Shipping Lords and Coolie Stokers : Class, Race, and Maritime Capitalism in the Early Twentieth Century

Description

by Ahuja, Ravi | Colonialism & imperialism
Published 17/12/2024 by Verso Books in the United Kingdom
Paperback | 256 pages

When eighty-seven passengers and crew died in the shipwreck of the Royal Mail ship Egypt in 1922, the accident gave rise to a racist international press campaign against the employment of Indian seafarers, such as those who made up most of the ship’s crew. This was not unusual at a time when a fifth of the British mercantile marine’s workforce was recruited from the subcontinent. Ravi Ahuja explains the business logic behind a labour regime steeped in racist irrationalism and examines the scope for solidarity among a divided workforce in an age of imperialism – an issue that is no less relevant in our own time.