Murder in the Andamans: A Colonial Narrative of Sodomy, Jealousy and Violence

This article will analyse colonial discourses on sodomy, jealousy and violence connected with the penal settlement of the Andamans in late 19th and early 20th century. The narrative in these files elucidates the incoherent ways in which colonial officials of different ranks tried to rationalise the...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Manju Ludwig
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Centre d’Etudes de l’Inde et de l’Asie du Sud 2013-10-01
Series:South Asia Multidisciplinary Academic Journal
Subjects:
Online Access:https://journals.openedition.org/samaj/3633
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:This article will analyse colonial discourses on sodomy, jealousy and violence connected with the penal settlement of the Andamans in late 19th and early 20th century. The narrative in these files elucidates the incoherent ways in which colonial officials of different ranks tried to rationalise the phenomenon of same-sex behaviour by employing (pseudo-)scientific theories of criminality, race and climatic determinism. Moreover, the analysis tries to shed light on the manifold failures of the colonial regime in South Asia. The paper aims at contributing to the history of sexuality in colonial contexts by highlighting the role of colonial spaces as laboratories for emerging ‘European’ sexual theories.
ISSN:1960-6060