Browsing by Subject "Colonial North Bengal"

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Prisons in colonial North Bengal : a study of control, discipline and punishment (1773-1947)
(University of North Bengal, 2023) Paul, Madhusudan; Bhattacharya, Dahlia
Imprisonment and development of Prisons as a penal institution under the British Raj were a significant addition in the criminal justice system of colonial India. Coming of a new administration of justice in India and consequently its extension in North Bengal, even more precisely after the creation of Nh Bengal for colonial interest due to its flourishing trade and security purposes was a result of the British Rule. North Bengal has a long history of administrative changes; and in the formative years of colonial administration the northern part of Bengal had witnessed widespread crime and criminal activities in varied forms. The British government was determined to put down offences against property, individual life and ensure public safety to create a political and administrative environment conducive to trade and investment and to maximize revenue extraction. Therefore. it became an objective necessity from the colonial viewpoint to codify the law. create a colonial police force as a legitimate instrument of coercion, reform of the court of justice from top to bottom and renovate the rudimentary prison network; that enabled the devices of control to prevent crime and lo force the law and order in this portion of the country. Prison's history as a whole has been in existence since the days of state power in making. We have references of prison in ancient literature like the Arthshastra, the provisions for punishment in the Smrities and in the Islamic laws. The 'Karagar of Kamsa' i.e. Jail of Kamsa where Srikrishna was born is a strong evidence of existence of prison in ancient India. Still, it is to be admitted; well organised prison system had taken much time to evolve. With the advent of the British. there came a wind of change in lndia, particularly in Bengal. The 18th century gave a clear indication of change that was to come in the following years. Many changes took place in the country taking into account the revenue system, judicial system, and legal system and penal system. The Supreme Court was set in 1774. The Supreme Court pointed to the climax of a new legal system which would contain the imperiaI rule and act as safeguard against external corrosions. On the contrary, in colonial India, especially in Bengal, increasing rural violence in the late eighteenth century served as provocation for the major changes in the mode of punishment instead of basic criminal laws. Their own experiences at home defined their perceptions of crime in India. Similarly, the process of the criminalization in colonial lndia was prompted by the urgent need to generate greater social discipline in the subject society as without such order, revenue collection, trade and administrative control would be disturbed. All these led to the authorities tinding no alternative other than adoption of imprisonment as the pr􀄵cautionary of the first resort to cope up with such crimes, criminals and violence. Instead of prisons, penal settlements, home arrest, in the 1930s the authority needed detention camps on the eve of disobedience of salt law and civil disobedience movements, along with the extensiveness and popularity of revolutionary movements. However, with the consolidation of the British power and advent of western thoughts the people of the land could feel a trend of change in different aspects of their day-to-day life. For the British the prison was an institution symbolic of order and civility. The prison was for them not just a system to preserve and reform the criminals but to make the colonized country realize the political presence of the authority. Thus. the history of prisons in colonial North Bengal and its control, punishment and discipline clearly emerges as a significant area of study. Recently such studies are given importance in history and hence this dissertation. In this dissertation, the present scholar has made a modest attempt to explore the history of the prison of the districts of the Bengal hitherto academically not dealt with. As a whole thorough study on differential natures and a combination of multiple factors of police, judicial and prison administrations will help us to decipher the nature of British colonial policy and how they consolidated their rule in this particular region. So, the present work may be considered to a new addition to the domain of knowledge in regards to colonial North Bengal.