murder. The frameworkof the Penal Code forcedthe motheron to the defensive, which meant that if she implicated someone else she had to provide the evidence for it. This clause made it difficult for women to implicate male offenders, as it was very unlikely that a woman who had recently delivered a child would have had the opportunity to observe anything happening around her.

POSITION OF THE INFANTICIAL WOMAN It wasnt about social opinion it was a matter of survival. Raising an illegitimate child was not an option she would end up with begging and prostitution as her further options. Many cases of infanticide were reported during years of famine and plague, where women needed to make tough choices would she eat or the baby? Women killed illegitimate children for fear of abandonment, of being beaten to death, of social ostracism. Desertion of wives seems to have been a common practice at least among the lower castes in Maharashtra and sometimesamongthe Marathas. In such cases the woman would only survive if she could find employment, which she wouldnt if she had a baby to nurse. Infanticidal women in the nineteenth century, whether elite (Brahmin) or subordinate (Mang and Mahar) in caste were undeniably the lowest in the gender hierarchy - only sexual value to their lovers. Once it turned into reproductivevalue, women of both classes were rejectedand denied any form of shelter or privilege Women who conceived as a result of rape and committed the offence of infanticide did not benefit from any category of mitigating circumstance. Close link between women though other women seemed to understand what they were going through cases of grandmothers, aunts etc being arrestedon chargesof murder,or abetment of murder, or of disposal of the body of the child.

CONCLUSION Infanticidal woman was a big part of the female criminal. the trials of infanticidal women offered an opportunity for officials to bolster authority by asserting moral superiority of the English. Infanticide, though it existed before British rule, had been handled with a degree of sensitivity by traditional legal processes and customary practices more attuned to the circumstancessurroundingthe deed.

Indian male commentators were more preoccupied with asserting that scriptures in no way sanctioned infanticide than with attending to the circumstancesof Indian women, especiallywidows. Child killing,they argued, was a result of women's ignorance of Hinduism. Discourse of the indigenous elite reveals that they believed that female unchastity and immoral behaviour by the widow which had to be punished rather than the crime itself It was in this period that we see the beginnings of a feminist consciousness in India Indian female reformers drew attention to male culpability and the circumstances around the infanticide. They also campaigned for widow remarriage and homes for widows. Law, Custom and Statutory Social Reform: The Hindu Widows Remarriage Act of 1856 Lucy Carroll 1. When the British assumed judicial powers/responsibilities in the late 18 th century, they guaranteed a policy of noninterference in personal laws that would be administered in accordance with the practices of religious communities. This guarantee was effectively revoked by legislation expanding the powers of the courts and the jurisdiction of the legal system. The Courts thus administered textual Hindu law in areas relating to marriage, inheritance, succession and adoption. Pundits were appointed to interpret the law; later, in 1864, the British relied on their own interpretations of the texts. It was difficult to prove custom in the face of the judicial presumption that textual Hindu law applied. This led to the erosion of customary law. Hindu law as administered by the British courts could be altered by statute, because the Government had the legislative power to alter personal law. Thus, Hindu law, customary law and statutory law existed. Under Hindu law administered by the British courts, widow remarriage among high castes was prohibited and the children of such marriages were illegitimate. The social reform movement of Pundit Vidyasagar and others thus sought legal sanction; the Hindu Widow Remarriage Act of 1856 was thus enacted. The lower, shudra castes who represented 80% of the Hindu population neither practised child marriage not prohibited the remarriage of widows. According to the Dayabhaga and Mitakshara schools, a widows right to her husbands property existed only during her lifetime. Under both schools, only a chaste wife is entitled to succeed her husbands estate. She only forfeits her right to such estate by living an unchaste life. Section 2 of the Act suggested that a widow that remarried would automatically forfeit her right to her deceased husbands estate. The problem arose as to the rule applicable to widows of those castes that had previously permitted widow remarriage according to their own pre-existing customs. The High Courts of Bengal, Bombay and Madras held that the Act would apply to all Hindu widows, regardless of whether the validity of their remarriage was derived from the Act or from customary law. These courts upheld brahminical values. This furthered the process of brahminisation of the low castes. The Allahabad High Court, however, maintained that the Act would not apply to individuals who were, prior to the passing of the Act, permitted by customary law to remarry. The Court maintained, through its cases, that when custom permitted remarriage, there was no question of Hindu law necessitating forfeiture. Unless, of course, it is established that the customary law itself provides for forfeiture of her deceased husbands estate. This view remained intact because of the power of precedent. Har Saran Das v. Nandi: a widow belonging to the sweeper caste was permitted by custom to remarry without forfeiture of her husbands property; the Allahab ad High Court upheld the same. The Court did not require proof of custom in this case. Several anomalies existed in Hindu law; administered by the British, it contained elements of customary law, shastric law, case law and English legal concepts/notions. Besides the erosion of customary law, the Act resulted in the inclusion of castes/communities that were not clearly defined as Hindu, but accepted some Hindu practices. In cases where it was unclear as to whether the widow was to be considered Hindu for the purposes of the Act, the Courts decreed that according to Hindu law (independent of the statute), she would forfeit her estate. This was grossly inaccurate as Hindu law did not even contemplate remarriage. According to the half his body metaphor, widows rights to succession existed because she is considered to be half the body of her deceased husband (Dayabhaga school). Thus, her estate was believed to continue only as long as she continued to be the wife of the deceased. The Bombay High Court (J. Farran) adopted a literal interpretation of the Act, without referring to either customary or Hindu law. The Act was suggested to apply to all Hindu widows regardless of special caste customs. It was read as a law of universal applicability. The Court severely criticised the interpretation of the Allahabad High Court. Justice Ranade also asserted that the Act provided no room for customary law, even though he recognised that castes permitting remarriage were not an exception to the rule. The Act must, instead, be considered an enabling provision for 20% of the Hindu population who, prior to 1856, did not recognise widow remarriage. Hindu law was directed at the high castes, thus it was inappropriate to apply reasoning based on general principles of Hindu law to the shudras. Thus, strict Hindu law cannot be properly applied to castes that permit remarriage. Castes that permit remarriage do not recognise the principles of Hindu orthodoxy.

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18. The Madras High Court also reiterated the fact that, as per the Act, no plea of custom can violate an express statutory enactment. 19. Social Consequences: varied according to geographical jurisdictions. 20. Rajbansis: question of whether they were sufficiently hinduised or whether they were ruled by family/tribal customs. In several cases, the Calcutta High Court indiscriminately applied Hindu law, suggesting that custom could not be proved as the community had no history. Rajbansi widows were prevented from retaining the property of their deceased husbands upon remarriage. The Allahabad High Court criticised this decision, suggesting that the Court had not administered the law of the parties before it. The view of the Calcutta High Court seems to be incompatible with existing ethnographic evidence. The judicial imposition of Hindu law speeded up the process of Brahminisation/Hinduisation of castes on the fringes of Hinduism. 21. Proof of custom was only required in cases where custom was at variance with textual Hindu law, not in cases where the two rules coincided. 22. The Act was thus turned into an instrument for the propagation and imposition of orthodox Hindu values. 23. Reasons for the preference for orthodox Hindu law: (a) Judges shared a Brahminical view of Indian society; most Indian judges were themselves Brahmins. Judges were far removed from the lives of the lower orders of society (the beliefs/practices of the shudras who permitted remarriage). (b) Ease and convenience empirical investigations of customary law were time consuming. 24. Problem with the Allahabad position: it preserved but also froze customary law as a result of the judicial recognition of custom. Custom, once recorded, loses its ability to change. 25. Effect of the Act: few women of the upper castes availed of its provisions, low caste widows found themselves subject to the forfeiture clause of Section 2, even if their remarriage was sanctioned by custom. 26. The Act has been superseded by the Hindu Code legislation of independent India. The Formation of India: Notes on the History of an idea Irfan Habib 1. 2. 3. 4. Benedict Andersons imagined communities dealt with imagined reconstructions of the past on the basis of newly acquired national consciousness in modern times. Communities of race, religion and caste are as much an imagined phenomena as the nation. Especially in India, endeavours are made to reconstruct histories that justify ones particular attachments. There can be no justification for doctored history; it poses a danger to their moral fibre and capacity for development. In India, there exists the sub-conscious desire to be Aryan and to claim that India is the homeland of the Aryans. Race and language in India: Humans in the subcontinent existed much earlier than the period of Indo-European and Dravidian languages. There is no established link between race and language. Indo-European languages came not through mass migration but through the movement of small dominant groups. Claims of the Sangh Parivar, that the IndoEuropean languages are indigenous to India are thus fallacious. Yet, assertions that there exist certain indigenous tribes are Indian, to the exclusion of the majority of the population is an import from the New World that is unhistorical in the case of India. Human history forms a unity; our present territorial limits are of relatively recent creation. Indian consciousness was absent during the period of the Vedas; their geographic and cultural worlds intersect with those of the Avesta. The listing of the 16 Mahajanapadas during the 6 th Century BC began to suggest the notion of belonging to one larger entity to which these principalities belonged. Perceptions of India as a entity marked by social and religious institutions began to be present during the Mauryan Period. The rulers enforced the process of cultural integration, at least among the upper strata. Thus, ideas of the native and the foreigner emerged. There exists a present day tendency to derive Indian heritage from Hindu civilisation. The expansion of Muslim communities and the rise of the Sultanate gave new enrichment to the concept of India. Sindhu in Sanskrit became Hindu in Iranian; Hindu was Persian for the inhabitant of the trans -Indus people. Hindustan means Indian land, not the land of the Hindus. Medieval Persian and Arabic users of this term attributed to its people a single faith and culture overlooking its variety. From the 14th Century onwards, the term Hindi was used for the general category of Indians, irrespective of religion. A composite culture thus became a distinguishing feature of India. During the period of Akbar, the idea that India is home to different traditions interacting with one another, was reinforced. Prerequisites for the transformation to a modern nation: (a) Indias culture thus became multi-religious or supra-religious. (b) Centralizing tendencies of the Sultanate/Mughals increased the image of a politically unified entity (Tara Chand a sense of larger allegiance). Political histories of India began to be written. Some pre-requisites of nationhood had thus been established when the British arrived. By 1757, India was not just a geographical unit, but a political unit and a cultural entity too. These ideas did not make India a nation. Ideas of nation, though variable, suggest the widespread consciousness of identity. Stalin: peasant question, a mass diffusion of the sense of belonging to ones nation, transcending other loyalties. J.S. Mill: the widespread notion that a country must be governed by those belonging to it. The idea of India as a country existed to some extent only among the upper strata of society. It did not override parochial identities. Ram Mohan Roy: people were divided along caste lines. Social Reform Movements: tried to create the foundation for nationhood.

