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Abstract
In February 1946, 20,000 sailors of the Royal Indian Navy (RIN) mutinied over a number of grievances, from the poor quality of their food to demands for an independent India. Drawing on archival research in the UK and India, this paper uses this event, together with an examination of life in the RIN more generally, to explore how colonial discipline was organised and resisted in specifically maritime ways. By examining the practices and organisational structures of the RIN which attempted to discipline sailors, and in turn how these were resisted and negotiated, it is argued that the spatial politics of life in the Navy created distinctly maritime social and cultural relations. These maritime, naval understandings of space and place add to our understandings of the ways in which colonialism worked in practice. The paper therefore not only adds to work about colonialism's attempts to discipline and order its subjects but also contributes to debates on the geographies of the sea.
De ‘Hombre de Tierra’ a ‘Marinero’?: disciplina colonial, organización y resistencia en la Marina Real India, 1946
En febrero de 1946, 20.000 marineros de la Marina Real India (MRI) se amotinaron para exigir una serie de reclamos que iban desde la pobre calidad de la comida hasta la demanda de una India independiente. A partir de trabajo de archivo en el Reino Unido y en India, este trabajo utiliza dicho evento y examina de modo más general la vida en la MRI, para explorar cómo se organizaba y resistía la disciplina colonial de modos marítimos específicos. A través del análisis de las prácticas y las estructuras organizativas de la MRI destinadas a disciplinar a los marineros, y de cómo las mismas fueron resistidas y negociadas, sostenemos que las políticas espaciales de la vida en la marina produjeron relaciones sociales y culturales inequívocamente marítimas. Estos modos de entender el espacio y el lugar desde lo marítimo y naval, contribuyen a nuestro conocimiento sobre las formas en las que el colonialismo operó en la práctica. El presente artículo se suma al trabajo realizado sobre cómo el colonialismo buscó disciplinar y ordenar a los sujetos, al tiempo que contribuye a las geografías del mar.
En passant de « campagnard » à « marin »? La discipline, l'organisation, et la résistance coloniale dans la Marine Royale Indienne, 1946
En février 1946, les 20.000 marins de la Marine Royale Indienne (MRI) ont mutiné en raison de multiples griefs, de la mauvaise qualité de leur nourriture jusqu'aux exigences pour une Inde indépendante. En faisant usage de la recherche d'archives au RU et en Inde, cet article se sert de cet évènement, ainsi qu'un examen de la vie dans la MRI au sens plus large, pour examiner comment on organisait et résistait la discipline coloniale dans des façons spécifiquement maritimes. En examinant les pratiques et les structures organisationnelles de la MIR qui tentaient de discipliner les marins, ainsi que la résistance et la négociation de ces mêmes structures, l'article affirme que la politique spatiale de la vie de la marine créait des relations sociales et culturelles distinctement maritimes. Ces compréhensions maritimes de l'espace et du lieu contribuent à nos compréhensions des façons dans lesquelles le colonialisme fonctionnait dans la pratique. L'article contribue donc non seulement à la littérature sur les tentatives du colonialisme de discipliner et mettre en ordre ces sujets mais aussi aux débats sur les géographies de la mer.
Acknowledgements
The research for this paper was conducted thanks to funding from the Royal Geographical Society's Small Research Grants scheme (RGS-IBG ref: SRG 16/10). Archivists at the National Archives of India, New Delhi, the British Library, the Imperial War Museum and the National Archives have all been helpful. Mark Riley and Sarah Marie Hall both provided generous comments on earlier drafts, which with the thoughts of the editor, Phil Hubbard, and the anonymous referees have all helped to improve the paper. Any errors/omissions remain my own.
Notes
1. India gained independence from British rule in August 1947. The RIN Mutiny can therefore be placed within a longer chronology of anti-colonial popular politics that includes the Indian National Congress quitting its role in the Government of India when the Viceroy of India declared war on Germany in 1939, on to the Quit India movement in 1942–1943 and the eventual partition of British India into Pakistan and India in 1947.
2. I conform to the place names in use at the time of the Mutiny for historical ease.
3. Shore establishments were still referred to as ships in naval nomenclature. Hence, the Mutiny of 1946 broke out at His Majesty's Indian Ship (HMIS) Talwar, which was a shore-based signal school in the Colaba district of Bombay.
4. The irregular nature of naval power in the Indian Ocean was a constant throughout the colonial period, even in its earliest phases (Law Citation1986). See also Anderson (Citation2012) for an account of naval life on the Andamans in the late nineteenth century.
5. ‘Ratings’ are the non-commissioned ranks of a naval service, and consist of those within the service who are below officers. This includes ‘petty’ officers, who comprise the ‘non-commissioned officer’ cadre of the service.
6. Specific reasons for this decision are not explained, but (despite the reference to caste) would presumably be linked to the high Muslim population of Chittagong.
7. WRINs (Women's Royal Indian Navy) were the women's branches of the RIN. Hastings (Citation1988) claims that of all the branches of the RIN, only the WRINs failed to take part in the Mutiny.
8. At this time, women, (in this case WRINs) were not allowed to serve in front-line combat vessels, and the naval ship was undoubtedly a masculine space.