Conférence "The Colonial state and run-away women in the Punjab-Baluch borderlands, 1850-1900 " : Gagan Kumar (Centre de Sciences Humaines, Delhi)

Presentation

My book project focuses on a conflict-ridden frontier zone between Baluchistan and British Punjab (now in Pakistan) during the nineteenth century. I aim to understand the processes of state-making in regions that were 'adept in the art of not being governed' (James Scott). In doing so, I examine local conflicts in which the colonial state, aspiring to establish its sovereignty in this area, was not only an arbitrator but also a participant alongside local disputants. I investigate disputes involving runaway women to understand why such cases were extensively documented in the colonial archive. I inquire what this documentation, as well as British involvement as arbitrators in such cases, reveals about imperial objectives and state-making in this region. In this presentation, I will narrate the story of a runaway woman from the Baluch borderland to illustrate how the fight over her custody becomes a medium for introducing colonial law in a legally anomalous zone. 

Dr. Gagan Kumar is a historian with a PhD in Modern Indian History from Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi. He taught at O. P. Jindal Global University in Sonipat, India, until recently. Currently residing in France, he is an associate researcher at the Centre de Sciences Humaines, Delhi. Dr. Kumar is working on a book manuscript in Hindi titled सरहद, (अ)शासन और फरार औरतें, 1850-1900, translated as 'Borderland, (mis)rule and run-away women, c. 1850-c.1900'. The Taxila Education Society awarded him the Fanish Singh Pustak Vritti Book Grant, which supports research and writing in Hindi, for this project.