Imprint of the Raj : The Colonial Origin of Fingerprinting and Its Voyage to Britain

256 pages. cover worn & creased, bumped, A fascinating account of the invention of fingerprinting in colonial India an d the story of how the technique was exported back to Victorian England. Opening with the first case in a British criminal court to use the radical new techniqu e of fingerprinting to identify the perpetrators of crime in 1902 this riveting book takes us back to the origins of fingerprinting in India. Despite many books on the subject of fingerprints in general, none have looked closely at the fact that this standard tool of forensic science was born in India during the Raj. A s the author points out, with the exception of curry there is not one other inst ance of something so fundamental to British life being imported fully-formed fro m the Empire and then being tailored to fit conditions at home. Based on origina l and hitherto unpublished research imprint of the Raj gives a unique insight in to our colonial past and offers a vivid account of this extraordinary and largel y ignored story.…