South Asian Migrations in Global History

Neilesh Bose is Associate Professor of History and Canada Research Chair in global and comparative history at University of Victoria, Canada. A historian of modern South Asia his interests include colonialism and decolonization, post-colonial history, nationalism, literary history, intellectual history.

• List of IllustrationsAcknowledgementsNotes on ContributorsForeword, Victor V. RamrajPrologue: Archives, Paper Regimes, and Mobility, Uma Dhupelia-MeshtrieIntroduction, Neilesh BosePart 1: Impacts of Indentured Labor 1. Gokhale, Polak, and the end of Indian indenture in South Africa, 1860 – 1911, Goolam Vahed2. Imperial Labor: Labor, Security, and the Depoliticization of Oil Production in the Arabian Peninsula, Andrea Wright3. Legal Discourse on ‘Coolies’ Migration from India to the Sugar Colonies, 1837-1922, Ashutosh KumarPart II: Law in Migration Histories 4. Slavery, Abolitionism, Indentured Labor: the Problem of Exit and the Border Between Land and Sea in Colonial India, Riyad Koya5. Who is Asiatic? Drawing the Boundary in the Legal and Political Framing of Indian South Africans, 1860-1960, Marina MartinPart III: Historical Biography6. Taraknath Das: A Global Biography, Neilesh Bose7. Beyond the Reach of Empire: Pandurang Khankhoje´s Transit from British Colonial Subject to Mexican 'Naturalizado' (1924-1954), Daniel Kent-Carrasco8. A Woman of Peace and Calm: the Story of Senthamani Govender, Devarakshanam GovindenEpilogue: Oceanic Currents and Wayward Crossings, Renisa Mawani

This important collection breaks new ground in global history, offering an array of case studies that chart subcontinental migrations within and and beyond the rubric of empire. Together, these essays demonstrate the agency of South Asians as their mobility highlights processes of the formation of the modern nation state, even as they seek to transgress the arbitrariness of its borders, identities and legal manoeuvres.