Contexts, Representation and the Colonized Convict: Maulana Thanesari in the Andaman Islands
This article analyzes some of the key social and political dynamics of the British-Indian penal colony in the Andaman Islands, from the perspective of the individual convict. It focuses on a rare Indian convict autobiography from the nineteenth century: the Urdu memoirs of the Maulana Muhammad Jafar...
Guardado en:
| Publicado en: | URI:https://journals.openedition.org/chs, |
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| Autor principal: | |
| Formato: | Article ou chapitre numérique |
| Lenguaje: | Anglais |
| Publicado: |
Crime, Histoire & Sociétés
2009
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| Acceso en línea: | Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM |
| Sumario: | This article analyzes some of the key social and political dynamics of the British-Indian penal colony in the Andaman Islands, from the perspective of the individual convict. It focuses on a rare Indian convict autobiography from the nineteenth century: the Urdu memoirs of the Maulana Muhammad Jafar Thanesari, a Wahhabi Muslim activist who was arrested in 1863 for conspiring to smuggle funds to anti-British mujahideen in Afghanistan. Beginning in 1866, Thanesari spent nearly eighteen years in the penal colony, and then returned to the mainland with a new wife, new children, and considerable wealth and social status. The colonial regime’s punishment of Thanesari was quite successful, because it resulted in the conversion of a trouble-maker into a moderately satisfied and law-abiding subject of the crown. It did not, however, eradicate all inclinations and opportunities for dissent – rather, it gave new form to dissident gestures. The article focuses first on the issue of convict labor. Next, the article examines Thanesari’s perceptions of the politics of religion and race in the Andamans. The final area of analysis concerns Thanesari’s acquisition of a family in the Island. |
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