Prisoner Shackles & The Fight for Racial Equality (1862)

BOMBAY LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL CHAMBERS

In 1862, the Mumbai Legislative Council debated an amendment regarding the treatment of prisoners sentenced to rigorous imprisonment. The Commander-in-Chief, Sir W. Mansfield, proposed a deeply racist amendment: European officers sentenced to rigorous imprisonment should be exempt from wearing shackles, arguing they should be treated according to English law, while Indian prisoners would continue to be chained.

Nana Shankarsheth was incensed by this blatant double standard. He stood up in the Legislative Council and fiercely opposed the amendment, demanding to know why racial discrimination was being codified into penal law. He argued passionately for equal rights and equal punishment for all subjects under the Queen's government.

Despite gaining the support of Governor Bartle Frere, the European majority in the council voted along racial lines. Nana lost the vote 5 to 4. However, his fearless stand against colonial judicial racism set a powerful precedent. It laid the ideological foundation for future legal battles against British racial exceptionalism, echoing forward to the Ilbert Bill controversy and the protests against the discriminatory Whipping Act of 1909.