A Genealogy of Terrorism: Colonial Law and the Origins of an Idea

294 Pages·2020·4.75 MB·English

by  Joseph McQuade

A Genealogy of Terrorism
Using India as a case study, Joseph McQuade demonstrates how the
modern concept of terrorism was shaped by colonial emergency laws
datingbackintothenineteenthandearlytwentiethcenturies.Beginning
with the ‘thugs’, ‘pirates’, and ‘fanatics’ of the nineteenth century,
McQuadetracestheemergingandnovellegalcategoryof‘theterrorist’
in early twentieth-century colonial law, ending with an examination
of the first international law to target global terrorism in the 1930s.
Drawingon awide range ofarchivalresearchand a detailed empirical
study of evolving emergency laws in British India, he argues that the
ideaofterrorismemergedasadeliberatestrategybyofficialsseekingto
depoliticize the actions of anti-colonial revolutionaries, and that many
of the ideas embedded in this colonial legislation continue to shape
contemporaryunderstandingsofterrorismtoday.
Joseph McQuade is the RCL Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of
Toronto’sAsianInstitute.

A Genealogy of Terrorism
Colonial Law and the Origins of an Idea
Joseph McQuade
UniversityofToronto
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For Emily

Itisaprincipleofthelawofnations,recognizedIbelievebyevery
civilized people, that assassins by profession shall find in no country a
sanctuary, but shalleverywherebedelivered upto theSovereign who
reclaims them and in whose dominions they have perpetrated their
crimes; and as the crimes of these assassins are never confined to the
countryinwhichtheyreside,andaseverycountryinIndiamustnowbe
considered as under the protection of the Supreme Government in
some relation or other, that Government very properly undertook the
duty which seemed to be imposed upon it by the laws of humanity
and of nations, and determined to reclaim them from every State in
whichtheymightseekshelter.
–W.H.Sleeman,Ramaseeana;orAvocabularyofthepeculiarlanguageusedby
thethugs(Calcutta:G.H.Huttman,MilitaryOrphanPress,1836),pp.48–9.
Authorityis,itseems,atonealltheworldover,andwemustrecognize
that there is now no longer the least illogical loophole of escape for a
fleeingmanonthisearthorinitswaters;itismerelyaquestionofwhich
uniform shall arrest him. In old days there was always some leakage,
some chunk for escape between the machineries of different
nationalities. … But the nets are drawn closer now … daily the
elaborate international system for maintaining the status quo becomes
moreperfect,andfromitthereisnoappeal.Thefugitive–‘assassin’,or
‘patriot’, ‘avatar’ or that weird monster the ‘anarchist’ of the
newspapers,whateverhemaybe…canfindnocorneroftheglobeto
shelter him, and the only doubt is under which precise code of
regulationsheshallbejudged,punished,andputaway.
–JosiahWedgwood,EssaysandAdventuresofaLabourM.P.(London:George
Allen&UnwinLtd,1924),p.153
The search is underway for those who are behind these evil acts. I’ve
directed the full resources of our intelligence and law enforcement
communities to find those responsible and to bring them to justice.
We will make no distinction between the terrorists who committed
these acts and those who harbor them. … America and our friends
and allies join with all those who want peace and security in the
world,andwestandtogethertowinthewaragainstterrorism.
–GeorgeW.Bush,StatementbythePresidentinhisaddresstothenation,
11September2001