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18. Western Influence: French Revolution (liberty, equality, fraternity), Christian missionaries, the English language opened the doors to western humanistic thought. 19. National consciousness through modernisation; the diffusion of modern ideas ad social values among wider sections of the people. 20. The Indian National Congress: (a) criticism of British economic policies, (b) demand for representation in administration, (c) aspirations for the participation of the educated classes. 21. 1931: Vision of an independent state (fundamental rights resolution of the Congress). 22. The struggle against colonial rule involved the masses (peasants, workers). Mills condition was met when the idea that the British had to be removed was infused into the masses. 23. Communalism in India inevitably developed alongside nationalism. Gandhi asserted that secularism and unity is at the heart of nationalism; it cannot be based on religious identities. 24. Nehru noted that once the mass of the people associated their majority religion with the nation, communalism was unavoidable. The Imaginary Institution of India Sudipta Kaviraj 1. 2. India is not an object of discovery, but of invention. It was created by the nationalist imagination during the 19 th century. It is important to realise that the exact form this reality took was one of several possibilities. Nationalism as a Historical Reality: India is a historical object that must be considered in terms of the contingency of its origin, as opposed to the mythology that has been constructed around it. Nationalism must be considered from a history outside that which it has given itself. This imagined history is not fixed on a permanent axis; it shifts slightly in accordance with the demands of various political ideologies/periods. Despite internal variations, there exists a clearly identifiable narrative that can be called the Nationalist History of Nationalism. Nationalist historiography: compilation of political events; commitment to an account which created one thread of thought from a wide array of ideologically diverse events. The nature of this kind of nationalism is necessarily homogenising the main purpose of nationalism was to identify a certain level of historical similarity. While it did not deny the existence of other strands, it emphasised points of similarity. Recent historiography: trend from political history towards cultural history; from events to discourses. One particular element of discourse is the narrative. A history of homogeneity i being replaced by a history of difference. Nationalism stitches together groups or communities of people who, formerly, did not consider themselves as having a single political identity. Indian culture is rich in narrative traditions that perform political functions of producing and maintainging cohesion. Religious sects also maintain their internal cohesion through narratives. It is hardly surprising that the nationalist movement used narrative persuasion in a society full of political narratives. Hindu tradition implicitly acknowledges the political character of stories. Ideologies are closely connected to the narrative function; this combination results in historiography. Indian nationalism is thus not merely a historical object but a political object as well. It is the nature of all political ideologies to convert inquiries about it into agendas constructed by it. This movement had to create a sanctioned, official history of itself. This history is an intensely political process that consists of ideas favourable to its political configuration. Politics are constantly at play inside historical accounts. The nature of history is dependent on the question of whom history is written for. These kinds of history require an axis this axis was first the Congress. During this process, nationalists were identified as rational, courageous, wise and incapable of failure. Anachronism: is based on the presumption that earlier periods and cultures were structured like our own in their institutions, practices, discourses, meanings, etc. Thus, the causalities of the modern period are thrown back upon them. Historians tend to forget that there is a requirement of minimal distancing before objects can be described properly. Their accounts are influenced by the temptation to believe that the only function of the past is to produce the present. A common mistake made by historians is the assumption that during early periods of colonisation, anti-colonialism considered the question of how to defeat the British. However, this question is entirely absent in the field of anti-colonial discourse during the early periods. The people took for granted the assumption that although they hated colonial rule, they could not transcend it. They did not see the end of colonial subjection as a historically feasible project. The question of how their civilisation came under British control was very different from that of how it could be politically ended. Problems: (a) anachronism distorts our historical judgment and makes us believe that the question around which the thinking during the early period was structured was the same as that of the later, mature nationalist thought. (b) Anachronism must necessarily believe that the precursor to the later nationalism was a smaller, immature version of the same nationalism. It s problematic to acknowledge a patriotism for something different because in the present context, the two would be politically opposed. Indianness came after nationalism; anachronism pretends that it is an identity existing from immemorial times and thus encourages unjust optimism. People have not actually been used to being Indian for very long and political policies must take into account its recentness. Kaviraj compares Indian nationalism to Italian nationalism. According to Gramsci, history was political propaganda and the preconception that Italy has always been a nation complicates history. The aim of history was to create national unity.

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18. The problem faced by early nationalists was that they had not identified a community to take on the responsibility of opposition to colonialism. Colonialism was a historical precondition to any modern nationalist consciousness. The responsibility was born before the agent (the community). However, this does not mean that political consciousness during the early phase of anti-colonialism did not exist prior to nationalism. Another problem is in assuming that the political can be equated to the nationalist; this is a tool used by nationalist ideology. It thus disallows any opposition to colonialism other than itself. 19. Thus, the consciousness/discourse during the early period, though related to mature nationalism, is distinctly different from it. Anti-colonialism was merely an oppositional attitude and resentment rather than a political-economic rejection of the colonial framework. It was a negative reaction to colonial power. Later, it turned positively into a consciousness of a new identity. This new identity must be imagined into existence. An adequate social base must be found to fit this identity. 20. Nation: The nation is a thing without a past; it is radically modern. It creates subterfuges of antiquity. It does not admit to its own modernity because it makes it vulnerable. 21. Narratives are always related to some sense of self; collective narratives rely on the identification of a collective self. During the early period, there was no definite we to oppose colonialism; communities were based on traditional, segmented social definition. Only later did this we get equated with Indians. The idea of Indianness is itself a historical construct. 22. Construction of India: European writers of the post-enlightenment movement (some romantic) constructed this identity. 17th and 18th century imagery of the Orient affected Indian social discourse and self-images. 23. The pretence of Indian antiquity was entirely necessary and at the same time largely false . The historical process was not as linear as it has been portrayed to be. 24. Bengal: The we of Bengali intellectuals (the educated middle class) was limited and parochial. A programme of opposition required a sense of injustice that was abstract and general, which could be shared by a larger group. Later, this we represented India; the collective self was to include Rajputs, Marathas, Sikhs, etc. 25. Indias boundaries were easier defined by the British (their territories) than by the nationalists as the latters version was based on a more elusive identity. 26. To give itself a history is the most fundamental act of self-identification of a community. The nation was thus created through a narrative contract. Such constructions are fraudulent as they trace the nation back to the Indus Valley Civilisation, when they came into existence only in the 19 th century. The history of India is thus an ideological construct. It is false to say that Xs history covers a period during which X did not exist. We must thus take into account the retrospective structure of historical accounts. 27. Effective History: The history of events lives through their effects. It is impossible to separate the history of occurrences from the history of their effects. 28. Criticism of Bankim Chandra: He does not consider that the Bengalis were conquered because this identity did not exist, yet he traces back Indians to the ancient Aryans. 29. Nationalism, in trying to create a large community that previously existed and must be regained, dismisses earlier forms of community, many of which were often characterised by strong feelings of solidarity and belongingness. Nationalism thus tries to steal their primordiality. Though modern, nationalism m ust speak the traditional language of communities. Nationalism is thus in competition with those identities that precede it. Primordiality indicates an organisation that is so resistant to change as not to be transformed across historical time (antiquity is valued). 30. The region, though culturally more homogenous, is as much a historical construction as the nation is. Language is the most significant criterion in defining regions. Before the arrival of the British, the linguistic map of Bengal was vague. The cultural self-consciousness of Bengal is also characteristically modern in its creation. Elites of Bengal tried to create a high culture Bengali through their experience of British education and the homogenising effect of the press. A norm language was thus created. This resulted in the disappearance of dialects. Thus, even regions and their languages create imagined histories. The supposed dichotomy between a modern nation and an ancient region should be viewed more critically. 31. Regional communities are fuzzy: (a) their identities are not territorial, they are based on religion, language, etc. (b) Traditional communities are not enumerated, as collective will/action was not needed for any purpose. 32. Utilitarian justification for British Rule: provided civilised means of life, modernisation, a stable political order, etc. 33. Nationalism: dealt with the question of how to oppose British rule in practice (organisation). This necessitated the support of a collective we. A nation can only be identified when anti-colonialism becomes nationalism. Enumeration thus becomes important. This we also had great political significance. At one level, it is a coalition of group interests, but on another, it must pretend to be homogenous because of the unprecedentedness of collective action of this sort. Its ideology thus requires it to present itself as a bond of secular interests. 34. A primary means of representing communities is for them to tell stories about themselves. Thus, narrative structures predominate in nationalist discourse. Narratives of this sort provide details about freedom, sacrifice and glory and are vague about ideas of power and equality. It constructs fictive entities/connections. Customs in a Peasant Economy: Women in Colonial Haryana Prem Choudhry 1. Customs in colonial Haryana were restrictive for women as a result of growing patriarchal and economic demands. Customs became more binding with the force of law by the colonial Government.

