The Political Economy of Indian Indentured Labour in the 19th Century

Neha Hui and Uma Kambhampati

No em-dp2020-16, Economics Discussion Papers from Department of Economics, University of Reading

Abstract: Abolition of slavery in British Colonies led to the facilitation of Indian indentured migration by the British Government. This form of migration came about when the discourse of economic freedom and individual liberty strongly resonated in British political-economy circles, following the work of Smith and Mill. We analyse how unfreedom in indentured labour was rationalised when the rhetoric of freedom was essential to the dominant intellectual milieu. We argue that indentured labour was a compromise between slavery and free labour because it facilitated free trade and some freedom of movement but was harder to justify in terms of individual liberty.

Keywords: Classical political economy; Economic freedom; Individual liberty; Indentured labour; Slavery; Migration; Adam Smith; JS Mill (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: B12 B13 J61 J70 N36 N43 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 26 pages
Date: 2020-06-17
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-his, nep-lab and nep-mig
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http://www.reading.ac.uk/web/FILES/economics/emdp202016.pdf

Related works:
Working Paper: The Political Economy of Indian Indentured Labour in the 19th Century (2024)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:rdg:emxxdp:em-dp2020-16

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