Is it a Workers’ World? - The Colonial Project, Labour and Migration
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Imperial projects required labour, labour that the British saw themselves as above doing. Native people were employed to sustain these imperial projects. So long as they were considered important and indispensable, the colonized were kept in close proximity to he British colonizers, as nannies, servants and seafarers, but as soon as they stopped being of service, they were let go of and left to fend for themselves. British colonizers got accustomed to the luxuries of having servants in India, so when they decided to leave to go back to Britain they wanted their servants to come with them. Here is when we talk about the ayahs, who were indispensable travelling nannies, employed by the British for their skills at sea and with children who once aboard almost exclusively took charge of the children, baggage and memsahibs. But to their dismay, once the ship landed in England, these ayahs who were indispensable just a a few moments ago, had served their purpose and were no longer employed by the same British families who had brought them here, often with the promise of paying for their journey back. These women now with no place to go were stuck in England and had to resort to begging to sustain themselves. There were also male ayahs who had similar stories as their female counterparts but some of them did manage to gain upward mobility through gaining the white elite’s favour eg. Abdul Karim who became Queen Victoria’s munshi or teacher.
Lascars, were seafarers who despite their extensive knowledge were relegated to performing the lowest degree of labour aboard the ships such as stoking coal. They came to England through free will often intending only temporarily but eventually set up communities over the coastal UK such as in Cardiff. They came from port cities in the British empire like Aden and coastal India.
In essence, it is flows of labour that facilitated the migration of racialized people to the UK, both in the early days of the empire and today. The colonial entity recruits people from the colonies to do jobs that its own citizens refuse to do and when these workers are done serving their purpose they are let go of as quickly as they were hired. No adequate thought has been given to their security, well-being or futures - they are just a means to an end. Such practice can set a precedent for countries that rely on constant flows of labour and offer no form of security to the workers that sustain their economies. -
@waahiba_siddiqui's analysis of the worth of ayahs (and other Indian servants) and lascars is astute here. Thank you.