Placing the Frontier in British North-East India:Law, Custom, and Knowledge

Description

The book is a study of the travels of colonial law into the North-East frontier of the British Empire in India. Focusing on the nineteenth century, it examines the relationship of law and space, and indigenous place-making. Inhabitants of the frontier hills examined in this book were not defined as British subjects, yet they were incorporated within the colonial legal framework. The work examines the nature of this legal limbo that produced both the hills and their inhabitants as interruptions but equally as integral to the imperial project. Through a study of place-making by indigenous inhabitants of the frontier, it further demonstrates the heterogeneous narratives of self and belonging found in sites of orality and kinship that shape the hills in the present day.

About the author: Dr Reeju Ray is an Associate Professor at O.P. Jindal Global University. She has a Ph.D. in History from Queen's University, Canada. Her area of expertise is Southern Asian History, and her research interests include Legal History, Human Geography, Memory Studies, and Global Indigenous Studies.

Reviews

‘The monograph will make a significant difference to several historical fields. Deeply attentive to the many complexities of the long encounter with colonialism, and enriched with conceptual depth, the study shows how a steady accumulation of changes, large and small, transformed the region’s legal, cultural, political and physical landscape.  It is an invitation to a wide ranging readership.’ 

-Tanika Sarkar, Professor of History, Jawaharlal Nehru University (retd.)

‘Reeju Ray’s fascinating, deeply researched book is an original, theoretically sophisticated work. This book will be of much interest well beyond South Asian studies and British Empire history. It will appeal to audiences in socio-legal studies, Indigenous studies, peasant studies, and legal anthropology. The spatial and temporal constitution of peoples and places through various governance techniques is a theme drawing increasing attention from critical scholars. This book’s analysis of how ‘hills’ and ‘tribes’ were constituted in the frontiers of colonial Bengal is an important and timely addition to this literature and will be of interest to readers across several disciplines.’

-Mariana Valverde, Professor Emeritus of Socio-Legal Studies, University of Toronto

‘Placing the Frontier in British North East India: Law, Custom, Knowledge is a significant  contribution to our understanding North East India. The book is located within the fields of colonial legal history, law and society, and indigenous studies and demonstrates how historical research engages with these fields of study by highlighting key concepts, arguments and theoretical approaches. Further the book identifies predicaments between frontier governance and historical prejudices on frontier people. A stimulating study with refreshing interpretation.’

-David R. Syiemlieh, Professor of History, North-Eastern Hill University Shillong (retd.), Former Vice Chancellor Rajiv Gandhi University Arunachal Pradesh

Table of contents

• Acknowledgements
• List of Images
• Preface

Chapter 1   Law, Space, and Place: An Introduction

Chapter 2   Frontiers of Law

Chapter 3   Games of Jurisdiction

Chapter 4   Colonial Governance and Customary Authority

Chapter 5   'Tribe of Trees' and 'Economical Geography': Narrating Space and People

Chapter 6   Narratives of Continuity

Chapter 7   Place-Making

Conclusion