The Legal Rudiments of Indentured Labor in Colonial India

Seminar paper from the year 2023 in the subject Law - Civil / Private / Industrial / Labour, grade: 1, University of Vienna (Institut für Rechtswissenschaften), course: Unfreie Arbeit, language: English, abstract: The aim of this paper is not to prove whether indentured labor was free or unfree, but to outline the history of indenture in colonial India and other British colonies and to give a somewhat comprehensive picture of the legal rudiments of indenture in colonial India. Still, this paper examines the variety of factors which may lead to the assumption that indentured labor was an unfree form of labor in the historical context of indenture. This chapter on the history of indentured labor ought to give a historical overview of the indentured labor system in colonial India as well as its political rudiments and to help gain a better understanding about the historical background the legal system regarding indenture was built upon.