Beyond the footnote: Reclaiming the history of Indian indenture

THERE are some compelling studies on Indian indenture, tracing its origins to the British colonial era and the exploitation of cheap labour - often described as a form of human trafficking or "a new form of slavery" - from India to various parts of the British Empire.

- PROFESSOR BRIJ MAHARAJ

Between 1834 and 1917, approximately 1.6 million indentured labourers were shipped to different parts of the empire, including Fiji, Trinidad, Suriname, Mauritius, Malaysia, Guyana and South Africa.

Marxist historian, Hugh Tinker, noted several similarities between indenture and slavery: work incentives were centred on punishment rather than reward, and plantation labour was confined to guarded enclaves with authoritarian, oppressive command structures.

In 1839, the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society described the indenture system as "slavery under a different name".

The study of indenture has emerged over the past few decades as a specialised area of research in diaspora and migration studies, in contrast to its earlier relegation as a footnote in colonial history.

Some of the leading scholars in the field are the progenies of indentured migrants, who are contributing to an understanding of "history from below".

The late Fijian-born Professor Brij V Lal was one of the doyens in this field. Closer to home, we have innovative research by professors Ashwin Desai and Goolam Vahed on the lived experiences of early migrants, "highlighting the multiple ways in which Indians tried to retain a measure of self-respect and autonomy in a system that sought to deny them the rudiments of bare life and dignity".

This is not to deny the earlier pioneering work of Mabel Palmer, Bridglal Pachai, Surendra Bhana and Joy Brain, among others. The past decade has seen the field flourish due to the emergence of many family histories, the outstanding work of the 1860 Heritage Centre, and organisations like the 1860 Indentured Labourers Foundation in Verulam, whose contribution to the field is immense.

However, the groundbreaking work of scholars from the global South on the indentured diaspora is seldom acknowledged or cited by scholars in the global North - a case of Western academic hegemony?