Colonial Police Research Articles

Creating power from failure: policing stock theft in colonial East Africa

In Dr. Keebet Benda-Beckmann’s scholarship that has transformed the field of legal pluralism, she highlights the importance of understanding how colonization impacted systems of power. This article extends Benda-Beckmann’s forum shopping framework to analyze colonial Tanganyika’s thwarted attempts to establish law and order, particularly when it came to cattle. Laws criminalizing stock theft were among the first imposed in British East Africa, and disputes rose to the surface of four decades of annual police and prison reports, in anxious correspondence between police commissioners and European settler farmers, in reports from the governor to London, and in meetings of farmers’ associations. In line with other case studies of legal pluralism, stock theft in this context of indirect rule shows how law-making and law-enforcing were not solely the domain of the state and police, but largely shaped by settler famers—and indigenous resistance to their theft of land and resources. Stock theft and attempts to stop it constituted state power and expanded the capitalist state and policing strategies, many of which traveled to other parts of the British Empire and outlived formal colonial rule. The colonial police gained their power not despite their failure to stop stock theft but because of it.

Colonial policing and police administration in erstwhile Northwest Frontier Province and tribal areas of British India

Colonial policing and police administration in erstwhile Northwest Frontier Province and tribal areas of British India

מאבק הממסד נגד הפעלת כוח משטרתי פסול בעשור הראשון למדינת ישראל

The use of unlawful force by British Mandate police was embedded into the Jewish consciousness as a symbol for the entire regime's inherent faults. In contrast, the desired image of the Israeli police force was shaped as the complete opposite: A police force whose actions are justified, enacts law and order, and applies force with restraint. Thus, as opposed to the Mandate's model of colonial policing founded on oppressive military components, the Israeli police, upon its inception, espoused – in theory, at least – the metropolitan model, based on the public's consent to its actions. In practice, however, this was not enough to uproot the phenomenon entirely: since the Israeli police's very first years, members of the Knesset, government and media have voiced their complaints about an unlawful use of force by police officers. Although it is difficult to gauge the true scope of the problem, the state had worked to fight it due to both its practical and symbolic severity. This study will focus on the measures taken by the police, Knesset and government – sometimes with the influence of public and media discussions and sometimes without it – to eradicate it, on three levels: educational – through training courses for new police officers that included laws, regulations and content defining proper use of force; legal – which involved disciplinary and criminal action against policemen who used unlawful force; and structural – which comprised of inquiry committees that examined the use of force by the police and its officers systemically. The failure of these efforts is often explained on a universal level using Brodeur's stance, that the use of force is tantamount to fighting fire with fire: fighting an inherently wrong action by employing an equally wrong means of doing so. Our research will focus on the limited success of these efforts using a local analysis that focuses on Israeli police and society during the state's first decade: on the micro level, we will examine the characteristics of police officers, while the macro level will follow the broad political and social contexts of that time, which led to a reproduction of mandatory-military practices even within a police force that raised the banner of civic policing.

Post-colonial Counter-memory in The Trial of Dedan Kimathi: (Re)membering the Demonized Hero and Subverting the Colonial Discourse

This paper examines how Kenyan novelist and playwright Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o and Zimbabwean playwright Micere Githae-Mugo have embarked on a dramatic counter-discursive project through their play The Trial of Dedan Kimathi (1976). The researchers argue that the play was intended to subvert the many colonial historical accounts about the figure of Kimathi and the Mau Mau revolutionary anticolonial movement. Drawing upon post-colonial criticism, this paper demonstrates how the playwrights use the heroic fictional character of Kimathi to counteract several historical and fictional colonial and contemporary postcolonial accounts about this controversial freedom fighter. Then, the paper goes on to examine the role of Ian Henderson (the British colonial police officer who participated in the manhunt for Kimathi and succeeded in capturing him in 1957) as a fictional character in the play. While many studies have demonstrated that The Trial of Dedan Kimathi re-writes the colonial history about Kimathi and the Mau Mau movement in Kenya, which was maintained by Ian Henderson and many other colonial writers, to the best of the researchers’ knowledge; previous studies have not presented a comparative examination of both figures of Henderson, i.e., the historical figure and the fictional one. Here, the researchers explain how through the inclusion of the character of Henderson as the antagonist of the play, the dramatists subvert Henderson’s actual written accounts about Kimathi and the Kenyan national movement.

