Mobility and containment: The voyages of South Asian Seamen, c.1900-1960

International Review of Social History

Volumn 51, Issue SUPPL. 14, 2006, Pages 111-141

  Ahuja, Ravi ^a  

^a NONE

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EID: 33751368618     PISSN: 00208590     EISSN: 1469512X     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/S002085900600263X     Document Type: Review

References (253)

1. See Claude Markovits, Jacques Pouchepadass, and Sanjay Subrahmanyam (eds), Society and Circulation: Mobile People and Itinerant Cultures in South Asia 1750-1950 (Delhi, 2003), p. 3.
2. Laura Tabili, "We Ask for British Justice": Workers and Racial Difference in Late Imperial Britain (Ithaca, NY [etc.], 1994), p. 47;
3. Labour Gazette, X.2 (Bombay, October 1930), p. 159;
4. S.G. Sturmey, British Shipping and World Competition (London, 1962), p. 296;
5. Gopalan Balachandran, "Circulation through Seafaring: Indian Seamen, 1890-1945", in Markovits et al., Society and Circulation, pp. 89-130, 98.
6. The expression is from Fred Cooper's incisive critique of such trends: "What is the Concept of Globalization Good for? An African Historian's Perspective", African Affairs, 100 (2001), pp. 189-213, 193. Such narratives unfortunately overshadow the newly invigorated field of Indian Ocean studies. This could, for instance, be witnessed at the largest recent international conference in this field, on "Cultural Exchange and Transformation in the Indian Ocean World" (UCLA, April 2002, conference volume forthcoming).
7. Peter Linebaugh and Marcus Rediker, The Many-Headed Hydra: The Hidden History of the Revolutionary Atlantic (London, 2002).
8. Marika Sherwood, "Race, Nationality and Employment among Lascar Seamen, 1660 to 1945", New Community, 17 (1991), pp. 229-244;
9. Tabili, "We Ask for British Justice", pp. 41-57.
10. Michael H. Fisher, Counterflows to Colonialism: Indian Travellers and Settlers in Britain 1600-1857 (Delhi, 2004), pp. 34f., 144.
11. OIOC, Bombay Marine Proceedings [hereafter, BoMP], IOR/P/6705, A223-224 (August 1903);
12. Reports from the Departmental Committee on Manning of Merchant Ships with Addenda and Statistical Tables (London, 1896), p. 15;
13. Dinkar Desai, Maritime Labour in India (Bombay, 1940), pp. 93-96;
14. Lascar Diet Scale, OIOC, Economic & Overseas Dept, Seamen, IOR/L/E/9/973 (1934-46);
15. J.L. Mowat, Seafarers' Conditions in India and Pakistan (Geneva, 1949), p. 57;
16. Conrad Dixon, "Lascars: The Forgotten Seamen", in Rosemary Ommer and Gerald Panting (eds), Working Men Who Got Wet (Newfoundland, 1980), pp. 265-281, 278;
17. Frank Broeze, "The Muscles of Empire - Indian Seamen and the Raj, 1919-1939", Indian Economic and Social History Review, 18 (1981), pp. 43-67, 44;
18. R. Hope, A New History of British Shipping (London, 1990), pp. 441, 455;
19. Tabili, "We Ask for British Justice", p. 45;
20. G. Balachandran, "Recruitment and Control of Indian Seamen, Calcutta, 1880-1935", International Journal of Maritime History, 9 (1997), pp. 1-18, 2.
21. Dodwell-Castle Line (James Chambers & Co., Liverpool) to Mercantile Marine Dept, Board of Trade, 28 August 1930, OIOC, Commercial & Revenue Dept, IOR/L/E/7/1125, file 2139; Graham's Trading Co. (Agents of Brocklebank's Cunard Service) to Secretary to Govt of Bengal, Maritime Dept, 11 February 1925, ibid.
22. High Commissioner for India [hereafter, HCI], General Dept, to Secretary to Government of India [hereafter, GoI], Commerce Dept, 26 November 1931, NAI, Dept of Commerce, Merchant Marine II, August 1932, file 67, M. II/32, s.nos. 6-8, part B, folios 3, 11.
23. Rozina Visram, Ayahs, Lascars and Princes: The Story of Indians in Britain 1700-1947 (London, 1986), pp. 34-59;
24. idem, Asians in Britain: 400 Years of History (London, 2002), pp. 57-69;
25. Fisher, Counterflows to Colonialism, pp. 65-71, 137-179, 381-392;
26. Norma Myers, "The Black Poor of London: Initiatives of Eastern Seamen in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries", Immigrants & Minorities, 13 (2-3) (1994), pp. 7-21.
