Race, nationality, mobility: A history of the passport

Public Culture

Volumn 11, Issue 3, 1999, Pages 527-556

  Mongia, Radhika Viyas ^a  

^a NONE

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 0033275968     PISSN: 08992363     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1215/08992363-11-3-527     Document Type: Article

References (104)

1. On the lack of systematization of the passport system, see John Torpey, "Coming and Going: On the State Monopolization of the Legitimate 'Means of Movement,'" Sociological Theory 16 (1998): 239-59.
2. Paul Gilroy, "There Ain't No Black in the Union Jack" (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991), 46.
3. This does not include Antigua and Bermuda, where emancipation was immediate.
4. The other chief source of labor was China. However, since China was not territorially colonized, there are significant differences between the two migrations. For a comparative analysis of the two movements to the Caribbean, see Walton Look Lai, Indentured Labor, Caribbean Sugar: Chinese and Indian Migrants to the British West Indies, 1838-1918 (Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 1993).
5. See House of Commons, "An Act for the Protection of Natives of Her Majesty's Territories in the East Indies Contracting for Labour to be Performed without the Said Territories, and for Regulating their Passage by Sea," Parliamentary Papers, 1837-38, vol. 3.
6. Edward Lawford (Solicitor to the East-India Company) to David Hill, 12 June 1838, Papers Respecting the East India Labourers' Bill (London: J. L. Cox and Sons, 1838), 2-3, India Office Library and Records, London. V/27/820/4.
7. Lawford to Hill. Free mobility is a fundamental tenet of liberal state theory. Indeed, Locke's "tacit contract" is premised precisely on the "free" subject's unconstrained access to mobility. See John Locke. The Second Treatise of Government, ed. Thomas Peardon (New York: Macmillan, 1952).
8. Lawford to Hill.
9. I develop this argument in a larger project of which this essay is a part.
10. P. D' Epinay to Hollier Griffiths, 5 January 1836, Papers Respecting the East India Labourers' Bill, 56.
11. P. D'Epinay to Hollier Griffiths, 56.
12. Partha Chatterjee, The Nation and its Fragments (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1993), 16-22.
13. Chatterjee, The Nation, 18.
14. Chatterjee, The Nation, 14.
15. Home Department (Sanitary/Plague), "Question Whether the Term 'Emigrant' Applies to Soldiers Recruited in India under Agreement with the Colonial Secretary for Service in Africa," Proceedings, February 1899, no. 114-17. This and all subsequent archival references are to the National Archives of India, New Delhi.
16. Home Department (Public), "Subject Relative to the Proposed Engagement by the Hong Kong Colony of 150 Natives of Madras for the Police of the Colony," Proceedings, January 1862, no. 1-4. The definitions of "emigrant," "emigrate," et cetera, had, actually, remained basically unaltered since Act XIV of 1839.
17. Due to the widespread "Indian Plague," "emigration" had been suspended to most destinations; it is thus all the more interesting that the concern with the migration of the soldiers is not related to preventing their movement due to the threat of carrying disease, but with the technicality of whether they should be construed as "emigrants."
18. Home Department (Sanitary/Plague), Proceedings, February 1899, no. 114-17.
19. Copy of telegram dated 13 November 1905 forwarded from Secretary of State, London, to the Viceroy of India, 19 November 1906. Department of Commerce and Industry, Emigration Proceedings A, May 1907, no. 7, ser. no. 1. All further citations of Proceedings A and Proceedings B are parts A and B, respectively, of Department of Commerce and Industry, Emigration Proceedings.
20. Copy of telegram dated 13 November 1905 forwarded from Secretary of State, London, to the Viceroy of India, 19 November 1906. Department of Commerce and Industry, Emigration Proceedings A, May 1907, no. 7, ser. no. 1. All further citations of Proceedings A and Proceedings B are parts A and B, respectively, of Department of Commerce and Industry, Emigration Proceedings.
21. "Memorandum: Re: Immigration of Hindoos [sic] to Canada," Proceedings A, May 1907, no. 7.
22. "Memorandum: Re: Immigration."