The Pre-Colonial Roots of Colonial Coercion: Evidence From British Burma

Under severe fiscal constraints that plagued colonial states, how did governments allocate their coercive power throughout the colonized territory? In this paper, I highlight the pre-colonial state consolidation as an important determinant of colonial coercion. When the state established control over society by appointing new local agents, the society became more compliant to state demands, reducing the need for coercion over the long run. To evaluate this argument in British Burma, I collected new data from indigenous land revenue inquests and colonial police reports, using the pre-colonial variation in local headman appointment after a plausibly exogenous extinction of a hereditary line. I find that places closer to locations that received new pre-colonial headmen experienced significantly lower colonial police presence. Neither spatial correlation nor the presence of other state institutions can explain the results. The findings emphasize the deep origins of contentious state-society relations that extend beyond colonial legacies.

Littoral Piracy in Colonial Nigeria: The Lagos Lagoon in The Interwar Years

Abstract: The antiquity of piracy in Nigeria's coastal waters has been traced to the precolonial period, especially the nineteenth century. However, the period of British colonial rule, specifically, the interwar years, has been neglected in the literature. This paper examines piracy on the Lagos Lagoon during the interwar years in the framework of concurrent concepts of piracy. It contributes to the literature on piracy by reclassifying piratical acts in association with specific water bodies. Hence, this case study of "littoral piracy" is situated in the geography, population movements, economic activities, and colonial policing in the Lagos Lagoon system. Several incidents reported between 1918 and 1937 highlight the incidence of piracy, the attendant human and material toll, the consequent police operations, and judicial adjudication of these incidents. The paper demonstrates how littoral piracy evolved as organized (state-backed) and haphazard (freelance) enterprises in changing contexts of contested and uncontested hegemonies during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

The Making of a Gentleman and a Detective: Tales of Crime, Respectability, and Surveillance from a Colonial Metropolis

Abstract Priyanath Mukhopadhyay (also referred to as PM subsequently) enjoyed an extraordinary career in the colonial police force in Calcutta, where he served as a detective from 1878 to 1911. In his later life, he wrote as a bhadralok and a detective—both important parts of his fashioned self-identity—using narratives of crime to showcase his rare professional expertise and his responsibilities as a cultured upholder of the law. Through an examination of Priyanath’s serialized police tales, it is possible to see how crime writing forged the values of respectability and civic sensibilities, and shaped the moral fiber of an urban society that appeared to be falling apart at its seams. Examining criminal activities in colonial Calcutta as recoverable from PM’s writings affords glimpses of a city being reordered by its material wealth, social aspirations, and moral attitudes. PM’s tales attempt to face this challenge by forging a moral authority in the finely calibrated colonial order. His readers too were evidently invested in it as they endorsed this stand with their purse, leading to soaring circulation figures. The middle classes of Calcutta emerge in these tales as part and parcel of Priyanath’s policing, providing neighborhood and community surveillance networks and backing up the efforts of their detective hero. PM wrote very much as a social commentator as well as a police officer, reaffirming traditional social and domestic values, and frowning upon transgression of class and gender boundaries. What also comes alive is the city itself—the spaces laid bare or concealed by crime—the writing providing access to different topographies of urban knowledge and information networks.

Undesirable: Passionate Mobility and Women’s Defiance of French Colonial Policing, 1919-1952. By Jennifer Anne Boittin

Journal Article Undesirable: Passionate Mobility and Women’s Defiance of French Colonial Policing, 1919-1952. By Jennifer Anne Boittin Get access Undesirable: Passionate Mobility and Women’s Defiance of French Colonial Policing, 1919-1952. By Jennifer Anne Boittin (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2022. 288 pp. $35.00). Caroline Séquin Caroline Séquin Lafayette College sequinc@lafayette.edu Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Journal of Social History, shad023, https://doi.org/10.1093/jsh/shad023 Published: 06 June 2023

Cattle, Viral Invasions, and State-Society Relations in a Colonial Korean Borderland

Abstract For early twentieth-century Koreans, one of the most feared invaders to breach the country’s northern border with China was the tiny viral pathogen Rinderpest morbillivirus (rinderpest, or cattle plague). This study examines the social consequences of rinderpest outbreaks along the colonial Sino-Korean border and the methods undertaken by the Japanese Government-General of Korea to control viral “invasions” from Manchuria. Rinderpest prevention primarily functioned as an extension of the colonial police. Despite universal fears of rinderpest’s ravages, which devastated a rural economy dependent on animal labor, colonized Koreans exhibited wide-ranging reactions to the heavy-handed methods adopted by imperial officials to fight the disease. Korean responses included outright resistance such as cross-border cattle smuggling, attacking veterinary officials, or protests against livestock travel bans, as well as varying degrees of cooperation. Moving chronologically from before the beginning of formal colonial rule in 1910 until the 1930s, this article strives to explain how a modern veterinary regime was implemented and negotiated in the northern colonial Korean borderland. Such a view is essential for understanding not only Korea’s colonial past but also Korean responses to infectious disease “invasions” in the present day.

