Paper short abstract:

This paper historicizes the making of a colonial state of exception through an examination of legal-institutional 'moments' in the period from 1818-1919.

Paper long abstract:

This paper historicizes the making of a colonial state of exception through an examination of legal-institutional 'moments' in the period from 1818-1919. From Regulation III of 1818 to the Rowlatt Acts of 1919, the British colonial regime attempted to consolidate its legal-political authority over a 'de-politicized' colonial subject. In this paper, 1919 serves as a crucial break in the history of British India, not merely as a consequence of the end of WWI, but rather in the way anti-colonial resistance sought and came to challenge the British colonial regimes de-politicization of colonial subjectivities.