27. Katy Gardner, Global Migrants, Local Lives: Travel and Transformation in Rural Bangladesh (Oxford, 1995), pp. 34-65;
28. Caroline Adams (ed.), Across Seven Seas and Thirteen Rivers: Life Stories of Pioneer Sylhetti Settlers in Britain (London, 1994), pp. 39-66;
29. Yousuf Choudhury, The Roots and Tales of the Bangladeshi Settlers (Birmingham, 1993), pp. 69f.;
30. Roger Ballard, "The Context and Consequences of Migration: Jullunder and Mirpur Compared", New Community, 11 (1-2) (1983), pp. 117-136.
31. A committee set up in 1910 to investigate the problem of Indian and other colonial "destitutes" in Britain (and lascars settling in Britain were in official circles automatically assumed to be "destitutes") could, for instance, trace no more than 250 Indians for the period 1888 to 1910; Visram, Asians in Britain, p. 69.
32. For earlier problems of lascar accommodation during the winter season see Fisher, Counterflows to Colonialism, pp. 148-178.
33. Report of the Bombay Chamber of Commerce [hereafter, RBCC] 1916 (Bombay, 1917), pp. 55-56, 329-335;
34. Dinkar Desai, Among Indian Seamen in Great Britain (Bombay, 1946);
35. Adams, Across Seven Seas, pp. 46f.;
36. Ballard, "The Context and Consequences of Migration", p. 125.
37. Visram, Asians in Britain, pp. 254-269.
38. E.W. Huddleston, Shipping Advisor of High Commissioner, 25 February 1929, NAI, Dept of Commerce, Merchant Marine I, June 1929, file 451, M. I(8)/29, s.nos. 1-5, part B, fo. 9.
39. Adams, Across Seven Seas, pp. 39-45;
40. Nawab Ali's account, Adams, Across Seven Seas, pp. ibid., pp. 73, 77;
41. Haji Shirajul Islam's account, Adams, Across Seven Seas, pp. ibid., p. 98;
42. Haji Kona Miah's account, Adams, Across Seven Seas, pp. ibid., p. 133.
43. W.H. Hood, Blight of Insubordination: The Lascar Question and Rights and Wrongs of the British Shipmaster (London, 1903), p. 63.
44. Relevant evidence has been presented at length in Ravi Ahuja, "Die 'Lenksamkeit' des 'Lascars'. Regulierungsszenarien eines transterritorialen Arbeitsmarktes in der ersten Hälfte des 20. Jahrhunderts", Geschichte und Gesellschaft, 31 (2005), pp. 323-353.
45. See Kaushik Ghosh, "A Market for Aboriginality: Primitivism and Race Qualification in the Indentured Labour Market of Colonial India", in G. Bhadra, G. Prakash, and S. Tharu (eds), Subaltern Studies X. Writings on South Asian History and Society (New Delhi, 1999), pp. 8-48.
46. OIOC, Economic & Overseas Dept Collections, Seamen, IOR/L/E/9/974;
47. ibid., IOR/L/E/9/977, fol. 242.
48. For the employers' arguments see RBCC 1921, vol. 1 (Bombay, 1922), pp. 146-147,
49. and Fakirjee Cowasjee, Report on the 13th International Labour (Maritime) Conference, Geneva, 10-26 October 1929, NMML, M.A. Master Papers, IV, Printed Material, file 39.
50. Hence, working hours were not regulated by law nor collective agreement but by custom, while overtime was not paid for. See Replies to Questions Relating to Hours of Work [...] [for International Labour Conference 1929], NMML, M.A. Master Papers, 1. Subject Files, E. National Committees and Commissions, file 780;
51. Replies furnished by the Indian Merchants' Chamber, Bombay to Questions Relating to Hours of Work and Organisation of Work on Board Ship, NAI, Dept of Commerce, Merchant Marine II, August 1929, file 465-M. I/29, s.nos. 1-27, part A, p. 97;
52. Memorandum on Regulation of Hours of Work of Indian Seamen (undated, probably 1944), NMML, M.A. Master Papers, I. Subject Files, F. International Committees and Commissions, file 896. According to an official statement in 1927, actual average weekly working hours were 61 hours for "deck lascars", 84 hours for sukhanis (helmsmen), 56 hours for "engine room lascars" and 63 to 70 hours for "saloon staff";
53. Shipping Master, Calcutta, to Government of Bengal [hereafter, GoBe], Marine Dept, 14 June 1927, ibid., pp. 35-36.
54. Desai, Maritime Labour in India, pp. 65-72;
55. A. Marr, Secretary to GoBe, to GoI, Commerce Dept, 23 June 1921, OIOC, GoI Commerce Proc., IOR/P/11247, A7-10;
56. see also RBCC 1921, vol. 2 (Bombay, 1922), pp. 867-869;
57. B.A. Malik, Memo on Regulation of Hours of Indian Seamen, 1 August 1945, NMML, M.A. Master Papers, subject file 896;
58. GoI, Dept of Commerce, Memorandum on Wages, Hours of Work, Manning, 8 June 1946, ibid., subject file 903, p. 4;
59. R.K. Das, History of Indian Labour Legislation (Calcutta, 1941), pp. 129f.
60. See also references to the imprisonment of Indian seamen for refusing overtime work in Erich Kirchenknopf, "Bericht ü ber die auf Veranlassung des Deutschen Verkehrsbundes angestellten Untersuchungen: 1. Indische Seeleute an Bord deutscher Schiffe; 2. Indische Seeleute an Land", Ms. (1929), Bundesarchiv, Stiftung Archiv der Parteien und Massenorganisationen der DDR (SAPMO), ZPA I 4/6/23, pp. 55f.
