Traversing Seas to Evading Proscription: South Asians, Race, and (Im)mobility in Canada and the United States, 1882–1929

Abstract

This paper explores the attempts made by white settler nations to control the movement of racialized people, while examining the perspectives of those who increasingly sought to travel across seas and explore a world new to their community via the accounts of South Asian travelers. It specifically analyzes these accounts in response to changes in policy. How were South Asian travelers reacting to control over their mobility? This paper argues that in the early twentieth century intensifying racialized discourses and increasing levels of settler state control fundamentally sutured mobility with white privilege—a significant shift that can be read among many South Asian writings on travel to Canada and the United States. This paper first examines the travel writings of South Asians from the late nineteenth century, and then, analyzes responses to shifting policies in travel accounts from the early twentieth century.