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The East India Company’s Conquest of Assam, India, and “Community” Justice: Panchayats/Mels in Translation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 September 2015

Amrita SHODHAN
Amrita SHODHAN*
Affiliation:
Senior Teaching Fellow at the Department of History, SOAS, University of London, London, UK
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Abstract

The East India Company troops fighting the Burmese aggression on the frontier of Bengal in Eastern India “freed” upper and lower Assam territories in 1825. David Scott of the Bengal Service was appointed to oversee the establishment of civil and revenue administration in these frontier territories. He established a hierarchical multiple structure of “native courts”—called panchayats—as the chief medium of civil and criminal justice. This was ostensibly continuing a traditional Assamese form of dispute resolution—the mel; however, the British criminal jury as well as the expert assessor model animated the system. After his death in 1831, the system was brought in line with the rest of the Bengal administration based on the British court system. His experiment, paralleled in many other newly conquered and ceded districts from the Madras territories to Central India, suggests the use of this mode in post-conquest situations by British administrators in South Asia.

Keywords

juryalternative dispute resolutionhistory of empire
Type
Research Article
Information
Asian Journal of Law and Society , Volume 2 , Issue 2 , November 2015 , pp. 357 - 377
Copyright
© Cambridge University Press and KoGuan Law School, Shanghai Jiao Tong University 

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Footnotes

*

Amrita Shodhan is a Senior Teaching Fellow at the Department of History, SOAS, University of London. She is interested in the history of law, community, and governance; nationalism and ethnic/religious identities. I am grateful to Prof. James Jaffe for initiating the discussion on panchayats and to the members of the SOAS International Workshop: Rough and Ready Justice: Panchayats and Community Arbitration (January 2014), as well as members of the SOAS South Asia History Seminar for a stimulating discussion on an earlier version of this paper. Correspondence to Amrita Shodhan, Room 307, Thornhaugh St, Russell Square, London, WC 1H 0XG, UK. E-mail: As115@soas.ac.uk.

References

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GLOSSARY

Ahom: ruling Assamese dynasty overthrown by the British with headquarters in north-eastern Assam.Google Scholar
Anna: smallest unit of currency, 16 annas being one Rupee.Google Scholar
Bairagis: armed monks.Google Scholar
Barbarua: overall charge of civil and revenue administration.Google Scholar
Barjapi: ceremonial umbrella.Google Scholar
Barpanchayat: chief court of appeal.Google Scholar
Barphukan: chief customs official.Google Scholar
Buranji: political and genealogical histories in Assamese.Google Scholar
Choudhury: revenue official of the village or district.Google Scholar
Cutcherry: office.Google Scholar
Duaria Barua: customs officer.Google Scholar
Garo: hill state in southern Bengal and eastern Assam.Google Scholar
Jaintia: hill state in southern Bengal.Google Scholar
Kamrup: central Assam district around Guwahati.Google Scholar
Khasi: hill state in southern Bengal and Assam.Google Scholar
Khel: a division or unit of Assamese subjects having to perform specific services to the state.Google Scholar
Kutcherry: see cutcherry.Google Scholar
Mel: court of several important community members.Google Scholar
Melki: member of a community court.Google Scholar
Mofussil: the provinces, country station, or district.Google Scholar
Munsiff: native civil judge of the lowest grade.Google Scholar
Narayani Rupees: unit of Ahom currency in Assam.Google Scholar
Nizamut Adawlat (adalat): criminal court.Google Scholar
Paiks (also spelt Pykes): individuals serving in groups of four the government with their labour or as soldiers.Google Scholar
Panch parmeshwar: five coming together is like God.Google Scholar
Parhie dola: sedan.Google Scholar
Rajkhowas: an officer having jurisdiction over a prescribed area or unit of 3,000 men.Google Scholar
Sebundy: irregular native soldiers/a sort of militia.Google Scholar
Sheristadar: head of a court to receive routine business, register-keeper.Google Scholar
Sudder/Sadar: Chief court of appeal.Google Scholar
Sunud: a deed of grant by the government of office, privilege, or right.Google Scholar