Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-wzw2p Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-05-07T06:58:40.243Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Act XI of 1857: The life and afterlife of an emergency statute in colonial and post-colonial India

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 April 2024

Troy Downs*
Affiliation:
Independent scholar

Abstract

This article seeks to assess the legal legacy of one of British India’s most significant emergency acts: Act XI of 1857, also known as the State Offences Act. Although introduced during the Indian Uprising of 1857, it will be argued that the extra-judicial provisions contained in this act exerted a strong influence on the legal character of post-1857 ‘special’ or exceptional colonial criminal legislation, an influence that continued to be reflected in the punitive emergency laws set in place in post-colonial India. The long-term historical significance of Act XI will be illustrated by examining some of the more notable pieces of punitive or repressive legislation enacted in colonial and post-colonial India, namely the Murderous Outrages Act of 1867, the 1915 Defence of India (Criminal Law Amendment) Act, the Anarchical and Revolutionary Crimes Act of 1919, the Defence of India Act, 1962, and, more recently, the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act of 1985.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2024. Published by Cambridge University Press.

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Cohn, Bernard S., Colonialism and its forms of knowledge (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1996), p. .Google Scholar

2 Comaroff, John L., Colonialism, culture, and the law: A foreword’, Law and Social Inquiry, vol. 26, no. 2, 2001, p. .CrossRefGoogle Scholar

3 Elkins, Caroline, Legacy of violence: A history of the British empire (London: The Bodley Head, 2022), pp. 129162.Google Scholar

4 As given in the 1897 Indian Short Titles Act.

5 The texts of these pre-1857 emergency laws are reproduced in Ghose, Akshaya K., Laws affecting the rights and liberties of the Indian people (Calcutta: Mohun Brothers, 1921), pp. 10103Google Scholar. On the British use of the powers of Bengal Regulation III of 1818, see Ghose, Durba, Gentlemanly terrorists: Political violence and the colonial state in India, 1919–1947 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Sen, Anandaroop, ‘Insurgent law: Bengal Regulation III and the Chin-Lushai expeditions (1872–1898)’, Modern Asian Studies, vol. 56, no. 5, 2022, pp. 15151555.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

6 For an overview of historical literature on this subject, see Ehrlich, Joshua, ‘Anxiety, chaos, and the Raj’, The Historical Journal, vol. 63, no. 3, 2020, pp. 777787.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

7 Forbes-Mitchell, William, Reminiscences of the Great Mutiny (reprint; Delhi: Discovery Publishing House, 1989), p. .Google Scholar

8 Smithurst, Peter, The Pattern 1853 Enfield Rifle (Botley: Osprey Publishing, 2011), pp. 3439Google Scholar; Dasgupta, Sabyasachi, In defence of honour and justice: Sepoy rebellions in the nineteenth century (Delhi: Primus Books, 2015)Google Scholar. On the military and civil dimensions of the insurrection, see Stokes, Eric, The peasant and the Raj: Studies in agrarian society and peasant rebellion in colonial India (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1978)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Guha, Ranajit, Elementary aspects of peasant insurgency in colonial India (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1983)Google Scholar; Stokes, Eric, The peasant armed: The Indian Rebellion of 1857, (ed.) Bayly, C. A. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1986)Google Scholar; Roy, Tapti, The politics of a popular uprising: Bundelkhand in 1857 (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1994)Google Scholar; Mukherjee, Rudrangshu, Awadh in revolt, 1857–1858: A study of popular resistance, new edn (Delhi: Permanent Black, 2002).Google Scholar

9 The text of Act XI is available at https://commons.wikipedia.org.wiki/File:The_Acts_of_Legislative_Council_of_India_in_1857.pdf, [last accessed 11 February 2021].

10 Only two of the special acts did not cite or refer in some way to Act XI: Act XV, which dealt with censorship of the press, and Act XXV, which was concerned with the forfeiture of property belonging to Indian army officers and soldiers convicted of mutiny.

11 Governor General in Council to the Court of Directors, EIC, Fort William, 11 Dec. 1857. Home Dept., no. 144, Correspondence Relating to the East Indies (Mutinies) (London, 1858), p. 3.

