Coolie labour and colonial capitalism in Asia

Abstract

In the course of my academic research labour bondage after the abolition of slavery has been a recurrent theme in my writings on the colonial past and the postcolonial present. In the context of the globalizing economy, the role of capitalism as a dominant mode of production has been of pivotal importance in the perpetuation of confined labour relations. This argument does not concur with the conventional wisdom that the transition to capitalism was the start of an emancipatory trend for labour. Expressed in the liberation from extra-economic coercion, the trope of a double freedom contends that the working poor although dispossessed from means of production were at least free now to sell their labour power. The gradual reversal taking place is addressed in what became known as the social question, which led to an improvement in the terms of employment and social security. This article is concerned with aspects of sourcing coolies wide and far and confined labour relations in Asia from colonialism until today. It traces the radically different trajectories of labour and welfare in the Global North and South and argues that cooliehood is directly linked to capitalism and its globalization.