Prison Reform in Nineteenth- Century British-India
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Prison Reform in Nineteenth- Century British-India A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in History at the University of Canterbury by Joannah Clark University of Canterbury 2015 ii Abstract By the beginning of the nineteenth century imprisonment was slowly becoming the favoured form of punishment for criminals in Britain and wider Europe. The nineteenth century was therefore a time when penal institutions were coming under scrutiny. In British-India, the Prison Discipline Committee of 1838 and the 1864 Inquiry Committee attempted to address a number of issues within the colonial Indian jails ranging from discipline and administration to health, labour and rehabilitation. There are important questions that need to be more thoroughly explored in relation to these periods of reform: What were the different points of emphasis of the proposed reforms in each period? What continuity or change can be observed between 1838 and 1864 and what accounted for it? The prison reform of this period in India reflected the various and fluctuating ideas on punishment and criminality that also characterised Britain, America and Europe. However, the approach of the 1838 Prison Discipline Committee and the 1864 Inquiry Committee often attested to the British preoccupation with “progress” and asserting control over the Indian population rather than addressing the needs of the prisoners. Furthermore, the conceptualization of Indian criminals by the British impacted upon ideas relating to convict rehabilitation. Although work has been done in this area of British-India’s history, there is a need to draw together the various threads of reform to create a clearer picture of the overall character and development of prison reform in nineteenth-century British-India. iii Contents Abstract ..................................................................................................................................... ii Acknowledgements ................................................................................................................. iv Abbreviations ...................................................................................................................................... v Introduction .............................................................................................................................. 1 Chapter One British and Indian Prison Reform in the First Half of the Nineteenth Century ....................... 21 Chapter Two British and Indian Prison Reform in the Second Half of the Nineteenth Century ................... 42 Chapter Three Health and Sanitation Reforms in British-India Prisons .......................................................... 75 Chapter Four Juveniles and Women in British-India Prisons ...................................................................... 102 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................ 133 Bibliography ......................................................................................................................... 145 iv Acknowledgements I would sincerely like to thank my two thesis supervisors, Dr Jane Buckingham and Dr Heather Wolffram for the hard work they did to ensure that I completed my thesis. Their expertise and experience were invaluable. v Abbreviations IC Inquiry Committee PDC Prison Discipline Committee SIPD The Society for the Improvement of Prison Discipline, and for the Reformation of Juvenile Offenders 1 Introduction In 1856, Frederick J. Mouat, a British surgeon and prison administrator based in Bengal and later a member of the 1864 Prison Inquiry Committee, released an investigative report into the state of jails in Bengal, Behar and Arracan.1 As a prison reformer, Mouat was interested in both the living conditions of the prisoners and the disciplinary measures used to keep them in check. Following the inspection of the ‘Kyook Phyoo’ (Kyuk Phyu) jail in the Arracan province, Mouat painted a bleak picture of the state of prisons and the lives of the criminals who resided within their walls: It is difficult to imagine any fate more dreadful than that of the Indian life prisoner at present. His existence is one continued state of hopeless slavery, in which no attempt is made to reform him, and in which the only mitigation that good conduct and repentance can produce, is the removal of his irons. From this aimless existence, his only chance of release is death – and that he is too often anxious to court by acts of lawless violence towards those in whose custody he is placed.2 Regardless of the fact that Mouat was referring to a ‘life prisoner’, his words gave a fairly accurate description of the deplorable prison conditions he was often faced with in the course of his investigations. Mouat was a tireless advocate of prison reform in India and at one stage the Inspector-General of Gaols in lower Bengal. The sentiment expressed in Mouat’s words reflected a sense of a moral outrage. He believed that the purpose of prison reform needed to be alleviating the sufferings of the criminals who found themselves incarcerated in such 1 F. J. Mouat, Report on Jails Visited and Inspected in Bengal, Behar, and Arracan (Calcutta: Military Orphan Press, 1856). 2 Mouat, p. 183. 2 conditions. The very concerns that Mouat raised in the 1850s had been the reality of Indian prisons long before Mouat’s investigation and attempts at prison reform in India had begun much earlier. Strikingly high mortality, overcrowding, disease, and a generally dysfunctional system, characterised the early British-India jails. As this thesis will demonstrate, priorities such as military health and broader attempts by the Government of India to “know” its subjects facilitated an increasing focus on prison populations by the late 1850s. According to Michel Foucault by the beginning of the nineteenth century imprisonment was becoming the favoured form of punishment for those categorised as offenders in both Britain and Europe. Foucault argued that this reflected a shift towards punishment aimed at modifying behaviour rather than mortifying the body through the infliction of physical pain. The body was instead manipulated in a different way; it was imprisoned and made to work.3 In order to facilitate this shift toward favouring imprisonment over physical punishment, penal institutions had to be brought up to scratch, a sentiment evident in the early nineteenth-century debates on prison conditions in Britain, Europe and America. The first real attempt by the Government of India to address the conditions of prisons in India began with the setting up of the 1838 Prison Discipline Committee (PDC) by Thomas Babington Macaulay.4 The colonial government’s attempts to address this immensely complex problem continued throughout the nineteenth century and other investigations into prisons followed. In 1864 an Inquiry Committee was set up by John Lawrence, the Governor General of India, to investigate jail discipline and conditions. In 1867 a report published this committee’s findings and recommendations and also included various responses and suggestions from prison officials 3 Michel Foucault, Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison (New York: Vintage Books, 1979), pp. 7-8, 11. 4 Report of the India Committee on Prison Discipline (Baptist Mission Press, Bengal, 1838).[Hereafter 1838 PDC Report]. 3 throughout British-India to effect change.5 Focusing primarily on the reports produced by Macaulay’s 1838 Prison Discipline Committee (1838 PDC) and Lawrence’s 1864 Inquiry Committee (1864 IC) this thesis asks what was meant by “prison reform” in India, what were the fundamental aims of these reforms and whether they were more concerned with the prisoners’ living conditions or the disciplinary and punitive regimes. This thesis will answer these questions with reference to the areas that the reforms focused on including prison discipline, punishment, education, labour, health and administration. The 1838 PDC report and the 1864 IC report provide some of the most comprehensive information on Indian prison reform during the nineteenth century. These reports reflected a variety of changes in the Government of India’s attitude towards criminality and prisons, while also demonstrating consistency in the colonial ideology of the nineteenth century. Given Mouat’s words in the 1850s, it is clear that the 1838 PDC did not properly address the issue of prison conditions. By the time of the 1864 IC a shift in the priorities of reformers was evident. This thesis will track the prison reform measures and recommendations from the early 1830s and the late 1860s and explain the intention of the reform and how it reflected the dominant imperial discourse. Furthermore, it will attempt to demonstrate and explain changes or continuities in the overall purpose and direction of the recommended reform measures. Many of the reform measures suggested were often ignored. Colonial preoccupation with matters pertaining to consolidation of power and the wellbeing of the European population and the military in India took precedence over financing new buildings and facilities to properly accommodate the prison population.6 In both the 1838 PDC report and 1864 IC 5 Measures taken to give effect to the recommendations of a committee appointed to report on the state of jail discipline and to suggest improvements (Calcutta: Office of Superintendent Government Printing, 1867). Selections from