12 Kolsky, Elizabeth, Colonial justice in British India: White violence and the rule of law (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010), pp. Google Scholar. Unlike Act XI, Europeans could be arrested and detained under the Bengal and Madras State Prisoner Regulations of 1818 and 1819. However, senior British government officials were reluctant to detain British European subjects under these regulations for fear of the legal challenges and possible political repercussions that might arise from doing so. Telegram from the Secretary of State for India to the Viceroy, London, 18 Jan. 1929. Govt. of India, Home Dept., Political, 1929, File no. 90, p. 3, National Archives of India, New Delhi (hereafter NAI). All such material has been accessed via the NAI’s internet portal site: https://www.Abhilekh-Patal.in, [accessed 14 February 2024].

13 A Penal Code Prepared by the Indian Law Commissioners (Calcutta: Bengal Military Orphan Press, 1837), p. 29.

14 For an insightful recent examination of the internal dynamics of the Santal Uprising, see Peter, Stanley, Hul! Hul!: The suppression of the Santal Rebellion in Bengal, 1855 (London: Hurst and Company, 2022).Google Scholar

15 All references made to the deliberations of the Legislative Council on Act XI’s draft bill have been cited from the Proceedings of the Legislative Council of India from January to December 1857 (Calcutta: Baptist Mission Press, 1857), vol. 2, pp. 259, 266, 275, 279–286.

16 The Sessional Papers Printed by Order of the House of Lords in the Session of 1837–38 (London: His Majesty’s Stationery Office, 1838), p. 71.

17 Clarke, Richard, The Regulations of the Government of Fort St. George in Force at the End of 1847 (London: J. and H. Cox, 1848), p. .Google Scholar

18 East India Acts Passed by the Right Honourable the Governor-General of India in Council for 1841 and 1842 (London: East India House, 1844), pp. 6–7.

19 Gordon-Alexander, W., Recollections of a Highland Subaltern (London: Edward Arnold, 1898), pp. .Google Scholar

20 Chunder, Bholanauth, The Travels of a Hindoo to Various Parts of Bengal and Upper India (London: N. Trubner and Co., 1869), vol. 2, p. .Google Scholar

21 ‘Letter to the Editor from a Civil Servant, Allahabad, 28 June 1857’, The Times, 25 August 1857, p. 6.

22 Irwin Dasent, Arthur, John Thadeus Delane, editor of ‘The Times’: His life and correspondence (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1908), vol. 1, p. .Google Scholar

23 Maclagan, Michael, ‘Clemency’ Canning: Charles John, 1st Earl Canning, governor-general and viceroy of India, 1856–1862 (London: Macmillan and Co. Ltd., 1962), p. .Google Scholar

24 Keene, H. G., ‘Indian districts during the Revolt’, The Army and Navy Magazine, vol. 6, 1883, p. Google Scholar. The severity of sentences handed down by the special commissioners was evident at the very epicentre of the Uprising in the districts of the NWP. Of the 3,925 recorded sentences passed up to the end of April 1859, nearly 45 per cent were capital sentences. Abstract of Special Commissioners’ Proceedings in the NWP to the close of Apr. 1859. NWP Judicial Department (Criminal), P/234/56, 8 Apr. 1859, no. 188. India Office Records, Asia and African Studies Collections, British Library, London. My thanks to Radhika Singha for her help in obtaining these data.

25 Narrative of Events Attending the Outbreak and Restoration of Authority (Calcutta: Foreign Department Press, 1881), vol. 1, pp. 702–703.

26 W. Muir, Sec. to Govt., NWP, to the Commissioner of Meerut, Allahabad, 26 Apr. 1858. Inclosure in no. 5 of no. 47, Further Papers (No. 9) Relative to Insurrection in the East Indies (London: Harrison and Sons, 1858), pp. 934–935; Muir to R. Alexander, Commr., Rohilkhand, Allahabad, 28 Apr. 1858. Govt. of India, Home Dept., Consultations no. 1, Judicial, 20 Aug. 1858, NAI.

27 Selections from the Records of the Government of Bengal, Part. 1: Papers Relating to the Disturbances in the Cossyah and Jynteeah Hills (Calcutta: Bengal Secretariat Press, 1863), pp. 43–44, 53, 75; Selections from the Records of the Government of Bengal (Calcutta: Bengal Secretariat Office, 1864), vol. 2, pp. 208–209.

