power of education
AS BRITAIN tightened its grip over India, its officials and soldiers went about pillaging the country’s wealth and destroying the livelihoods of its people. Shashi Tharoor talks about hacking off the thumbs of weavers to stop them from earning an income from their looms.
That destruction was a “push factor” driving people into indenture. In an elaborate “coolie catching” system, recruiters or “arkatiyas” deliberately targeted people driven to desperation. Not all who were shipped to the colonies were in such a sorry state.
Peppered among these labour migrants were the
