Fear of the False - (Corpus Juris: The Humanities in Politics and Law) by Mitra Sharafi (Paperback)

About the Book

"The high era of forensic science in colonial India and Burma (circa 1900) was driven by deception anxiety and belief in native mendacity. Advances in forensic testing enabled the detection of planted evidence, but criminal procedure shortcuts made expert misconduct harder to discover which increased the risk of wrongful convictions"-- Provided by publisher.

Book Synopsis

Fear of the False uncovers colonial South Asia's critical role in the development of forensic science. Around 1900, the government of British India created a web of institutions for the scientific detection of crime. Driven by anxieties about "native mendacity," newly minted forensic analysts focused on uncovering faked evidence planted by South Asians. These experts, joining toxicologists known as "chemical examiners," were supposed to extract objective, scientific truth in the service of British justice. But in trying to counteract the presumed tendency of colonized peoples to lie, the system enabled widespread misconduct by state experts, increasing the risk of wrongful convictions of South Asian defendants.

Through scrupulously documented legal cases, Mitra Sharafi reveals that colonial dynamics put special pressure on the relationship between truth and justice. Examining falsity on both sides of the law through the use of testing to (mis)identify poisons, blood, and spermatozoa, as well as debates over adversarialism and inquisitorialism in the colonial courtroom, Fear of the False explores advances in forensic science and shortcuts in criminal procedure against the backdrop of colonial mistrust.

Thanks to generous funding from the University of Wisconsin Law School, the ebook editions of this book are available as open access volumes through the Cornell Open initiative.

About the Author

Mitra Sharafi is Evjue-Bascom Professor of Law at the University of Wisconsin Law School and the author of Law and Identity in Colonial South Asia as well as articles on abortion, divorce, constitutionalism, the rule of law, and the legal profession in South Asia. She also hosts the South Asian Legal History Resources website.