For most of the 19th century, race theory and its scientific study—known as ethnology—were regarded as key tools for unlocking the secrets of human history and explaining social and biological differences among human beings. In this article the influence of race and ethnology in the development of ideas about native criminals in colonial British India is examined. The article situates discourses about crime and criminality within a wider set of deliberations that sought to know and categorize the peoples and cultures of India. The production of heuristic tools—like the concept of caste—allowed this `primitive' and `backward' society to be ordered for both scholarly and administrative inquiry. It was out of such ideas that the notion of hereditary criminal tribes was born and special legislative measures to categorize and control `suspect' native communities were justified. The nexus between criminalization and mercantilist priorities to encourage settled agricultural production and suppress traditional economic activities finds expression in Act XXVII of 1871, the Criminal Tribes Act.
Arnold, David
(1979) `Dacoity and Rural Crime in Madras, 1860-1940', Journal of Peasant Studies6: 140-167.
2.
Arnold, David
(1984) ` “Criminal Tribes” and “Martial Races”: Crime and Social Control in Colonial India', paper given at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies, University of London.
3.
Arnold, David
(1999) ` “An Ancient Race Outworn”: Malaria and Race in Colonial India, 1860-1930', in Bernard Harris and Waltraud Ernst (eds) Race, Science and Medicine, 1700-1960, pp. 123-143. London: Routledge.
4.
Bates, Crispin
(1995) `Race, Caste and Tribe in Central India: The Early Origins of Indian Anthropometry', in Peter Robb (ed.) The Concept of Race in South Asia, pp. 219-259. Delhi: Oxford University Press.
5.
Bayly, Christopher A.
(1996) Empire and Information: Intelligence Gathering and Social Communication in India, 1780-1870. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
6.
Bayly, Susan
(1995) `Caste and “Race” in the Colonial Ethnography of India', in Peter Robb (ed.) The Concept of Race in South Asia, pp. 165-218. Delhi: Oxford University Press.
7.
Brandstadter, E.S.
(1985) `Human Sacrifice and British-Kond Relations, 1759-1862', in A. Yang (ed.) Crime and Criminality in British India, pp. 89-107. Tucson, AZ: University of Arizona Press.
8.
Brown, Mark
(forthcoming) `Crime, Governance and the Company Raj: The Discovery of Thuggee', British Journal of Criminology.
9.
Brown, Mark
and John Pratt (eds) (2000) Dangerous Offenders: Punishment and Social Order. London: Routledge.
10.
Carlen, Pat
(1983) Women's Imprisonment: A Study in Social Control. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
11.
Chatterjee, Amal
(1998) Representations of India, 1740-1840: The Creation of India in the Colonial Imagination. London: MacMillan.
12.
Cohn, Bernard S.
(1996) Colonialism and its Forms of Knowledge: The British in India. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
13.
Cooke, H.R.
(1875) Repression of Female Infanticide in the Bombay Presidency. Bombay: Bombay Central Press.
14.
Dasgupta, Keya
(1995) `A City Away from Home: The Mapping of Calcutta', in Partha Chatterjee (ed.) Texts of Power: Emerging Disciplines in Colonial Bengal, pp. 145-166. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.
15.
Dirks, Nicholas
(1992) `Castes of Mind', Representations, 37: 56-78.
16.
Ernst, Waltraud
(1999a) `Introduction: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives on Race, Science and Medicine', in Bernard Harris and Waltraud Ernst (eds) Race, Science and Medicine, 1700-1960, pp. 1-28. London: Routledge.
17.
Ernst, Waltraud
(1999b) `Colonial Policies, Racial Politics and the Development of Psychiatric Institutions in Early Nineteenth Century British India', in Bernard Harris and Waltraud Ernst (eds) Race, Science and Medicine, 1700-1960, pp. 80-100. London: Routledge.
18.
Feeley, Malcolm
and Jonathan Simon (1994) `Actuarial Justice. The Emerging New Criminal Law', in David Nelken (ed.) The Futures of Criminology, pp. 173-201. London: Sage.
Forrest, G.W.
(ed.) (1910) Selections from the State papers of the Governors-General of India, Vol. 2, Warren Hastings. Oxford: B.H. Blackwell.
21.
Freitag, Sandra
(1991) `Crime in the Social Order of Colonial North India', Modern Asian Studies25: 227-261.
22.
Gascoigne, John
(1998) Science in the Service of Empire: Joseph Banks, the British State and the Uses of Science in the Age of Revolution. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
23.
Gordon, Stewart
(1969) `Scarf and Sword: Thugs, Marauders and State-Formation in 18th Century Malwa', Indian Economic and Social History Review4: 403-429.
24.
Gould, Stephen J.
(1996) The Mismeasure of Man. New York: Norton.
25.
