Late colonial juridical practice in India was prone to bureaucratic errors and shared with the police a fundamental disinterest in the liberty of ordinary people. This article tells the politically marginal but highly revealing story of how a series of errors during the arrest and subsequent detention of an elderly man called Peter Budge—an innocent bystander in a situation of heightened communal tensions—led to a momentary scandal in the United Provinces administration in the year 1947–48. Peter's case disappeared between the cracks of bad record-keeping, leading to his lengthy and unlawful detention. It raises important questions about the complementary relation between law and violence, and the fictitious nature of public-order laws. In contrast to the scholarship that has discussed the spectacular violence of the state, this article looks at the ‘other’ acts of violence of the state and argues that the everyday reality of public-order enforcement is key to understanding the nature and operations of the late colonial and post-colonial state.

印度晚期殖民地的司法实践容易出现官僚主义错误，并且与警察一样，根本不关心普通民众的自由。这篇文章讲述了一个政治上边缘但极具启发性的故事，讲述了在逮捕和随后拘留一位名叫彼得巴奇的老人期间的一系列错误是如何导致社区紧张局势加剧的无辜旁观者的一时丑闻1947-48 年的行政管理。彼得的案子在糟糕的记录保存之间消失了，导致他被长期非法拘留。它提出了有关法律与暴力之间的互补关系以及公共秩序法的虚构性质的重要问题。与讨论国家壮观暴力的学术相比，