Regulating Hooligans and Mawaalis: Collective Action and the Politics of Public Order in Late Colonial India

Abstract

In 1938, a communal conflict took place in the city of Bombay. This confrontation between Hindus and Muslims flared into large-scale violence. During the riots, the home minister of the provincial government invoked a combination of laws such as Section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure and instituted curfews to control the situation. As a result, hundreds of inhabitants of the city were arrested. The purpose of this article is threefold. Firstly, it will highlight how communal conflict in the late colonial period would often begin over trivial issues but could easily expand into large-scale riots influenced by metapolitical concerns. Secondly, moments of ‘disorder’ facilitated the administrative urge to institute extraordinary laws like Section 144 and curfews. And thirdly, the invocation of extraordinary laws was justified in reference to various problem categories like mawaalis and hooligans in this case. Overall, the article will show that the provincial government led by Indians continued the colonial art of governance by resorting to repression as a significant tool to deal with political unrest.