Hugh Tinker

First published in 1974, and republished by Hansib in 1993, this was the first comprehensive historical survey of a hitherto neglected and only partially known migration - the export of Indians to supply the labour needed in producing plantation crops such as sugar, coffee, tea and rubber, in Mauritius, South and East Africa, the Caribbean, Guyana, Sri Lanka, Malaya and Fiji. This followed the legal ending of slavery, but Professor Tinker shows how many features the two systems had in common. He portrays and discusses the slavery background, the recruiting and exporting from India, the sufferings of the indentured Indians during the long voyages, the five years indentured bondage and life on the plantations, the economic pressures and the slow awakening of nationalist leaders and governments to the evils of the system, and its eventual abandonment. Professor Tinker’s analysis is as relevant now as it was in 1974 and this edition makes its evidence and insights once more available.

• 215 x 135 mm
• 452 pages
• Paperback

Hugh Tinker was professor of Government and Politics at the University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) until 1969, and Director of the Institute of Race Relations, London, from 1970 to 1972.