61. Janet Ewald, "Crossers of the Sea: Slaves, Freedmen, and Other Migrants in the Northwestern Indian Ocean, c. 1750-1914", American Historical Review, 105 (2000), pp. 69-91, 75.
62. Leo Barnes, Evolution and Scope of Mercantile Marine Laws Relating to Seamen in India (Bombay, 1983), pp. 36-39;
63. Sherwood, "Race, Nationality and Employment among Lascar Seamen", pp. 231-233 and passim.
64. "Eurasian", in colonial phraseology, was the designation for children of Indian mothers and European fathers.
65. For a summary of the relevant debates and legislation between 1888 and 1920, see GoI, Dept of Commerce, to Government of Bombay [hereafter, GoBo], Marine Dept, 15 September 1920, OIOC, BoMP, IOR/P/10793, A345f.
66. See also RBCC 1904 (Bombay, 1905), pp. 105-106, 498-520;
67. OIOC, Bengal Marine Proceedings [hereafter, BeMP], IOR/P/10315 (1918), A33-34 (February 1918), A3 (September 1918);
68. Bengal Marine Proceedings ibid., IOR/P11178, A36 (March 1922);
69. OIOC, BoMP, IOR/P/7750, A355-360 (July 1907);
70. ibid., IOR/P/7750, A503 (October 1907);
71. ibid., IOR/P/9596, A17 (January 1915);
72. ibid., IOR/P/10546, B42 (March 1919);
73. ibid., IOR/P/10793, A347f (November 1920);
74. ibid., IOR/P/11008, A181-185 (1921);
75. ibid., IOR/P/11188, A79-83 (1922);
76. Engagement of Natives of India under Lascar Articles, OIOC, Dept Papers, Commercial & Revenue Dept (1904-41), IOR/L/E/7/481.
77. OIOC, Commercial & Revenue Papers, IOR/L/E/7/853, file 7563;
78. Desai, Maritime Labour in India, pp. 204-207;
79. Tabili, "We Ask for British Justice", p. 185.
80. Barnes, Evolution and Scope of Mercantile Marine Laws, pp. 168-178.
81. See also Sherwood, "Race, Nationality and Employment among Lascar Seamen", pp. 230-232, 235.
82. See the various papers on "lascar agreements" in OIOC, Economic & Overseas Dept Collections, Seamen, IOR/L/E/7/977. See also Reports from the Departmental Committee on Manning, p. 15.
83. Hood, Blight of Insubordination, p. 48.
84. Desai, Maritime Labour in India, pp. 204-208;
85. see also R.N. Saksena, Seamen in India (Dehra Dun, 1951), pp. 102-104.
86. International Labour Organization, Monthly Report of the Indian Branch [hereafter, ILOrep] June 1931, ILO C1903/31, pp. 62-63
87. (excerpt from Gazette of India, 23May 1931, part 1, p. 412).
88. RBCC 1930, vol. 1 (Bombay, 1931), pp. 188f.
89. This incident is documented in considerable detail in NAI, Dept of Commerce, Lascar Seamen, May 1922, s.nos. 94-95, filed.
90. Gloster Armstrong, British Consulate General, New York, to Principal Secretary for Foreign Affairs, 17 March 1922, ibid.
91. Fazel Ahammed et al. against SS City of Norwich, Opinion of United States Circuit Court of Appeals, for the Second Circuit, ibid.
92. Desai, Maritime Labour in India, pp. 204-208;
93. Barnes, Evolution and Scope of Mercantile Marine Laws, pp. 175-176.
94. Alfred W. McCann, "Starved at Sea, Hindoos Assert", New York Globe, 16 May 1921.
95. Note by H.M. Lindsay, Commerce Dept, GoI, 14 January 1922, NAI, Dept of Commerce, Lascar Seamen, May 1922, s.nos. 94-95, filed.
96. Note by ? [illegible], Commerce Dept, GoI, 16 January 1922, ibid.
97. Lascars were, for instance, permitted to land in French ports only if they possessed "a certificate attesting that they would be engaged in a British port" (which was, as we have seen, contrary to British and "British Indian" maritime labour law); Desai, Maritime Labour in India, p. 61.
98. See Desai, Maritime Labour in India, p. ibid., pp. 204-208.
99. For a thorough discussion of the genealogy of "master and servant law" in the British Empire see Douglas Hay and Paul Craven (eds), Masters, Servants, and Magistrates in Britain and the Empire, 1562-1955 (Chapel Hill, NC [etc.], 2004).
