Research Catalog

Title

Victims or criminals? : a study of women in colonial North-Western Provinces and Oudh, India, 1870-1910 / Priyam Singh.

Author

Singh, Priyam, 1933-

Publication

Middletown, N.J. : Caslon, 1996.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

xii, 143 pages; 23 cm

Summary

This fascinating exploration of female victims and criminals in colonial India lies at the intersection of several fields: colonial history, women's studies, Indian studies, political economy, and the history of crime and punishment. Using an interdisciplinary approach, Dr. Singh argues that women's crime in India was largely induced by colonial intervention, oppression, and exploitation and that the punishment for such crimes was used as a means of social control and repression. Moreover, "deviant behavior," "immorality," and "criminals" - as these terms were defined by the state alone - were most often applied to the lower castes of women, a practice that not only points to conspicuous gender inequality and classism, but also to the very thin line between victim and criminal, between abuse/violation of women and supposed judicial sanctioning for their "crimes." This analysis of women and criminality under colonial rule sheds light on similar transformations currently taking place in many Third World countries as it simultaneously contributes to the discussion of the "battered women syndrome" in the United States.

Subject

• 1765-1947
• Women > Crimes against > India > Uttar Pradesh
• Female offenders > India > Uttar Pradesh
• Women > India > Uttar Pradesh > Social conditions
• Female offenders
• Women > Crimes against
• Women > Social conditions
• Vrouwen
• Overtredingen
• Sociale situatie
• India > History > British occupation, 1765-1947
• India
• India > Uttar Pradesh

Genre/Form

History.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references and index.

Contents

1. Economic Deprivation and Women's Criminality -- 2. Patriarchy, Colonial Rulers, and Women Criminals -- 3. The Colonial State: Modernization or Demoralization of Women? -- 4. Colonial Justice, the Penal System, and Women Criminals -- 5. Conclusions -- App. A: Cases of Reported Rapes and Low Percentage of Convictions -- App. B: Figures Showing the Religion and Age of Female Convicts.

ISBN

• 0391039717
• 9780391039711

LCCN

96003782

OCLC

• ocm34114134
• 34114134
• SCSB-2091284

Owning Institutions

Princeton University Library