Law and Imperialism: Criminality and Constitution in Colonial India and Victorian England (Empires in Perspective)

Tension between colonizers and the colonized lies at the heart of this study. The colonial identity was founded in response to its difference from that of the native population and its 'dangerous' elements. Laws that were imposed by colonizers were therefore as much an attempt to confirm their own identity as to control the more dangerous elements of a potentially unruly populace. This, in turn, means that instead of Victorian England being the driving force behind colonial law, the reverse was true, with the tensions experienced in India having a direct effect on the British judicial system.Primary source material from both British Parliamentary Papers and colonial archive material is used to provide evidence of legal change and response. Evidence is presented on the shared experience of 'dangerous' groups of people in both India and in Victorian England, as well as unique information on the status of South Asians in Britain. A case-study on the process of criminalization on the Sansi in colonial Punjab provides a fascinating example of how criminality can be produced by the creation of stereotypes based on fear ('dangerousness'), and an illustration of how science and taxonomy assisted the law in constructing Victorian and colonial identities. Contents ......Page 8 1. Imperial Miasma......Page 10 2. Theory and the Constitution of Difference......Page 26 3. Imagery and Law in the Creation of Identities......Page 50 4. Scientific Racism and the Constitution Difference......Page 70 5. The 'Ethnic' as a Component of the 'Criminal' Class......Page 88 6. Imposing Colonial Legal Identities in India......Page 104 7. Constructing the Sansi as a 'Criminal' Class......Page 126 8. Imperial Reflections......Page 146 Notes......Page 162 Works Cited......Page 200 Index......Page 222 Imperial miasma Theory and the construction of unequal colonial identities Imagery and law in the creation of identities Scientific racism and the constitution of difference The 'ethic' as a component of the 'criminal' class Imposing colonial legal identities in India Constructing the Sansi as a 'criminal' class Imperial reflections : a compelling insistence.