100. Note by Under-Secretary to the Commerce Department, GoI, 12 January 1922, NAI, Dept of Commerce, Lascar Seamen, May 1922, s.nos. 94-95, filed.
101. It is probably against this background that "facilities for making complaints" against the shipmaster were included in the Indian Merchant Shipping Act of 1923, though their efficacy is rather doubtful. See P.G. Kanekar, Seamen in Bombay: Report of an Enquiry into the Conditions of Their Life and Work (Bombay, 1928), p. 35.
102. ILOrep August 1939, ILO C1903/129, p. 42 (excerpt from The Bombay Chronicle, 27 August 1939).
103. Report of the Committee of the Bengal Chamber of Commerce 1922, vol. 2 (Calcutta, 1923), p. 332.
104. OIOC, Economic & Overseas Dept Collections, Seamen, IOR/L/E/9/974;
105. ILOrep January 1932, ILO C1903/38, p. 59 (excerpt from The Leader, 27 January 1932);
106. Jam-e-Jamshed, 26 January 1932, quoted in Government of Bombay, Native Newspaper Report [hereafter, BNNP] for the week ending 30 January 1932, p. 198.
107. Jam-e-Jamshed, 31 July 1903, quoted in BNNP, 1 August 1903, p. 14.
108. See also Praja Bandhu 19 January 1902, quoted in BNNP, ibid., 25 January 1902, pp. 12-13;
109. Rast Goftar, 17 May 1903, quoted in BNNP, ibid., 23 May 1903, p. 9;
110. Gujarati, 21 June, quoted in BNNP, ibid., 27 June 1903, p. 12;
111. Voice of India, 11 July, quoted in BNNP, ibid., 11 July 1903, p. 10;
112. Gujarati, 2 August 1903, and Mahratta, 2 August 1903, quoted in BNNP, ibid., 8 August 1903, p. 15.
113. Visram, Asians in Britain, pp. 196-224.
114. See also Sherwood, "Race, Nationality and Employment among Lascar Seamen", pp. 234f.;
115. Tabili, "We Ask for British Justice", pp. 33-36;
116. Gopalan Balachandran, "Conflicts in the International Maritime Labour Market: British and Indian Seamen, Employers, and the State, 1890-1939", Indian Economic and Social History Review, 39 (2002), pp. 71-100, 83f.;
117. idem, "Circulation through Seafaring", pp. 113f.
118. "Coloured Seamen Repatriated", The Western Mail (Cardiff), 12 September 1921;
119. see also Visram, Asians in Britain, pp. 201-205.
120. Shipmaster SS Kurmark to Director, India Office Shipping, 7 October 1921, OIOC, Commercial & Revenue Papers, IOR/L/E/7/1103, fos 49-51;
121. Resident, Aden to Secretary of State for India, 1 October 1921 (telegram), ibid., fos 74-75.
122. Tabili, "We Ask for British Justice", pp. 113-134;
123. Tony Lane, "The Political Imperatives of Bureaucracy and Empire: The Case of the Coloured Alien Seamen Order, 1925", Immigrants & Minorities, 13 (2-3) (1994), pp. 104-129.
124. See also Balachandran, "Conflicts in the International Maritime Labour Market", pp. 83f.
125. See Tabili, "We Ask for British Justice", pp. 128f.
126. Summary of letter from High Commissioner for India, 26 November 1931, NAI, Dept of Commerce, Merchant Marine II, August 1932, file 67, M. II/32, s.nos. 1-11, part B.
127. OIOC, Commercial & Revenue Papers, IOR/L/E/7/1165, file 3594.
128. Ravi Ahuja, "Networks of Subordination - Networks of the Subordinated: The Case of South Asian Maritime Labour under British Imperialism (c.1890-1947)", in Harald Fischer-Tine and Ashwini Tambe (eds), Spaces of Disorder: The Limits of British Colonial Control in South Asia and the Indian Ocean (forthcoming).
129. Adams, Across Seven Seas, pp. 39-52;
130. Choudhury, The Roots and Tales, pp. 71-75.
131. See also Tabili, "We Ask for British Justice", p. 143.
132. Letter from Geo. Smith & Sons, Agents for Ellerman's City Line, 17 September 1925, NAI, Dept of Commerce, Shipping, September 1926, file 606-S, s.nos. 1-18, part A, p. 22;
133. Summary of letter from High Commissioner for India, 26 November 1931, NAI, Dept of Commerce, Merchant Marine II, August 1932, file 67, M. II/32, s.nos. 1-11, part B.
134. See also Balachandran, "Conflicts in the International Maritime Labour Market", pp. 85-87;
135. idem, "Circulation through Seafaring", pp. 117-120.
