The Libidinal Empire: Prison Transportation and Kālā Pāni

Abstract

With archival sources and (auto)biographical narratives, the present paper explores that the Empire took to its practice a libidinal logic in controlling the ocean and the geographical spaces of the Andaman Islands. While I argue that ocean politics is though central to British formation of the Kālā Pāni as a penal settlement, I suggest that the Empire brought with it a conjugal relationship and extended its scope to both criminals and police for the patronage of ecology. Significantly, the postcolonial Indian nation highly romanticizes the sacrifice of freedom fighters in the Cellular Jail; however, the contribution of women criminals—convicted chiefly for the purpose of controlling the libidinal energy—remains significant yet undocumented. In exploring the alternative history, I take references from legal documentation of the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries to explore that a libidinal logic worked throughout the Empire.