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Role Name Affiliation

National Coordinator

Subject Coordinator Prof Sujata Patel Department of Sociology,

University of Hyderabad

Paper Coordinator Prof. Kamala Ganesh Formerly Dept. of Sociology, University of Mumbai

Content Writer Dr. RenuModi and Dr. M. Mahalingam

Content Reviewer Prof. Kamala Ganesh Formerly Dept. of Sociology, University of Mumbai

Language Editor Prof. Kamala Ganesh Formerly Dept. of Sociology, University of Mumbai

Technical Conversion

Module Structure

Description of the Module

Items Description of the Module

Subject Name Sociology

Paper Name Sociology of the Indian diaspora

Module Name/Title

Colonial Period: Indenture, Kangani andMaistry systems

Module Id

Pre Requisites An understanding of the colonial period, labour requirement in the colonies, abolition of slavery

Objectives This module seeks to :

• To give an overview of the modalities of Indian labour emigration during the colonial period.

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• To study the causes, source and origins of contract labourers

from India.

• To understand the consequences of the indentured, Kanganiand

Maistry mechanisms on the Indian immigrants

Key words Indenture, Kangani and Maistry systems, Colonial era, Intermediaries, Contract,Immigration, Exploitation

Colonial Period: Indenture, Kangani and Maistry systems

Section II Module 1

QUADRANT 1

1. INTRODUCTION After the onset of the industrial revolution in England, British colonial capital expanded around the

globe. At the same time there was a huge demand for unskilled labourers for the development and

expansion of plantation economies in the British colonies, mainly in the sugar producing colonies and

tea and rubber plantation colonies. But “after the passing of the Act of Abolition (1833) by the British

government, slavery [a source of cheap labour] was banned throughout the British Empire” (MEA

2001: 76) The sugar planters put acute pressure on the British government to combat the depressed

sugar industry market, that went into a temporary decline after the withdrawal of slavery, a source of

labour. Britain decided to recruit and export a large amount of Indian indentured labourersto the sugar

producing colonies across the globe(National Archives 2007: p. 2).

India as a colony of British Empire, a ‘jewel in the crown’ became an ideal target for outsourcing

cheaplabour as it had reserves of population who lived in poor socio- economic conditions. Further,

they were burdened with unjustified taxes under the colonial regime.Therefore land holding peasants

were turned to rootless labourers and eventually forced to work in factories and onto plantations

through the world. To meet the ever increasing demand for labour, innovative recruitment schemes

were devised by the British colonial regime, namely: the indenture, KanganiandMaistrysystems(See

Kuper 1960: 2).These schemes were designed to transfer unskilled labourersfrom India to the British

coloniesinteraliain South Africa, South Asia and Southeast Asia, the focus areas of this e-module. It

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was against this background that Indians began contracting their labour from about 1834 to the

plantations of the world until the indenture, Kangani and Maistry systems were abolished (See Reddy

2007: 1).

1.1.Definition, Origins and Terms of Indenture Defining indenture: The concept of ‘indenture’ amounts to an individual being bound to work

according to a prescribed contract. It refers to the “transfer of labour power from metropoles to

colonies” or as a“ system of bonded labour with a resemblance to slavery” (Harris 2010: 147).

The indenture system commenced in 1834 to outsource Indian labourers to Mauritius, Uganda and

Nigeria. Later, it was expanded to other countries: Guyana(1838), New Zealand(1840), Hong Kong

(1841), Trinidad and Tobago and Malaya (1844), Martinique and Guadeloupe(1854),Grenada(1856),

St.Lucia(1858) and St.VincentandNatal(1860) (Lal et al 2007). The colonial Government in India

passed Act No. XXXIII of 1860 which extended the provision of Act No.21 of 1855 to include the

Colony of Natal (Francis 1983: p.4).Immigration agencies were set up at the port cities ofBombay,

Madras, and Calcutta, for the recruitment of Indian labourers. At each of the recruitment agencies,

there was a government official- the ‘Protector of Emigrants’ to ensure that no coercion was used on

the emigrant and that the emigrant understood about the five-year contract he was making. In Natal,

the Act 14 of 1859 provided for the appointment of a ‘Coolie Immigration Agent’, in charge of the

Coolie Immigration Department (Ibid: 5-6). Later the recruitment system was extended to St.Kitts

(1861), Japan and Surinam (1872), Jamaica (1873), Fiji (1879), Burma(1885), Canada(1904) and

Thailand(1910)(Clarkeet al. 1990).