136. GoI, Dept of Commerce and Industry, to GoBo, Marine Dept, 12 February 1920, OIOC, BoMP, IOR/P/10793, A 73-75.
137. NAI, Dept of Commerce, Merchant Marine II, September 1938, F. No. 11, M. II (2)/37, s.nos. 1-9, part A.
138. See also ILOrep January 1933, ILO, C1903/50, p. 67 (report about a meeting of the members of the Deck Department of the National Seamen's Union of India, Bombay, 20 December 1932);
139. Labour Gazette (Bombay), XVI.10 (June 1937), p. 764 (report on All-India Seamen's Conference).
140. For a view in favour of continued spatial exclusion of lascars, see Labour Gazette (Bombay), XIV.4 (December 1934), p. 285 (statement of Imperial Merchant Service Guild).
141. See also Balachandran, "Conflicts in the International Maritime Labour Market", pp. 96-98.
142. ILOrep August 1938, ILO, C1903/117, pp. 41-42 (excerpt from Hindustan Times, 25 August 1938).
143. ILOrep June 1939, ILO, C1903/127, p. 42 (excerpt from The Times of India, 1 June 1939).
144. Dodwell-Castle Line (James Chambers & Co., Liverpool) to Mercantile Marine Dept, Board of Trade, 28 August 1930, OIOC, Commercial & Revenue Department Papers, IOR/L/E/7/1125, File 2139: Lascars, employment outside winter limits, main file (1920-1931).
145. See also Andrew Weir & Co., London and Glasgow, to Captain Darvell, Shipping Master, Calcutta, 10 February 1925, ibid.
146. Graham's Trading Co. (Agents of Brocklebank's Cunard Service) to GoBe, Maritime Dept, 11 February 1925, ibid;
147. see also Graham& Co. to GoBe, Maritime Dept, 15 March 1915, OIOC, BoMP, IOR/P/10793, A 75-76.
148. ILOrep January 1933, ILO, C1903/50, p. 67 (report about a meeting of the members of the Deck Department of the National Seamen's Union of India, Bombay, 20 December 1932).
149. See Eric Wolf, "Incorporation and Identity in the Making of the Modern World", in idem, Pathways of Power: Building an Anthropology of the Modern World (Berkeley, CA [etc.], 2001), pp. 353-369, 366-368.
150. Hood, Blight of Insubordination, p. 11;
151. see also Hope, A New History of British Shipping, p. 324;
152. Ewald, "Crossers of the Sea", pp. 83f.
153. R.H.H. Hopkins, Shipping Master Bombay, to Bombay Marine Department, 2 December 1913, OIOC, BoMP, IOR/P/9596, A309.
154. See also Report by the Shipping Master Calcutta, 17 August 1918, ibid., IOR/P/11008, A 207.
155. Indian Employment Bureau, M.A. Majid, Singapore, to J. Foley, Under-Secretary to Board of Trade, Mercantile Marine, 2 September 1938, PRO, CO273/639/9, fol. 11-15.
156. Indian Seamen's Union, Resolution on the Pending Grievances of the Indian Seamen, 31 August 1943, NMML, M.A. Master Papers, I. Subject Files, A. Scindia Steam Navigation Company, file 150.
157. OIOC, BoMP IOR/P/9083 (September 1912), A347;
158. W.A. Cosgrave, Off. Deputy Commissioner Sylhet, to Commissioner Surma Valley and Hill Districts, 21 August 1913, OIOC, Commercial & Revenue Papers IOR/L/E/7/696, file 405;
159. Shipping Master Bombay to GoBo, 15 January 1918, OIOC, BoMP IOR/P/10326, B19;
160. Shipping Master Bombay to Bombay Marine Dept, 10 March 1920, OIOC, BoMP IOR/P/10793, A160;
161. Reply to the Report of the Seamen's Recruitment Committee (Clow Committee), August 1923, OIOC, BeMP IOR/P/11312, A41, p. 58, 65;
162. Kanekar, Seamen in Bombay, pp. 5-18;
163. GoBo, Conditions of Industrial Labour in the Bombay Presidency, Royal Commission on Labour in India: Evidence (London, 1931) [hereafter, RCLI Evidence], vol. 1, part 1 (Bombay, Written Evidence), p. 149;
164. written statement by Bombay Seamen's Union, Conditions of Industrial Labour in the Bombay Presidency, Royal Commission on Labour in India: Evidence ibid., pp. 293f;
165. written statement by Mackinnon, Mackenzie & Co., Conditions of Industrial Labour in the Bombay Presidency, Royal Commission on Labour in India: Evidence ibid., pp. 544f;
166. Olga Esther Baptista, "The 'Coor' System - A Study of Goan Club Life" (M.A., University of Bombay, 1958), pp. 89, 175;
