This article is a study of a mode of protest devised by police constables in Bengal in the decades after World War I to negotiate better wages from the police department – ‘the strike-threat’. Existing studies of constabulary protest have worked with a linear framework. Here, reluctance to enlist and desertions are seen as ‘early’ forms of protest and unionisation and strike action as ‘mature’ ones. The phenomenon of issuing strike threats has remained occluded in its appearance as an incomplete form of mobilization. This article, through a study of a rich body of archival evidence culled from the Intelligence Branch of the Bengal Police on threatened strikes of constables in the post-World War I period, demonstrates how ‘strike-threats’ were a form of politics in their own right. Constables repeatedly prepared for strikes while seldom actually resorting to any. However, preparations were precisely the site where the real action lay. This article is an exploration of constables’ mobilizations for strike action and their social networks that propelled such activities. It argues that the strike threat was a carefully crafted tool that allowed constables to generate a spectre of police mutiny in official consciousness. This helped them tread a delicate path between overt rebellion and covert subversion, generating a mode of protest that both revealed and concealed itself. It ensured wage hikes, while keeping the map of protest perennially smudged.

中文翻译：

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20 世纪早期孟加拉的“受到威胁”的警察罢工

这篇文章是对第一次世界大战后几十年孟加拉警察设计的一种抗议模式的研究，目的是与警察部门谈判提高工资——“罢工威胁”。现有的警察抗议研究使用的是线性框架。在这里，不愿入伍和逃兵被视为抗议和工会化的“早期”形式，而罢工行动则被视为“成熟”形式。发出罢工威胁的现象作为一种不完整的动员形式，一直被封闭。本文通过研究从孟加拉警察局情报部门收集的大量关于第一次世界大战后警员罢工威胁的档案证据，展示了“罢工威胁”如何成为他们的政治形式。自己的权利。警员反复为罢工做准备，但很少真正采取任何行动。然而，准备工作恰恰是真正行动的地方。本文探讨了警员为罢工行动的动员及其推动此类活动的社交网络。它辩称，罢工威胁是一种精心设计的工具，它允许警察在官方意识中制造出警察兵变的幽灵。这帮助他们在公开的反叛和秘密的颠覆之间走上了一条微妙的道路，产生了一种既显露又隐蔽的抗议模式。它确保了工资上涨，同时使抗议地图常年被弄脏。本文探讨了警员为罢工行动的动员及其推动此类活动的社交网络。它辩称，罢工威胁是一种精心设计的工具，它允许警察在官方意识中制造出警察兵变的幽灵。这帮助他们在公开的反叛和秘密的颠覆之间走上了一条微妙的道路，产生了一种既显露又隐蔽的抗议模式。它确保了工资上涨，同时使抗议地图常年被弄脏。本文探讨了警员为罢工行动的动员及其推动此类活动的社交网络。它辩称，罢工威胁是一种精心设计的工具，它允许警察在官方意识中制造出警察兵变的幽灵。这帮助他们在公开的反叛和秘密的颠覆之间走上了一条微妙的道路，产生了一种既显露又隐蔽的抗议模式。它确保了工资上涨，同时使抗议地图常年被弄脏。产生一种既显露又隐蔽的抗议模式。它确保了工资上涨，同时使抗议地图常年被弄脏。产生一种既显露又隐蔽的抗议模式。它确保了工资上涨，同时使抗议地图常年被弄脏。