Reading Information

Bernard S. Cohn, “Chapter Three: Laws and the Colonial State in India,” Colonialism and Its Forms of Knowledge

Overview

British colonies in the Caribbean as well as in North America were seen as extensions of Great Britain. They were expected to have the same laws and political institutions as Great Britain. Slavery and the lack of indigenous populations in both places accounted for the reason this idea took hold so easily. Many people knew little else besides what came to be British rule. After the Battle of Plassey in 1757, the East India Company was able to gain territorial power in India (Cohn p. 58). This newly acquired territory was unlike Britain’s other colonies because the society came from an ancient civilization and had a large degree of self-governance. The territory and the number of people that came along with it also informed the decision to keep some aspects of the existing society.

In order to keep some elements of Indian traditions, the British had to fully understand the society. This meant understanding the language and even translating traditional Hindu laws into English. The original attempts at controlling India included incorporating the traditional laws into the new English system. This was unlike what was done in other colonies. By 1864 with the reform of the judicial system, the Hindu and Muslim law officers of various courts were abolished. This ultimately meant that the British were able to transform Hindu law into a form of English case law (Cohn p. 75). This shows that the initial attempts at understanding the ancient Indian constitution did not entirely come to fruition.

Keywords

1. Pandit – Hindu law officer
2. Ain-i-Akbari – a Perisan work by Abu’l Fazl that was translated into English in an attempt to understand Indian ruling. It included details on how Akbar, one of the Mughal emperors governed as well as land surveys, the properties a good ruler should have, and more.
3. Maulavi – Muslim law officer

Argument

Although the British tried to incorporate Hindu law into what became the new legal system, this did not last long. By 1864, the system shifted to a more traditional form of English law (Cohn p. 75).

Evidence

Cohn describes the work of Warren Hastings who was appointed the governor-general of the East India Company in 1772. Hastings wanted to understand past Indian rule in order to create a new system that incorporated indigenous institutions (Cohn p. 61). In 1774, Hastings wrote a letter advocating against the implementation of complete English laws in India, but rather he wanted to use the ancient constitution to inform any future systems. Using sources such as letters, Cohn successfully supports his argument that the British wanted to initially understand and incorporate aspects of the ancient Indian constitution into their new form of governance. Hastings also furthered his goal by gathering pandits to compile a code deriving from Hindu law that could be translated and used by English judges.

Historiographical Debate

Cohn addresses two scholars that disagree on the code that was created by Hastings’ efforts to include traditions from past Indian rule. Derrett believes that Hastings largely informed the topics covered in the code instead of what was deemed important by the pandits. On the other hand, Rosane Rocher, argues that the Sanskrit version was in fact informed by traditional views. She attributes this to the difference in text they analyzed because Derrett used the English translation. I believe Cohn gives us both sides of the debate to show how difficult the task of translating the text was.

Contribution to Our Understanding of Colonial Rule

This chapter helped my understanding in what creating a new legal system looked like at the time the British were taking control of India. They did not completely eradicate the old system because of the size of the state and the extent of existing self-governance. Instead, they had to try and understand where Indian tradition came from. Although Hindu law was incorporated into the system, it was molded into what was already seen as English. It was English ideals that shaped what was to be pulled from the old system. This is the precursor to what became the judicial reform of 1864. If key English values were extracted from Hindu law, what was the point of trying to keep Hindu law going? Instead, they reverted back to a form of traditional English law.