Constructing the Criminal Tribe in Colonial India: Acting Like a Thief

175 Pages·2010·0.87 MB·English

by  Henry Schwarz

Constructing the Criminal
Tribe in Colonial India

Constructing the Criminal
Tribe in Colonial India
Acting Like a Thief
Henry Schwarz
A John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., Publication
This edition fi rst published 2010
© 2010 Henry Schwarz
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01 2010
Contents
Acknowledgments vi
Introduction 1
1 Placing Criminals, Displacing Thuggee: Historical
Representation, “Fact,” and Stereotype, c. 1830–2005 13
2 How to Make a Thug: Recipes for Producing Crime,
1830–1910 47
3 Discipline, Labor, Salvation: Repression, Reform,
and the Thuggee Precedent 81
4 Acting Like a Thief: From Aesthetics of Survival
to the Politics of Liberation 112
Notes 139
Bibliography 150
Index 161
Acknowledgments
Long before I understood what was at stake in these debates, Mahasweta
Devi was a living example of why they were important and of what to do
about them. Although her writing does not fi gure prominently in this book,
her active spirit animates every page. Dr. G. N. Devy showed how to
accomplish the larger goals of institution building and organizational
reform that these arguments implicitly demand. The examples of the Bhasha
Research and Publication Center, the Adivasi Akademi, and Budhan Theatre
show the concrete accomplishments that can arise from book learning, and
were constantly before me as I researched and wrote. I have been privileged
to be reoriented by these experiments over the last ten years.
Friends and colleagues in the US and elsewhere have sustained the long,
collaborative project of which this book is only one product. Shashwati
Talukdar and P. Kerim Friedman of Four Nine and a Half Productions
have been excellent co- producers on three fi lms, many trips, and a shared
odyssey going back to 1998. My attorney Alan Sussman and the rest of
the Board of Directors of Vimukta, Inc. have shared and supported the
commitment to social justice and have built a foundation for future work.
Tarun Jain and the Association for India’ s Development have generously
shared resources and strategies. I am grateful to Shirley Chesney for invit-
ing us speak at the United Nations as part of the initiative to create a
Culture of Peace. I would be remiss not to thank Julie Enslow and George
Martin for sharing a vision of peace and working to make it practical.
Thanks to Dan Rycroft for sharing his passion and scholarship on India’ s
tribes, and to Vinayak Chaturvedi for very detailed information on access-
ing Indian archives. In India, Meena Radhakrishna, Kanji Patel, Avinash
Gaikwad, Laxman Gaikwad, Dilip D’ S ouza, the members of Budhan
Theatre, and the people of Chharanagar were early, enthusiastic support-
ers. I am indebted to the staff of the Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Manav
Sangrahalaya, and especially its esteemed Director, Dr. K. K. Chakrabarti,
Acknowledgments vii
for the early opportunity to gather and learn about the De - Notifi ed Tribes
on several occasions. An important seminar was hosted by the Department
of Sociology at the University of Pune during which many of these insights
were sharpened.
Portions of this book have been presented to academic audiences in
several places, and I am grateful for the generosity and hospitality of the
organizers at Jadavpur University, Kolkata University, Jawaharlal Nehru
University, Maharaja Sayajirao University, the World Social Forum in
Mumbai, the Sainsbury Center at the University of East Anglia, the
Conference on Literary and Cultural Theory at Wuhan Normal University,
the Brazilian Association of Comparative Literature at the University of Sã o
Paolo, Tecnoló gico de Monterrey, the Rethinking Marxism conference at
the University of Massachusettes at Amherst, the Canadian Association of
Cultural Studies conference at McGill University, and the Annual Conference
on South Asia at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. I must also thank
the Lannan Center for Poetics and Social Practice at Georgetown University
for encouraging this work and providing a venue at the Symposium on
“ Writers, Masses, Multitudes” in 2007. The writing and research for this
book were generously supported by funding and sabbatical and family leave
time from Georgetown University.
Thanks are due the staffs of several libraries where the research was
conducted. The extraordinary South Asia collection at the University of
Pennsylvania got me started, where I must acknowledge the resourcefulness
and generosity of bibliographer David Nelson. The Suzzallo & Allen
Libraries at the University of Washington in Seattle, the Golda Meir Library
at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, and above all the Lauinger
Library at Georgetown University, where the department of Interlibrary
Loan effortlessly connected me to a world of far- fl ung archives, were all
crucial to this project ’ s completion. My colleague Donna Even- Kesef was
an invaluable collaborator in acquiring exotic old books.
Wiley - Blackwell has been a consummate host in seeing this book to
publication. My Editor, Jayne Fargnoli, has been everything an author can
ask: patient, trusting, inspiring, scolding, and hilarious. Margot Morse,
Justin Dyer, and the entire production team have been professional, diligent,
and helpful.
Friends make it worthwhile: Ipshita Chanda, Richard Dienst, Samik
Ghosh, Peter Hulme, Dan Kent, Carmen Lamas, Roopika Risam, and Paul
Rosier have all heard an earful. I am very fortunate to know Dakxinbhai
and all the Chharas. G. N. Devy has been an extraordinary guide.
Family makes it possible: Mom and Dad, Mike and Alicia, Striker and
Spooky, all the Stevenses.
viii Acknowledgments
Before my eyes always are the loving memory and the troublematic and
splendiferous example of Didi.
Pace Garry is the future.
Everything else is due to Molly, the love of my life, who lets me do
this.
Text Credits
The author and publisher gratefully acknowledge the permission granted
to reproduce copyright material in this book from: Mike Dash, Thug: The
True Story of India’ s Murderous Cult (London: Granta, 2005); and Radhika
Singha, “ ‘ Providential ’ Circumstances: The Thuggee Campaign of the
1830s and Legal Innovation, ” pp. 83 – 146 from Modern Asian Studies 27:
1 (2008), reprinted by permission of Cambridge University Press. Every
effort has been made to trace copyright holders and to obtain their permis-
sion. The publisher apologizes for any errors or omissions and would be
grateful if notifi ed of any corrections that should be incorporated in future
reprints or editions of the book.