Colonial Justice in British India

Kolsky, Elizabeth:
Colonial justice in British India : white violence and the rule of law / Elizabeth Kolsky. - Cambridge : Cambridge Univ. Press, 2010. - XI, 252 S. : Ill., graph. Darst., Kt. - (Cambridge studies in Indian history and society ; 17)
ISBN 978-0-521-11686-2
£ 55,00
DDC: 353.409540903

Beschreibung
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. [Verlagsinformation]

Inhalt
List of figures. vi
List of maps. vii
List of tables. viii
Acknowledgements. ix
Glossary. xi
Introduction. 1
1. White peril: law and lawlessness in early colonial India. 27
2. Citizens, subjects, and subjection to law: codification and the legal construction of racial difference. 69
3. "Indian human nature": evidence, experts, and the elusive pursuit of truth. 108
4. "One scale of justice for the planter and another for the coolie": law and violence on the Assam tea plantations. 142
5. "A judicial scandal": the imperial conscience and the race against empire. 185
Conclusion. 229
Bibliography. 234
Index. 248

Autorin
ELIZABETH KOLSKY, Assistant Professor of History, Villanova University, Pennsylvania. Profile page.

Quellen: Cambridge University Press; Amazon; WorldCat; Blackwell's Online Bookshop.