ABSTRACT
This first chapter examines the various forms of punishment and state violence that occurred during the Punjab disturbances, including the infamous firing at Jallianwala Bagh in Amritsar, where over five hundred Indians were killed. In the following pages, a general picture will emerge of the extent and nature of the coercive network in India as it functioned in 1919. There were a wide variety of coercive tactics which the state could draw upon when needed, from imprisonment and bodily humiliations, to firing on crowds and collective fines. Each of these practices was both intrinsically connected with the others, and dependent upon the functioning of the police, courts and bureaucracy. Together these institutions and practices formed an interdependent coercive network, which, in spite of its size and diversity, was overwhelmed by the unrest. As a result, the coercive tactics which were used tended to be overwhelmingly collective, and often violent. Although the use of physical force was a regular part of this repertoire, most state violence resulted from the impromptu exercise of the discretion of individual officers, rather than from premeditated strategies drawn up by governments. The second aim of this chapter is to sketch out the ways in which popular movements could use specific episodes of punishment and state violence not only to criticise the government and increase their following, but also to negotiate the terms of their own punishment. The following pages highlight two major tensions which defined the coercive network: the first was the clash between the imperial power’s liberal pretensions to govern individuals, and its local officers’ penchant for ruling collectives; this was itself part of the larger conflict between the fierce independence of local-level state actors and the centralising tendencies of the higher levels of government.