167. Choudhury, The Roots and Tales, pp. 58f.
168. Desai, Maritime Labour in India, pp. 47f.;
169. Saksena, Seamen in India, pp. 66f.;
170. OIOC, BoMP IOR/P/6705, A299 (October 1903);
171. OIOC, Economic & Overseas Department Collections, Seamen (1925-1941), IOR/L/E/9/973.
172. Written statement by Indian Seamen's Union (Bombay), RCLI Evidence, vol. 1, part 1 (Bombay, Written Evidence), pp. 290-293;
173. written statement by Mulchand M. Kripalani, Hon. General Secretary, Indian Seamen's Union (Karachi), RCLI Evidence, ibid., p. 232;
174. verbal testimony by Tarachand J. Lalwani and Mulchand M. Kripalani, Indian Seamen's Union (Karachi), RCLI Evidence, ibid., vol. 1, part 2 (Bombay, Oral Evidence), pp. 41f;
175. verbal testimony by Mohammed Ibrahim Serang and P.G. Kanekar, Indian Seamen's Union (Bombay), RCLI Evidence, ibid., p. 224.
176. See also oral testimony by R. Liddle, Marine Superintendent, British Indian Steam Navigation Company, Calcutta, RCLI Evidence, vol. 5, part 2 (Bengal, Oral Evidence), p. 304.
177. Principal Officer, Mercantile Marine Dept, Calcutta District, to Secretary to the GoI, Dept of Commerce, 21 July 1931, NAI, Dept of Commerce, Mercantile Marine II, January 1932, F. No. 32, M. II./31, s.nos. 1-3, part B.
178. See also ILOrep July 1931, ILO C1903/32, p. 80 (excerpt from The Pioneer, 2 July 1931).
179. ILOrep C1903/119, pp. 34-35 (excerpt from The Labour Times, Madras, October 1938).
180. See also Broeze, "The Muscles of Empire", pp. 66 and passim.
181. Mowat, Seafarers' Conditions in India and Pakistan, p. 79.
182. The only systematic and unfortunately unpublished study of these "village clubs" is Baptista, "The 'Coor' System".
183. Verbal testimony by J.P. Lobo and Patrick DeSa, Bombay Seamen's Union, RCLI Evidence, vol. 1, part 2 (Bombay, Oral Evidence), pp. 227-232;
184. A. Colaco (ed.), A History of the Seamen's Union Bombay (Bombay, 1955), pp. 15-20, 70f.
185. See also Ahuja, "Networks of Subordination";
186. Broeze, "The Muscles of Empire", p. 56.
187. See for example "The humble petition of the members of the Goa Portuguese Seamen's Club, the Portuguese Seafarers' Union and the Asiatic Seamen's (Saloon Crew) Union" to Sir G.A. Lloyd, Governor of Bombay, 23 July 1920, OIOC, BoMP, IOR/P/10793, A273-274.
188. OIOC, Economic & Overseas Department Collections, Seamen (1925-1941), IOR/L/E/9/955.
189. See also Balachandran, "Conflicts in the International Maritime Labour Market", pp. 89f.
190. Seamen's Employment Office, Bombay, No. of Seamen on Articles as on 15th May 1956, NMML, M.A. Master Papers, I. Subject Files, E. National Committees and Commissions, file 867;
191. C.P. Shrivastava, National Board of Seafarers, to ?, dated 14 July 1956 [sic, probably 1957], No. of Seamen on Articles as on 15th May 1956, ibid., B. Shipping, file 482.
192. See G. Balachandran, "Searching for the Sardar: the State, Precapitalist Institutions, and Human Agency in the Maritime Labour Market", in Burton Stein and Sanjay Subrahmanyam (eds), Institutions and Economic Change in South Asia (Delhi, 1996), pp. 216-220;
193. Ahuja, "Networks of Subordination".
194. See above, in the section "Competing Labour Networks".
195. The British India Steam Navigation Co., by far the largest recruiter in Calcutta, manned 127 ships in this port in 1929/30, for which purpose they kept a register of 226 deck serangs, 200 firemen serangs, 782 sukhanis (helmsmen) and 200 butlers (foremen in the saloon department) who were given preference in engagement. As every ship required one foreman of each category and four helmsmen, the ratio between the registered and the employed was less than 2:1. Moreover, it was stated that no serangs had been added to the register for six or seven years, except when the necessity of immediate replacement occurred. The preference for fairly regular employment patterns with regard to these categories of seamen was also expressed in the payment of a pension or gratuity to serangs who had been in the company's service for twenty-five years. Oral testimony by R. Liddle, Marine Superintendent, British Indian Steam Navigation Company, Calcutta, RCLI Evidence, vol. 5, part 2 (Bengal, Oral Evidence), pp. 297-303. For further evidence of the tendency towards (partial) regularization of the maritime workforce see my "Die 'Lenksamkeit' des 'Lascars"'.
