Dullah

Clare Anderson

doi:10.1017/CBO9781139057554.002

2 - Dullah

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012

Clare Anderson

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Clare Anderson: Affiliation:
University of Leicester

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No.: 7 – Name of the criminal: Dullah – Name of father: Keorauj – Crime: Having been concerned in theft from the house of the prosecutor Juwahur in the prosecution of which Chubbee the brother of Juwahur was so severely wounded with a spear by one of the thieves that he died a few hours afterwards – Name of the zillah or city in which the prisoner was tried and convicted: Etawah – Date of sentence: 6 December 1816 – Period of sentence: Imprisonment and transportation beyond sea for life – Sect or caste: Aheer – Description: Height 5 feet 3 ¾ inches not very dark marked slightly with the small pox in the face a scar on the chest several scars on both arms marked with the process of Godena [godna, penal tattooing] on the forehead age about 22 years.

This extract from the descriptive list of thirty-eight convicts embarked from Calcutta to Port Louis on the ship Ruby in 1817 records Dullah's penal transportation to the island of Mauritius. He had been convicted of robbery and murder in concert with two other men, Addeyah and Gheessah. They were fellow ahir caste peasants, sentenced in Etawah in the west of the Bengal presidency on the great River Yamuna. Like Dullah they were in their early to mid-twenties. There were significant penal connections between India and Mauritius at this time, with about 1,500 convicts transported to the island during the period 1815–37. When transportation to Mauritius ceased, convict numbers began to dwindle. In 1853, after consultations with their Indian counterparts, local government liberated the few who remained on the island, though they were not given permission to return home.

Type: Chapter
Information: Subaltern Lives
Biographies of Colonialism in the Indian Ocean World, 1790–1920
, pp. 23 - 55

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139057554.002 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2012

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