The indentured labourers were popularly known as ‘girmityas’ (a colloquial expression for ‘those

who signed the agreement’)(For details see Lal1997).The essential feature of the indenturelabour

scheme was that it was contractual in nature. Under this scheme, workers could be contracted for a

period of five years. This modality ensured a steady flow of labourers to the plantations in the British

colonies.The colonial authorities permitted licensed recruiters to operate from Bombay, Calcutta and

Madras. It was mandated by the colonial government that the emigration of labourers had to be on a

voluntary basis, and a number of indentured emigrants did go ‘voluntarily’. However, several of them

were also tricked or kidnapped by unlicensed recruiters or agents called ‘arktias’. These

intermediariesdrew upon their “knowledge of local villages, shantytowns, temples, bazars, and

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railway stations to recruit the most vulnerable and desperate individuals” to recruit people and

transferred them to licensed recruiters(For details see Kara 2014). The licensed recruiters took the

potential emigrants to depots where they were briefed, medically examined and their travel papers

were readied. They were then shipped in inhuman conditions, usually in overcrowded old sailing

boats, which were later upgraded with the introduction of the steam ships. Records of deaths during

passage from India to South Africa affirm that diseases and deaths were frequent during the long

drawn voyages. Women were subjected to rape and sexual assault by fellow emigrants as well as

crew members. But this exploitative system continued because the “transportation of human cargo

was a profitable business” (Henning: 1993:30)

At the completion of their contact period the indentured labourerswere given two options; a free

return passage to India or a contract for another term of 5 years of indenture. At the conclusion of the

second term of contract they could claim free passage to India or a small plot of land to settle down in

their new homeland in lieu of the passes for return passage (Kuper 1960:2).

2. INDENTURED LABOUR IN SOUTH AFRICA: A CASE STUDY Indentured labourers were shipped to the province of Natal, the British colony in South Africa

between 1860 to 1911 to workin the sugar cane plantations(Reddy 2007: 1).A less knownfact is that

the “Natal government railways was one of the biggest employers of indentured laboureres where

they worked as carriage builders, porters, signalman, lamp attendants and inother jobs” (Dhupelia

2000: photo no. 14).As per a report in the ‘Durban Observer’ dated 17th of October 1851, the first

recorded reference to Natal Colonists’ demand for indentured labour was at a meeting of citizens

held at the Durban Government School.Historically, it must be noted that the first Indians - four

people - were brought to Natal as early as 1849. In fact, Indian engagement with South Africa goes

back to the days of slave trade from South Asia to the Cape in the 17th century and later, the

indentured labourers and free traders docked at the port of Natal. During the 17th and 18th centuries,

over 50 percent of all slaves to the Cape were Indians from Bengal or the Coromondal coast in South

India (Reddy 2007:1; Hofmeyer and Williams 2011: 2; MEA 2001: 75). They married slaves from

East Asia, other Africans from the indigenous Khoikhoi and San inhabitants ( MEA 2001:75).

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3. INDIAN IMMIGRANTS IN SOUTH AFRICA Indian immigrants in South Africa can be categorized into three groups — ‘indentured’ immigrants

who were in their contract period; ‘free’ Indians who had completed their period of indenture and

stayed on and worked in Natal or other parts of South Africa and did not return to India; and

‘Passenger Indians’.Unlike the contractual indentured labourers, - thePassenger Indians paid their

own fares and came to South Africa as traders, merchants and entrepreneurs. They were mainly from

the Gujarati Muslim community, though some of them were from the higher-caste Gujarati Hindu

communities as well.These immigrants were allowed to own property, engage in trading activities.