196. Written Statement by R. Liddle, Marine Superintendent, British Indian Steam Navigation Company, Calcutta, RCLI Evidence, vol. 5, part 1 (Bengal, Written Evidence), pp. 363;
197. Oral testimony by H.F. Darvell, Shipping Master Calcutta, RCLI Evidence, ibid., vol. 5, part 2 (Bengal, Oral Evidence), pp. 277, 298;
198. Report of the Sub-Committee Appointed by the Owners to Consider Government of India Memoranda Relating to Conditions of Employment of Indian Seamen (not dated, c.1946);
199. NMML, M.A. Master Papers, I. subject Files, E. National Committees and Commissions, file 786;
200. see also [L.W. Balcombe,] Calcutta Liners Conference (Crews) to E.S. Krishnamoorthy, GoI, Dept of Commerce, 19 February 1946 (confidential letter), ibid.
201. See also Balachandran, "Recruitment and Control of Indian Seamen".
202. See Report of the Seamen's Recruitment Committee (Clow Committee), OIOC, BeMP, IOR/P/11178, A1 (December 1922), folio 3.
203. The Clow Committee here opined (possibly under trade-union influence) that community bonds were of minor importance in Calcutta ("no close attachment between the serang and his crew"). For a concurrent opinion of a trade unionist and social reformer see also Kanekar, Seamen in Bombay, p. 29.
204. Balachandran seems to accept this view to a certain extent ("Recruitment and Control of Indian Seamen", pp. 12f., 18;
205. "Circulation through Seafaring", pp. 108-111, and personal communication with the author).
206. However, life accounts collected by Adams (Across Seven Seas: Nawab Ali, p. 72, Haji Shirajul Islam, pp. 95f.; Abdul Malik, p. 111; Haji Kona Miah, pp. 128-130, Shah Abdul Majid Qureishi, pp. 146, 148; Abdul Wahab, p. 209),
207. memories of former Sylheti seamen as presented by Choudhury (The Roots and Tales, pp. 35-43, 53-56, and passim)
208. and Gardner's fieldwork in Sylhet (Global Migrants, Local Lives, pp. 41, 79f.)
209. suggest a qualification of this assessment, which was also refuted by other officials and most eloquently by the Calcutta Shipping Master: H.F. Darvell to GoBe, Maritime Dept, 17 March 1925, NAI, Dept of Commerce, Shipping, October 1927, file 104-S.(4), s.nos. 1-6, part A (confidential), pp. 5f.
210. See also Maritime Labour Advisory Committee, Memorandum on Recruitment of Indian Seamen, 9 April 1947, p. 3, NMML, M.A. Master Papers, I. subject files, F. International Committees and Commissions, file 916.
211. Oral Testimony by H.F. Darvell, Shipping Master Calcutta, RCLI Evidence, vol. 5, part 2 (Bengal, Oral Evidence), p. 270;
212. Desai, Maritime Labour in India, pp. 44-48.
213. Report of the Seamen's Recruitment Committee (Clow Committee), Appendix B: Report on the Preliminary Inquiry in Calcutta, NAI, Dept of Commerce, Lascar Seamen, August 1922, s.nos. 1-7, part A, pp. 37-38.
214. However, the Calcutta Shipping Master put on record that in the year after the creation of his office, 1925, at least ten complaints had been received by his office from seamen every week, most of which had been directed against serangs, but that complaints had been much less in the following years. Oral testimony by H.F. Darvell, Shipping Master Calcutta, RCLI Evidence, vol. 5, part 2 (Bengal, Oral Evidence), pp. 267f.
215. See also oral testimony by R. Liddle, Marine Superintendent, British Indian Steam Navigation Company, Calcutta, RCLI Evidence, vol. 5, part 2 (Bengal, Oral Evidence), p. 279.
216. NAI, Dept of Commerce, Lascar Seamen, May 1921, s.nos. 156-157, Filed.
217. For lascarserang conflicts over payments see also F.S. Purnett, Chief Collector of Customs in Sind and Shipping Master Karachi, to Commissioner of Sind, 21 February 1913, OIOC, BoMP, IOR/P/9342, A212;
218. R.H.H. Hopkins, Shipping Master Bombay, to Secretary to GoBo, Marine Dept, 29 March 1913, ibid., A213-214;
219. Indian Seamen's Union, Resolution on the Pending Grievances of the Indian Seamen, 31 August 1943, NMML, M.A. Master Papers, I. Subject Files, A. Scindia Steam Navigation Company, file 150.
220. Haji Shirajul Islam's account, in Adams, Across the Seven Seas, p. 96;
221. Shah Abdul Majid Kureishi's account, Across the Seven Seas, ibid., p. 148.
222. Annual Report of the Calcutta Shipping Office for 1912-1913, OIOC, BeMP, IOR/P/9151, A24;
223. Annual Report of the Calcutta Shipping Office for 1913-1914, OIOC, BeMP, IOR/P/9385, A41.
224. But see also the considerably lower figure (383 or 0.9 per cent) in Annual Report of the Calcutta Shipping Office for 1921-22, OIOC, BeMP, IOR/P/11178, A6.