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The status of women is one of a conflicting nature; women were given high status through bride-price and permission to participate in agricultural activities, but also represented backwardness in forms of female infanticide, resulting in an unfavourable sex ratio. Additionally, women held no positions of power and could not exercise that of decision-making. British administrative policies as well as reformist movements like the Arya Samaj supported these customs. Custom in Haryana was influenced largely by the agricultural castes, particularly the Jats, who were the dominant caste in the area. They were economically and numerically strong, and owned large agricultural land holdings. The social superiority of the Brahmins was absent. Haryana remained backward and under-developed under the British. The economy suffered as a result of famine and floods. Under these conditions, only large land holdings could be economically viable. Agriculture was largely subsistence-based. This resulted in a desire to obtain male progeny. The marked preference for boys over girls represented the dominant social ethos. This resulted in a favourable male sex-ratio. Females were neglected, resulting in various forms of femicide, particularly during periods of famine. At the same time, the hard subsistence level economy resulted in complete dependence on family labour for cultivation. Thus, women were also economic assets. Women worked in the fields as well as in relation to animal husbandry. Jatni women in particular were regarded as economic assets. While agricultural castes encouraged women to work, others, including the Rajputs, did not. Women were in purdah and were considered an economic burden as they were customarily prevented from working. The British regarded women in Punjab in terms of their economic contributions, with respect to land revenue and the general socio-economic stability of the region. They were thus of the opinion that customs preventing women from working were the cause of poverty in Punjab, and they must thus be replaced by more progressive Western social norms. The importance of women in the agrarian economy made marriage an economic necessity. Marriages were arranged keeping in mind the work qualities of women. Bride price was practised among many castes. Females were thus considered a financial drain. Agrarian needs also permitted widow remarriage ( karewa). Brahmins followed the dominant customs as they were mostly landowners and not a priestly class; they did not follow the sanskritic model which did not recognise remarriage. The problem with remarriage was that the widow was usually accepted as a wife by the brothers of her deceased husband. The widows right to remarry was severely restricted and usually required the consent of her deceased husbands family. This custom came to have legal sanction, and was the result of the need to retain landed property within the family. The purpose of these arrangements was to transfer control of the deceased husbands property from the widow to his family. A widow who remarried lost all her rights to property. The limited right of widows posed a threat as they could claim partition of the property on certain grounds, such as when they could not secure the required maintenance due. As long as holdings were undivided, women found it difficult to obtain their share of produce. Alienation of property was the feared result of self-assertion of women, and Government intervention became necessary to prevent the partition of land by widows. The Government thus sought to preserve custom. The British sought to strengthen the hold of existing peasant society over land. Political considerations were thus more important than concern for social progress. This region, with its insecure agricultural conditions, was the primary recruiting ground for the British Indian army. The agricultural interests of recruits families could not be threatened by the demands of widows. Additionally, fragmentation would reduce the economic viability of holdings and reduce revenue supply to the British. Women considered the remarriage custom as repressive, and many protested. Yet, their resistance was suppressed. Customary law of the land was supported by the colonial administration. Remarriage was supported as a progressive feature. The Arya Samaj was supported in this region, because it provided legitimacy from ancient Hindu texts for these customs. This was in sharp contrast with the Brahminical values that prevented widow remarriage. The Widow Remarriage Act of 1956 had no significance in Haryana, as the form of widow remarriage that was customarily practiced was also legally recognised. It was recognised by the Courts. These customs were a system of sexual exploitation of women in forms of polyandry and Haryanas peculiar remarriage custom. Agricultural castes exploited women of the lower castes as well, many taking wives of the lower castes. Women provided assistance in agriculture, while at the same time operating within the male-dominated norms of purdah culture. The ghunghat culture accepted and required womens labour without affording them any freedoms. Education was considered a form of deterioration of the social structure. Women had no rights in decision-making processes. Although women rendered their labour, they had no rights with respect to expenditure. All of a womans property was regarded the property of her husband. Women were not part of the caste/village panchayats. They were completely inferior, secluded and subordinated. There was an apparent contradiction between indices of high and low status of women. Yet, indices of high status like bride price, widow remarriage, economic partnership etc had no relation to the needs of women.

How Secular is Vande Mataram? A.G. Noorani 1. 2. 3. 4. The article deals with the BJPs attempt to make vande mataram, a song originally expressing Hindu nationalism, into an obligatory song. Is this unconstitutional? The song is from Bankim Chandra Chatterjees novel Anand Mat, published in 1882. The Supreme Court has stated that the singing of the national anthem cannot be made obligatory; this applies to vande mataram with even greater force. The BJP and the Samata Party suggested that the song has no religious connotations.

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In 1937, the Congress Working Committee recognised the Muslim communitys objections to certain parts of the song. A poem that needs surgical/political operation cannot command universal acceptance. Noorani considers the historical context in which the song was written the dissolution of the Mughal Empire. The hero of the novel planned an armed rising against the Muslims of Bengal. It talks about the preservation of Hinduism. He recites the song to Vishnu, Kali and Durga. The historical romances of Chatterjee glorified Hindu rebellion against Muslim Rule and showed the Muslims in a poor light. He was fiercely anti-Muslim. This is reflected in the spirit of the song. According to historian R.C. Majumdar, the novel is about a band of sanyasis who devoted their lives to the cause of the motherland. They worshipped their motherland as Goddess Kali. This imagery leaves no doubt that his nationalism was Hindu rather than Indian. His other writings contain outbursts against the subjugation of India by the Muslims. Bankim Chandra converts patriotism into religion and religion into patriotism. The novel was not anti-British. Only two of five stanzas are approved; the third and fourth make references to Kali. The motherland is perceived as Kali, the source of all power and glory. Context: Bengal is identified as a Hindu deity; the concept of the divine motherland emerged. Is such a song really secular? Syed Ali Imam: the suspicion that under the cloak of nationalism, Hindu nationalism is preached becomes a conviction. English education should prevent people from reviving denominalisation. True nationalism considers the feelings and sentiments of all. Muslims also cherish the traditions of their past. The Congress leaders should propose a programme of political advancement that does not demand the sacrifice of the feelings of any religious community. The Congress Working Committee suggested the song be considered apart from the book. The song had become a symbol of national resistance to British imperialism. The song contains a religious ideology that is not in keeping with the ideology of other religious groups. The Congress tried to point out that the modern evolution of certain parts of the song is more important than the consideration of its setting in a historical novel before the national movement began. National songs do not need political surgery; the songs which do, do not win national importance. If the problem were understood in depth, what would emerge is a far greater appreciation of the reasons why the Muslims and the Congress drifted away from each other.

Peasant Uprisings Ranajit Guha 1. Historiography dealing with peasant uprisings began during the period of colonialism. Insurgency was the necessary antithesis of colonialism. This resulted in a tense relationship; the British required a record for the regime to refer to in order to understand the nature and motivations behind any outbreaks of violence in the light of previous experience, and thus be able to suppress it. This is how the first accounts of peasant uprisings during the period of British rule were written (in the form of administrative documents). These were primary sources. 2. Uprisings were considered unanticipated phenomena; the early administrators tried to make sense of them by understanding what made them similar to or different from others. 3. The discourse on peasant insurgency thus began as a discourse on power. It was partisan in nature and sought to justify the policies of law and ordered administered by using these accounts to supposedly understand the motives/causes of the people (historical narratives were thus in the form of administrative concerns). 4. It is important to realise that peasants were not made into subjects of history, even when they were the ones creating it. The security of the State was made into the central problematic. Peasant insurgency was thus considered merely as an element of colonialism. The insurgent was thus excluded from being the subject of his own history. The history of a peasant revolt was usually written from the ideological viewpoint of someone else a nationalist, a socialist, etc. 5. Peasant consciousness: Consciousness is attributed to the peasant when the historian acknowledges him as the maker of his own rebellion. This view rejects the idea that peasant insurgency is spontaneous. These erroneous ideas are elitist. Elitists are of the view that the mobilisation of the peasantry is contingent on the intervention of charismatic leaders/advanced political organisations/upper classes. 6. The bourgeois-nationalist approach considers as important only those movements that were pre-planned and executed in the presence of complete consciousness. The peasant uprisings were considered merely in terms of the pre-history of the national movement. 7. Gramsci suggested that there is no room for spontaneity in history; it is a mistake to fail to recognise the traces of consciousness in the seemingly unstructured movements of the masses. 8. Peasant insurgency is often considered to be pre-political because of the erroneous presumption that what is conscious is necessarily organised and political. What is conscious is thus assumed to have: (1) a conscious leadership, (2) some well defined aim, and (3) a programme to achieve that aim. 9. E.J. Hobsbawm identified pre-political populations to describe the absolute/near absence of political consciousness or organisation of such people. They have not reached more effective methods of social agitation/political consciousness. Traditional forms of peasant discontent are devoid of explicit ideology, organisation or programme. They lack the language to express their aspirations. 10. Guha: the idea of pre-political insurgency does not apply; there is nothing in the militant movements of the colonys rural masses that was not political. This quality emerged from the fact that rents constituted the greatest portion of state revenue. This was evaluated on the basis of extra-economic forces of landlords and their power in colonial polity. There

