ABSTRACT
Colonial Indian labour migrants are portrayed in many historical accounts as victims of a semi-forced displacement and sojourn overseas characterised by fraud, coercion and exploitation, both in recruitment and at the workplace. The emphasis on powerful colonial forces as shaping and determining the socioeconomic realities of the Indian labour migrant has sometimes served to obscure the role, nature and extent of subaltern agency in influencing and mitigating these processes. Consequently, Indian labour migrants are infrequently seen as dynamic actors in recruitment and settlement and as engaging in their adopted countries with other communities. Through a case study of Mauritius, a small Indian Ocean colony settled by the French in the eighteenth century, and under British rule from 1810, in which labour immigrants from India played a significant role, this chapter seeks to highlight the multiple and intricate networks devised by these subalterns. This chapter shows how both interand intra-community networks were commonly forged by contract and convict workers despite the limitations placed upon their endeavours within the colonial context.