28 Stephens, Julia, ‘The phantom Wahhabi: Liberalism and the Muslim fanatic in mid-Victorian India’, Modern Asian Studies, vol. 45, no. 1, 2013, pp. 2252CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Cranenburgh, D. E., A Handbook of Criminal Cases Reprinted Verbatim from the Bengal Law Reports (Calcutta: D. E. Cranenburgh, 1889), vol. 1, pp. 489512.Google Scholar

29 The Burma Code, 4th edn (Calcutta: Superintendent of Government Printing, India, 1910), p. 204; Wigley, F. G., Chronological tables of Indian statutes (Calcutta: Superintendent Government Printing, India, 1909), p. Google Scholar; Ghose, Laws, pp. 103–104.

30 Lobban, Michael, Imperial incarceration: Detention without trial in the making of British colonial Africa (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2021), p. CrossRefGoogle Scholar and n. 126.

31 Jill C. Bender, The 1857 Indian Uprising and the British empire (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2016), p. 181. Frere’s knowledge of the special commissioners was no doubt acquired during the time he spent in India while serving as a member of the governor general’s Legislative Council and later, during the 1860s, as the governor of the Presidency of Bombay.

32 Ghose, Nagendranath, Comparative administrative law (Calcutta: Butterworth and Co., 1919), p. .Google Scholar

33 ‘Acts passed at the time of the Indian Mutiny for the punishment of civil offences triable by civil powers’, Govt. of India, Home Dept., Political Branch Deposit, Mar. 1910, File no. 21, pp. 3–4, NAI.

34 ‘Proposal to amend certain acts with a view to combating seditions (Omnibus bill)’. Govt. of India, Home Dept., Political Procs., Oct. 1910, no. 2, Notes, pp. 11, 16, NAI; Govt. of India, Home Dept., Political, May 1913, Proc., no. 23, pp. 4, 9, NAI.

35 ‘Political situation in Bengal. Proposals for dealing with elements of disorder and conspiracy in that province’. Govt. of India, Home Dept., Political A Proc. 1913, nos. 72–73, Notes, p. 38, NAI; ‘Proposal to appoint a commission with special power to deal with Political Crime’. Govt. of India, Home Dept., Political A, Nov. 1914, File nos. 39–43, pp. 8–9, NAI.

36 Besant, Anne, India: A nation. A plea for Indian self-government (London: T. C. and E. C. Jack, 1916), p. .Google Scholar

37 Satyamurthy, S., Rights of citizens (Madras: Ganesh and Co., 1919), pp. 3840.Google Scholar

38 Banerjee, Surendranath, A nation in the making: Being the reminiscences of fifty years of public life (Bombay: Oxford University Press, 1963), p. .Google Scholar

39 Report on Indian newspapers and periodicals in Bengal for the week ending 13 March 1915 (Calcutta: B. S. Press, 1915), p. 9.

40 To be examined in more detail later in this article.

41 Procs. of the Legislative Council, Mar. 1910, pp. 1264–1265, 1267, 1269, available at https://eparlib.nic/bitstream/123456789/1/ilcd_10-03-1920.pdf, [last accessed 10 April 2023].

42 Cited in Barrier, N. G., Banned: Controversial literature and political control in British India, 1907–1947 (Delhi: Manohar, 1974), p. , n. 48.Google Scholar

43 H. D. Craik, Sec. to Govt. of India, Home Dept., to members of the Repressive Laws Committee, 22 July 1921, p. 20; Telegram from the Chief Sec. to Govt. of Bombay to Sec. to Govt., Home Dept., 16 June 1921, p. 180; C. A. Barron, Chief Commr., Delhi, to Sec. to Govt. of India, Home Dept., 21 May 1921, p. 76; Govt. of India, Home Dept., Political, 1921, File no. 29, pt. 1, nos. 1–57, all NAI.

44 ‘Report to the Government of India of the Committee appointed to examine the repressive laws’, The Gazette of India, Extraordinary, 19 September 1921, pp. 378, 383, 386.

45 The ability of the governor general to declare a state of emergency and to issue an ordinance of up to six months in duration that had the exact same status as a statutory act was provided for by section 23 of the Indian Councils Act of 1861, while the capacity of the governor general to unilaterally respond to an emergency had its basis in section 49 of the Government of India Act of 1833.

