Migration in colonial India: The articulation of feudalism and capitalism by the Colonial State

Alienated Enclaves: Economic Crisis and Neo-bondage in a South Indian Plantation Belt

“…However, it should be noted that the ideology of caste has been an important legitimizing element for the creation of a particular system of class oppression related to the plantation economy and its basis in indentured labour. As Omvedt (1980) argues, a pre-capitalist feudal agrarian order formed the basis of a modern capitalist structure. Stoler (1985) presents a similar case for Sumatra's plantation belt where capitalist production was built on the foundation of non-capitalist peasant orders.…”

“…This massive emigration of the indentured workers was primarily a response to the caste and class discrimination in Indian society (Basu, 2008;Omvedt, 1980;Pandian, 1990) and it was viewed by the workers that this would provide them with an alternative opportunity for socioeconomic mobility. However, they were reengaged into a landless situation in the colonial plantations, where they were treated almost as slaves (cf.…”

‘A spirit of independence’ or lack of education for the market? Freedmen and Asian indentured labourers in the post‐emancipation Caribbean, 1834–1917

“…Meanwhile, Indian urban growth was rapid, for reasons not unlike those operating in parts of Europe at the time. 32 Emigration from India was closely connected with this internal, longdistance migration. Important destinations for the migration overland were the recruiting offices of the colonial army, the tea gardens of Assam and the textile industries of Bengal.…”

From Peasant Studies to Agrarian Change

“…The same applies to the fewer articles published on the formation of a colonial working class. Omvedt (1980) analyzed labour migration from the 1880s to the 1930s in terms of an agrarian structure that bore the costs of (re)producing labour power for capitalist mines, plantations and factories, in an articulation of modes of production orchestrated by the colonial state. Plantation labour in South Asia was considered further in three of the contributions to a special issue on Plantations, Peasants and Proletarians in Colonial Asia (Daniel et al 28 It is possible that this focus on peasant movements reflected the interest in (and enthusiasm for) their 'revolutionary potential' that was part of the founding moment of peasant studies outlined earlier; in the South Asian context it may also have represented a reaction to the apparent undervaluation of peasant revolt in Indian history by Barrington Moore Jr (1966) (see Chaudhury 1973, 341).…”