Colonial Justice in British India
White Violence and the Rule of Law

This book describes the lesser-known history of the violence and criminal conduct of one group of Europeans in British India.

Elizabeth Kolsky (Author)

9780521116862, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 3 December 2009

266 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.9 cm, 0.54 kg

'… Kolsky succeeds admirably in connecting white criminality to the core subjects of colonial history, including ideologies of rule, the lived experience of colonial conflicts, and the discourses of anticolonial movements.' Law and History Review

Colonial Justice in British India describes and examines the lesser-known history of white violence in colonial India. By foregrounding crimes committed by a mostly forgotten cast of European characters - planters, paupers, soldiers and sailors - Elizabeth Kolsky argues that violence was not an exceptional but an ordinary part of British rule in the subcontinent. Despite the pledge of equality, colonial legislation and the practices of white judges, juries and police placed most Europeans above the law, literally allowing them to get away with murder. The failure to control these unruly whites revealed how the weight of race and the imperatives of command imbalanced the scales of colonial justice. In a powerful account of this period, Kolsky reveals a new perspective on the British Empire in India, highlighting the disquieting violence that invariably accompanied imperial forms of power.

List of figures
List of maps
List of tables
Acknowledgements
Glossary
Introduction
1. White peril: law and lawlessness in early colonial India
2. Citizens, subjects and subjection to law: codification and the legal construction of racial difference
3. 'Indian human nature': evidence, experts, and the elusive pursuit of truth
4. 'One scale of justice for the planter and another for the coolie': law and violence on the Assam tea plantations
5. 'A judicial scandal': the imperial conscience and the race against empire
Conclusion
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: Legal history [LAZ], Colonialism & imperialism [HBTQ], Asian history [HBJF]