46 A collection of acts of the Indian legislature and of the governor-general for the year 1922 (Calcutta: Superintendent Government Printing, 1923), n.p.

47 As provided for under the Amending Act of 1903.

48 Procs. of the Council of the Gov. Gen. of India, 21 Dec. 1866, p. 244, available at https://eparlib.nic.in/bitstream/123456789/763363/1/ilcd_21-12-1866.pdf, [accessed 26 February 2024]. The text of the act is reproduced in A Collection of the Acts Passed by the Governor General of India in Council in the Year 1867 (Calcutta: Office of the Superintendent of Government Printing, 1868), pp. 93–96.

49 Kolsky, Elizabeth, ‘The colonial rule of law and the legal regime of exception: Frontier “fanaticism” and state violence in British India’, American Historical Review, vol. 120, no. 4, 2015, pp. CrossRefGoogle Scholar. See also Mark Condos, ‘“Fanaticism” and the politics of resistance along the North-West Frontier in British India’, Comparative Studies in Society and History, vol. 58, no. 3, 2016, p. 719; and his monograph, Condos, M., The insecurity state: Panjab and the making of colonial power in British India (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

50 Procs. of the Council of the Gov. Gen. of India, 21 Dec. 1866, p. 245; Procs. of the Council of the Gov. Gen. of India, 22 Feb. 1867, p. 97, available at https://eparlib.nic.in/bitstream/123456789/753354/1/ilcd_22-02-1867.pdf, [last accessed 14 March 2023]; Procs. of the Council of the Gov. Gen. of India, 4 Jan. 1867, p. 7, available at https://eparlib.nic.in/bitstream/123456789/763366/1/ilcd_04-01-1867.pdf, [accessed 14 February 2024].

51 Procs. of the Council of the Gov. Gen. of India, 4 Jan. 1867, p. 7.

52 Ibid., p. 6.

53 Procs. of the Council of the Gov. Gen. of India, 15 Mar. 1867, pp. 195–96, 207, available at https://eparlib.nic.in/bitstream/123456789/763348/1/ilcd_15-03-1867.pdf, [accessed 26 February 2024].

54 The text of the Punjab Murderous Outrages (Amendment) Act, 1877, and the Frontier Murderous Outrages Regulation, 1901, can be found in The Punjab and North-West Frontier code (Calcutta: Superintendent Government Printing, 1916), pp. 83, 591–596.

55 ‘Magistrate’s assailant sentenced to death’, The Times, 19 February 1931, p. 12.

56 Dickson Poyndere, John, ‘A Bird’s-eye view of the North-West Frontier’, The National Review, vol. 28, no. 138, 1896, p. Google Scholar; Condos, Mark, ‘Licence to kill: The Murderous Outrages Act and the rule of law in colonial India, 1867–1925’, Modern Asian Studies, vol. 50, no. 2, 2016, p. .CrossRefGoogle Scholar

57 Silvestri, Michael, Policing ‘Bengali terrorism’ in India and the world: Imperial intelligence and revolutionary nationalism, 1905–1939 (Cham: Palgrave Macmillan Switzerland, 2019), p. .CrossRefGoogle Scholar

58 Govt. of India, Home Dept., Political, 1934, File no. 45/VI/34, p. 6, NAI.

59 On this matter, see Michael O’Dwyer, India as I knew it (London: Constable and Company Ltd., 1925), pp. 199–201. There had also been some talk at the time among senior government officials of satisfying Punjab’s request for emergency powers via an ordinance modelled on Act XI of 1857. ‘Promulgation of the Defence of India Act (IV of 1915)’. Govt of India, Home Dept., Political A, Apr. 1915, File nos. 385–411, pp. 7–8, NAI.

60 Procs. of the Council of the Gov. Gen. of India, 18 Mar. 1915, p. 472, available at https://eparlib.nic.in/bitstream/123456789/785178/1/ilcd_18-March-1915.pdf, [last accessed 22 February 2023].

61 Ibid., p. 500. The Defence of the Realm Act was later amended to allow the right of trial before a jury in a civil court. There was no such softening on the penal severity of India’s Defence Act. Townshend, Charles, Making the peace: Public order and public security in modern India (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993), p. .CrossRefGoogle Scholar

62 This was not strictly true. Those facing death sentences could plead their case via memorials that could be sent in the first instance to the local government and then to the governor general in Council. Procs. of the Council of the Gov. Gen. of India, 18 Mar. 1915, p. 510.