They could own land as well as vote in local government elections (Bhana, Narendra, n. d.).For

unskilled labourers, the colonial documents frequently use the term 'coolie' ( with disrespectful

connotations). People from varied socio- economic and occupational strata in India: Hindus,

Brahmins, other high castes, agriculturists, artisans, Mussulmans, low castes, and Christians agreed to

enter into indentured labour contracts. The push factor could be due of famines and economic distress

in various parts of the country in the nineteenth century (National Archives 2007: 3). The indentured

labourers were from different localities, cultures, spoke different languages and followed diverse

religions. But a majority of them were Tamil speaking and about eighty percent of the immigrants

were Hindus (Jithoo 1991: 346; See also Oonk 2007: 4-5).

3.1 The Demand for Indentured Labour

The British settlement governed Natal in 1843 as a dependency of the Cape Colony and later, in 1856

Natal became a Crown Colony. The Colony of Natal had a highly developed sugar-cane belt that

stretched roughly for a hundred miles along the coast.The cultivation of sugar cane in Natal begun in

the year 1850 (Chattopadhyay 1970: pp.19-22). There was an acute shortage of labour after slavery

was abolished, because the natives from the province of Natal refused to work on the plantations.

Initially the Natal planters attempted to address the problem by importing Chineselabourers from Java

and offered thema payment of 10 shillings per month. But they demanded higher wages and therefore

this option was not considered viable (Chattopadhyay 1970: 19-22).

The sugar planters then petitioned the Natal Government for an alternative source of labour

recruitment. One option seemed to be through the import of labour from abroad.The Natal

Legislative Council passed several Acts in 1859 including Act number 14. This Act gave rights for

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importing, regulating and governing immigrants at public expense. It also provided for the

appointment of a “Coolie Immigration Agent”, in charge of the “Coolie Immigration Department”

(Francis 1983: 5-6). Imported labour contributed immensely to the development of the plantation

economy as evinced from the fact that for about “25 years (1874- 1987) the Natal government

contributed $10,000 per annum from public funds” for importing foreign labour (Kuper 1960:2).

Barring the eight years (1866-1897), when the shipment of indentured labour to South Africa was

terminated, this system of recruiting continued until 1911. From 1911 onwards, the system of

indentured labour was discontinued due to the lack of clarity about the “rights of free Indians” after

they completed a period of ten years as indentured workers and the withdrawal of the provision of

Crown land in 1891, to those who had completed two five year terms as indentured workers (Kuper

1960: 2-3).

3.2 Shipment of ‘Human Cargo’ The first group of Indian labourers boarded the ship, “Truro”, and landed at the port of Durban on 16

November, 1860. Another batch of indentured workers onboard the ‘Belvedere’ that sailed from

Calcutta disembarked at the Port of Natal on the 26thof November. Both the ships carried 342

passengers each. This was the start of the 51-year period of export of human labour from India to

Natal (Henning 1979:30). Some travelled alone, while others brought their families to settle in the

colonies they would work in. “Of the passengers, 62 percent were men, 25percent were women while

13 percent were minors. Two thirds of the emigrants were Tamil and Telugu speaking Hindus from

the Madras Presidency, and the rest of them were from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Bengal. The majority

of the immigrants were Hindus.Muslims and Christians constituted 13 and 2 percent of the indentured

population, respectively” (MEA 2001:75-76). There was a gender imbalance in the group of

immigrants that sailed to South Africa, as women comprised less than half the number of the adult

male labourers Henning 1979:32- 34), though it was mandated that for every group of hundred

indentured labourers that were exported to Natal, 40 percent had to be women( Kuper 1960: 17). By

the year 1911, when the system of indenture to South Africa was abolished, the total number of

Indians immigrants to South Africa was estimated at 1,42,670 (Chattopadhyay 1970: 39).

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Indenture Labourers from India Arrive in the Colony of Natal ( (1860- 1911)

Source: J.B. Brian, 125 Years- The Arrival of Natal’s Indians, Natalia ( 1985) No. 15, p : 6 cited in Mesthrie: photo No. 1

Workersbound for South Africa awaiting medical examination outside Depot, Calcutta.(n.d).