23. "Memorandum: Re: Immigration." I cannot dwell here on some of the incongruities of asserting that the caste system obtained amongst the Sikh community. For an analysis of how caste emerges as a key colonial category for ordering India, see David Ludden, "Orientalist Empiricism: Transformations of Colonial Knowledge," in Orientalism and the Postcolonial Predicament, eds. Carol Breckenridge and Peter van der Veer (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1993).
24. "Memorandum: Re: Immigration." I cannot dwell here on some of the incongruities of asserting that the caste system obtained amongst the Sikh community. For an analysis of how caste emerges as a key colonial category for ordering India, see David Ludden, "Orientalist Empiricism: Transformations of Colonial Knowledge," in Orientalism and the Postcolonial Predicament, eds. Carol Breckenridge and Peter van der Veer (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1993).
25. "Memorandum: Re: Immigration."
26. "Memorandum: Re: Immigration."
27. Etienne Balibar, "Is There a 'Neo-Racism'?" in Etienne Balibar and Immanuel Wallerstein, Race, Nation, Class, (London: Verso, 1993), 21.
28. N. D. Daru to the Under Secretary of State for India, 19 November 1906, Proceedings A, May 1907, no. 7, ser. no. 10.
29. Colonel Falk Warren to the Under Secretary of State for India, 22 November 1906, Proceedings A, May 1907, no. 7, ser. no. 10.
30. Colonel Falk Warren to the Under Secretary of State for India, 2 January 1907, Proceedings A, May 1907, no. 7, ser. no. 14.
31. Colonel Swayne had been involved in the matter since the initial scheme was to try and redirect the Indians coming to Canada to Honduras. The scheme came to naught since "the Indians would not go." "India Office Memorandum on Indian Immigration into Canada," 26 August 1915, Proceedings A, October 1915, no. 68 (confidential).
32. Governor General of Canada to Earl Crewe, Colonial Office, 7 January 1909, Proceedings A, May 1909, no. 11, ser. no. 5.
33. Under Secretary of State for India to Under Secretary of State, Colonial Office, 19 October 1906, Proceedings A, May 1907, no. 7, ser. no. 5.
34. At this stage, all the Indian immigrants to Canada are male.
35. Governor General of Canada to the Secretary of State for the Colonies, telegram received 11 November 1907, Proceedings A, February 1908, no. 18-33.
36. Governor General of Canada to the Secretary of State for the Colonies, 11 November 1907.
37. Viceroy of India, Calcutta, to the Secretary of State for India, London, telegram received 22 January 1908, Proceedings A, February 1908, no. 28, ser. no. 16 (confidential).
38. Due to the pressure placed on the government, the Morley-Minto reforms, which increased the number of Indian representatives in the legislative councils, were passed in 1909. However, the nationalist demand did not at this stage seek to completely sever its ties with Empire.
39. For a brief survey of how the situation of emigrants in South Africa had brought the emigration question into prominence, see "Representation of the United Province Congress Committee Regarding the Position of Indians in Canada," Proceedings A, June 1915, no. 1-2.
40. Viceroy of India, Calcutta, to the Secretary of State for India, London, 22 January 1908.
41. Colonel Falk Warren to the Under Secretary of State for India, 22 November 1906.
42. N. D. Daru to the Under Secretary of State for India, 19 November 1906.
43. Lord Grey, Governor General of Canada, to Secretary of State for India, 24 September 1907, Proceedings A, February 1908, no. 18-33, ser. no. 12.
44. "Report of the Committee of the Privy Council, approved by His Excellency the Governor General on 2nd March 1908," Proceedings A, May 1908, no. 6, ser. no. 22, encl. no. 9.
45. Bernard S. Cohn, Colonialism and Its Forms of Knowledge: The British in India (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1996), 5.
46. Governor General of Canada to the Secretary of State for the Colonies, London, telegram dated 15 January 1908, Proceedings A, May 1908, no. 6, ser. no. 22, encl. no. 3, annex 1.
47. Secret Agent T. R. E. McInnes to Wilfrid Laurier, 15 March 1908, Proceedings A, May 1908, no. 6, ser. no. 22, encl. no. 10, annex 2.
48. Secret Agent T. R. E. McInnes to Wilfrid Laurier, 15 March 1908.
49. Secret Agent T. R. E. McInnes to Wilfrid Laurier, 15 March 1908. Emphasis in original.