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existed a relationship of dominance and subordination this was a political and feudal relationship (semi-feudal). This relationship persisted as a result of the pre-capitalist mode of production. The authority of the state was one of the constituent elements in this superstructure (the state encouraged landlordism). The State shifted the power of landlordism from older, less effective members to younger, more efficient ones. This affected the peasants it meant a more insensitive and systematic exploitation. They were now subjected to the regulated will of a foreign power. The state also allowed the rural elite to share their power of punishment and its enforcement. One of the effects of the revitalisation of landlordism under the British was the phenomenal growth of peasant indebtedness. As a result, a land market flourished with the forces of (1) agrarian legislation, (2) demographic increase and (3) a larger money supply. Thus, land was transferred to the money-lenders (banias). Impoverished landlords and tenants lost out. Money-lenders became landowners and created a system of sub-infeudation which was made possible by several factors: (1) the absence of rent laws to protect tenant-cultivators, (2) the lack of ceilings on local interest rates, (3) misalignment between the harvest calendar of traditional practices and the fiscal calendar of imperial management, (4) the commercialisation of agriculture and the subjection of the cultivator to a market economy. The moneylender and the landlord formed an apparatus of dominance over the peasant. This was political in nature; economic exploitation was one of its facets. The landlord-moneylenders were given authority by the state to appropriate surplus; the relationship of coercion they shared with the peasants was so explicit that it could not have been considered by the latter as anything other than political. Thus the task of the peasant, to break out of this power structure, was necessarily political in nature. Peasants could not, then, engage in such protests in any state of absentmindedness. The risk and losses involved in insurgency involved property, chattel and their moral standing. Peasants tried to obtain justice from the authorities in many ways before resorting to violence: deputation, petitions and peaceful demonstrations. Arms were taken up only as a last resort. Peasants engaged in consultation among themselves within the organisation of local society (caste panchayats and clan elders held meetings). Consensus among the community was necessary (consultative processes); insurgency thus required planning. Mobilisation of the people was made possible through verbal and non-verbal means of communication (a system of primordial networks existed). These uprisings were thus deliberate. The fact that they contained no means for the replacement of the super-ordinate elite does not classify them as outside the realm of political endeavours. These movements lacked neither leadership, programme nor aim. Each movement had some form of central leadership. Some revolts even simulated the functions of state apparatus; peasants identified themselves as armies with commanders and officials. The mere fact that their models did not conform to that of a secular nation and was limited to localism does not take away from the essentially political nature of their activities. Peasant insurgency during the first three quarters of British rule was thus an inchoate and naive state of consciousness. They were the beginnings of a theoretical consciousness. This theoretical consciousness is reflected in the conflict between the ruling culture and the rebels need for change. Resistance must be recognised in understanding both antagonistic consciousnesses; those of subordination and insubordination, which must be understood in context of each other. Social consciousness, even with its variety, moves with certain general ideas that will persist for as long as class antagonism is present. Problem: the only accounts of these uprisings are elitist in origin. Other sources, including oral/non-oral folklore, songs, etc, are meagre and lack evidentiary value. Newspaper reports and other non-official sources, unfortunately, also use elitist perspectives. It is thus extremely difficult to get in touch with the consciousness of peasant militancy. It is barred by the discourse of counter-insurgency.

Colonial Rights and Subversion of Rights Flavia Agnes 1. With the advent of colonialism, there was a substantial change in the legal structure; non-state arbitration bodies were transformed into state-regulated and controlled legal systems. Two methods: (1) Introduction of a legal structure modelled on the English courts; (2) Principles of substantive law that were administered in these courts (Anglo-Hindu and Anglo-Mohammedan law). This resulted in a gradual process of the homogenisation of local customs and practices, regulated through the state mechanism. While the Bengal Province was governed by statutory and textual Hindu law (based on Civil law), the Bombay Province provided greater scope for the validating customary law (based on Common Law). With the decline of the Mughals, their arbitration mechanisms began to collapse; Company officers who lacked legal backgrounds relied upon the local pundits and maulvis, or upon English principles, to decide cases. A series of charters authorised the Company with judicial powers in India. The Hastings Plan of 1772: establishment of civil and criminal courts in each district ( mofussil). This plan gave the Company jurisdiction over the natives. Hindus and Muslims were allowed to apply their personal laws in civil matters concerning marriage, inheritance, etc. In 1774, the Mayors Court of Calcutta was made into a Supreme Court, with jurisdiction over natives as well. Customary law was to be applied in matters relating to civil law. The charters were unclear as to when textual law would apply and when custom was applicable. Communities were categorised on the basis of their religion. Their customs and laws were also classified in terms of religion. This created a legal fiction that the laws governing Hindus and Muslims were rooted in their religious texts. The

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British also assumed that these two religions provided overarching identities, creating homogenous communities that followed uniform law. Administrators thus translated the scriptures and applied them strictly. Thus, the wide range of customs with no shastric authority, met with disapproval from administrators. Translated texts became the basis for Anglo-Hindu and AngloMohammedan law. Administrators in Bengal focussed on finding the original sources of law and completely disregarded local customs. In Bombay, custom was given recognition as an important source of law. Despite their initial policy of non-interference in personal matters, as British rule gained acceptance and stability, they began a gradual process of tampering with established local customs. Based on the principles of justice, equity and good conscience, English laws and customs were introduced into areas reserved for personal law. The legal structure was seen by the British as essential to their civilising mission. British interpretation of the ancient texts became binding; it made the law certain, rigid and uniform. This was welcomed by the English-educated middle class of Bengal. Changes in the law were brought about not only through legal decisions but through legislation. They focussed on remedying the barbaric customs of the natives; they tried to introduce ideas of modernity in the law. This was how the British sought to improve the status of women. While one set of legislations sought to introduce the capital mode of production along with individual property rights for men, another, in the name of social reform, greatly restricted the rights of women in society. Although Mitakshara law provided for the widening of the scope of womens property (stridhana), judicial decisions changed this view and suggested that regardless of whether a woman inherited from her male or female relatives, inherited property will not form part of her stridhana and would devolve on the heirs of her husband/father. Stridhana acquired the character of a limited estate and women lost the right to will it away. Reversion, a principle of English law, was thus enforced by the courts. In many cases, the lower courts upheld custom, while the High Courts and Privy Council disregarded it. Thus, through the power of precedent, all avenues for the continued devolution of property in the female line were blocked. While Hindu women in the Bombay Presidency benefitted from the application of custom by the courts, Muslim womens textual rights to inherit property was defeated by upholding Hindu customs. Many Muslim trading communities like the Khojas, followed local customs (joint family) instead of the Shariat law. Thus, women were denied their right to property as male coparceners prevented them from inheriting property. While at one level the smriti law was distorted, at another, this distorted law was applied to a wide range of communities following diverse customs. While men often pleaded for the enforcement of Hindu law, women pleaded non-Hindu status to gain property rights. The rights of women could only be protected if Muslim law or proved customary law was applicable. The problem was that once a case reached the Privy Council, the status (Hindu/Non-Hindu) applied to a community would be sealed for all further litigation. E.g. smriti law was applied to Jains, this led to the belief that Jainism is a sect of Hinduism. A wide range of communities were thus eliminated. Proof of custom required strict standards; custom had to be ancient, certain, obligatory, reasonable and not against public policy. Many of these customs favoured the interests of women. Disinheriting women was not unjust to the British; women in Britain did not have the right to vote, nor a legal identity granting them rights to property. Yet, the British created a false status of women in Britain to assert their superior status generally. Thus, the patriarchal modernity of India was introduced. Pluralistic communities were characterised as Hindu (womens rights to property were consequently curtailed). The Bengal school followed the Dayabhaga principles which provided for the strict interpretation of stridhana; this gradually became the accepted Hindu principle for the whole of British India.

Contentious Traditions: The Debate on Sati in Colonial India Lata Mani 1. The moral civilising claims of colonial rule provided the context for the re-evaluation of Indias tradition along lines more consonant with the modern economy and society, and were seen as the product of Indias integration into the capitalist world system. Rammohun Roy was among the first to take a stand against sati and attempted to reformulate Hinduism. Lata Mani stresses the importance of contextualising this 19 th Century debate on women as consisting of a larger question of specifying different notions of traditions that different groups wished to interpret. She argues that the concept of tradition contested by Rammohun Roy, and defended by orthodoxy, is essentially colonial in nature. Thus, ideological positions were argued (progressive and conservative). Mani argues that: (1) Tradition is reconstituted under the colonial rule; women and brahmanic scripture become interlocked grounds for this re-articulation. The reworking of tradition is conducted through debate about the rights and status of women. These debates are thus not primarily about women but about what constituted authentic cultural tradition (using scriptures). (2) The privileging of Brahmin scriptures and the equation of tradition with these scriptures is an effect of colonial discourse. Colonial discourse is a mode of understanding Indian society as it emerged alongside colonial rule. Officials had certain powers: (1) They could insist that the scriptures were prescriptive texts containing rules of social behaviour. (2) They could institutionalise their assumptions by making these texts the basis of personal law (Hastings Plan 1772). (3) These powers resulted in material consequences. Mani argues that Rammohun Ro ys appeal to the scriptures had more to do with the colonial insistence on the centrality of scripture to Indian society than on the feudal or semi-feudal character of early 19th Century Bengal.