Harris, Bernard
and Waltraud Ernst (eds) (1999) Race, Science and Medicine, 1700-1960. London: Routledge.
26.
Higginson, Alexander
(1910/1772) `Minutes of the Proceedings of the Committee at Kissen Nagar, dated the 28th June, 1772', in G.W. Forrest (ed.) Selections from the State Papers of the Governors-General of India, Vol. 2, Warren Hastings, pp. 288-289. Oxford: B.H. Blackwell.
27.
Inden, Ronald
(1990) Imagining India. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
28.
Kuper, Adam
(1988) The Invention of Primitive Society. London: Routledge.
29.
Lubbock, John
(1878/1865) Prehistoric Times: As Illustrated by Ancient Remains and the Manners and Customs of Modern Savages, 4th edn.London: Norgate.
30.
Ludlow, John M.
(1858) British India, its Races and its History Considered with Reference to the Mutinies of 1857. Cambridge: Macmillan.
31.
McKenzie, Colonel
(1820) `On the Murderers Called P'hansigars, by Doctor Sherwood', Asiatick Researches13: 251-281.
32.
McLennan, John F.
(1865/1876) Studies in Ancient History: Comprising a Reprint of Primitive Marriage: An Inquiry into the Origin and the Form of Capture in Marriage Ceremonies. London: Quaritch.
33.
Maine, Henry S.
(1861) Ancient Law: Its Connection with the Early History of Society, and its Relation to Modern Ideas. London: J. Murray.
34.
Major, Andrew J.
(1999) `State and Criminal Tribes in Colonial Punjab: Surveillance, Control and Reclamation of the “Dangerous Classes” ', Modern Asian Studies33: 657-688.
35.
Metcalf, Thomas R.
(1994) Ideologies of the Raj. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
36.
Nigam, Sanjay
(1999a) `Disciplining and Policing the “Criminals by Birth”, Part 1: The Making of a Colonial Stereotype—The Criminal Tribes and Castes of North India', The Indian Economic and Social History Review27: 131-164.
37.
Nigam, Sanjay
(1990b) `Disciplining and Policing the “Criminals by Birth”, Part 2: The Development of a Disciplinary System, 1871-1900', The Indian Economic and Social History Review27: 257-287.
38.
O'Malley, Pat
(1999) `Volatile and Contradictory Punishment', Theoretical Criminology3: 175-196.
39.
Prakash, Gyan
(1999) Another Reason: Science and the Imagination of Modern India. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
40.
Robb, Peter
(ed.) (1995) The Concept of Race in South Asia. Delhi: Oxford University Press.
41.
Richardson, Captain David
(1808) `An Account of the Bazeegurs, a Sect Commonly DenominatedNuts', Asiatick Researches7: 451-479.
42.
Roy, Parama
(1996) `Discovering India, Imagining Thuggee', The Yale Journal of Criticism9: 121-145.
43.
Said, Edward W.
(1978) Orientalism. New York: Pantheon Books.
44.
Shakespeare, John
(1820) `Observations Regarding Badheks and T'hegs', Asiatick Researches13: 282-292.
45.
Singha, Radhika
(1993) ` “Providential” Circumstances: The Thuggee Campaign of the 1830s and Legal Innovation', Modern Asian Studies27: 83-146.
46.
Singha, Radhika
(1998) A Despotism of Law: Crime and Justice in Early Colonial India. Delhi: Oxford University Press.
47.
Sinha, Mrinalini
(1995) Colonial Masculinity: The `Manly Englishman' and the `Effeminate Bengali' in the Late Nineteenth Century. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
48.
Sleeman, William H.
(1836) Ramaseeana, or a Vocabulary of the Peculiar Language Used by the Thugs, with an Introduction and Appendix, Descriptive of the System Pursued by that Fraternity and of the Measures Which Have Been Adopted by the Supreme Government of India for its Suppression. Calcutta: Military Orphan Press.
49.
Stocking, George W.
(1987) Victorian Anthropology. New York: The Free Press.
50.
Tod, James
(1829-32/1920) Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, or the Central and Western Rajput States of India. Edited and with notes by william Crooke. London: Oxford University Press.
51.
Tolen, Rachel J.
(1995) `Colonising and Transforming the Criminal Tribesman: The Salvation Army in British India', in Jennifer Terry and Jacqueline Urla (eds) Deviant Bodies: Critical Perspectives on Difference in Science and Popular Culture, pp. 78-108. Bloomingdale, IN: Indiana University Press.
52.
Tylor, Edward B.
(1871) Primitive Culture: Researches into the Development of Mythology, Philosophy, Religion, Art, and Custom. London: John Murray.
53.
Williams, R.G.
(1996) `Shadows of Imperialism: Canonical Typology in Taylor'sConfessions of a Thug', Dalhousie Review72: 482-493.
