Decolonizing criminal law in India

This chapter engages with the particularities of colonization and its relationship with criminal law in India, to conceptualize decolonization of criminal law for India. The British Empire used criminal law to control and subjugate the bodies and collective movements of Indians. Criminal law, processes, and penal institutions in independent India continue to be used to control and subjugate the bodies and collective movements of Dalits, Adivasis (Indigenous peoples), as well as gender, religious, and political subalterns. Decolonization of criminal law must mean the dismantling of criminal law so that it no longer oppresses and dominates subalterns. The chapter questions whether we should continue to use the language of ‘decolonization’ in the Indian context, given that it is often used to perpetuate subjugation of subalterns under Hindutva or Hindu nationalism.