ABSTRACT
This chapter is an abolitionist critique of penal ‘reform’ in India, wherein I suggest a reinterpretation of ‘reform’ not as an extension but rather a process of replacement, dismantling and elimination of the existing penal structures. Tracing the presence of principle of nonviolence (ahimsa) as an instrument of response to violence (himsa) and inegalitarianism in the Indian subcontinental cultural history by navigating through precolonial and colonial periods, I argue, by thinking through postcolonial and subaltern frameworks, that the existing penal structures and punishments are colonial products. Highlighting the role of the relationship between different social systems and rationalisation of violence in law for caging the subalterns and marginalised people, I contend that India needs decriminalisation, diversion and decarceration as apparatuses to decolonise criminal law so as to take the recourse of social justice and not criminal justice as a response to social deviance.
