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SUMMARY:'Violence and colonial atavism: the British Indian state’s north
 -eastern frontier during the nineteenth century.'  - Tom Simpson (Caius)
DTSTART:20130520T163000Z
DTEND:20130520T180000Z
UID:TALK45541@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Gui Xi Young
DESCRIPTION:From its expansion into the Assam valley in the mid-1820s unti
 l the turn of the twentieth century\, the British Indian state came into v
 arious degrees and forms of contact with the inhabitants of the surroundin
 g hill areas. In seeking to instantiate its authority in the face of persi
 stent resistance and its own flimsy institutional and epistemological stru
 ctures\, a central part of the colonial state’s repertoire was displays 
 of physical violence. In my paper\, I argue that these displays were inten
 ded to communicate state power to distant and little-known populations. Ho
 wever\, these performances often – and sometimes farcically – failed t
 o achieve the aims of colonial officials. I also develop the category of 
 ‘colonial atavism’\, which seeks to explain how colonial states in out
 lying regions sought to derive power in situations of fragility through ad
 opting\, while simultaneously distancing themselves from\, violent methods
  that they explicitly labelled as ‘barbaric’. Through examining the co
 mplexities and instabilities of these colonial deployments of violence\, I
  hope to show that the colonial state at the fringes of British India was 
 an endlessly protean and fragmented venture\, founded on haziness and unce
 rtainty rather than fixed and enduring structures.\n
LOCATION:Seminar Room S3 Alison Richard Building
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