Law Disorder And The Colonial State

The state in colonial Burma was not an easy entity to negotiate at the turn of the twentieth century. Policemen framed innocents for crimes they themselves had committed. Magistrates solicited bribes in exchange for acquittals in court. Forestry officials produced false documents. Clerks embezzled government funds.

These were mundane and everyday acts. Using previously unexplored archival sources, the daily reality of living under the Raj in this neglected corner of British India is reconstructed. Through the fascinating cases of misconduct uncovered in these documents this book argues that corruption was intrinsic to the making of the colonial legal order.

Subordinate officials' daily abuses of power, and British tolerance of these abuses, served to reinforce racial divisions and enact the state as a masculine entity. Review: Saha's volume is interlaced with references to comparative works on the historical sociology of empire. It is well documented and clearly an interesting contribution to our understanding of colonial Burma during a brief but important period. - Robert H.

Taylor, Institute of South-east Asian Studies, Singapore.