Regimental prostitution in provincial cantonment: A case study of chaklas, lock hospitals and colonial governance in Faizabad

The article studies the regulation of regimental prostitution during the nineteenth century in Faizabad, a small provincial cantonment town in northern India that has garnered little attention in the existing scholarship. While the literature on colonial prostitution stressed the centrality of medical surveillance, spatial segregation and moral discipline in major colonial port towns, this article employs Michel Foucault’s concept of governmentality, Radhika Singha’s notion of delegated authority, and Mark Condos’ view of uncertain sovereignty to examine the everyday administrative practices rather than the legislative intent. Drawing on cantonment correspondence, annual lock hospital reports, statistical returns and medical officers’ observations, the article reconstructs how prostitution was organised, supervised and rendered administratively visible in Faizabad. The study foregrounds the primary role of native intermediaries like mahaldarnis, dhais and darogas, whose indigenous knowledge and labour translated legislative intent into practice. Additionally, the article illustrates the negotiated, uneven and eventually fragile aspects of colonial regulation of regimental prostitution in the small cantonment town of Faizabad, challenging historiographical assumptions about coherence and efficiency of colonial regulatory governance.