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

Neha Hui and Uma Kambhampati

No 32nxv, SocArXiv from Center for Open Science

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 Adam Smith and J S Mill. We analyse how unfreedom in indentured labour was rationalised when the rhetoric of freedom was essential to the dominant intellectual milieu. We consider why free labour was deemed unfeasible in the plantation colonies. We also consider the constraints that asymmetric information and unequal bargaining posed to freedom within the institution of indenture. We conclude that indenture represented an uneasy compromise between the problems of slavery and the unattainable goal of free labour.

Date: 2024-04-20
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-his and nep-hpe
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Working Paper: The Political Economy of Indian Indentured Labour in the 19th Century (2020)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:osf:socarx:32nxv

DOI: 10.31219/osf.io/32nxv

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