In her book State Violence and Punishment in India Taylor Sherman explores the diff erent coercive techniques that the Indian state used against the population, both in the late colonial era and in early independence, specifi cally from 1919 to 1956.

ACCORDING TO THE PREFACE of the book, most studies on punishment have focused on the practice of imprisonment whereas in fact large-scale unrest was tackled through a whole range of practices, imprisonment not being the most important amongst them. Sherman seeks to correct this one-sided view by researching the extent of coercive practices implemented in various situations. In eight chapters she describes eight well-known riots and disorders in Indian society and the cocktail of countermeasures implemented by the state: from fi ring on crowds, bombing them from the air, and demanding collective fi nes to corporal punishment and dismissal from work or study. Furthermore, Sherman investigates the ways in which these coercive practices refl ected on the state itself. Instead of supposing that the state was a rather fi xed entity that could use police, military and bureaucracy at will, Sherman’s study attempts to show the ‘return-eff ects’ of the coercive practices on the state. Revolutionaries and nationalist activists used the law and its enforcement for negotiation and confrontation: everyday state in twentieth century India was a fl uid and vulnerable aff air.