Beyond the Promise of Laws: Bombay's Sex Trade in Historical Perspective

From 1860-1930, the growth of Bombay's sex trade was accompanied by an intensification of legislation on prostitution. The scale of sexual commerce seemed, however, unaffected by laws purporting to control it. Indeed, colonial law making and law enforcement on prostitution followed distinct imperatives and served separate constituencies. Whereas the process of law making responded to a variety of public panics, the governing practices of police constables and inspectors, magistrates, municipal officials enacted administrative logics of separate, more limited, ambitions. My presentation critiques the disciplinary dimensions of state power, focusing on three representative moments: the Contagious Diseases Acts as an exemplar of regulation; police efforts to implement anti-trafficking conventions in the 1920s; and the attempts through the 1920s and 1930s to ban brothels.