Clarifications on The Coolie's Great War : Indian labour in a global conflict, 1914–1921 by Radhika Singha (Review).
Buy Issue for $25 at JHUP- Clarifications on The Coolie's Great War Indian labour in a global conflict, 1914–1921 by Radhika Singha (Review).
The author would like to make the following clarifications in regard to the review published in the Journal of Colonialism and Colonial History, Volume 22, Number 2, Summer 2021:
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1. The Kuki-Chin uprising took place not in Mizoram but along the Manipur-Burma border. 1
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2. The author did not "show" that upper castes were made to do "low status sweeper caste" work. 2 An anonymous petition said that Brahmins and high caste Hindus of the Jail Corps were made to do sweepers' work (CGW, 157) The author's argument was that "untouchables" in the Indian Labour and Porter Corps and in the hospital services were hustled into latrine work (CGW, 107).
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3. The author disagrees with the idea that indentured migration was suspended in order to meet the military demand for labour (CGW, 115). The review represents the author's view, erroneously, as an endorsement of the same. 3
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4. The review conflates the author's discussion of "coolie" as a raced description for unskilled labour, with 'Coolie Corps' and "menial" which were institutional labels for two different categories of followers (CGW 53, 82–93). 4
Notes
1. Ashutosh Kumar (AK): "However, the colonial government had to face insurgencies, uprisings and resistance to recruitment, such as from the Kuki tribe of Mizoram."
2. AK: "While discussing the experience of the labour corps in Mesopotamia, Singha shows how upper caste recruits had to do tasks commonly undertaken by low status sweeper castes, such as the cleaning of latrines."
3. AK: "Since the anti-indenture campaign in India was at its peak at this time, Indian army officials decided to recruit the labourers being sent to sugar colonies for labour corps for 'military work overseas.'"
4. AK: "Since official documents excessively used the word 'coolie' for menial labour in the military corps, Singha seems to go along with that."
