This book provides a long history of France’s infamous indigénat regime, from its origins in Algeria to its contested practices and legacies in France’s South Pacific territory of New Caledonia. The term indigénat is synonymous throughout the francophone world with the rigours and injustices of the colonial era under French rule. The indigénat regime or 'Native Code' governed the lives of peoples classified as French 'native' subjects in colonies as diverse as Algeria, West Africa, Madagascar, Indochina and New Caledonia. In New Caledonia it was introduced by decree in 1887 and remained in force until Kanak ― New Caledonia’s indigenous people ― obtained citizenship in 1946. Among the colonial tools and legal mechanisms associated with France’s colonial empire it is the one that has had the greatest impact on the memory of the colonized. Focussing on New Caledonia, the last remaining part of overseas France to have experienced the full force of the indigénat, this book illustrates the way that certain measures were translated into colonial practices, and sheds light on the tensions involved in the making of France as both a nation and a colonial empire. The first book to provide a comprehensive history of the indigénat regime, explaining how it first came into being and survived up until 1946 despite its constant denunciation, this is an important contribution to French Imperial History and Pacific History.
Author(s): Isabelle Merle, Adrian Muckle
Series: Cambridge Imperial and Post-Colonial Studies
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Year: 2022
Language: English
Pages: 377
City: Cham
Preface
Acknowledgments
Contents
Abbreviations
Abbreviations used in the Text
Abbreviations used in References
List of Figures
List of Tables
1 Introduction
Contemporary Evocations
The Indigénat as an Imperial Framework
The Reemergence of a Forgotten Field
Origins and Genesis
The “Colonial Situation”
A Periodization of the New Caledonian Regime
Why a History of the Indigénat in New Caledonia Today?
Notes
Part I The Indigénat Regime
2 An Exceptional Legal Regime
The Code Noir on Slavery and the Principle of Special Laws
Civic Integration and the Imperative of Socialization
The Return of the Special Laws
The Principles of Penal Justice in Wartime
For and Against a Justice D’exception: Growing Contradictions
The Birth of a “Legal Monster” in a Republican Context
Legalization of the Indigénat Regime: Toward the Law of 28 June 1881
The Indigénat’s Synthesis in Cochinchina and the Beginning of Its Imperial Voyage
Notes
3 Making the French “Native Subject” in Oceania
Establishing the French Presence
Conversations on Law and Government in the Society Islands
Conversations on Law and Government in New Caledonia
The Special Powers and the Royal Ordinance of 28 April 1843
New Caledonia’s Authoritarian Trajectory
Tahiti’s Liberal Trajectory
Notes
4 Bringing the Indigénat to New Caledonia
New Caledonia in the Wake of the War of 1878–1879
From Cochinchina to New Caledonia: The Case for a Transfer
The Head Tax and the Ambiguities of Democracy
Nouët’s Ambitions and the Draft Regulations and Decree of November 1886
The 1887 Decree and the Special Infractions
Notes
Part II The Order of Practices: The Indigénat at Work
5 Establishing the Indigénat: The Era of the Administrators
The Arrival of the Administrators
The Indigénat Before the Indigénat: Practices and Rules “Before the Rule”
The Administrators at Work
Mounting Criticism and the Rise of Gustave Gallet
Managing the Indigénat: The Administrators Suppressed or Consolidated
The Denunciation of “Abuses” or the Search for a “State of Law”: The Intrusion of the Colonial Inspectorate
Edouard Moriceau and the Brutality of the Feillet Era
The End of the Administrators and the Coming of the Gendarmes
Notes
6 Stabilizing a Colonial Order: Gendarmes, Grands Chefs, and Petits Chefs
The “Reorganisation” of the “Tribus” of the Grande Terre
The Birth of the Syndic: The Gendarmes as Agents of the Service of Native Affairs
Consolidating the Coercive Regime
Educating the Chiefs: The Case of Amane of Poyes
Interning “Troublesome Chiefs”
Full Circle?
Ongoing Protest and the Improbable Search for “Colonial Legality”
Notes
7 Imposing the Head Tax
Rehabilitating the Head Tax, 1886–1900
Collecting the Head Tax, 1896–1914. Geographical Reach and Fiscal Triumph. Violence, Resistance and Repression
Collecting the Head Tax: Individualism or Collectivism?
The Grands Chefs as Tax Collectors: Amane and the Head Tax
Taxation by Stealth. The Indenture Bonuses: Kanak Custom or Colonial Tax?
Collective Responsibility Maintained
Ongoing Critique. Opposing a Fundamentally Unequal Fiscal Regime
Notes
8 Controlling Mobility and Residence
Controlling Mobility and Residence: Growing Preoccupations
Separating Kanak and Libérés: Intersecting Controls
Indenture and the Indigénat: Overlapping Regimes
The Surveillance of Kanak Women in the Name of Colonial Morality
The Case of the Loyalty Islands
Confinement: The Daily Threat of Imprisonment
Evading the Indigénat
Notes
Part III The Indigénat and the “Native Condition” in the First Half of the 20th Century
9 The Impossible Reform: Debating the Indigénat in the Empire and New Caledonia
The Challenge of Reform in Algeria and Cochinchina: Political Battles and Delaying Tactics, 1903–1928
Challenging the Foundations of “Native Policy” in New Caledonia, 1907–1912
Confusion, Procrastination, and Obstruction: A Look at New Caledonian Governance
The “Native Statute” That Never Was
The Persistence of Disciplinary Sanctions and the Limit of Exemptions, 1922–1940
Notes
10 Putting “Natives” To Work: The Indigénat and the Colonial Labor System Between the Wars
The Systematic Recruitment and Exhaustion of Kanak Labor
Protest and Complaint
The Javanese and Tonkinese Experience
The Myth of a “New Native Policy”
A Step Backwards, 1939–1944
Notes
11 The End of the Indigénat?
The Colonial Order Cracks, 1943–1945
Conservative Lobbying for Gradual Reform, 1944–1945
The “Wishes and Grievances of the Natives of New Caledonia”
Hopes and Threats: Emancipation in Question
The Wind of Freedom and Growing Impatience
Facing the Challenges to New Caledonian Society After the Indigénat
Notes
12 Epilogue. Ongoing Debates
Notes
Bibliography
Index