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Mani suggests that the equation of scriptures with law and tradition created a matrix of constraints within which the question of sati was discussed. This grid was a result of growing colonial power and its need for a systematic, unambiguous mode of production. Official Discourse on Sati emerged as a result of the question of whether legislation could safely abolish the practice. Officials feared that, as the practice had its basis in scriptures, interference could provoke indigenous outrage. Those in favour of abolition thus stressed its material aspects, while those against it stressed its religious basis. Mani argues that the officials, whether for or against the practice, maintained a united view in their analysis of Indian society. Officials advanced their positions using a common discourse which (2) emphasised the centrality of the Brahmin scriptures, (2) consisted of unreflective indigenous obedience and (3) emphasised the religious nature of sati. Walter Ewer suggested that the contemporary practice of sati was different from its scriptural model (coercion). Sati by coercion was considered as ignorance of the scriptures, or of the conscious efforts of pundits and relatives. Ewer did not believe that pundits could manipulate religion because he believed that in acting consciously, a person could not act religiously, as religion required unquestioning obedience. He questions the scriptural sanction of sati, and observes the heterogeneity of scriptures on the issue. In his observations, Ewer assumes the privileging of religion by the people and the complete native submission to its force. Ewer stressed the aspect of consent and the official discourse is thus marked by ambivalence because of the existence of notions of good and bad sati. The former were considered to be in conformity with the scriptures. Offic ials thus approved of sati as long as it was an act of free will. Fear of political repercussions was the only reason for tolerating sati. It is important to observe that the official discourse on sati did not consider the cruelty/barbarity of the practice. Officials instead argued that its prohibition was consistent with upholding tradition. The regenerating mission of colonialism was emphasised as the enforcement of truths of indigenous tradition. The official conception of colonial subjects was thus one of ignorance to their religion. Religion was equated with scripture. The civilising mission sought to protect the people from the corruption of the Brahmins who had monopolised the field of interpretation in this respect. Thus arguments in favour of abolition were developed within the ambit of religion. Official discourses were based on three assumptions: (a) The hegemony of the religious texts, (2) total indigenous submission to the texts, and (c) the religious basis of sati. These assumptions shaped the nature of intervention by the State. Mani argues that the insistence on textual hegemony is inaccurate; it is challenged by the enormous regional variation in the mode of committing sati. Local influences usually predominated. Such diversity, although recognised, was considered as peripheral to the central principle of textual hegemony. In fact, regional variation accounted for the material basis of sati, and officials recorded these trends. Sati was most common in Bengal, and, as such, religion was not uniformly hegemonic in British India. Officials thus viewed sati is a primarily religious practice, even in the presence of secondary material factors. Mani also argues that widows were never actually the subject of concern; debates dealt with the barbarity of Hindu male coercion and the victimisation of women by religion. Officials infantilised sati and and reinforced the view that women were helpless victims. This view prevents any consideration of the agency of women. It merely justified civilising colonial interventions. Vyawasthas: Abolition of sati was made difficult by official claims of its textual basis. The pundits and courts (Nizamat Adalat) were posed questions regarding the scriptural sanction of the practice. Pundits often suggested that the texts merely permitted sati, and did not insist upon it. Conclusions were to be supported by scriptural evidence; custom was only recognised in the absence of texts. This was important to the British as it provided clarity in categorising sati as good or bad. These interpretations were problematic; while pundits considered them as merely interpretation, the British considered them in an absolute sense. Vyawashas did not claim to possess scriptural truth. Scriptures formed an enormous body, composed during different time periods. The fact that texts were written during different time periods accounts for their heterogeneity. Thus, texts often differed on the point of sati. The official response to this heterogeneity consisted of (1) prioritising older texts. Shruthis and smritis were privileged. (2) While they acknowledged textual complexity, they did not resolve it in any way. (3) They marginalised certain vyawasthas. The aim of the official policy prior to abolition was the adherence to the colonial conception of scripturally authentic sati. Rammohun Roy: suggested that the Vedas explicitly recommended ascetic widowhood. His discourse was similar to the official discourse on as his case for abolition was grounded primarily in a discussion of the scriptures. He suggests that sati is a material practice which had greater incidence in Bengal with respect to women governed by the Dayabhaga school. He emphasises male dominance, but does not make the distinction between good and bad sati. Notions about women were poles apart while some considered women as stoic and courageous, others viewed them as weak and lacking in resolve. In acknowledging this distinction, however, Rammohun Roy exposes himself to the ambivalence of the official approach. The Conservative Approach: eulogises the practice as one willingly undertaken by devout Hindu widows. The orthodox argument claimed that the criminalisation of sati was based on an incorrect reading of the scriptures. While Rammohun Roy considered the texts more important than custom, those against the abolition of sati suggested that the antiquity of Hinduism provided for equal importance to both. Their arguments were: (1) That ascetic widowhood is a

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secondary option (2) Sati involves only short term suffering (3) Many religious acts performed had no basis in Manu and thus sati should also be allowed. The reading of the scriptures was strategic; both sides read them in a manner that supported their ideological position. The entire issue was debated within the framework of scripture. Even Rammohun Roy did not base his arguments on the grounds that sati was cruel and violative of womens rights. It is interesting to note that both the officials as well as the indigenous male elites shared the value of scriptural sanction and believed that the more literal a passage, the greater its value. Additionally, the privileging of ancient texts was important because it was related to the idea that Hindu society had fallen from a prior Golden Age. Rammohun Roy also subscribed to this idea of earlier greatness that had been lost. The equation of tradition with scripture impacted women ideologically. The matter of sati was deliberated in terms of religious texts. The widow herself was marginal to the central concerns of the officials, the orthodox Hindu community and the social reformers. Women, instead, became the sites upon which various versions of scripture/tradition/law were debated. The individuality of women was absent in these debates. Women were not the subject or the object of the discourse. Discourses were a moral challenge of colonial role. Women came to represent tradition the reformers thought of them as weak, naive and in need of legislative protection, which conservative Hindus suggested that women were the protectors of tradition. Tradition was not the basis on which the status of women was contested; women were the grounds on which tradition was contested. Conceptions about tradition thus intersected with patriarchal notions about women as weak and submissive. The discourse on sati was a modern discourse on tradition. This discourse, according to Mani, produces both tradition and modernity. Sati as a part of culture was the dominant view, as it negated the role of political or historical processes in this practice, and also distanced the role of agents that insisted upon its performance.

prisons Key Issue How the prisons (specifically their structure and administration) in Colonial India played a role perpetuating colonial rule. The basis of this article is in Foucault and Benthams (Google Benthams Panopticon) analysis of how to govern prisons and the impact they can have. They believed that the prison should hit at the soul and not the body. David Arnold: Indian context is different. First, the Indians were far from docile, and incidents of revolt were frequent (eg. Muzaffarpur, Arrah in Bihar). Second, administration was often lax and inept. Control was often given to convicts themselves. Created networks of power within the prisoners itself.

The article seeks to highlight two things: 1. 2. That this network of power and control was a deliberate choice of the prison authorities, born out of practical and political limitations, as well as a lack of interest of the Brits for penal discipline. That the prison was a critical site for acquisition of colonial knowledge, and exercising colonial power.

To do this, he shows three ways in which the colonization process took place in prisons: 1. 2. 3. Through physical incorporation and disciplinary measures. Ideological incorporation through texts, discourses and institutional rules. Through a process of contestation regarding the social, cultural and material needs of the colonized.

History of Prisons in India 1830s: Committees were set up to evaluate why prisoners were not being regulated. (Macaulay) 1864: Another Commission for Admin matters 1877: Jail Conference to discuss the idea of a Prisons Law 1889: Committee on Jail Admin which rejected the Panopticon model in India for practical reasons. 1894: Prisons Act (Still Valid) Key Questions

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Was there Rebellion? Yes, lots. Very active. Physical Displays of Rebellion. Absolute Lack of Discipline. Was there Isolation? Not so much. There was lots of smuggling. Also, convicts were part of the admin, hence leniency. Events outside affected prisoners eg. 1857 Revolt. What were the important characteristics of these prisons? 1. 2. 3. 4. Population: Large. It seems small, but Arnold calls it deceptive. Women however were a small part (Reasons: 1. They didnt commit violent crimes 2. Judges were less likely to imprison them). High Mortality: Death Rates of 25% Fluctuating Access to Food: This was also because people started committing crimes so that they could easily get food and shelter. Hence, food was made the coarsest, plainest and least agreeable. Race and caste played an important role. - Europeans given preferential treatment. Separate Prison wards. - Caste was also vital. Arnold too potent to ignore. They grouped people together based on caste. Partly the reason why Benthams solitary confinement idea of punishment didnt work. This was not done with malice. More out of respect that such divisions were an essential part of a persons identity. Eg. Bombay prisons allowed high-status communities clothing privileges. However, this ensured that the division of labour that characterizes Hinduism in India was perpetuated in the prisons.

The next question surrounds the policy surrounding reform of these prisoners. Benthams idea of reforming the soul was not adopted in India, because as the 1877 Jail Conference puts it, a lot of the prisoners need but little reformation. II Using Prison Labour The prisons allowed the Brits to exercise control over productive labour, especially for road construction and repair. These labourers were transported as far as Penang and Singapore. But this soon allowed prisoners to maintain contact with the outside world + made it easier to escape. Therefore, there was a switch to industrial production within factories. Jails became schools of industry. Churned out high-quality producers and substantially covered prison costs. But this policy was criticized: 1. 2. Sacrificing discipline of the prisoners for profit. Stopped prisons from being places to dread Criticized by Lord Ripon Deemed to be too indulgent, and less likely to lead to moral reformation.

But prison industries continued to develop. Prisons as Centres of Medical Observation and Experiments Colonial medicine as an agency of colonial control. Health soon become the parameter of a good prison, and led to the negle ct of other important factors such as education. However, prisons also become important observational tools. Main sources of information about choler and other epidemics. They also became tools for experimentation, including trying techniques that could not be tried anywhere else (use of cadavers, for example). It became a place to ignore the prejudices that obstructed Western Medicine and try new things. (for example, the use of Quinine). Bakhle: sedition Janaki Bakhle, Savarkar, Sedition and Surveillance: the rule of law in a colonial situation, Colonial History (2010)

Factionalism in the INC o 1907 split between moderates and radicals o The factionalism concerned different approaches to the protest against the partition of Bengal in 1905 (p.52) Moderate nationalists supported regionally-restricted peaceful protest; extremists spearheaded nationwide Swadeshi (self-rule) movement Shyam Krishnavarma o Central figure in Indian nationalist activity in London

