The Frontier Crimes Regulation in Colonial India: Local Critiques and Persistent Effects. Issue 4 (2nd October 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Pant, Saurabh
• Is Part Of: South Asia. Volume 41:Issue 4(2018)
• Page Start: 789
• Page End: 805
• Publication Date: 2018-10-02
• Subjects: British Raj -- colonial India -- FATA -- Frontier Crimes Regulation (FCR) -- institutions -- Jirga -- Pakistan; South Asia -- Periodicals; South Asia -- Study and teaching -- Periodicals; 954.005
• DOI: 10.1080/00856401.2018.1531470
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0085-6401

Abstract

Abstract: In their pursuit of self-serving goals, sometimes governments create and use various instruments as the means to relatively short-term ends. Such instruments, however, can be tenacious, and have perverse, long-lasting impacts. This paper focuses on one such instrument created during the British Raj: the Frontier Crimes Regulation. Often, the literature on the Regulation focuses on the rationale for its creation from the perspective of the colonisers and refers to the long-term consequences in hindsight, thereby ignoring local voices. However, I show that in 1901, at the time of the drafting of the Regulation, the local colonised population foresaw the potentially lasting pernicious effects stemming from it and voiced their concerns. I demonstrate that these local voices can help us understand the roots of the problems in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) of Pakistan today.