63 Ibid., pp. 476, 513.

64 Govt. of India, Home Dept., Political, to Sec. of State of India, Delhi, 23 Mar. 1915. Govt. of India, Home Dept., Political A, Apr. 1915, nos. 385–411, p. 52, NAI.

65 Procs. of the Council of the Gov. Gen. of India, 18 Mar. 1915, p. 506.

66 Ibid., p. 513.

67 Ibid., p. 514.

68 The text of the act is reprinted in A collection of the acts passed by the governor general of India in Council in the year 1915 (Calcutta: Superintendent Government Printing, India, 1916), pp. 13–20.

69 W. H. Vincent to Michael O’Dwyer, Lt.-Gov. of the Punjab and H. Wheeler, Council Member, Bengal, Delhi, 14 Dec. 1918. Govt. of India, Home. Dept., June 1919, Political B, Proc., no. 82, p. 7, NAI, available at https://archive.org/details/rowlatt-act-proceedings-scanned-copy/page/n11/mode/2up, [accessed 14 February 2024].

70 This piece of legislation was followed up two years later by the Emergency Powers Act of 1920 which enabled the Crown to proclaim a state of emergency.

71 The second Rowlatt Bill, the Indian Criminal Law (Amendment) Bill, sought to modify certain provisions contained in the Indian Penal Act and Indian Criminal Code. This bill was never enacted.

72 Procs. of the Indian Legislative Council, 6 Feb. 1919, pp. 451–452, 455, available at https://eparlib.nic.in/bitstream/123456789/785285/1/ilcd-06-02-1919.pdf, [last accessed 3 May 2023].

73 The right to appeal a conviction was not erased entirely, for those convicted under the Anarchical and Revolutionary Crimes Act could petition the local government in the first instance, and then the governor general in Council for a remission of their sentence.

74 ‘Statement of Objects and Reasons’, W. H. Vincent, Delhi, 11 Jan. 1919. Home Dept., Political B Proc., no. 82, pp. 51–53, NAI; Legislative Council Proceedings, 13 Mar. 1919, p. 1051, available at https://eparlib.nic.in/bitstream/123456789/784966/1/ilcd_13-03-1919.pdf, [accessed 14 February 2024].

75 Ibid., p. 5.

76 Dwarkadas, Kanji, India’s fight for freedom, 1913–1937: An eyewitness story (Bombay: Popular Prakashan, 1960), p. .Google Scholar

77 Procs. of the Legislative Council, 7 Feb. 1919, p. 510, available at https://eparlib.nic.in/bitstream/123456789/784953/1/ilcd_07-02-1919.pdf, [accessed 14 February 2024].

78 ‘Notes’, The Modern Review, vol. 25, no. 3, 1919, pp. 311–312.

79 Collected works of Mahatma Gandhi (New Delhi: Publications Division, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India, 1965), vol. 15, pp. 110, 118 and vol. 16, pp. 39–40. British distrust of Indians can be seen in the comment made by a senior official that, while the public in England were willing to provide the police with information on bomb-related conspiracies, the public in India were seemingly reluctant to do so. Procs. of the Council of the Gov. Gen. of India, 11 Dec. 1908, pp. 57–58, available at https://eparl.nic.in/bitstream/123456789/784483/1/ilcd_11-december-1908.pdf, [last accessed 11 March 2023].

80 ‘Note on martial law’. T. P. Ellis, Legal Remembrancer to Govt., Punjab, 31 July 1919. Govt. of India, Home Dept., Political Deposit, Sept. 1919, Proc. no. 49, p. 13, NAI.

81 ‘Question of the preparation of a scheme for adoption in the case of disorders in the future’. Govt. of India., Home Dept., Political A, Proc. June 1920, nos. 185–190, p. 3, NAI. On the legal problems arising from the enforcement by the British of Regulation X of 1804, see Downs, Troy, ‘Bengal Regulation X of 1804 and martial law in British colonial India’, Law and Social History Review, vol. 40, no. 1, 2022, pp. 136.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

82 Govt. of India, Home Dept., 1934, Political, File No. 45/VI/34, p. 6, NAI.

83 The text of this ordinance is published in The Gazette of India, Extraordinary, no. 46, 26 October 1962, pp. 319–337.

84 Lok Sabha Debates, 8 Nov. 1962, p. 106, available at https://eparlib.nic.in/bitstream/123456789/808895/1/pms_01_01_02-08-1962.pdf, [last accessed 10 May 2023].

