Reading Information

Bernard Cohn, Chapter 3: “Law and the Colonial State in India,” Colonialism and its Forms of Knowledge

Overview

India was the biggest nation that the British conquered. At the time they had already colonized parts of the Caribbean. India was a completely new challenge to them because of the language barrier, geographical size, and population. They had to devise a new tactic that they had not used before. They decided to divide and conquer the land. At the time the indigenous Indians followed an ancient constitution. In order to break through to them, the British translated their constitution from Sanskrit to Persian to English. This gave them insight to the values and beliefs of the Indians. This advantage gave them great leverage to manipulate their thinking. By translating the constitution they were able to come up with their own laws and use the constitution as justification for it.

Keywords

1. Sovereignty – power over another
2. Escheat – law that states that when someone dies and has no heirs their land belongs to the state
3. Idolatry – worshiping idols

Argument

Cohn’s argument in this chapter was that the British used the laws that were already in place in India to their own benefit by manipulating the words into what they wanted them to mean.

Evidence

The British charged taxes to the Indians who owned land before the British got there. They called the Indians “tenants” and they played the role of the “landlords.”

Historiographical Debate

Contribution to Our Understanding of Colonial Rule

A huge part of the overall success of the British was their ability to appeal to what the Indians already knew. They were able to position the changes as things that they were already doing. By doing this, the transition seemed less drastic and they were less likely to oppose.