Source:Photo courtesy: The Gandhi-Luthuli Documentation Centre, University of Kwa-Zulu-Natal, South Africa,

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Emigrant certificate issued in 1874 Photo courtesy:The Gandhi-Luthuli Documentation Centre, University of Kwa Zulu-Natal, South Africa

3.3 Reasons for Labour Emigration from India to South Africa

There were several reasons for the emigration of Indian labourers to Natal. These are;

i. The abolition of slavery in 1833 in the British empire.

ii. The oppressive caste system which made the masses economically and socially dependent on

the land owning dominant classes. This led to the lack of social and economic mobility

amongst them and compelled the impoverished agriculturists to seek other avenues for

livelihood generation, such as through emigration abroad.

iii. Decline of cotton and other manufacturing industries left artisans, smelters, weavers,

spinners with little or no livelihood options.

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iv. Natural calamities due to failure of monsoons, periodic famines, crop diseases and unjust land

taxation policies imposed by the colonial government further aggravated the economic plight

of the agricultural labourers and artisans. Thus it is is no coincidence that during the famine

years there was a rise in the numbers of dispossessed people who were willing to emigrate

(Reddy 2007: 1).

v. Though recruits for plantations in Natal were drawn from various parts of the country, there

was a higher proportion of Tamil emigrants from South India. The proximity to Madras, an

important port of embarkation, and a tradition of emigration through the Kangani and

Maistry( discussedlater in this module) systems to South and South East Asia could be

plausible reasons for this ( For details on sources of labour recruitment, see Henning 1979:

21; Saha 1970: 75).

vi. According to Hilda Kuper, a scholar on the subject, the higher proportion of indentured

workers from South India can be explained in terms of higher caste restrictions in the region

and larger numbers of lower castes in South India ( 1960:18).

Early Indian Labourers in South Africa

Photo courtesy: Natal Foundation Society (2010), South Africa.

This segment has offered an interrogation of the social landscape in the sending context of rural India

and the lack of economic avenues for livelihood generation in the colonial period.

3.4 Suspension of Emigration to Natal Working on the plantations entailed hard labour. Indentured workers were also employed in railways,

coalmines, municipal services, as domestic servants and in other sectors as well ( MEA 2001:77).

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The labourers worked throughout the week for very long hours. The Wragg Commission of 1885

acknowledged the positive contribution of the Indian indentured workers in Natal ( MEA 2001: Ibid).

Despite their immense contribution to the Natal economy, the workers were illtreated and subject to

corporeal punishment. They were paid a meagre wage and deductions were made from their small

salary on arbitary grounds. If a “coolie” fell ill, a shilling per day was cut from the wages of 10

shillings/ month. The commissioners supported these actions because they thought that ;“Indians

were in a habit of feigning sickness to avoid work. This is known as ‘humbug illness’ or ‘ sham

illness’ and is an evil everywhere” ( Desai and Vahed, 2010: 75).

Besides, the labourers were not given the ration which was agreed to in their service-contracts. These

adverse working conditions led to a high number of suicides among the immigrant labourers(MEA,

2001:76-77). The returning Indians reported the harsh treatment they were subjected to in Natal, to

the colonial government in India. The Natal government therefore organised the “Coolie

Commission” in 1872, to look into the grievances of Indian indentured labourers in Natal. The

Commission found many cases of ill treatment, underpayment of wages and lack of medical attention

for the workers (Nambi 1985: 25-28). The colonial government discontinued the immigration of

Indian Coolies to Natal between 1866 and 1874. During this period, trade was depressed and the

employers were unable to pay the passage of the indentured workers.

3.5 Recommendations of the Coolie Commission The ‘Coolie Commission’ was established at the insistence of the colonial government in India and

the final report was submitted on September 11, 1872. According to Desai and Vahed, these reports

were biased, though a few changes were made, the most significant being the appointment of a

‘Protector’( 2010: 75) . The findings of the Coolie Commission were accepted.

Some of the important recommendations made by the Commission were as below:

• A ‘Protector of Indian Immigrants’ (earlier known as the ‘Coolie Agent’) was to be appointed

to settle disputes between the employer and the employee and visit and inspect estates where

workers were employed.