85 The Defence of India Act (Act no. 51 of 1962), available at https://legislative.gov.in/sites/default/files/A/1962-51.pdf, [last accessed 3 April 2023].

86 The Calcutta Gazette, Extraordinary, 12 January 1949, pp. 45–48.

87 Rajya Sabha Debates, 5 Dec. 1962, pp. 2990–2991. Sourced from Digital Sansad, the internet portal site of the Rajya Sabha Council of States, https://sansad.in/rs/search, [last accessed 25 June 2023].

88 Lok Sabha Debates, 28 Nov. 1962, p. 3676, available at https://eparlib.nic.in/bitstream/123456789/2889/1/isd_03_03_28-11-1962.pdf, [last accessed 5 April 2023]; Rajya Sabha Debates, 5 Dec. 1962, p. 2990.

89 Lok Sabha Debates, 28 Nov. 1962, p. 3680.

90 Rajya Sabha Debates, 8 Dec. 1962, pp. 3537–3538, available at https://sansad.in/rs/search, [last accessed 25 June 2023].

91 Ibid., p. 3735.

92 Lok Sabha Debates, 21 Nov. 1962, pp. 2810, 2821, available at https://eparlib.nic.in/bitstream/123456789/556639/1/isd_03_03_21-11-1962.pdf, [last accessed 25 June 2023].

93 Lok Sabha Debates, 22 Nov. 1962, pp. 2978, 2984, 2986, available at https://eparlib.nic.in/bitstream/123456789/2859/1/lsd_03_03_22-11-1962.pdf, [accessed 27 February 2024].

94 Lok Sabha Debates, 26 Nov. 1962, pp. 3418–3419, available at https://eparlib.nic.in/bitstream/123456789/2860/1/lsd_03_03-26-11-1962.pdf, [last accessed 7 April 2023]; Lok Sabha Debates, 27 Nov. 1962, pp. 3556, 3558, available at https://eparlib.nic.in/bitstream/123456789/2878/1/lsd_03_03_27-11-1962.pdf, [accessed 14 February 2024].

95 A. K. Sen, ‘Statement of objects and reasons’, New Delhi, 17 May 1985. Reprinted in Black Laws: 1984–85 (New Delhi: People’s Union for Civil Liberties, 1985), p. 10.

96 Lok Sabha Debates, 20 May 1985, pp. 16, 32, available at https://eparlib.nic.in/bitstream/123456789/3616/1/lsd_08-02_20-5-1985.pdf, [last accessed 19 April 2023].

97 Ibid., p. 44.

98 The periodic renewal of TADA resulted in various revisions to the text of the original act. For example, the TADA statute of 1989 added new legal provisions such as the ability of the government to confiscate the property of those convicted under the act.

99 Vinay Lal, ‘Normalisation of anti-terrorist legislation in democracies: Comparative notes on India, northern Ireland, and Sri Lanka’, available at southasia.ucla.edu/history-politics/independent-india/normalisation-anti-terrorisr-legislation-democracies-comparative-notes-india-northern-ireland-sri-lanka, [last accessed 5 January 2023].

100 K. G. Kannabiran, The wages of impunity: Power, justice and human rights (New Delhi: Orient Longman, 2002), pp. 91–92; Lok Sabha Debates, 14 May 1993, p. 424, available at https://eparlib.nic.in/bistream/123456789/3463/1/lsd_10_6th_14-05-1993.pdf, [last accessed 22 June 2023].

