Becoming coolies and supervisors: continued indebtedness, coercive intermediaries and new governmentalities in colonial South Indian plantations (1830 –1895)

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article examines the evolutionary history of coolie labourers and the Maistries in the plantations of colonial Madras Presidency in South India during the nineteenth century. The post-emancipation era in colonial India witnessed the growth of planting industries and several phases of migration of coolies to the overseas and domestic plantations. By focussing on coolie migration, particularly the recruitment, settlement and management practices in the coffee plantations of South India, this article argues that the capitalist entrepreneurs intentionally used indigenous socio-political and cultural forms and incorporated the traditional authorities in controlling and managing the estates. The intermediaries between the planters and the coolies used the traditional domains of caste, patriarchy, religion, group, locality, indebtedness, and vulnerability to recruit and employ the labourers in the plantations. The article points to the 'continued indebtedness' of the coolies through advance payment mechanisms and the birth of a coercive supervising authority in the South Indian colonial plantations during the nineteenth century. The article also argues that in due course of plantation development, the coolie recruitment and the engagement of the Maistries became the domains of colonial governmental intervention through new forms of writing practices and the collection of vital statistics of the coolies.