Dysmorphic sovereignty : colonial railroads, eminent domain, and the rule of law in British India, 1824-1857
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- This dissertation charts the origins of the law of expropriation, or eminent domain, in modern India, to shed historical light on the social conflicts and environmental risks that surround legalized mass dispossession and natural resource extraction there today. It locates the origins of the law in two moments in mid-nineteenth century colonial Bengal: the first, in the 1820s, when a modified version of British domestic expropriation law made its way into Bengal in response to ecological changes that had acted to constrict colonial expansion; and the second, in the late 1840s and early 1850s, when this law was revived and reshaped to meet the East Indian Railway's unprecedented demands for land. It ends with the passage of Act VI of 1857, wherein the Bengal law was generalized to create the first Land Acquisition Act for the whole of British India. The dissertation argues that although many of the mechanisms designed to protect landholders and justify infrastructure projects in Britain were stripped out of the law when it was filtered through the East India Company's uneven, or dysmorphic, conception of its sovereignty, that emphasized the state's prerogatives but downplayed its obligations, the colonial commitment to lawfulness, though sometimes only rhetorical, ensured that these distortions never constituted outright mishandling of the law. Although zamindars (landlords) were better compensated than raiyats (peasants), and Europeans were accorded substantial negotiated settlements but Indians generally had to accept official valuations, compensation was paid and petitions and other forms of supplication from Indians reporting on the indiscretions of railway engineers and contractors were entertained, if rarely acted upon.
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Form | electronic; electronic resource; remote |
| Extent | 1 online resource. |
| Publication date | 2013 |
| Issuance | monographic |
| Language | English |
Creators/Contributors
| Associated with | Samuels, Peter Satyanand |
|---|---|
| Associated with | Stanford University, Program in Modern Thought and Literature. |
| Primary advisor | Roberts, Richard, active 1899 |
| Thesis advisor | Roberts, Richard, active 1899 |
| Thesis advisor | Kumar, Aishwary |
| Thesis advisor | Satia, Priya |
| Advisor | Kumar, Aishwary |
| Advisor | Satia, Priya |
Subjects
| Genre | Theses |
|---|
Bibliographic information
| Statement of responsibility | Peter Satyanand Samuels. |
|---|---|
| Note | Submitted to the Program in Modern Thought and Literature. |
| Thesis | Thesis (Ph.D.)--Stanford University, 2013. |
| Location | electronic resource |
Access conditions
- Copyright
- © 2013 by Peter Satyanand Samuels
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