101 Lok Sabha Debates, 12 Aug. 1991, p. 885, available at https://eparlib.nic.in/bitstream/123456789/3385/1/lsd_10_01_12-08-1991.pdf, [last accessed 24 June 2023]; Rajya Sabha Debates, 19 Aug. 1985, p. 285, available at https://sansad.in/rs/search, [last accessed 24 June 2023]; Lok Sabha Debates, 24 Aug. 1987, pp. 646, 647, 667, available at https://eparlib.nic.in/bitstream/123456789/1/lsd_08_08_24-08-1987.pdf, [last accessed 10 April 2023]; Lok Sabha Debates, 9 May 1989, pp. 549, 552, available at https://eparlib.nic.in/bitstream/123456789/474/1/lsd_08_13_09-05-1989, [last accessed 23 June 2023]; Lok Sabha Debates, 10 May 1989, p. 328, available at https://eparlib.nic.in/bitstream/123456789/489/1/lsd_08_13_10-05-1989.pdf, [accessed 14 February 2024].

102 Lok Sabha Debates, 14 May 1993, p. 405; Lok Sabha Debates, 12 Aug. 1991, p. 885.

103 Rajya Sabha Debates, 11 May 1989, p. 117, available at https://sansad/rs/search, [last accessed 24 June 2023]; Lok Sabha Debates, 9 May 1989, p. 552.

104 Lok Sabha Debates, 10 May 1989, pp. 323, 325.

105 Rajya Sabha Debates, 11 May 1989, p. 139.

106 Lok Sabha Debates, 14 Aug. 1984, p. 338, available at https://eparlib.nic.in/bitstream/123456789/2016/1/lsd_07_15_14-08-1984.pdf, [accessed 14 February 2024].

107 Lok Sabha Debates, 24 Aug. 1987, p. 666. Section 25 of the Indian Evidence Act of 1872 specified that ‘no confession made to a Police Officer shall be proved against a person accused of any offence’. A Collection of the Acts Passed by the Governor of India in Council for the Year 1872 (Calcutta: Office of the Superintendent of Government Printing, 1873), n.p.

108 TASSC, available at https://iddashboard.legislative.gov.in/sites/default/files/A1984-61_0.pdf, [last accessed 3 April 2023]; TADA, available at: https://indiacode.nic.in/repealed-act/repealed_act_documents/A1985-31.pdf, [accessed 14 February 2024].

109 Rajya Sabha Debates, 6 Aug. 1991, p. 151, available at https://sansad.in/rs/search, [last accessed 24 June 2023].

110 Lok Sabha Debates, 14 May 1993, p. 403.

111 Procs. of the Council of the Gov. Gen. of India, 11 Dec. 1908, p. 70, available at https://eparlib.nic.in/bitstream/123456789/784485/1/ilcd_11-december-1908.pdf, [accessed 14 February 2024].

112 Legislative Assembly Debates, 19 Mar. 1925, p. 2696, available at https://eparlib.nic.in/bitstream/123456789/761510/1/clad_02_02_19-03-1925.pdf, [accessed 14 February 2024].

113 Kim A. Wagner, ‘“Treading upon fires”: The “Mutiny”-motif and colonial anxieties in British India’, Past and Present, vol. 218, no. 1, 2013, pp. 159–197; Maclean, Kama, ‘The art of panicking quietly: British expatriate responses to “terrorist outrages” in India, 1912–1933’, in Anxieties, fear and panic in colonial settings: Empires on the verge of a nervous breakdown, (ed.) Harald Tischer-Tine (Chem: Palgrave Macmillan, 2016), p. .Google Scholar

114 Legislative Assembly Debates, 12 Dec. 1932, p. 3105, available at https://eparlib.nic.in/bitsteam/123456789/783162/1/ilcd_04_04-12-12-1932.pdf, [last accessed 19 May 2023]; ‘The promised reforms and the Rowlatt bills’, The Modern Review, vol. 25, no. 3, 1919, p. 315.

115 Procs. of the Council of the Gov. Gen. of India, 18 Mar. 1915, p. 473; Legislative Assembly Debates, 12 Dec. 1932, p. 3137.

116 Jalal, Ayesha, Democracy and authoritarianism in South Asia: A comparative historical perspective (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995), p. .CrossRefGoogle Scholar A similar point is made by Kalhan, Anil et al., ‘Colonial continuities: Human rights, terrorism and security laws in India’, Columbia Journal of Asian Law, vol. 20, no. 1, 2006, p. .Google Scholar See also Roberts, Christopher, ‘From the state of emergency to the rule of law: The evolution of repressive legality in the nineteenth century British empire’, Chicago Journal of International Law, vol. 20, no. 1, 2019, pp. 161.Google Scholar