225. Adams, Across Seven Seas, p. 14;
226. Nawab Ali's account, Across Seven Seas,ibid., p. 69;
227. Shah Abdul Majid Kureishi's account, Across Seven Seas,ibid., pp. 145f.
228. Nawab Ali's account, Across Seven Seas,ibid., p. 79.
229. W.H. Howell, Board of Trade, Marine Dept, to Under-Secretary of State for India, 12 December 1904, OIOC, BoMP, IOR/P/7191, A228;
230. D.A. Cameron, British Consul in Port Said, to Board of Trade, Marine Dept, 3 November 1904, ibid., A229.
231. However, not only serangs, but also engineers and other "white" officers could make a seaman's life so difficult as to induce him to put an end to it. See for example A. Challis, London City Mission, to Board of Trade, 13 January 1913, OIOC, BoMP, IOR/P/9083, A469.
232. See for instance NAI, Dept of Commerce, Merchant Marine II, January 1932, F. No. 54-M. II/31, S. Nos. 1-42, part B.
233. Various other files regarding "death on board ship" can be found in the 1932 and 1933 indices of this series of records, though several were apparently "not transferred" to the NAI. See also oral testimony by H.F. Darvell, Shipping Master Calcutta, RCLI Evidence, vol. 5, part 2 (Bengal, Oral Evidence), p. 279.
234. The shipping authority of Bremen, home base of the Hansa DFG (the largest German employer of Indian seamen), noted that 61 per cent of the 106 trimmers and stokers who committed suicide between 1901 and 1912 were "coloured". See Hartmut Rü bner, "Lebens-, Arbeits- und gewerkschaftliche Organisationsbedingungen chinesischer Seeleute in der deutschen Handelsflotte. Der maritime Aspekt der Ausländersbeschä ftigung vom Kaiserreich bis in den NS-Staat", Internationale wissenschaftliche Korrespondenz zur Geschichte der deutschen Arbeiterbewegung, 4 (1997), pp. 1-41, 19.
235. Ahuja, "Die 'Lenksamkeit' des 'Lascars"'.
236. C.P. Shrivastava, National Board of Seafarers, to ??, dated 14 July 1956 [sic, probably 1957], NMML, M.A. Master Papers, I. Subject Files, B. Shipping, file 482.
237. National Welfare Board for Seafarers, Special Subcommittee for Welfare in Ports, Proceedings, Examination of K.C. Ray, 8 August 1956, NMML, M.A. Master Papers, I. Subject Files, E. National Committees and Commissions, file 863;
238. interview with Abdulgani Y. Serang, General Secretary, National Union of Seafarers of India, 10 March 2003.
239. National Welfare Board for Seafarers, Special Subcommittee for Welfare in Ports, Proceedings, Visit to TS Bhadra and Examination of Captain Mody, 8 August 1956, ibid.
240. Adams, Across Seven Seas, p. 61;
241. Choudhury, The Roots and Tales, pp. 86-90;
242. see also Mowat, Seafarers' Conditions in India and Pakistan, pp. 81-83.
243. Seamen's Employment Office, Bombay, No. of Seamen on Articles as on 15 May 1956, NMML, M.A. Master Papers, I. Subject Files, E. National Committees and Commissions, file 867;
244. interview with Abdulgani Y. Serang, General Secretary, National Union of Seafarers of India, 10 March 2003 (who stressed the continuity of employment from Goa, while that from the Konkan had somewhat declined);
245. interview with Joseph Mascarenhas, former Chief steward and third-generation seaman from Concolim (Goa), 13 March 2003 (who mentioned for example that the seamen's villages of Assolna, Velim, and Concolim still maintained an association of clubs in Mumbai with more than 10,000 members).
246. Adams, Across Seven Seas, pp. 58, 61-66;
247. Gardner, Global Migrants, Local Lives, pp. 43-47, 56f.
248. Ballard, "The Context and Consequences of Migration", p. 125.
249. Wolf, "Incorporation and Identity", p. 366.
250. For this view see Edna Bonacich, "The Past, Present, and Future of Split Labour Market Theory", Research in Race and Ethnic Relations, 1 (1979), pp. 17-64, 19 and passim.
251. However, the distinction between "informal" and "formal" regulation is understood as an auxiliary tool for analytical purposes, while in reality both types would often merge into each other (as for instance in the case of trade unions, which were, as we have shown, often based on informal networks but aspired to legal recognition).
252. These are the alternative "resolutions" of the problem of "split labour markets" suggested by Edna Bonacich, ibid., p. 18.
253. For a study that stresses the importance of access to state power in conflicts between social groups involved with "split labour markets" see Yoav Peled and Gershon Shafir, "Split Labor Market and the State: The Effect of Modernization on Jewish Industrial Workers in Tsarist Russia", American Journal of Sociology, 92 (1987), pp. 1435-1466. For the contribution of (predominantly informal) social networks to the ethnification of labour market segmentations see Wolf, "Incorporation and Identity", pp. 366f. By introducing the concept of "scenarios of regulation", I try to come to grips with the interconnectedness of these seemingly separate practices of political and social power.