Finding Labor from India for the War in Iraq: The Jail Porter and Labor Corps, 1916–1920

In: Comparative studies in society and history, Band 49, Heft 2, S. 412-445

Abstract

In the bleak spring of 1916, a military note expostulated about the slowness with which the Government of India was finding coolies and porters for British forces in Mesopotamia. At first, labor could be obtained only from tribals of the Santhal Parganas and Chota Nagpur and by tapping Indian jails: "Could there possibly have been a greater opportunity for India with millions of men not usable as soldiers, to take a larger share in the war, or even a larger share in helping its own Indian Army? From all accounts India was burning to get such a chance, yet what happened? The honour of India was upheld first by aborigines and then by convicts."