India Before Indentured Labour

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As you will read in the following blog posts, you will find out more and more about the idea of ‘indentured labour’ in colonial India, how it affected the Indian people then, as well as in current times. The problems were manifold. The factors requiring consideration are related to their contracts, their travel, their working conditions, as well as their sense of identity during and after the colonial era. To understand the issue better, we first must acquaint ourselves with the context of that period. What was the state of the Indian subcontinent under British rule? What was the state earlier, and was it better for India as compared to colonialism? Why did indentured labour arise? And finally, why did Indians agree to the terms given by the British lords?

Up until the early 1700s, the Mughal Empire was the ruling power in the Indian subcontinent. They brought about several systems and establishments that profited the empire. One of the main areas of improvement was agriculture. The Mughals reformed the productivity of the agriculture in the land. They did this by enabling better irrigation, enforcing a new tax system that was previously non-existent, and providing incentives to grow cash crops such as cotton, sugarcane, and opium. Indian agriculture at this point was even more advanced than Europe, and was effectively thriving. For reasons that we will not go into in this blog, the Mughal Empire eventually lost their power, and the British-run East India Company rose to fill in the spot.

The state of the Indian economy changed drastically in the years to come. Under the Mughals, the subcontinent was the largest economy in the whole world, and one of the most productive. India produced approximately a quarter of the world’s output- and this was in agriculture and trade of textiles as well. They standardised the currency, built elaborate road systems, and have been said to have unified the country. The level of urbanisation was significant, and even comparable to Europe at the time. There have been claims, starting in the late 1700s itself, that British rule destroyed the Indian economy, and there are several reasons this might be true. The colonial period was filled with patterns of high taxes, low wages, plunder, depletion of resources and money- all which reduced the produce. Not only that, this led to frequent famines, killing a large proportion of the workforce. Farmers were being impoverished and controlled. The British did not allow India to industrialise at the same pace it (and other European countries) did. As these factors stacked on each other, the output decreased significantly from quarter of the world produce. Suffice to say, the living and working condition for the Indian people was falling, and falling rapidly.

The British empire was facing its own set of problems at around the same time. By the late 1700s, the slave trade was slowly beginning to fall. In 1772, slavery was abolished in England thanks to a legal case. Though slavery continued worldwide, this sparked questions all over concerning the salve trade. The anti-slavery movement gained momentum through the British colonies across the Empire, and soon Britain went from being the biggest slave traders to the biggest abolishers. In 1807, slave trade(but not slavery) was abolished completely- a huge step for the movement. However, slavery still continued. Though the trade was banned, the consequences and enforcement were minimal. Only later, when the trade was classified as a felony and slave trade routes in the sea were inhibited, did the trade eventually die down. Revolutions around the world continued. Finally, in 1833, the Slavery Abolition Act was passed. The workers who were slaves were now “apprentices”. This was legal, but still oppressive. The thing is, the slave trade itself was not highly profitable- it was the labour power that was.

The British needed workers for their sugar and cotton plantations, and the Act affected that factor. With low wages and bad working conditions, the farmers initiated movements of resistance. The British faced severe labour shortages, and as a result, a decrease in produce and revenue. They needed a new form of labour that was, according to Sunanda Sen, politically and legally acceptable at the time(Sen, S., 2016. p.35). They had to limit the power of workers and control them, in what was effectively bonded labour. This was indentured labour- a way to ‘recruit’ workers and sign a contract, which gave the employers the rights to move mass amounts of people across the world for labour.

So, one would ask, why did the Indians agree? What made them sign their lives off to a power that could(and would) throw them into a new part of the world, and eventually strip them of their identity? There were many reasons. With the extreme poverty and famine in India under the British, the people were ready to believe in any opportunity of a better life for their family. Even if it meant traveling far away from the community, there was the hope of something better. There was also high illiteracy among the people at the time, so they weren’t fully aware of the details in the contract given to them. The British exploited this fact and misled the people with regards to wages and locations. For example, many people were misled into thinking they would work in Calcutta, and upon signing the contract, were transported overseas.

To conclude, the British needed labour, the deteriorating conditions for farmers in India made them desperate. Through a series of planned, deceptive ‘contracts’, indentured labour became the main way in which the British oppressed the people. As you read further, you will get a good sense of what indentured labour actually looked like, and it’s effects on the people’s lives, as well as their identities and culture.

  

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 Written by Varun

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Sources:


Sen, S. , (January-February 2016), ‘Indentured labour from India in the age of empire’. Social Scientist, 44(1/2). pp. 35-74. http://www.jstor.com/stable/24890231

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavery_Abolition_Act_1833

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_agriculture_in_the_Indian_subcontinent

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_history_of_India

https://www.striking-women.org/module/map-major-south-asian-migration-flows/indentured-labour-south-asia-1834-1917

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