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Founder of Indian Sociologist (monthly critical of colonialism in India) and Indian Home Rule Society (agitators for complete British withdrawal from India) o Owner of India House, a hotbed for young Indian revolutionaries anarchists and Russian and Italian nationalists. Savarkar and the Swadeshi Movement o Savarkar came to nationalist attention with his fiery speeches against partition o As a high school student, organised a secret revolutionary society, Mitra Mela, in his home town of Nasik o Arrived in England in 1906 to study for the bar; at the time, was already under surveillance Pune police informed Scotland Yard of his impending arrival in England At the historical moment when sedition law was increasingly unusable in England [due to the rise of liberalism], in the British colony of India sedition not only became the legal means by which anti-colonial nationalist conspiracies were prosecuted, it also acquired a prominent it no longer had at home. (p.52) [T]he real danger posed by revolutionaries lay in a violence that was far more rhetorical and symbolic than physical, as they questioned the fundamental legitimacy of colonial rule. (p.52) Two principal colonial weapons against anti-colonial nationalism: o Surveillance Applied to both violent and non-violent revolutionaries: to monitor not just what they were doing, but also what they were thinking, writing and speaking. o Sedition law Greater risks arose from seditious rhetoric than violence. o [Violent] revolutionaries were often amateurish and more often than not their planned attacks came to nothing. What was far more of a threat was the seditious potential of revolutionary rhetoric. o While violent acts could be pre-empted and violent offenders could be put away, sedition was much harder to control or contain. o [T]he word itself became the evidence of a crime Sedition law in India was not put in place to avert terrorism. To continue to believe such an argument is to mistake the symptom for the cause. The real terror was neither guns nor bombs, nor anarchism or nihilism. It was Indian disaffection with colonial rule. (p.53) History of Sedition o Introduced into the IPC in 1870: offence of exciting disaffection against government o By 1870 in England, sedition as a criminal offence had become unusable in British common law, except in a few cases pertaining to Irish agitators. Hence, the modern history of sedition was in fact inextricably linked to colonial rule. o Sedition law was widely used in India to arrest and convict revolutionary nationalists, and with each judicial interpretation and each trial of an anti-colonial nationalist, the parameters of this law had become wider and wider. (p.54) o By 1922, sedition had become a catch-all category encompassing all anti-colonial expression, extending from bombs and political assassinations to discursive challenges in books and pamphlets, including even the harbouring of negative feelings against colonial rule. (p.5 4) Savarkar was less a skilled revolutionary warrior than a rhetorical revolutionary o His primary impact was in changing the terms and scale of the discourse of Indian history, rather than his romance with violent revolution Growth of Nationalist Extremism o After the 1857 Rebellion, cultivation of a distinctly anti -colonial nationalist discourse that combined inward spiritual development with external political freedom. o Radically opposed to the spread of western attitudes among the Indian middle cla ss o Group sought to turn away form the industrialized materialism of the West and towards traditional Hindu religion and ethics o Idealization of an ancient Indian polis as the source from which all modern Indian political conceptions ethical, social and legal could be derived. o Indian revolutionary nationalism was composed of a potent mixture of Hindu devoutness, nationalist duty and anarcho-terrorist tactics. INC Ideology o Divide between parliamentarian moderates and revolutionary nationalists o The tension between moderate and revolutionary nationalism was resolved only when Gandhi finally assumed control over the nationalist movement. o Gandhi would pursue a different model of popular mobilizationin part because he realized that it would be more difficult for the British to suppress a movement based on non-violence. V. D. Savarkar o Mitra Mela (1899) A consciousness-raising society, holding more lectures than anything else Savarkar insisted that members read works dealing with major historical figures

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Through such education, aimed to produce a specifically Indian nationalist and historical consciousness, even among villagers. Politics could only be waged by turning history and historical words into a weapon. o History of the 1857 Rebellion Wrote in Marathi, using English primary sources precisely to highlight the ideological biases in the imperial perspective on the subject, in order to make his powerful argument that the nation ought to be the master and not the slave of its own history. Argued that a nationalist ideology was the motivating factor behind the 1857 Rebellion Discounted colonial arguments for the Rebellion (greased cartridges, Oudh) Stressed unity of Hindus and Muslims during the rebellion; imagined a future for India with tw o distinct religious communities bound together in an unshakeable unity The Rebellion failed not for a lack of planning, he wrote, but because it lacked a clear sense of the future. Savarkar intended to give Inida a history of her own, to change the su bject of history from the colonial state to a national state. History used to bind together a nation and a national community Rejected dominant trends in British historiography: the diminishing of the Rebellion as a contained and containable mutiny o [T]he manuscript of [the history] was sent to Scotland Yard by an informant and the work was banned before it was even published. o Savarkars actual revolutionary acts (learning about bomb -making and shipping pistols to India) were significant, but not nearly as widespread or as successful as colonial officials made them out to be. There is little reason to suspect that Savarkar was anything more than an amateur in his bomb -making proficiency and his ability to acquire guns. Although he wrote with great passion against the disarmament of India, and had a nave romance with guns it is not clear that he even knew how to fire a gun. He could inspire others, through his words, to pick up guns and bombs, and in the building of the case against him it was the words themselves that became the evidence of a conspiracy. Surveillance o On the basis of a letter asking for an essay, it was considered legal to have his domicile in England searched. These were dangerous words indeed. o India House was perpetually watched, with three police moles inside o Savarkars attempts to smuggle his book across Europe to India were carefully watched: there was little about its distribution that seems to have been unknown to the police. Sedition Charges o In order to try Savarkar in India (rather than England), authorities needed to dig up or manufacture evidence of crimes committed there (eventually discovering a series of obscure speeches) o British sought to charge Savarkar on the basis of his activities in India, not England, because: Sedition as a criminal offence was all but obsolete in British common law at the time it would have been much more difficult to secure a conviction in London given the severity of sedition law in India, a conviction was far more likely to yield a harsh sentence Sedition Law o s124A (IPC), enacted 1898, replaced exciting disaffection with sedition o Jury convictions were not difficult to secure in colonial India. Due to colonial juries being three-quarters white European and one-quarter Indian The outcome [of sedition trials] could be guaranteed because the juries could be counted on to convict. o In India, sedition became the pre-emptive legal mechanism that allowed the colonial state, in anticipation of a dangerous act, to proscribe all thought, writing or language that might produce it. o Sedition also allowed for a post-event round-up and arrest of everyone even remotely connected with the actual act, on the grounds that their rhetoric had clearly been the cause of incitement of the natives to agitate against the government. o B. G. Tilaks Trial: Judicial Definition of Sedition: Disaffection meant any hostility or ill-will of any sort towards the Government, feelings of ill-will, great or small, intense or mild and any attempt to excite such feelings brought the offender within the section Sedition Law and Discourses o On the one hand, sedition law itself suggests that the colonial regime could not fail to recognise that Indians across a wide spectrum resented and even despised colonial rule. o On the other hand, there was the simultaneous production of an elaborate mythology about how much the Indians wanted and loved English rule. o This contradiction was resolved by making distinctions [through sedition law] between the normative s ubjects of empire, who were loyal, and the pathological subjects of empire [extremists, anarchists, terrorists] who were disloyal.

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Gandhi and Sedition o Unlike Tilak and Savarkar Gandhi accepted the rule of law and repeatedly claimed that non -violence was the first and last article of his creed. But the colonial government had lost its conscience and, as a result, no affection could be extended to it. o Sedition and disaffection were now to be embraced as the creed of non -cooperation Since the law was corrupt, sedition and disaffection were the only conscionable form of resistance. o Gandhi used the language of sedition and disaffection to demonstrate that the English had abandoned all claims to rule indeed, all their claims in India to fair play, justice and freedom. Cobwebs of imperial rule arudra burra

Theres been a nationalist complaint against the IAS. As Indians in the pre independence ICS (indian civil service) constututed the post independence IAS. ICS was said to be neither civil, nor indian, nor servants. New IAS consisted of people who were the trained servants of imperalism. Thus IAS was said to be an example of a cobweb of colonial rule. The judges of the first SC were all members of the federal court of india a creation of the British Raj. British judges continued in the HCs well into the 1950s as did members of the armed forces. Our parliamentary form of government was based on the westminister form. Again british model. Members of constitutent assembly themselves elected goi1935 act a british legislation. The indian constituiton itself based on 1935 goi act ambedkar defended saying hteres nothing wrong in borrowing. Romesh thapar v state of madras questioned the madras govts ban on a journal called crossroads of the cpi under the madras maintenance of public order act 1949. Similarly in brij bushan v delhi a journal called organizer of the rss was banned under east punjab public safety act. Sc considered these public safety acts as passed by provinicial govts aft indeoendence and the press act of 1931. It wasruled that these acts were creeated with a view tosupreess thenational movement and were designed against the activities of the congress. Sc said the govt ofindependnent india wasapplying a defending laws that supressed the very movememnt htat brought us independence. These laws were struck down on overbreadth and siad they were beyond scope of exception under art 19(2). Govt through 1str amendment sought to expand the scope. Thre was controversy regarding the same. It was said by some that it would be better to wait for formation of the first elected lok sabha so questions of legitimiaccy woudlnt be raised. Against this nehru said the parliament debating these amendment consisted of the same people who drafted it in the first place and who better to amend and interpret then the makers themselves. Opponents of the amendment bill argues that it was a way of protecting hated colnial laws but nehru countered by saying that this was being suspicious of democracy itself. The author says its not the govt thats displaying continuity with the colon ial regime by trying to preserve such laws but the opponentsof the govvt who display this continutity. Just as britihs dint trust indians to rule themselves these opponents dont trust parliament but an external authority (courts). It was said by nehru tha t judges are themeseles also a product of colonial times with old ways of thnking. This was argued by saying that the SC is not an alien instiuution. Is as much a part of the state apparatus as the legislature. Those who opposed the amednemnt and the continued restrictions did so not on basis of any instutional or right based arguments but on the continuity of the new indian regime with the one it replaced. Those who protecting reenacting the colonial press laws were thus alleged to be betraying the masses. Author argues that the problem is thus the grounds of oppisiotn. Saying 377of ipc is a colonial legacy is true but so is 300 which criminialize murder. So thus being a colonial legacy isnt reason enough to discard a law. Author says Art 372 says all laws in force imm before commencement of constiution shall continue in force until altered, and thus if the constituion is ours, then so are the laws wehave inherited. Nehrusdefence of press censorship laws was that its not laws but governments that repress and that independent indias govt would simply not use them the same way. Also some might see adopting colonial legacies as symolibc of a colonial midset some might see it is a tolerance or broad mindedness. Authors main arguments is that arguments agaisnt colonial contiunity will be valid only when reasns can be articulated sas to why these laws and instutuins should be done away with. Not merely by virtue of being colonial. And in that case, if the content is questionalble, what is the need to refer to their colonial origin? Vakil raj: INC and birth of lawyers as political representatives - mithi mukheejee While pleading for elected represwentraion in the Indian legislateive council in 1906 mm malviya said that the sole privilege thayre asking for is the be allowed to choose our own counsel to repeesent our cases and conditions before them. He said that in the reformed councils, the govt will be exactly what it- the final arbiter ofal questions that may be brought beofe the council. Author says that how contrary this congress understanfing and pursut of freedom is to modern history can be gaufged from the fact that generally freedom was won by driving our colonial rule r putting an end to moanarichies whereas here the congress hoped to receive freedom as a gift from a foreign monarchy. Mmms demand for freedom appears as a gift of justice. And this justice was anchored in the figure of the queen as opposed to natural or common law. As congress saw freedom as a piveelge/gift from the empire it pursued it through prayers and petitions as armed stuggle/revolution woud be uncompatible with the conecpton of this freedom being a provelege/gift. The congress never failed to remind the british of their non pariticpalcne in the armed movements. Mmms argument for popular elections also saw the legislative ouncil as instiutition that was being reconfigured in the image of the law court. His statemtent was contrary to the throies of separation of powers as he foresaw a aninstituion having legislative and political sovereignty and a government becoming the sovereign as a judge. Essentially a legislative court. Mmm said that just as a judge coudlny choose the lawyers for plaintiff/defence the government as judge should allow people of india to choose their own represtnatves. It was only a lawyer though who could become a egislator in the political vision

