Colonial Rule: Power of Paper

Colonial empires didn't just rule with guns; they ruled with paper, and a lot of that

paper wasn't even European. Forget the idea of a single, all-powerful colonial

law. In South Asia, legal power was a chaotic mashup built on local records—land

deeds on palm leaves, royal orders in Persian, and contracts in Tamil.

The British, Dutch, and French couldn't just erase this. They had to absorb

it, stamping their own logos on ancient documents to make them fit their system.

This created a hybrid world where people fought for their rights using these very papers.