Crispin Bates

Regional dependence and rural development in central India: the pivotal role of migrant labour

This article is based on the authors doctoral dissertation on regional dependence and rural development in central India 1820-1930. The author argues that theories of social class and development must pay attention to the growth of inter-regional migration and trade in response to the changing patterns of land control and surpluses. This analysis of regional economic and migrant conditions in central India reveals the different patterns of regional economic growth in different agro-economic zones and the interaction between developed and underdeveloped regional economies. The experience in the Narmada valley wheat zone indicates that the colonial government encouraged a landlord ownership system that overexploited migrant labor and did not reinvest. The consequence was a stop to the late 19th century wheat boom. Cotton growing areas of Nagpur-Berar had less extreme gaps among peasant social classes and land ownership was possible for most cultivators. The mercantile class was held together during rough economic times due to princely kingdoms that had great reserves of capital. In the Nimar district markets encouraged a competitive credit system that cultivators used to invest in improved agricultural techniques rather than relying on low-wage labor and coercion that was used in the Narmada valley. Economic growth proceeded until the 1930s and the depression in the international economy. Tribals migrants and other labor were in a position to benefit depending upon the nature of economy of their residence. Chances of improvement occurred among migrants to the cotton zone while work in the wheat zone benefitted no one. The colonial administration failed to adjust to the tribal economic system and the consequence was increased marginalization of cultivators and the emergence of a dependence on migrant labor.

The Nature of Social Change in Rural Gujarat: The Kheda District, 1818–1918

The Kheda (or Kaira) district has lately attracted great interest among Indian historians, not only because it was the area in which Gandhi chose to launch the very first peasant ‘satyagraha’ in resistance to government revenue demands, but also because it harboured a highly progressive class of peasant farmers, known as the Patidars, who to this day rank among the wealthiest cultivators in Western India.

Empire and locality: a global dimension to the 1857 Indian Uprising

The Indian Uprising of 1857–59, during which thousands of Indian soldiers serving in the British army mutinied, joined by many civilians, led to the identification of a vast number of ‘rebels’ and discussions as to the most appropriate means of punishing them. The wholesale transportation of insurgents was considered a likely scenario in the charged atmosphere of late 1857. The uprising coincided with dramatic increases in the world market price for sugar, prompting British colonial producers to extend cultivation of cane and their political agents to suggest that the need for further plantation labour be met from among the likely Indian convict transportees. The empire-wide response to the events in India during 1857–59 is assessed in this article as an interesting case study of both reactions to a sensationalist news story and the manner in which British officials, keen to exploit the outcome of the revolt and to manipulate the labour market to the advantage of their respective colonies, competed with and contradicted one another. At the same time, the authors contend that arguably the more interesting aspects of the relationship between the Indian Uprising and the surge in numbers migrating to the sugar colonies were either neglected or carefully ignored by policy makers and commentators alike at the time, and have scarcely been investigated by historians since. The article suggests that many individuals who participated in the insurgency in India did indeed make their way overseas, quietly ignored, and only mentioned in subsequent decades when ‘scares’ about mutineer sepoys in their midst were raised in the colonial press as explanation for strikes and labour agitations on colonial sugar estates.

Creating, changing, and recovering community: an introduction to the annual conference edition of the British Association for South Asian Studies

The 23rd Annual Conference of the British Association for South Asian Studies (BASAS) took place at the University of Edinburgh, 30 March–1 April 2009. The conference was convened by Crispin Bates (School of History, Classics & Archaeology and Centre for South Asia Studies, University of Edinburgh) with the assistance of Caroline Lewis and the BASAS committee. This was the second conference organised for the newly enlarged BASAS, which combines together the former British Association for South Asian Studies with the South Asian Studies Association, to provide a single source of advocacy and support for teaching and research on South Asia in the United Kingdom. The association is grant-aided by the British Academy. Edinburgh was chosen as the location for the annual BASAS conference for the second time in several years, by way of recognition of its growing international importance as a centre for research on South Asia and the strong outreach and training programmes organised by the University of Edinburgh’s Centre for South Asian Studies. In order to reflect the very wide range of disciplines and research activities now encompassed by BASAS, the 2009 conference was planned to be as inclusive as possible. In this ambition the conference was a remarkable success, with a record number in excess of 200 delegates attending from the United Kingdom, the USA, Europe and India, and with the involvement of possibly the largest number to date of postgraduates and early career researchers. There were a total of 52 panels covering topics across the disciplines of anthropology, geography, history (medieval and modern), religious studies, literature, sociology, philosophy, and political science, alongside a number of parallel events including an exhibition, film and documentary screenings, the annual meeting of the British Nepal Council, and two British Academy sponsored workshops. Notable sponsors for the event included publishers Taylor & Francis and Jagdale Distillers of Bangalore, who supplied samples of India’s first and finest single malt whisky Amrut for the conference dinner and the Ceilidh dance the following evening. The keynote speaker was Professor Dipesh Chakrabarty (Lawrence A. Kimpton, Distinguished Service Professor of History, South Asian Languages and Civilizations, University of Chicago and L.M. Singhvi, Visiting Professor, University of Edinburgh). Professor Chakrabarty’s talk,

Some Thoughts on the Representation and Misrepresentation of the Colonial South Asian Labour Diaspora

This paper explores the representation and misrepresentation of indentured Indian labour migration in the colonial archive and subsequent historiography, and offers some suggestions for alternate ways of viewing the origins of the South Asian labour diaspora. Drawing on ongoing research, it emphasises the need to move away from well-worn dichotomies of ‘slavery’ and ‘free labour’ and instead to re-centre the role of human agency and creativity, even in the face of structural opposition. By reflecting on the limitations of the colonial archive, and emphasising the role of pre-existing networks, returnees and recruiters in facilitating and informing patterns of migration, it suggests ways to move beyond the persistent popular misrepresentations of this process, and find alternative, subaltern perspectives on the indentured labour experience.

Sirdars as intermediaries in nineteenth century Indian Ocean indentured labour migration

The sirdar (also termed sardar and jobber in Indian historiography)—foreman, recruiter, at once a labour leader and an important intermediary figure for the employers of labour both in India and in the sugar colonies—is reassessed in this article. Tithankar Roys thoughtful 2007 article looked at how the sirdars’ multiple roles represent an incorporation of traditional authority in a modern setting, giving rise to certain contradictions. In 2010 Samita Sen, conversely, developed Rajnarayan Chandavarkars argument about the use of labour intermediaries in colonial India to reveal how, in the case of the Assam tea plantations, the nexus between contractors and sirdars belies the ‘benign’ role often accorded to the intermediary within narratives from the tea industry. This article provides examples from the overseas labour destinations in the Indian Ocean region, particularly Mauritius, to further develop and nuance the debate, through an assessment of the complexity of sirdari roles in the colonial Indian labour diaspora.