Emergency detention powers were justified by fears of religiously framed treason

Evidence

After the Khan brothers had languished in prison for 14 months, the High Court in Calcutta took up their case in the form of an application for writs of habeas corpus. The hearing revolved around the legality of Act No. III of 1858, which clarified and extended legislation originally passed in 1818 allowing the governor-general to detain state prisoners without pressing formal charges. The counsel for the government argued that to deny the government extraordinary powers in handling suspected cases of treason would risk that ‘the empire may be convulsed to its very foundation’. Evoking memories of 1857, and the growing tendency to see the conflict in religious terms, the government’s case made ominous references to fanatics, ‘who believe that the extermination of the British Government from this country, is what their religion requires’. — Julia Stephens, The Phantom Wahhabi, 80

Categorization

• SEED: Angle: preventive detention law from 1818 to 1858 as template for later security legislation.