The Colonial Prison in Bengal, 1860-1945

History, Governmentality, and Colonial Experiences in Literary Writings

Animesh Bag

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Year: 2025
• Print ISBN:
  9783031958335
• eBook ISBN:
  9783031958342
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Asian History
• Index: History

This book presents alternative histories of the colonial prison in Bengal, 1860-1945, focusing on the experiences of the colonised subject as produced in literary writings including fiction, dramas, and life writings. The colonial prison, as defined by penal acts, jail codes, jail manuals, committee reports, administrative data, and statistics, was a modern punitive institution that evolved from the religio-local and the Company’s capricious system into an effective humanitarian machine for ‘the rule of law.’ However, it was the site of torture, humiliation, and repression, which was subsequently challenged, defied, and resisted. The book establishes a comprehensive linkage between the macro historical and the micro historical perspective of the colonial prison exploring its changing image in Bengali society, its extended contribution to the formation of individual and collective identity, intricate tempo-spatial regulations within jails, and various techniques of corporeal and mental torture. The book also highlights resistance tactics of the prisoners, both ordinary and political, and finally it addresses the gendered dynamics and the gender-specific modalities of resistance and subversion.

Table of contents

• World Histories of Crime, Culture and Violence
• The Colonial Prison in Bengal, 1860-1945
• Contents
• List of Figures
• 1. Introduction: History and the Development of the Colonial Prison in Bengal
• 2. Beyond the Walls: The Evolving Image of the Colonial Prison vis-à-vis Colonial Subjects
• 3. Designing Repression: Architecture and Space–Time Politics in the Colonial Prison
• 4. The Laboratory of Violence: Convict Body, Torture, and Penal Power
• 5. Who Is Afraid of Jail? Resistance and the Incarcerated Subject in Colonial Prisons in Bengal
• 6. Women in Prison: Gender, Morality, Revolution, and the Limits of Colonial Governmentality
• 7. Conclusion
• Bibliography
• Index