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of the congress. 6 of the nine men who formed central leadership of the early congress were lawyers. Dominance continuedlater as well, eg Gandhi Nehru Jinnah. Their central role in the inc was inevitable as in presidency capitals it as lawyers hwo formed backbone of politics, and at moffusui level the pleaders. The Cambridge school argues that congress wasnt really nationalist organization having national goals but a b ody of men who wanted to selfishly ance their careerds.he said their articipation in nationa land local politics derived from theit indicidual professional and class interests. New british agricultural and economic laws and policies led to rise in the lega profession and made it important for land owners and commericla men to take series of lawyers and vakils, thus lawyers rapidly advanced to considerable ower and influence over their country men in every district through theitr postiton at the bar. However author says that its not just because these lwayers had personal connetions at high levels that they participated in politicsbut because represrntaional politics itself was grounded in juridico-epistemoloigical field and practices of the british law courtthat a space was created from which lawyers emerged as model political representatives. Congress faith in inherent justice of the empire explains how it indentified with the empire even as it opposed coloinilasim. Congress was conceptualized as an alternate represrentative space where real interests and grievances ofpeope of indai would be represented. The congress thouthgt of itself as a parliament not a party and provng itself a success the inc wanted to remove all doubts that the Indians werent capable of forming and mainting represetnrative institutions. The image was of lwaers pleading for justie from the govt.advocate played an indispensable role of medidation beteeen the llager and the judge. The law court was thus the origin of the discourse and practice of repreesntaiton in colonial india. The claim for representation by congress was not founded on the idea of poular sovereignty or general will or on the real interests of the people. Demand was that rerpreestatives of the people be heard in the legisltataie councils as lawyers advocating gthe general popular grievancesm as mediators between te govt and the people. Congresss political discourse was also based on judicial discourse. For example using precedents, etc. for eg. Pledges by brtish govt to india such as act of parliament 1833, queens proclamation of 1858, speeches of viceroys such as lytton rippon dufferin etc. these pledges constituted te very ground of congress discourse and as they were symobilacclly gien the status of judgentbtsm the govvt in its rule as a ourt of justice was reqd to fulfill them. Eg.) rashbehari ghosein demainding separation of exutive and judicial function s of govt didnto argue onbasis of prnicples but by quoting declarations of a host of afdministstraotes.. much of birtish history tseld came to be employed and deployed rheetotically as a model in the indian anticolonial movement. The congress; discovery of judicial precedent as a rhetorical tool redered ursuit of freedom thoug either resistance or revolution redundant. Congress as on organsation was not grounded in the self consciousness of the people. Precedents from Britain and Europe were seen as laying down the law and the path along which agitation in india was to proceed and the aim was to convince English statesmen to to enact in india those laws that already prevailed in Britain. Even though the object of the discourse of the congress was to convince the indian legislative council to fulfill its role as neutral judge amd decide on issues affecting Indians only after listening to lawyers on both sides the executive in india in the post 1857 period was despotic in nature and was unlikely to fulfill that role. It was the imperial monarch who occupied the oositon of the supreme impartial judge and therefore the adresse of all apearls againsit the governmtnet. The justice of the monarch was tied not to the universality of law but to the monarchs persona consincec and sense of benoveence towards her subjects. Acc to inc it was the monarch and ntot the british administration who would right the wrongs caused to th people of india, as an act of charity. Eg_ annulment of partition of Bengal anouncecd at time of king Edwards visit to india, ending years of mass agitation. Early congress spoke not of exploitation ut of financial injustice of breaking od pledges. What wass assumed as part of this discourse was that if these instances of malpractice on part of the colonial state were to be brought to the noticeof the higher authorities of te empire in England they woud surel be addressed. Concept of imperial justice based on liberty and equity stressed upon.. The freedom of india acc to the inc consisisted of allowing the britihs to comlete their mission of omtroducing the practice of self governance in india and the freedom was neither a duty/right of Indians but a biriths preoragative. As rulers they alone culd determine when india was ready to govern itself. Political discourse of congress delinked the question of natonal freedom frm the question of departure of birtish from india. Surendranath banerjee in his presidential adess adess n the 18 th session of the inc pleaded for permamnecny of the biritish rule in india and citizenship of the empire. Incs goal of home rule waws based on the dominion status of Australia and Canada. Ultimately racial difference was the reason behind the refusa of white self governing dominons to accept ndia as an equal member. George Bernard shaw pointed out the dundamental incompatibility between justice as a discourse of governance in the colonies and that of democracy or freedom. Acc to shaw the category of justice ran into a fundamental contradiction as soon as it went beyond its native instiution of the law court and took over functioans of legislations and governance. Whereas justice required neutrality and impartiality on part of the judge towards the people governance and legislator and the government to represent and execute the inetesets and the will of the people. While justie was helped by the alienness of the figure of the judge, legislation and governance on the other hand had to be grounded in complete identification with the people. Shaw exposed the imperial discourse of justice as nothing more than an ideology deployed as cover by England for its colonialist exploitation of india. Mitra Sharafi The Semi-Autonomous Judge in Colonial India: Chivalric Imperialism meets Anglo-Islamic Dower and Divorce Law 1. 2. The article challenges the assumption that colonial judges functioned consistently as the States emissary. She uses two examples to support this dower law and delegated divorce under Islamic law. Existing scholarship of colonial legislation deals only with the enactment of the law itself does not look at interpretation by judges

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3. 4.

Studies relying on case law must be comprehensive and not limited to the leading cases dealing with the subject. Generally, it is assumed that colonial judges reinforced Muslim husbands power over their wives and patriarchal relationships in general. Sharafi, instead, argues that judges worked against patriarchal power and privilege. It is also incorrect to assume that colonial law was a consistent and monolithic whole. Contradictions among various organs and areas of law existed. 5. The British promised not to interfere with personal laws but through interpretation, they did. Areas of law that were excluded were also reduced over time, and replaced by colonial codes. Their vow of non-interference was thus not adhered to. 6. Reform initiatives by the British were considered as threats to Indian culture and identity. British legislators justified their intervention on the ground that they were saving downtrodden Indian women. 7. Islam gender relations were alien to the British; even judges observed that the relationships between husbands and wives were grossly unjust. 8. Sharafi finds, however, that judges consistently handed down judgments in favour of Muslim wives seeking divorce and dower, compromising their adherence to legal treatises and colonial legislation. This move is noteworthy, considering the general British tradition against judicial activism. 9. Example 1: Dower Unreasonable dower was usually promised; judges enforced these amounts rather than reducing them to reasonable amounts upon divorce. Judges were creative in avoiding the requirements of applicable statutes. Sharafi uses various case law to support this observation. 10. Example 2: Delegated Divorce Muslim husbands could delegate the right to divorce to their wives. Islamic law required wives to exercise this right immediately upon delegation, however, colonial judges did not enforce this rule strictly. While pretending to apply Anglo-Islamic law, colonial judges fashioned their own law to benefit Muslim wives. 11. Who were the judges handing down these decisions? Mostly British and some Hindu judges, trying to protect the interests of Muslim women. Different judges had different motivations some relied strictly on traditional Islamic law to justify their decisions, others attempted reform through their decisions. 12. Legal reasoning in these decisions was strained; judges were semi-autonomous agents. Mrinalini Sinha Britishness, Clubbability, and the Colonial Public Sphere: The Genealogy of an Imperial Institution in Colonial India 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Whites only membership policy of European clubs that have been written about in European history. It has been argued that these clubs represent an oasis of European culture in the colonies; trying to produce the comfort of European home in alien territories Social clubs in colonies are peculiarly British; they were central to British lives in India The club was a centre and symbol of British imperialism with features of exclusiveness, superiority and isolation. These institutions were racially exclusive. These clubs have been written about by novelists like George Orwell. Sinha says that because the purpose of these clubs is so obvious, there has not been a lot of study of their role in British imperialism. Existing studies are limited to making the d istinction between home and away, or the metropole and the colony. The social clubs in colonial India are best understood in the context of the colonial public sphere. This is unique as it functions in between the metropolitan European context and the indigenous public spheres, both of which have been written about extensively. Thus, the club served as the vehicle for eurocentrism. What marks the European social club in India as a quintessentially imperial institution, therefore, is neither its origin as a metropolitan extension nor its representation as an island of exclusive "Britishness" in India. It is, rather, as a privileged site for mediating the contradictory logic of Eurocentrism in the creation of a distinctive colonial public sphere that the European social club acquires its centrality as an imperial institution in colonial India. The clubs in India were naturally a reflection of clubs that existed in Europe; the clubs in England were distinct in their reflection of social relations in England at the time. Club membership became the passport for entry into the culture of the ruling elites in England. The clubs became monuments of English culture. (19 th C) More recent studies show that this natural British culture was really the asserti on of ruling elites. Studies have ignored the impact of colonialism on the formation of national British culture. In fact, the colonies were really test-sites for the management of threats to existing power relationships in England. The author tries to challenge existing understandings of club culture as oases of British culture, when, in fact, the club culture that has been created has been influenced not only by imperialism, but also the colony in which many of these clubs were established. Thus, the British club culture is not a reflection of internal British politics only, but of a broader range of factors that operated in the context of imperialism (class, gender and race relations). The relationship between imperialism and culture is thus not a one way street. The club culture began to be challenged by the bourgeoisie, who argued that clubs kept eligible bachelors out of society, and married men out of their domestic spheres. Thus, club membership was extended to wives, etc. With the changes in the nature of the British presence in India, radical changes took place in the community of Britons in India. Clubs were instrumental in the transition to exclusive anglo-Indian communities in India, distinct from the native community. These clubs played the role of incorporating Europeans abroad into a colonial political and social order.

