Nitin Sinha delivered a lecture on ‘Rule of Law, Summary Justice and Calcutta Police, 1770s-1800s’. It was chaired by Awadhendra Sharan.
ZOOM ID: 85399028511 PASSCODE: csdsdelhi
In the eighteenth century, the rule of law and the rule of police were seen as two distinct modes of governance. In colonial India, this conceptual distinction was blurred because of the argument that the summary power of the police was an indispensable necessity. The presentation shows how, while being repetitively labelled as illegal, due to the necessity of controlling subaltern crime and work/employment relationships, the police became an administrative necessity, a legal anomaly, a quasi-judicial authority, and a popular forum of justicing.
Nitin Sinha is a social historian of Indian modern and colonial history. He is currently working on colonial law and labour, and history of time. He is based at Zentrum Moderner Orient, Berlin.
Awadhendra Sharan is Director, Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, Delhi.
Tuesday, 16 April 2024, 4 pm, Seminar Room and Zoom https://bit.ly/3vRkW5a