• The Protector was entrusted with the responsibility of registering and recording births, deaths

and marriages of all Asiatic persons.

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• The derogative term ‘coolie’ was discontinued and substituted with the term ‘Indian

immigrants’ (Chattopadhyay 1970: 39).

• The Commission stated that the number of women immigrants to South Africa should be

increased to address the gender imbalance among the Indian immigrants.

• It was mandatory for the Natal government to provide educational facilities for the children

of immigrants and make education compulsory and provide for the health of medical services

to all the Indian immigrants.

• Law No. 12 ( of 1872) exempted Indian labourers from corporeal punishment.

• About 8 and 10 acres of land outside Durban city was to be allocated to the ex-indentured

Indians,in lieu of free return passage to India.However, the provisionof allotting Crown land

was discontinued in 1891 and the scheme of indenture was subsequently dropped in the year

1911( For details See South African History Online, Reddy 2007:1, Chattopadhyay 1970:19-

22).

The Coolie Commission was one of several enquiries. The others were the Shire Commission (1862),

the Wragg Commission (1885- 1887), the Reynold Commission (1906), the Indian Commission

(1909), and the Solomon Commission (1914) in additional to several other smaller enquiries by the

Natal government officials ( For details see Desai and Vahed, 2010:74). “ The ‘ impartial truth’ of

such commissions allowed indenture to continue with minimum change for five decades” ( Ibid: 75) .

Myers sums up the indentured system thus:

It was only after the coolie marked his thumb print on the contract ratifying this- the meanest and the

weakest of bonds… after he had been assigned to a work gang… after his hands had become raw,

then hardened from cane, after he had been beaten , fined , jailed, after his rations had been

withheld- that the realisation came that he had not crossed the sea to paradise, that the beautiful

Queen was not to be found…(cited in Desai and Vahed 2010: 83).

Since 1894, the Indian nationalists debated and expressed concerns about the exploitative system of

indenture and the harsh treatment that was meted out to the Indian indentured workers in South

Africa (Patel and Uys 2012. 49- 51). The Indian National Congress opposed the indentured labour

schemes and highlighted the abusive nature of this mechanism. Finally, amidst national pressure, this

system of labour recruitment to South Africa was dismantled in 1911.

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Despite all the hardships and subjection to racist laws, only about 23 percent of the Indians returned

to India by 1911. Recent work attempts to overcome a major shortcoming of indentured

historiography that explained the phenomenon ‘as a one way problem’.Earlier historians did not study

the impacts, causes and consequences of labourmigration in the sending context i.e. in India, during

1860- 1911. Further, women’s lived experiences and their struggles against multiple oppressions such

as sexual violence and acts of resistance against the indenture system by this subaltern constituency

that had been overlooked thus far, are now a subject of academic enquiry (See also chapters by Desai

and Vahed, Mariam Seedat –Khan, V. Geetha, in Patel and Uys 2012).

4. KANGANI AND MAISTRY SYSTEMS

These were yet other contractual labour recruitment mechanisms that wereconsidered cost-effective,

efficient, alternate and reliable mechanisms to outsource Indian unskilled labourers. Such

mechanisms were devised to meet the demands of expanding merchant capital under the aegis of

British imperialism in Ceylon (present day Sri Lanka), Malaya (present day Malaysia) and Burma

(present day Myanmar). In fact, the Kangani system coexisted with other forms of recruitment

systems in Malaya such as the indenture system and after the decline of this mechanism in 1910, the

Kanganimethod gained prominence. This was also the time when large tea and coffee plantations

shifted to cultivating rubber in the mid-19th century (For details see Parmer (1960); Sandhu (1969).

4.1Background The terms KanganiandMaistry are drawn from the Tamil language and can be translated as

‘headman’, ‘foreman’ or ‘overseer’, while Maistry means a ‘supervisor’. Kanganiis an anglicized

form of the Tamil word ‘Kankani’ and describes persons who oversee workers (kan means ‘eye’, kani

means ‘keep watch’). The term was originally used for those who supervised the agricultural

labourers on temple land in South India. The term ‘Kangani’ was restricted to men [male supervisors]

(Heidemann1992:8).