50. Governor General of Canada to Earl Crewe, Colonial Office, 7 January 1909.
51. "Report of the Committee of the Privy Council, Approved by His Excellency the Governor General on 2nd March 1908," Proceedings A, May 1908, no. 6, ser. no. 22, encl. no. 9.
52. "Report of the Committee of the Privy Council."
53. Hugh Tinker, Separate and Unequal: India and Indians in the British Commonwealth, 1920-1950 (Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 1976), 29.
54. Despatch from the Secretary of State for India to the Government of India, 2 April 1909, Proceedings A, May 1909, no. 11-12, ser. no. 5.
55. The proceedings overflow with a general conflation and confusion between "Indians," "Hindus," and "Sikhs," though they also point out that some of the immigrants were "Mohameddan" [sic].
56. Governor General of Canada to Earl Crewe, Colonial Office, 7 January 1909.
57. Governor General of Canada to Earl Crewe, Colonial Office, 7 January 1909.
58. Governor General of Canada to Earl Crewe, Colonial Office, 7 January 1909.
59. Governor General of Canada to Earl Crewe, Colonial Office, 7 January 1909 (emphasis added).
60. Governor General of Canada to Earl Crewe, Colonial Office, 7 January 1909.
61. Government of India to Viscount Morley, the Secretary of State for India, 20 May 1909, Proceedings A, May 1909, no. 11, ser. no. 6.
62. Government of India to Viscount Morley, the Secretary of State for India, 20 May 1909 (emphasis added).
63. Communication from British Indian subjects in Canada to Colonial Office, London, 24 April 1910, Proceedings A, October 1910, no. 47, ser. no. 8, encl. no. 1, annex 1.
64. Communication from British Indian subjects in Canada to Colonial Office, London, 24 April 1910.
65. I develop this argument, concerning the reinscription of the European nation-state as the European empire-state, in a larger project of which this essay is a part.
66. Observation by W. H. Clark, 20 September 1913, Proceedings A, October 1913, no. 29-30, ser. no. 44 (confidential).
67. Enclosure in letter from the Under Secretary of State to the Governor General's Secretary, dated 15 April 1912, Proceedings B, May 1912, no. 58 (confidential).
68. Secretary of State for the Colonies to the Governor General of Canada, 17 August 1912, Proceedings B, September 1912, no. 14-15 (confidential).
69. Secretary of State for the Colonies to the Governor General of Canada, 17 August 1912.
70. Secretary of State for the Colonies to the Governor General of Canada, 17 August 1912.
71. Secretary of State for the Colonies to the Governor General of Canada, 17 August 1912.
72. Secretary of State for the Colonies to the Governor General of Canada, 17 August 1912, attached note.
73. My thanks to Melissa Orlie for suggesting the formulation of bureaucratic discretion to me.
74. President of the United Provinces Congress Committee, Allahabad, to the Secretary to the Government of India, 25 January 1915, Proceedings A, June 1915, no. 1-2.
75. For biographical accounts on revolutionary Indian emigrants in Canada, see Hugh Johnston, The Vovage of the Komagata Maru: The Sikh Challenge to Canada's Colour Bar (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1979) and the confidential report prepared by James C. Ker in 1917, republished as Political Trouble in India (Delhi: Oriental Publishers, 1973).
76. For biographical accounts on revolutionary Indian emigrants in Canada, see Hugh Johnston, The Vovage of the Komagata Maru: The Sikh Challenge to Canada's Colour Bar (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1979) and the confidential report prepared by James C. Ker in 1917, republished as Political Trouble in India (Delhi: Oriental Publishers, 1973).
77. These included the Free Hindustan, the Swadesh Sewak, and the Hindusthanee. The Canadian revolutionaries were also in contact and concert with Har Dayal, the founder of the Ghadr ("Anarchy" or "Revolution," often mistranslated as "Mutiny") party in the United States.
78. Comments of S. H. Slater regarding telegram from the Secretary of State, 19 September 1913, Proceedings A, October 1913, no. 29-30 (confidential).
79. Comments of J. F. Gruning regarding telegram from the Secretary of State, 22 September 1913, Proceedings A, October 1913, no. 29-30 (confidential).
