Professor
Elizabeth Kolsky’s lecture will explore one of the British empire’s
most closely guarded secrets: the history of racial violence
in colonial India. Although the British understood their vast
nineteenth century empire to be a global force of peace, law and
order, Professor Kolsky argues that violence was a constituent
feature of colonial rule. By examining everyday acts of brutality
committed by ordinary Englishmen against Indians, Professor Kolsky
reveals how colonial laws and the practices of white judges, juries
and police placed most Europeans above the law, literally allowing
them to get away with murder.
ELIZABETH KOLSKY is Associate Professor of History at Villanova
University. She has recently published Colonial Justice in British
India: White Violence and the Rule of Law (Cambridge University
Press, 2010) and Fringes of
Empire: People, Power, and Places in Colonial India, co-edited
with Sameethah Agha (Oxford University Press, 2009). As a historian
of South Asia and British Empire, Professor Kolsky has published
widely on issues related to law, gender, and colonialism and also
written editorials for Pakistan’s leading English-language
newspaper Dawn