Tyranny without a Tyrant: Conquest of Knowledge and Politics of Criminality in Colonial India

Abstract

Through classification (census) and enumeration (survey), surveillance techniques (tattoo, anthropometry, fingerprint, and
photo), production of text (anthropology, criminology) and laws (Criminal Tribe Act) - the British produced the greatest bulk of
knowledge on Indian society. Bernard Cohn’s writings on Indian colonialism and his conceptual modalities provide us such insights to
investigate this process what this article intends to show.