7.

8.

9.

10.

11.

12. 13. 14.

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15.

16.

17. 18. 19. 20. 21.

22. 23.

Domestic life of Britons in India was shaped by these clubs, during a time when interracial relationships began to be frowned on. Overseas British communities faced demographic challenges a large proportion of men, with very few women. Thus, clubs became attractive places for socialising. Even when more British women came to India, clubs continued as the centre of European social life in India. White women were largely excluded from the clubs, and were marginalised in this way. Yet, Indian men were also kept away from clubs because it was feared that they were attracted to British women. In light of this justification, white women were allowed into clubs. Thus, the presence of white women justified the unclubbability of Indian men. Many accounts of these clubs focus on their role as keeping the coloniser away from the colonised. But they do not recognise the role of the clubs in creating this distinction. Purpose of clubs: uniting to divide. Yet, poor whites living in India posed a problem in the context of racial superiority asserted by the British, their exclusion from clubs was a contradiction. They posed a challenge to the racial self-image of the white community. Certain all-male institutions began to encourage social mixing between whites and a certain class of Indians. Economic aspects: the clubland ties that existed between England and the colony gave non-official Britons an economic advantage over their Indian counterparts. Business was discussed in the clubs both formally and informally. Political aspects: tensions and disputes between British officials and Indians were often resolved by offering club membership. Clubland also came to represent the voice of anglo-Indian public opinion. Opinions on political decisions were expressed with freedom in the clubs, and thus gave officials a pulse of public opinion among the British community in India. Protests were also organised in clubs, against legislations that would affect the British in India. Thus, the clubs produced and represented Anglo-Indian public opinion in India. Changes: the issue of Indian membership remained. Some mixed clubs, like the Calcutta Club, were created. Yet, the difference between the opinions of the Indians and the British prevented any meaningful discussions in these clubs. Women whose husbands became members began to protest against the whiteness of clubs. Gradually, the clubs began to represent an outdated social order. RAJAT RAY Non Cooperation in Bengal

After the first world war, there were alternating cycles of economic boom and depression. During the boom, people would go to the towns for employment, but during the depression the employment ran out. This led to a large amount of disaffection among the masses and resentment against the raj. While the difficulties were temporary, the brought into sharper focus the economic explotation and inequality that ran rampant. The strikes and disaffection varied in form. One of the first strikes was a student strike in which students of schools and colleges refused to attend and this was symptomatic of the general mood of defiance against the raj. The first time the congress tried to harness the discontent was when it organised the students into a mass boycott of jute in 1921 which was a crop through which the imperialists exploited the peasants. Unrest increased and a few European officials were stoned, volunteers looted European establishments etc. Mills and factories were obvious places of discontent and even before the Congress in the form of Chittaranjan Das organised mass protests, the pro Gandhi faction had been organising the workers to improve their quality of life. Trade unions were formed and the workers were encouraged to give up smoking ganja, drinking alcohol etc. all distinctively Gandhian. Later, the NCP and the Khilafat movement, though preached similar things including Hindu Muslim unity, did so with the specific objective of arousing anti govt sentiment and they were able to tap a significant anti ENG sentiment. A serious situation arose in Assam where most of the labour was from Bihar and U.P. there was a major exodus in May because of rumours that Mahatma Gandhi would ensure a happy future back home. At first the local official repatriated the labourers in Bihar and up but then under pressure from Indian Tea Association, became neutral, which essentially meant o repatriation for the labourers. The labourers were prevented from making the journey and they came to a standstill mid journey, not allowed to go further. This resulted in a major strike happening in Bengal, schoold shut down, courts shut down, nothing was sold to Europeans or their servants. The strikes spread to other areas and took a grip over a large class of people. The lower classes took out their frustration when the govt deliberately refused to help the labourers under pressure from the tea association. Cholera broke out in the refugee camp which led to urgency for a solution. This was finally found when a private steamer was hired by Das to transport the refugees. This tragedy outlines the very structure of economic exploitation by the british. Tea export was a major british business in india and the labourer exodus threatened its survival. Thus suppression was required to facilitate their businesses. Gandhi was disapproving of the strike and wrote articles about how Indians shouldnt strike and how there shouldnt be unrest and all further strikes should be prevented. This created tension between Das and Gandhi and though they remained together outwardly, their different wasy of thinking were now clear. Gandhi said that strikes brought unnecessary suffering to the lower classes and tended towards mass violence wereas Das was willing to accept that for the greater good.

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After this there was a lull for a few months after which violence flared up yet again. The disturbances were urban as well as rural and tribal where their land had been taken away or very high taxes were maintained. There were also peasant uprisings led by local businessmen, lawyers etc. OVERALL ANALYSIS Initially all the disturbances were urban in nature and restricted to urban areas. Even during the Chandpur labour exodus, the strikes ad hartals were largely restricted to urban areas. However, once the govt began to clamp down on the towns, the unrest spread to rural areas. However, this mass unrest was not due to a groundswell from below, rather the political elite communicated with the local leadership and orchestrated these movements. However, even the local leadership were generally reluctant to stir up the peasants to a point when their own interests would suffer. Thus, these movements were always reigned in as soon as the leadership felt they were losing control. TAYLOR SHERMAN Hindustan Socialist Republican Association was a cadre of men who formed a revolutionary group in order to achieve independence for india through acts of individual violence. For the british, they were known as terrorists. They had grown frustrated at the Congress creed of non violence and wanted to take it a step further. Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Jai Gopal murdered the superintendent of poice, in Lahore ad thus were tried, alog with 22 others in the Lahore conspiracy case. During the trial, the accused began a hunger strike. Their aim was to get certain privileges and comforts in prison as they were poltical prisoners and not ordinary prisoners who had committed violent crimes. In this, they referred to European and Special Class prisoners, special class being a few affluent Indians who, although in prison for largely violent crimes, got far more privileges than normal Indian political prisoners. In doing so, the strikers did not assert their superiority over normal Indian criminals, rather, they asserted their equality at the very least with the European prisoners. Thus they werent selfish demands of prisoners but a manifestation of the anti imperialist struggle that every Indian at that time identified with. This led to mass support for them.

CONGRESS REACTION The congress, which had throughout advocated non violence and opposed any individual acts of violence, could not now come out in support of these revolutionaries. At the same time, these revolutionaries had gathered a phenomenal amount of public support, as a result of which the Congress (C) couldnt denounce them openly. This was specifically true because this took place in 19 29 when C was preparing for the Civil Disobedience Movement and they could not afford to alienate large parts of the population. Thus C took the middle path, in which they approved of the motives behind the acts of terrorism and the hunger strike, even though they declared the revolutionaries methods to be misguided. PUBLICITY The strike was very well publicised because the strikers would enter court each day shouting slogans for everyone to hear. It was also covered by vernacular newspapers that reported their plight to the nation. The newspapers also selectively published accounts that epitomised the bravery of the strikers. FORCE FEEDING As the strike progressed, some of the accused became too weak to attend court. This presented a problem for the government because they naturally could not release the prisoners or concede to their demands as that would open the floodgates to numerous other demands all over the country. At the same time, the more they delayed the conviction, the more demoralizing it was for the police force who had arrested these criminals using unusual skill and courage and were eager to see the convictions. La stly, it would also serve as a reminder of British dominance over the burgeoning Indian revolutionary ideas. Thus, the government needed the prisoners to become fit enough to attend court. The only option they had available was force feeding. Legally, they showed how it was a duty of the prison officers to force feed inmates who refused to eat. However, this was an extremely cruel method of physically holding down prisoners and inserting tubes into their mouths. Subterfuge was also involved such as substituting milk for water. Not all the prisoners continued their strike indefinitely. In order to continue fighting for their cause, they agreed to take just eough nutrition to survive and to prolong their fast. This could also lead to disturbances within the strikers as some insisted on fasting indefinitely, some wanted to prolong the strike by taking some utrition etc. GOVT CONCESSIONS

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The govt, realising the amount of public support for the strikers privately tried to negotiate with them and to offer them certain privileges but the strikers insisted that all political prisoners be treated alike. The govt also announced a full review of the prison rules, thus without making any promises offering the carrot of change to the prisoners. Finally they gave concessions akin to under trials to all the Lahore prisoners and all of them but for Jatin Das broke their fast, and Jatin Das passed away.