The politics of convict space : Indian penal settlements and the Andaman Islands
From the late eighteenth century, as the British made incursions into India, they established a series of penal settlements for the reception of South Asian convicts. Bencoolen was the first destination, from 1773. It was later joined and eventually replaced during the first half of the nineteenth c...
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ftleicester:oai:lra.le.ac.uk:2381/28687 2023-05-15T18:03:32+02:00 The politics of convict space : Indian penal settlements and the Andaman Islands The politics of convict space : Indian penal settlements in Southeast Asia, the Indian Ocean and the Andaman Islands Anderson, Clare Bashford, A. Strange, C. 2014-03-20T10:09:59Z http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9780415309806/ http://hdl.handle.net/2381/28687 en eng Routledge (Taylor & Francis) Anderson, C, The politics of convict space : Indian penal settlements and the Andaman Islands, ed. Bashford, A; Strange, C, 'Isolation : places and practices of exclusion', Routledge, 2003, pp. 40-55 0415309808 9780415309806 http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9780415309806/ http://hdl.handle.net/2381/28687 Copyright © 2003, Routledge (Taylor & Francis). Archived with permission of the publisher. Chapter 2014 ftleicester 2019-03-22T20:19:15Z From the late eighteenth century, as the British made incursions into India, they established a series of penal settlements for the reception of South Asian convicts. Bencoolen was the first destination, from 1773. It was later joined and eventually replaced during the first half of the nineteenth century by convict settlements in Prince of Wales’ Island (Penang), Singapore, Malacca, the Tenasserim and Martaban Provinces (Burma), Mauritius and Aden. In the wake of the 1857 Uprising, the British further settled the Andaman Islands as a penal colony. This chapter seeks to analyse the contradictions between convicts’ perceptions of and colonial discourses on the kala pani. Convicts themselves did not always view the prospect of their exclusion and isolation in the same way. Throughout the nineteenth century, it became increasingly clear that transportation was not the focus of terror in the way administrators had hoped for. Colonial representations of the power of the kala pani eventually had to acknowledge convicts’ differing views and desires about the punishment, in relation to caste. By the 1890s, the realisation of the breach between the discourse and practice of the punishment led penologists in the Andamans to take radical measures to make transportation the deterrent they believed that it no longer was: the construction of a Cellular Jail at Port Blair. The chapter will then go on to show how this space of secondary confinement was later used to incarcerate political agitators. Subsequently, since independence, the Jail has been transformed into a symbolic anti-colonial national site. Paradoxically, the resurrection of the discourse of kala pani has been central to this, the creation of the Andaman Islands more generally as a space of anti-colonial struggle. Peer-reviewed Post-print Book Part Prince of Wales Island University of Leicester: Leicester Research Archive (LRA) Indian Blair ENVELOPE(160.817,160.817,-72.533,-72.533) Prince of Wales Island ENVELOPE(-99.001,-99.001,72.668,72.668) Penal ENVELOPE(100.667,100.667,-66.033,-66.033) |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
University of Leicester: Leicester Research Archive (LRA) |
op_collection_id |
ftleicester |
language |
English |
description |
From the late eighteenth century, as the British made incursions into India, they established a series of penal settlements for the reception of South Asian convicts. Bencoolen was the first destination, from 1773. It was later joined and eventually replaced during the first half of the nineteenth century by convict settlements in Prince of Wales’ Island (Penang), Singapore, Malacca, the Tenasserim and Martaban Provinces (Burma), Mauritius and Aden. In the wake of the 1857 Uprising, the British further settled the Andaman Islands as a penal colony. This chapter seeks to analyse the contradictions between convicts’ perceptions of and colonial discourses on the kala pani. Convicts themselves did not always view the prospect of their exclusion and isolation in the same way. Throughout the nineteenth century, it became increasingly clear that transportation was not the focus of terror in the way administrators had hoped for. Colonial representations of the power of the kala pani eventually had to acknowledge convicts’ differing views and desires about the punishment, in relation to caste. By the 1890s, the realisation of the breach between the discourse and practice of the punishment led penologists in the Andamans to take radical measures to make transportation the deterrent they believed that it no longer was: the construction of a Cellular Jail at Port Blair. The chapter will then go on to show how this space of secondary confinement was later used to incarcerate political agitators. Subsequently, since independence, the Jail has been transformed into a symbolic anti-colonial national site. Paradoxically, the resurrection of the discourse of kala pani has been central to this, the creation of the Andaman Islands more generally as a space of anti-colonial struggle. Peer-reviewed Post-print |
author2 |
Bashford, A. Strange, C. |
format |
Book Part |
author |
Anderson, Clare |
spellingShingle |
Anderson, Clare The politics of convict space : Indian penal settlements and the Andaman Islands |
author_facet |
Anderson, Clare |
author_sort |
Anderson, Clare |
title |
The politics of convict space : Indian penal settlements and the Andaman Islands |
title_short |
The politics of convict space : Indian penal settlements and the Andaman Islands |
title_full |
The politics of convict space : Indian penal settlements and the Andaman Islands |
title_fullStr |
The politics of convict space : Indian penal settlements and the Andaman Islands |
title_full_unstemmed |
The politics of convict space : Indian penal settlements and the Andaman Islands |
title_sort |
politics of convict space : indian penal settlements and the andaman islands |
publisher |
Routledge (Taylor & Francis) |
publishDate |
2014 |
url |
http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9780415309806/ http://hdl.handle.net/2381/28687 |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(160.817,160.817,-72.533,-72.533) ENVELOPE(-99.001,-99.001,72.668,72.668) ENVELOPE(100.667,100.667,-66.033,-66.033) |
geographic |
Indian Blair Prince of Wales Island Penal |
geographic_facet |
Indian Blair Prince of Wales Island Penal |
genre |
Prince of Wales Island |
genre_facet |
Prince of Wales Island |
op_relation |
Anderson, C, The politics of convict space : Indian penal settlements and the Andaman Islands, ed. Bashford, A; Strange, C, 'Isolation : places and practices of exclusion', Routledge, 2003, pp. 40-55 0415309808 9780415309806 http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9780415309806/ http://hdl.handle.net/2381/28687 |
op_rights |
Copyright © 2003, Routledge (Taylor & Francis). Archived with permission of the publisher. |
_version_ |
1766174420733263872 |