About this episode
The episode discusses the history and impact of Indian indentured labour following the abolition of slavery in the British Empire.
Misha Glenny and guests discuss how, after the abolition of slavery in the British Empire in 1833, sugar planters recruited workers from India to replace or compete with their formerly enslaved labourers. Over the next 90 years, more than a million people in India travelled under five year contracts of indenture across the empire from Guyana to Trinidad to Mauritius and Fiji and colonies in between. These indentured labourers were to share vivid accounts of deception and abuse, especially in the early decades. From the outset there were critics and opposition gained pace with Gandhi and others in South Africa arguing the system was close to slavery and calling for the Indian government to stop the practice, which was to happen in 1917 with the last shipments of people in the 1920s. Meanwhile, rather than return after their contracts, a section of indentured labourers stayed where they were for their own reasons, negotiating their new identities alongside formerly enslaved people and the planter culture in a new Indian diaspora. With Purba Hossain Lecturer in Modern History at the University of York Neha Hui Associate Professor in Economics at the University of Reading And Clem…
People in this episode
Host: Misha Glenny
Guests: Purba Hossain, Neha Hui, Clem Seecharan
Topics covered
- Indian indentured labour
- history
- colonialism
- migration
- identity
- Gandhi
Keywords
- indentured labour
- British Empire
- Gandhi
- migration
- identity
- colonial history
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: University of York, University of Reading, London Metropolitan University
Books & works: Coolie Woman: The Odyssey of Indenture, Servants, Sirdars and Settlers: Indians in Mauritius, 1834-1874
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