The rise of British authority and power in India coincided with the emergence of new philosophical ideas of punishment in late 18th and early 19th century England, ideas which made it âjust, reasonable, and humane to immure prisoners in solitary cells, clothe them in uniforms, regiment their day to the cadence of the clock, and âimproveâ their minds with dosages of scripture and hard laborâ. Between 1770 and 1840 this form of carceral discipline âdirected at the mindâ replaced a cluster of punishments âdirected at the bodyââwhipping, branding, the stocks, and public hangingâ.
Transplanted to Indiaâalthough in a highly selective way because the idea of inflicting pain to the body continued to be an important operating principleâthese conceptions of punishment were incorporated into a larger structure of colonial administration and rule. That is, the new science of punishment constituted part of a larger package of changes introducing penal and criminal codes, and establishing more effective mechanisms of control, particularly the formation of an organized and professional police force. These changes were designed not only to enhance and consolidate the rising power of the colonial state by creating a more complete infrastructure of control but also to augment the authority of the Raj by appropriating for the state the power and influence necessary to become the âultimate source for norms, and definer of what was appropriate [behavior]â.
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