Paper short abstract:

This paper argues that the focus on sensationalised forms of police torture in newspapers drew focus away from the more ubiquitous, yet banal, revenue violence, thus allowing a critique of Indians rather than colonial administrative modalities.

Paper long abstract:

In 1855 the Madras government of the East India Company officially admitted that torture was 'commonly practised' by its officials in the collection of revenue, and whilst securing criminal confessions. At the time the 'torture question', as it was known, caused an imperial outcry, with voices from both India and Britain calling for an end to the Company's rule. The sensationalism of torture was picked up by the press, who reported in grim details, the worst of the violence. Though some instances were severe in their brutality, the torture most commonly practiced in Madras was for revenue purposes and was rather banal. It involved stress positions, beatings and illegal incarceration. It was not the stuff of racks, devices and instruments of pain, conjured by popular images of the medieval European criminal justice system. Police torture, though less common, was more sensational in its violence and took on forms more gruesome. As such, it was reported on more regularly than instances of revenue violence. These news stories relied on and contributed to racialized British notions of Indians. In this sense, Indians were rendered simultaneously the victims of an unjust colonial government, and their own savagery. This paper argues that the focus on sensationalised forms of police torture in newspapers drew focus away from the more ubiquitous revenue violence, which permitted a critique of Indians rather than of the Company's administrative modalities. In doing so, torture was rendered an Indian, rather than a British problem.