80. Comments of J. F. Gruning regarding the telegram from the Secretary of State, 20 September 1913, Proceedings A, October 1913, no. 29-30 (confidential).
81. Johnston, The Voyage of the Komagata Maru, 20.
82. Confidential letter from the Governor General of Canada to Colonial Office, 31 December 1913, Proceedings A, June 1914, no. 10-11, encl. no. 2.
83. Confidential letter from the Governor General of Canada to Colonial Office, 31 December 1913.
84. Johnston, The Voyage of the Komagata Maru, 29-38.
85. Report of the Committee of the Privy Council, approved 23 February 1914, Proceedings A, June 1914, no. 10-11, encl. no. 11.
86. Unfortunately, it would take me too far afield to present the extraordinary web of events surrounding the Komagata Maru incident. But here is a bare-bones sketch: The immigration agent at Vancouver, Malcolm Reid, in direct contravention of the law, at first delayed hearings of the Board of Inquiry. He then held hearings but withheld any decision regarding acceptance or deportation of the passengers so that there would be no decision to challenge in court. Eventually, at the end of June, more than a month after the Komagata Maru had arrived in Vancouver, Edward Bird, the lawyer hired to represent the Indians, was allowed to try a "test case" in the Court of Appeal where the case would be decided by a panel of judges. Bird lost the appeal, and the panel of judges upheld the Immigration Act and the Orders in Council. However, the matter did not end there and, ultimately, with an array of several hundred armed militia men lined up on the pier, the Komagata Maru was escorted out of the Vancouver harbor on 23 July under the guard of the Rainbow (which, along with the Niobe, constituted the entire Canadian navy at the time) and the immigration vessel the Sea Lion. On their return to India, the passengers were met by the police as seditionists, and twenty were killed in the fracas that followed. Thirty-one were imprisoned, and those released were closely watched by the police. Twenty-seven, including Sardar Gurdit Singh, were fugitives. In 1922, at the recommendation of Gandhi and the Indian National Congress, Gurdit Singh turned himself in to the police and spent live years in prison. For further details, see Johnston, The Voyage of the Komagata Maru.
87. "Official Report of a debate in the Canadian House of Commons on Asiatic Immigration," Proceedings A, October 1914, no. 1.
88. "Official Report of a debate in the Canadian House of Commons on Asiatic Immigration."
89. The state functionaries, moreover, were fully aware of this. Thus a confidential memorandum states: "The efficacy of these Acts, in fact, rests to some extent on a subterfuge." India Office Memorandum on Indian Immigration into Canada, 26 August 1915. Proceedings A, October 1915, no. 68 (confidential).
90. "Memorial regarding the grievances of Indians in Canada," Proceedings A, April 1914, no. 13-16.
91. "Memorial regarding the grievances of Indians in Canada."
92. "Confidential Weekly Diary for the Week Ending the 13th of June 1914 of the Superintendent of Police, Lahore," Proceedings A, July 1914, no. 3.
93. S. H. Slater to R. E. Enthoven, 26 May 1914, Proceedings A, September 1914, no. 18-20 (confidential).
94. Comments of R. W. Gillian, 23 June 1914, Proceedings A, September 1914, no. 18-20 (confidential).
95. Comments of R. W. Gillian, 23 June 1914.
96. Comments of R. W. Gillian, 23 June 1914.
97. Comments of R. W. Gillian, 23 June 1914.
98. Comments of R. W. Gillian, 23 June 1914.
99. Comments of R. E. Enthoven, 13 June 1914, Proceedings A, September 1914, no. 18-20 (confidential); emphasis added.
100. Comments of Lord Hardinge, Viceroy of India, 8 July 1914, Proceedings A, September 1914, no. 18-20 (confidential).
101. Comments of R. E. Enlhoven, 13 June 1914.
102. "Compulsory Passport Regulations," Proceedings A, June 1917, no. 8-22.
103. For a overview of different grounds for state sovereignty, see J. Samuel Barkin, "The Evolution of the Constitution of Sovereignty and the Emergence of Human Rights Norms," Millennium: Journal of International Studies 27 (1998), 229-252.
104. Here my position diverges from, for instance, Arjun Appadurai's work on globalization and the emergence of "postnational" identities. See Arjun Appadurai, Modernity at Large (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1996).