Labyrinth of Colonial Law – Indian Patriotism or Seditious Crime?

As we look back into the different layers of colonial laws, it is undeniable that an unrestrained labyrinth of laws engulfed the destiny of millions in India. Dissecting the complex legal colonial framework clearly shows how justice disguised the oppression in India. Being unable to handle the growing conscious revolutionary activities in the colony, they eventually formulated a set of codified laws to punish the unruliness. But whether these laws were designed to curb the unruliness, or to justify their rule in India, is undoubtedly under review. The nomenclature ‘seditious crime’, ‘criminals,’ ‘terrorism’ used by the colonial rulers deserves serious analysis, as these crimes were the result of not only the socio-economic and political aspect of the society, rather colonial agenda as well.  In this historical context, this paper has taken crime, not as a normal phenomenon in society, but rather as an invented one, in the province of Bengal.