A Genealogy of Terrorism: Colonial Law and the Origins of an Idea

Description

Using India as a case study, Joseph McQuade demonstrates how the modern concept of terrorism was shaped by colonial emergency laws dating back into the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Beginning with the 'thugs', 'pirates', and 'fanatics' of the nineteenth century, McQuade traces the emerging and novel legal category of 'the terrorist' in early twentieth-century colonial law, ending with an examination of the first international law to target global terrorism in the 1930s. Drawing on a wide range of archival research and a detailed empirical study of evolving emergency laws in British India, he argues that the idea of terrorism emerged as a deliberate strategy by officials seeking to depoliticize the actions of anti-colonial revolutionaries, and that many of the ideas embedded in this colonial legislation continue to shape contemporary understandings of terrorism today. Cover Half-title Title page Copyright information Dedication Epigraph Contents List of Figures Acknowledgements Abbreviations Introduction: The Colonial Prose of Counterterrorism Terrorism, Security, and the State of Exception Genealogies of Terrorism Violence and Non-Violence in Colonial India Anxiety, Power, and the Making of Colonial Law Chapters and Structure 1 Ethereal Assassins: Colonial Law and 'Hereditary Crime' in the Nineteenth Century 'So Intolerable an Evil' 'The Terror of the Neighbouring Coast' 'A Race Essentially Criminal' 'A Rebel Camp on the Frontier' Conclusion 2 'The Magical Lore of Bengal': Surveillance, Swadeshi, and Propaganda by Bomb, 1890s to 1913 'Striking Terror to the British Heart' 'Political Dacoits' 'The Secret of the Bomb' 'No Terror for the Law-Abiding Citizen' Conclusion 3 'The Eye of Government Is on Them': Anti-Colonialism and Emergency during the First World War 'A State of War' 'The Appeal of Sikhs Was Specially Obnoxious' 'It Must Be Regarded at Home as a War Measure' 'Criminal Acts of a Few Ill-Balanced Minds' 'A Program of Violence and Terrorism' Conclusion 4 Indefinite Emergency: Revolutionary Politics and 'Terrorism' in Interwar India 'A Standing Menace to Tyranny' 'Easier to Defend in Parliament' 'Neither Terrorists nor Anarchists' 'Legalised Brute Force' 'The Blood-Stained Memory of the Easter Revolution' 'The Greatest Enemies of Their Own Country' Conclusion 5 Terrorism as a 'World Crime': The British Empire, International Law, and the Invention of Global Terrorism 'A Political Curiosity' 'A Dangerous Spot in the Heart of Bengal' 'An Internationally Dangerous Manner' 'The Final Rights of Humanity' 'The Universal Conscience of Mankind' 'Enemies of the Human Race' Conclusion Conclusion: Empire, Law, and Terrorism in the 21st Century Colonial Genealogies of the 'War on Terror' Glossary Select Bibliography Archival Sources National Archives of India, New Delhi Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, New Delhi National Library of India, Kolkata Public Record Office, The National Archives, Kew India Office Records, British Library, London League of Nations Archives, Geneva Waseda University Library, Tokyo South Asian American Digital Archive Sri Aurobindo Ashram Archive National Archives of Singapore Private Papers Newspapers Published Primary Sources Unpublished Dissertations Books and Articles Index