The Regulation, Division, and Multiplication of Emigrant Labor The Border between Land and Sea in Colonial India, 1834–1922

• Published in: Journal of world history Vol. 32; no. 1; pp. 45 - 63
• Main Author: KOYA, RIYAD SADIQ
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Honolulu University of Hawai'i Press 01.03.2021; University of Hawaii Press
• Subjects: 19th century; 20th century; Abolition of slavery; Abolitionists; Alien labor; Alien labour; Bans; Borders; Boundaries; Boundaries (Geography); British colonialism; British Empire; Campaigns; Economic aspects; Emigration; Foreign labor; Government regulation; History; Immigrants; Labor migration; Labor mobility; Labour mobility; Land; Laws, regulations and rules; Legislation; Manual workers; Migration; Mobility; Multiplication; Overseas employment; Regulation; Social aspects; Trafficking; Voluntariness; India; Pakistan; Indian Ocean; South Asia
• ISSN: 1045-6007; 1527-8050; 1527-8050
• DOI: 10.1353/jwh.2021.0003

In this article, I argue the significance of the border between land and sea for the regulation of labor migration. I identify an early sense of this border in the East India Company’s efforts to prohibit the trafficking of slaves overseas by foreign powers. I focus on a shift in the imaginary of the border with the advent of the indentured labor system. New permits, passes, and registration procedures were implemented to materialize the voluntariness of emigration for indentured laborers. Through an examination of Indian emigration legislation, I trace the continuous recalibration of the border through the differential inclusion of new occupational groups and labor migration streams under the umbrella of state regulation. I reevaluate the campaign for the abolition of indentured labor as a further recalibration of the border between land and sea that distinguished discrete rights of mobility for laboring subjects divided and multiplied by the category of skill.