Civilising Violence: International Law and Colonial War in the British Empire, 1850–1900

Abstract What was the relationship between international law and colonial warfare in the period of both increasingly formal imperialism and international law’s professionalisation and codification in the nineteenth-century’s second half? Existing work may lead to assumptions that international law would not be seen to apply to colonial wars, or served to justify them alone. This article turns away from previous focuses on the intellectual history of international law, prescriptive sources such as military manuals, and approaches extending from criminal law and colonial policing to demonstrate how and why imperial officials, politicians, and activists believed international law applied to colonial wars. Examining the British Empire, it shows how arguments about the use of international law in this period initially varied in the service of imperial interests, how and why public activism increasingly encouraged a more consistent approach – and discusses implications for the history and present of the law of armed conflict.

A.W. Hamilton and the translation of English nursery rhymes into Malay

ABSTRACT A.W. Hamilton (1887–1967) was a colonial police officer who demonstrated a keen interest in the Malay language. He was a regular contributor to various magazines and journals during the colonial period. His writings, which encompass various aspects of the Malay language, Malay sayings and love charms, flora, fauna, feasts, and festivals, reflect his diverse interest in his surroundings. Also known as Haji Hamilton, he was a translator as well. He is perhaps best known for his translations of English nursery rhymes into Malay, which were published six times over a period of 70 years. Upon his retirement from the police force, Hamilton settled down in Australia. He is often credited for having made among the earliest effort to introduce the Malay language in Australia, although it did not prove to be very successful. In spite of this, very little is publicly documented about Hamilton. This article aims to explore some aspects of Hamilton’s life and discuss his language indigenisation in his translation of nursery rhymes into Malay, with the aim of providing some insights into the life of a colonial officer who was unwavering in his interest in and devotion to the Malay language.

The strategic logic of policing in British India

ABSTRACT Within British India, the police were used to suppress challenges to colonial authority. Yet, police actions in fulfilling this role varied by region. Within the provinces, the police were a coercive force to enforce internal security, augmenting military efforts. On the frontier, the aim of the police was to integrate locals into the local security framework and weld their interests to government control, rather than the direct application of force. Relying on Indian archival records, this comparative analysis demonstrates the importance of considering this variation for a more complete understanding of the strategic logic of colonial policing.

English

Knowledge and perception of policing and police corruption in most developing societies, including Ghana, seem to reflect through the media. Yet, of course, police corruption is an old and multifaceted issue. In Ghana, it can be argued that it has historical roots extending to the period when professional policing was first introduced during the colonial era -1831. Police forces established during British colonial rule in most countries, including Ghana, Nigeria, and India, are perceived to be incredibly corrupt, violent, and exploitative. Contemporary policing in sub-Saharan Africa is a colonial legacy and in that capacity imperialism and its legacies have foreordained the nature and styles of policing, functions, structures, and accountability in the post-colonial period. As such, chronic corruption within the Ghanaian police service can be linked to the legacy of the British colonial authorities. The aim is to present the social and cultural context for understanding police corruption in Ghana. This paper examines a body of literature and explores various forms of social control, particularly, policing and argues that the existence and the practices of police corruption in contemporary Ghanaian society have a significant element of colonialism as the primary influential factor.   Key words: Policing, colonial police, police corruption, and colonial rule.

Police officers' punitiveness in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic: the role of fear, attribution and self-legitimacy

PurposeThe focus of this study is to examine Indian police officers' punitiveness toward violators of criminal sanctions attached to COVID-19 mitigation laws enacted by the Indian Penal Code. The authors draw from the conceptual frameworks and correlates typically employed in traditional crime and justice research and adapt them to the context of the pandemic. Additionally, the authors examine whether officers' punitive attitudes are related to their belief in self-legitimacy and their job assignment (civilian vs. armed personnel) in a country with inherited colonial policing legacies.Design/methodology/approachData for the study came from 1,323 police officers in a northern state of India.FindingsFindings suggest that officers with vicarious fear of COVID-19 infections (e.g. infection of family members) find the sanctions associated with the new laws harsh. Additionally, officers who subscribe to the classical attributions of offenders feel that the laws are not punitive enough. In contrast, those with deterministic views perceive the sanctions as excessively harsh. Findings also suggest that officers' self-legitimacy, and belief in the authority and responsibility vested in them, is a key predictor of their punitive attitudes. Finally, officers assigned to police lines are more punitive than those designated to patrol/traffic work.Research limitations/implicationsData or prior research on officers' punitive attitudes toward other violations (non-COVID-19 violations) is unavailable for comparison with this study’s findings.Originality/valueNo prior research has examined the relationship between police officers' perceptions of self-legitimacy, their belief in the authority vested in them by the state, their belief in their role as police officers and their relationship to their punitive attitudes.