Though both the systems shared common characteristics, there were differences among them as well.

The Kangani system wasexecuted in Ceylon and Malaya, while labour was recruited through the

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Maistry system in Burma. Both these systems used ‘middlemen’ and introduced a debt-bondage

relationship to recruit labourers for plantations in theBritishcolonies(Jain, 1990:16).

The Kanganimobilized or recruited thelabourers from their own extended family

members,castefellows ormen from their ownvillage by advancing money for their passage. Hence, the

Kanganisystem of labour recruitment was based on the linkages at the village, kinship, caste and

region level as well as a debt-bondage relationship. The Kanganisystem was initially introduced to

recruit labour for coffee and tea plantations of Ceylon in the early nineteenth century. It was extended

to Malaya in the late 19thcentury. This system was disbanded in 1938 subsequent to the banning of

Indian immigration to Malaya in the same year. In the case of Ceylon, the Kangani system came into

existence most likely in the 1820s or latest by the year 1830 and remained in practice until 1940.

Between 1840 and 1942, under these two systems, it is estimated that over 1.7 million Indians were

recruited to work in Malaya (including Singapore), over 1.6 million to Burma and approximately one

million to Ceylon (Lal 2007: 53). Through the Kangani and Maistry systems, labour was recruited

from the erstwhile Madras Presidency, in the 19th century. Surplus labour force from the hinterlands

in Tamil Nadu were transferred to the tea, coffee and rubber plantations of Western Ghats, Ceylon,

Malaya and for rice farming in Burma (Baker1984:179).

The segment below discusses in details the nature and characteristics of KanganiandMaistry systems.

Table: 1

Labour Recruitment Systems Country Period Indian Immigrants

Kangani

Ceylon/Sri Lanka

Malaya/Malaysia

1852-1937

1852-1937

1,500,000

2,000,000

(includes indenture)

Maistry Burma/Myanmar 1852-1937 2,500,000

Sources: N.Gangulee 1947:238; Clarke et al.1990: 8-9.

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4.2 Nature and Characteristics of the Kangani System

The Kanganisystem was a strategy for labour mobilization to develop plantation agriculture in

Ceylon and Malaya. Thissystem originated in the Tamil region of southern India. The Kanganiswere

Indian recruiters who were dispatched to India bythe plantation owners with the payment of an

advance sum for recruiting prospective labourers or‘coolies’ to work in the

plantationsabroad.TheKangani system of labourrecruitment was based on the close ties of village,

kinship, caste, region and debt-bondage relationships (For details see Arasaratnam1970;

Sandhu1969). TheKanganis were intermediaries who provided an advance payment to the ‘coolies’ to

cover their transportation cost by ship.

On arrival at the plantation, these groups of labourers of about 25- 20 people each were supervised by

the Kangani, usuallyexperienced and elderly persons, who were placed above the labourers in the

economic hierarchy of the plantation. They formed the main link between the management and the

labour force. They were said to be “generally of good caste” and “persons of influence among others

and subordinate castes in the village…. who could command the respect of as wider a sector of the

community of his village and district as possible” (Arasaratnam1970:17). However, the

Kanganilabour recruitment was not foolproof and known for malpractices, use of coercive, abusive

and fraudulent methods since they were tempted by monetary gains offered by the plantation owners

for each recruit( Heidemann1992:59).

To control the labourers, the Kanganiwasauthorized to punish the defaulters without any prosecution.

He was free to choose the methods of social control, which ranged from paternalism to brutal

arbitrariness (Heidemann1992:70-71). The Kangani was not a “mediator of conflicts between labour

and capital: he was very much the agent of capital and his primary role was to subject labour to the

rigorous discipline required by the plantation production system”(Ramasamy1992:99).In contrast to

the Kangani system of Ceylon, the KanganisinMalaya had less power because the labourers received

wages directly from the plantation management (For details see Jain 1993). As compared to the

indenture system, the Kangani system assumed significance because it ensured a reliable, stable

labour supply and smooth functioning of the plantations, given the close ties of ascription and

subordination of the labourers due to debt-bondage relationship.

