Criminology and Nation-Building: The Rise of Modern Criminal Sciences in India, 1920-80

This project offers a historical account of criminology as a field of scientific enquiry in India, between 1920-80. During this time, global developments in statistical and psychological forms of reasoning, combined with the political developments at home, turned crime into a subject susceptible to scientific investigation and led to demands for reform. Concerned with the task of explaining criminality, criminologists wrote books, organized conferences, offered training courses, and made the case for prison practices aimed at restoring criminals back to the society. This project argues that accounting for criminology contributes to our understanding of the late-colonial and post-colonial period in India, complicating any simplistic relations between science and progress. It also contributes to a global understanding of criminology which has so far largely ignored non-Western developments. Indian criminologists reflected on the ancient Vedic ideas of crime and punishment and utilized caste-based hierarchies to theorize crime which made their work distinctive.