Keni, Adimaya (2024) The singular construction of crime in Britain’s Colonial Laboratory: thuggee as a motif of colonial fear. PhD thesis, Birkbeck, University of London.
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Abstract
This thesis examines the legal construction of thuggee, known as the cult of habitual deceivers and stranglers, an 1836 criminal codification in British (East India Company administered) India. It presents the symbolic Orientalist construction of the figure of the Thug (Thug) as fundamental to British modernity and the interpretation of legal subjectivity, utilised to exert political control and reform social structures. Following a conceptual thread via the imaginal, it undertakes a deep engagement with the British East India Company compiled thuggee records, exploring hidden narratives within the backstories of Company officers and thugs (practitioners of thuggee). The core argument I present in this thesis is that the Thug was an emotional projection of his creators; through the constructed evidentiary database and commissioned imagery, he became a hypothetical Othering against which British jurisprudential ideology in India was shaped. Through the archive’s visual literacy, the Thug is presented as a multifaceted picture of established Western criminal tropes, embodying the horrors of an un-Christian lifestyle. By elevating the dimension of feeling to the centre of enquiry, this thesis explores fear as an effective driver in the Thug’s affective creation and in the resurgence of the thuggish Other during subsequent periods of political strain. The final chapter presents an investigation into the repeating dynamics of the Thug’s criminal motif by tracing its imprint during a time of pandemic and current societal angst, re-presenting accepted knowledge to challenge the embedded singularities and paradoxes within the Thug’s construction. Thus, thuggee holds significant emblematic value and continued socio-political relevance; by illuminating the emotional foundations of the Thug’s legal subjectivity, this thesis determines how the fear affect was established and grew into a powerful and timeless motif of criminality and rebellion.
Metadata
| Item Type: | Thesis |
|---|---|
| Copyright Holders: | The copyright of this thesis rests with the author, who asserts his/her right to be known as such according to the Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988. No dealing with the thesis contrary to the copyright or moral rights of the author is permitted. |
| Depositing User: | Acquisitions And Metadata |
| Date Deposited: | 16 Oct 2024 05:17 |
| Last Modified: | 16 Oct 2024 11:48 |
| URI: | https://eprints.bbk.ac.uk/id/eprint/54396 |
| DOI: | https://doi.org/10.18743/PUB.00054396 |
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