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The labour relationship of Kangani was dynamic in nature. Not only was he the recruiter-cum -

foreman or overseer of the labourers, but their patron, negotiator, entrepreneur and financier as well.

The Kangani intervened and took decisions on professional matters of the labourersand mediated in

their domestic disputes. The Kanganiacted as an ‘inevitable link’ or ‘intermediary’ between the

planters and labourers in the plantation economic structure (Jain 1993:2368) Further, family, kin and

caste ties were preserved and respected much more in the Kangani system than under indenture (Jain

1988:128). Moreover, since the Kangani recruited labourers from his kindred or village folks of his

own region,the physical quality of the labourers was satisfactory in contrast to recruitments through

theindenture system. Besides, the Kanganisystem resolved the gender imbalance on the plantations as

it encouraged family migration.

In contrast to the Kanganisystem of Ceylon, the Kangani system of Malaya was less dependent on the

Kangani, as the recruitment process was controlled or regulated by the planters through their

recruitment firms. Thus theKanganihad to depend on or coordinate with the recruitment

firms.Moreover, the Kanganiof Malaya was not the centre of the plantation system unlike in Ceylon,

because the plantation management in Malaya disbursed wages directly to the labourers. In addition,

due to the existence of aplantation bureaucracy, the planters exercised strong control over both the

Kangani and the labourers. Thus, the position of Kanganiin Ceylon was more dominant as compared

his counterpart inMalaya.

Maistry System in Burma

The Maistrysystem was a variant of the Kanganisystem in terms of recruitment and subordination of

labourers to meet the growing demands of unskilled labourers for the colonial economy of Burma.

The majority of labourers were drawn from the Andhra region of the erstwhile Madras Presidency.

The Workmen’s Breach of Contract Act of 1869 and the Labour Act of 1876 encouraged and

established the Maistrysystem for labourrecruitment in Burma. The British India Steam Navigation

handled the labour traffic between Burma and India.

The employers in Burma preferred recruiting Indian workers through the Maistries as they found this

system cheaper and more manageable. The Maistrysystem, unlike the Kanganisystem, was relatively

more structured, hierarchically graded and had a well-defined labour relationship wherein the

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“Labour Contractor, the Head Maistry, the Charge Maistryand the Gang Maistry constituted the

hierarchy of middlemen employers” (Kondapi1951: 41).

The main characteristic of the Maistry system of labour recruitment was the enslavement of labourers

to the middlemen-employers due to the debt-bondage system. The recruits were controlled through

illegal deductions of wages and its disbursement by middlemen-employers. The system was highly

exploitative and coercive. The same wages werepaid for work in the daytime as well as at night.

Further, in contrast to the Kangani system, under the Maistry scheme, the labourers were

subservienttothe Maistryand not to the factory or rice farm owners.Besides, the position of the

Maistrywas dominant because he had the power to dismiss thelabourers arbitrarily

(AdapaSatyanarayana2001:16).

The Act of 1869 was repealed later as it was very oppressive and aggravated labour relations. The

Maistry system was finally abolished in 1937 due to the poor safeguards and working conditions that

it offered to its labourrecruits(For details see Kondapi 1951; AdapaSatyanarayana 2001).

Conclusion

All the three contractual laboursystemsacted as ‘agency’ for the mass exodus of unskilled labourers,

the ‘coolies’ from India. These mechanisms were cleverly crafted to meet the demands of unskilled

labourers in the various parts of the British Empire and ensure theircirculation between India and the

Britishcolonies. The predominant role of ‘middlemen’ or ‘agents’ in terms of recruitment and the

transportation of labour was the notablefeature of these labour recruitment mechanisms. These

mechanisms offered an alternative to slavery and extended to the workers limited safeguards to their

working conditions (Kuper 1960: 2). Despite all the hardships that the Indian immigrant workers

were subjected to, a majority of them stayed on in their countries of adoption. Over the years they

have exhibited resilience, and through their hard work and resolve, their descendants haveadapted to

the socio- political and economic circumstances in their host contexts. Today, the descendants of

these working class emigrants constitute significant ethnic minority communities in their respective

countries of adoption were born and grew up in and now consider as their home.