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Indian indentured labour migrants to the 19th century tropical sugar colonies became symbols of degradation and discrimination, while the stigma and stereotypes of the 'coolie" remain to blight this important facet of the historical Indian diaspora. This paper challenges misconceptions of indentured migration, through an analysis of the dynamics of socio-economic mobility of coolies and their offspring, demonstrating how, in certain cases, individuals characterised as neo-slaves in the literature, in fact acquired capital during and post-indenture which enabled them to become prosperous landowners themselves and to provide the means through which their children could acquire professional status. The article provides several case studies from Mauritius, where the descendants of Indian indentured labourers today form a majority of the population, and have held key positions in government since that country's independence in 1968.

Vertragsarbeiter, die in die tropischen Kolonien im Zuge der Sklaverei auswanderten und dort den Arbeits- und Lebensbedingungen einer Halbknechtschaft unterlagen, haben die Ungleichheiten der Arbeitsbeziehungen in den Plantagen bis ins 20. Jahrhundert hinein verlängert. Das Stigma des überseeischen "Coolie" sowie die Stereotypen und Missachtungen über das Wesen und den Status der Abkömmlinge der indischen Arbeitsdiaspora dauern bis zum heutigen Tag an. Im vorliegenden Aufsatz wird die Dynamik der sozioökonomischen Mobilität der "Coolies" und ihrer Nachkommenschaft mit besonderer Berücksichtigung von Fallstudien aus Mauritius untersucht, wo die Abkömmlinge der indischen Vertragsarbeiter heute eine Mehrheit der Bevölkerung bilden und eine Schlüsselposition in der Regierung seit der politischen Unabhängigkeit des Landes im Jahre 1968 einnehmen. Die Autorin beschreibt die Migration und die Merkmale der indischen Vertragsarbeiter, ihre Zugänge zur sozioökonomischen Mobilität sowie die Entwicklungswege der Landarbeiter zur Politik im Zuge der Ausdifferenzierung der Berufe. (ICI)

The migrants who left India to work on colonial sugar plantations in the nineteenth century have been variously categorised as neo-slaves or as voluntary black settlers. This paper assesses some of the recent historical claims and revisionist interpretations of Indian indentured labour and takes up a number of themes based on the Mauritian case to highlight important aspects of this colonial labour diaspora.

Die Arbeitsmigration wird in der historischen Forschung in der Regel als äußerst destruktiv für die Institution Familie interpretiert. Eine klassische These lautet, daß Migrationsströme von jungen, unverheirateten Männern dominiert wurden, was in den Zielgebieten der Migration ein großes numerisches Ungleichgewicht zwischen den Geschlechtern und damit eine nur sehr zögerliche Entwicklung von Familienstrukturen zur Folge hatte. Die Autorin untersucht den Familienstatus von indischen Immigranten in Mauritius zwischen 1834 und den 1870er Jahren. Sie revidiert ein Stück weit die gängigen Thesen und arbeitet heraus, daß die Immigration nach Mauritius zu wesentlichen Teilen aus Familien bestand. (DÜI-Ekt)

This article examines the reconstruction and deconstruction of the concept of काला पानी or kālā pānā, meaning the 'black waters', which all Indians must cross when migrating overseas. From its origin as a Brahmanic text warning about the dangers of oceanic voyages, through its dissemination as a more generalised stricture against emigration and its use and abuse as a British colonial construction, to its recasting as a historical trope and a literary device, the ever-changing influence and meaning of kala pani is interrogated and assessed. Contextualising the kala pani trope against the setting of sepoy, convict and indentureship voyages, this study also evaluates its historical validity and importance in colonial and nationalist realities. Finally, the symbolic value of the kala pani and its reworking as a literary device are explored.

Abstract
This paper investigates the role of trust relationships through a re-examination of the activities of intermediaries (recruiters) in the Indian indentured labour system of the Indian Ocean in the colonial era. A review of the utilisation of trust in development discourse and its applicability to the literature of colonial subaltern migration and to a specific historical context is undertaken. The paper demonstrates that informal trust networks are critical to an understanding of the operation of indenture, that the appraisal of their functioning and effectiveness necessitates the construction of a counter narrative to the 'official' archive, and suggests a new means of adapting the trust discourse to this field of study through an assessment of how these knowledge and information networks were disseminated and by whom.

AbstractThe 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 Roy's 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 Chandavarkar's 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.

Preliminary Material /M. Carter -- Introduction /M. Carter -- Chapter One. Slaves, Convicts, Field Workers And Artisans: The Chinese In The Colonial Labour Diasporas /M. Carter -- Chapter Two. The Celestial Shopkeeper: The Growth Of A Chinese Commercial Class In Mauritius /M. Carter -- Chapter Three. Expansion And Diversification: Sino-Mauritians And Economic Development /M. Carter -- Chapter Four. Managing Identity: The Politics Of Community Formation And Networking /M. Carter -- Chapter Five. The Construction Of Community: Family, Kin, Social Networks /M. Carter -- Chapter Six. Sino-Mauritians In The Making Of A Multi-Ethnic Society /M. Carter -- Conclusion /M. Carter -- Appendix One. Occupations Of The Population Of Chinese Origin, 1901 /M. Carter -- Appendix Two. The Distribution Of The Chinese Population In The Districts Of Mauritius, 1921 /M. Carter -- Appendix Three. The Urbanisation Of The Population Of Chinese Origin In Mauritius, 1952 /M. Carter -- Appendix Four. Two Of Many: Case Studies Of Sino-Mauritians /M. Carter -- Bibliography /M. Carter -- Index /M. Carter.