3.2 Asian arrivals Flashcards
How did Britain’s relationship with the wider world affect Asian immigration?
- As the EIC expanded from trading posts to exert military control of the country, the British Empire grew and huge profits were made
- Merchant seamen were needed to transport raw materials to Britain and manufactured goods from Britain
- Large numbers of these seamen were Asian men in need of work
What were their experiences and actions?
- Most lived in boarding-houses and segregated hostels provided either by the EIC or by people from their own communities
- Over time, as the seamen married local women and brought aspects of their own cultures: religion, food, entertainment, etc, multiracial working-class communities began to grow
- Some of the men who stayed faced poverty and racism at the hands of employers and seamen’s union leaders
- Their low pay pushed down wages for White seamen too, causing tension and occasional violence
Merchant seamen
Sailors that work on trading ships
Lascars
Sailors from India
Ayahs
Indian nannies
Indentured labour
Workers bound to their employer for a fixed period of time (fixed term slavery)
Ghat Serang
Local agents in India who arranged indentured work for lascars
Migrant Seamen: Initial rights and regulations
- In 1814, introduced regulations stated that even though Asian sailors had been born under British rule, they did not count as British subjects
- 1823 Merchant Shipping Act made the EIC responsible for the seafarers’ upkeep while in Britain.
- The act said that Lascars were British subjects but were denied some of the rights to employment of White seamen and prevented them from staying in Britain
- They were paid far less, which benefited shipping owners but undercut the pay of White seamen
- 1894 Merchant Shipping Act required ship owners to remove Lascars and even to round them up forcibly
Why were the rights for Indian seamen revised?
- The demand for cheap labour meant that the numbers of Lascars coming to Britain kept increasing
- As British trade and the profit gained by shipping companies partly depended them, laws were revised so that Indian seamen could be classed as British for employment purposes
Ghat serang
- Local agents that sold ‘coloured seamen’ into indentured labour
- They often took so much money as commission that hardly any was left for the seamen themselves
Repatriation
The process of returning back to one’s country of origin
Lascars - maritime life
- ‘coloured seamen’ were sold into indentured labour by local agents known as the ghat serang
- employers paid asian seamen far lower wages than White sailors, and gave them less food and living space on board ships
- resented by white sailors, who felt they were taking their jobs
- national union of seamen campaigned to stop the employment of foreign mariners
- 1893, serious battle in Barrow between white sailors and Muslims
- ridiculed for their customs
- on one ship they were hung up with weights tied to their feet, flogged with a rope, and forced to eat pork
Lascars - life in England
- conditions were so bad in 1813-14 that 92 Indian and 31 Chinese seamen died while in the care of the EIC
- lived at first in barrack-style lodgings
- missionaries described them as unable to speak English, isolated, destitute, and cut off from wider society
- poverty forced some of them into crime, some were thrown into prison for begging or theft; many died in the gaols
- missionaries viewed seamen as poor people who needed ‘saving’
- their centres provided food and lodging but also organised repatriation
Ayahs - experiences in England
- some ayahs were abandoned on arrival if the family employing them had only wanted their services during the sea voyage home
- others lost their jobs when the children they looked after grew up
- some servants were dismissed when they themselves were no longer children
- there is evidence that sometimes the employers paid for the return voyage back to India
- in 1900, London City Mission set up a home comprising 30 rooms, available to these migrant nannies who had nowhere else to go, took in about 100 each year
Eminent Indians - experiences in England
Mohammed Abdul Karim (1863-1909)
- a muslim from Agra in India who became a servant to Queen Victoria in 1887, age 24
- queen promoted him to the position of Indian secretary
- taught her about Indian religion and culture
- Victoria gave him houses in the grounds of her palaces
- her other advisers hated Karim and when the queen died, he was sent back to India
Prince Ranjitsinhji (1872-1933)
- played for Sussex County Cricket Club from 1895, became captain of the club
- 1899, became first cricketer to score over 3,000 runs in one year
- wildly popular in England, loved as a role-model by Indians
