Appropriating Sovereignty through Trials: British Imperial Expansion and Staging of Oppression through Law

Aman Kumar

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Chapter 19 Appropriating Sovereignty through Trials: British Imperial Expansion and Staging of Oppression through Law

In: Sights, Sounds, and Sensibilities of Atrocity Prosecutions

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Aman Kumar

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Type:: Chapter

Pages:: 385–402

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004677951_021

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Abstract

This chapter zooms in on two colonial trials held in the 19^th century by the British imperialists. The accused (read victims) at these trials were 82 year-old Mughal Badshah Bahadur Shah Zafar and Tikendrajit Singh, the 35 year-old Prince of Manipur (a federal unit of modern-day India). This contribution highlights the aesthetical aspects of Zafar’s trial, who was tried as a British subject, despite being the Indian sovereign. In so doing, it emphasises the desperate attempt by the British to gain sympathy for their actions as they displayed Zafar to the Europeans ‘like a beast in a cage’, here invoking their sense of sight. The chapter also introduces the trial of prince Tikendrajit who, following his conviction, was hanged in front of thousands of his subjects. This public hanging symbolised the appropriation of sovereignty over Manipur by the British empire. Thus, the chapter argues that these trials were used as a tool to colonise India and Manipur. The treatment of Tikendrajit at the hands of the British contrasts from that of Zafar but paradoxically sheds light on the continuities of staged trial spectacles in buttressing colonial oppression and discrediting liberation movements.

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Sights, Sounds, and Sensibilities of Atrocity Prosecutions

Series: Studies in International Criminal Law, Volume: 6

E-Book ISBN:: 9789004677951

Publisher:: Brill | Nijhoff

Print Publication Date:: 24 Jul 2024

Subjects
- Human Rights and Humanitarian Law
  - Human Rights
  - International Criminal Law

Front Matter

Part 1 Shows and Cases: Showcasing(s) in the Courtroom

Part 2 Translating the Senses into Law and Judgment

Part 3 Filtering the Sensory: Language, Evidence, Culture, and Procedure

Part 4 Staging, Re-enactment, Film

Part 5 Sensibility Divides: North–South, Imperial–Colonised, State–Society

Part 6 Reflections on Aesthetics and Methods

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Chapter 19 Appropriating Sovereignty through Trials: British Imperial Expansion and Staging of Oppression through Law

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Sights, Sounds, and Sensibilities of Atrocity Prosecutions

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