The Communist Manifesto in Indonesia

This article offers a new perspective on the reception of Marxism in Indonesia by examining the first Malay translations of The Communist Manifesto, published in 1923 and 1925. These translations, made from Dutch and German source texts, ‘domesticated’ the Manifesto by exchanging certain European terms for vernacular ones with greater resonance in the Indonesian context. They also introduced a wider Indonesian audience to Marxist class concepts, which offered a new international way of conceptualising political resistance, and terms from European philosophy and history. In the process, they broke down the barriers built up by Dutch colonial authorities to keep radical European political texts away from vernacular languages. After the failed communist uprisings of 1926–27, the increasingly intense colonial policing regime stifled further dissemination of the Manifesto, but translations of Marx and Engels’ text received a new lease of life during the Indonesian Revolution (1945–49) and in the postwar decades. The Communist Manifesto was suppressed once more under the anti-communist New Order regime which came to power in 1966 and reconstructed the barrier between radical European political thought and the Indonesian language that had been erected by the Dutch.

Regarding the Ruins: Dehousing and the Places Where Nothing Remains

This paper seeks to reframe the way we think about the rise of “dehousing” (Hulchanski et al., 2009, p. 3) in Toronto. Outsourced private security and militaristic, colonial policing by the state (Kanji & Withers, 2021) displace people from warm air vents, tiny homes, tarps, tents, and other secluded places of refuge. Rather than see empty public space or fenced off parks as neutral ground amidst a housing crisis, I propose that these sites constitute a “ruin.” How might the ruins bear witness to the violence of dehousing? I frame my analysis through Crane’s premise (2021) that Nothing must be seen as a Something. She reveals how photography can help us in the documentation of Nothing (Crane, 2021). With the help of photographs, this paper attempts to animate the pedagogical witness of the places where Nothing remains. Rather than being conceived as a natural result of some “generic human tendency” (Crane, 2021, p. 121), ruins can be understood as part of presently existing unjust systems that must be changed. The “ruins of dehousing” turn us toward histories of colonial displacement, our relationship to public space, and our obligation to become conscious of Nothing.

Colonial Suspects: Suspicion, Imperial Rule, and Colonial Society in Interwar French West Africa

Colonial Suspects: Suspicion, Imperial Rule, and Colonial Society in Interwar French West Africa

The Regulation, Reclamation, and Resistance of Queer Kinship in Contemporary India.

Since 2014, two legislative actions, the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights)Act 2019, and the Draft Trafficking in Persons (Prevention, Care and Rehabilitation) Bill 2021, have been pivotal in re-inscribing the Indian state’s colonial policing of queer kinship networks. By criminalising relationalities outside the heteropatriarchal conjugal home, the sexual subaltern is exposed to the state’s mechanisms of rescue and rehabilitation. These developments have occurred alongside the constitutional recognition of privacy in K.S. Puttaswamy v. Union of India (2017) 10 SCC 1 and the decriminalisation of the anti-sodomy law in Navtej Johar v. Union of India 2018 (10) SCALE 386 which have been celebrated as victories of self-determination and dignity for queer kinship. These judicial pronouncements, although symbolically pertinent, fail to materially protect queer kinship, and with the contemporary advocacy around queer marriage, the need for legal and cultural recognition has obfuscated the substantive needs of pre-existing queer alliances. Queer communities continue to organise for their own emancipation and despite their vulnerability, queer visibility offers a public counter-narrative of resistance and survival against the brutalities of society and the state.

Afterword: Context erasure

Afterword: Context erasure

Founding Colonial Japanese Police Station To Contemporary Cultural and Creative Center (1896−2015)

We explore the founding and transformation of a historical building, a police station, during the Japanese occupation of Meinong, a Hakka gathering located in southern Taiwan. We focus on the construction process of transformation from an expropriating residential space into rebuilding a formal public office into remodeling for a popular cultural and creative center, which has gone through for over a century. The police station has undergone a total of five architectural form changes. First, it was established under the control of colonial governance three times, but it has been empty since the colonial factors disappeared. Secondly, the new government built another police station in front of it. Subsequently, with the preservation policy of historical buildings, the colonial police station was restored and reused. Through literature inquiry and the transformation process of architectural form and the political and historical aspects of that process, it is demonstrated how the migratory police bureaucracy was established from strange management during the period of Japanese occupation (1895−1945) to a formal police mechanism. Finally, it flourished within a popular culture with new values through historic preservation and reuse policy.