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Police Matters : The Everyday State and Caste Politics in South India, 1900–1975

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Radha Kumar argues that the colonial police deployed rigid notions of caste in their everyday tasks, refashioning rural identities in a process that has cast long postcolonial shadows.

Kumar draws on previously unexplored police archives to enter the dusty streets and market squares where local constables walked, following their gaze and observing their actions towards potential subversives. Station records present a textured view of ordinary interactions between police and society, showing that state coercion was not only exceptional and spectacular; it was also subtle and continuous, woven into everyday life. The colonial police categorized Indian subjects based on caste to ensure the security of agriculture and trade, and thus the smooth running of the economy. Among policemen and among the objects of their coercive gaze, caste became a particularly salient form of identity in the politics of public spaces. Police Matters demonstrates that, without doubt, modern caste politics have both been shaped by, and shaped, state policing.

Thanks to generous funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, through The Sustainable History Monograph Pilot, the ebook editions of this book are available as Open Access volumes from Cornell Open (cornellopen.org) and other repositories.

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Series Title

History / Asia / India & South Asia, Law / Legal History, Political Science / Human Rights

Call Number

320 halaman

Publisher

Ithaca : Cornell University Press., 2021

Collation

210 halaman

Language

English

ISBN/ISSN

9781501760860

Classification

320

Content Type

text

Media Type

computer

Carrier Type

online resource

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Subject(s)

Political Science

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Statement of Responsibility

Radha Kumar

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agus

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maya

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