A Despotism Of Law: Crime And Justice In Early Colonial India

A Despotism of Law Crime and Justice in Early Colonial India Radhika Singha ~ . , 'l OXFORD VNIVBllSITY PllBSS OXFORD UNIVBRSITY PRESS Acknowledgements YMCA Library Building, Jai Singh Road, New Delhi 110 00 I Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University's objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide in Oxford New York Athens Auckland Bangkok Bogota Buenos Aires Calcutta Cape Town Chennai Dar es Salaam Delhi Florence Hong Kong Istanbul Karachi Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Mumbai Nairobi Paris Sao Paolo Singapore Taipei Tokyo Toronto Warsaw with associated companies in Berlin Ibadan Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press in the UK and and in certain other countries © Oxford University Press 1998 Oxford India Paperbacks 2000 ISBN 019565311 4 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means. without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by law, or under terms agreed with the appropriate reprographics rights organization. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above Typeset by Rastrixi, New Delhi 110070 Printed in India at Print Perfect, New Delhi 110064 and published by Manzar Khan, Oxford University Press YMCA Library Building, Jai Singh Road, New Delhi 110001 I begin by thanking all those who broadened my understanding of history as an undergraduate at Miranda House, Delhi. At Jawaharlal Nehru University Professor Bipan Chandra was an affectionate and supportive supervisor of an M.Phil dissenation on the Quit India movement, which I hope to rework some day. Neeladri Bhattacharya, and Professor Madhavan Palat, both highly demanding of their students, gave me their comments on sections of this manuscript. Professor S. Gopal extended his encouragement in the closing stages ofrewriting. Uma Chakravarthy and Tanika Sarkar, set out an agenda for the gender dimensions of history which motivated me to add a chapter on law and domestic authority. This book re-works a thesis written under the most generous and encouraging supervision of Professor Chris Bayly. My intellectual debt to his richly textured social history, in particular, to Rulers, Tuwnsmen and BaZlZllrs; will be evident to readers of this book, despite some points of divergence. His ability to keep directing research towards the larger picture is something which I find particularly valuable. Chris' many acts ofkindness extended to more material dimenSions as well. Seema, Kathy and I were cheered up by the numerous luilches and dinners which brightened our sentence to thesis writing. Other friends and relatives who commented on the manuscript in its various stages or simply kept me happy while writing it, include Anjali Rani, Anatol, Anne, Ben, Carol, Chitra, Isobelle, Karan, Kaushallaya Masi, Mukul, Prabhu, Rana, Robert, Sanjeev, Seema, Srimanjari, Suvrita. I am grateful to the Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla, and to the Indian Council of Historical Research for one-year fellowships which allowed me to take time off from teaching. A ten-w~ek Rock~feller ~~~~ship .at ~e Institl.l:te on Culture and ConsCIOusness m Southr..,Ia, Umverslty of ChIcago, vi Acknowledgements and a Visitor's grant from the Brit