Race, Science and the Construction of Native Criminality in Colonial India

Abstract

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.