The Origins of Colonial Labour Policy in Late Eighteenth-Century Madras

Bibliographic Data

ID9968313
AuthorsRavi Ahuja (corresponding author)
Year1999
Volume44
Issue2
Pages159-195
Publication date1999-08-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueInternational Review of Social History (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0020-8590 • E-ISSN: 1469-512X
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0020859099000462
OpenAlexW2038860608
LanguageEN
Citations received14

This article challenges the view that the English East India Company was unable effectively to dominate society in the colonial metropolis of Madras before the end of the eighteenth century. Instead it is argued that colonial interventions, even into the social organization of labour, were persistent in goals and methods and acquired institutional forms in the latter half of the century. Hence an early colonial labour policy is clearly discernible. The ruling block's strategies concerning the regulation of labour were not based on laissez-faire ideas but rather on a paternalistic brand of contemporary English social theory. This ideological disposition found practical expression in interventions into the city's labour relations by means of various “police committees”. Moreover, British legal techniques were used to regulate labour relations in Madras. On the whole, early colonial labour policy was distinguished from contemporary practices in Britain by a far higher level of coercion

Coercion (linguistics · Colonial rule · Colonialism · Economics · Economy · Ideology · Paternalism · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Australian History and Society · Caribbean history, culture, and politics · Law · Race, History, and American Society

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