Human Bondage in the Indian Ocean World: Roots, Structure and Transformations. – iow

The proposed research project which brings together a interdisciplinary Franco-Quebecois team of specialists on forms of human servitude in the IOW (historians Antonio Mendes and Johanna Ransmeier; economic historians Gwyn Campbell and Alessandro Stanziani; geographer Jon Unruh), political scientist Isabelle Guérin; anthropologist David Picherit); and a geoscientist expert in Dynamic Bayesian Networks (Margaret Kalácska). We have added three PhD students of the EHESS: Claude Chevaleyre, historian, specialist of srvitude and slavery in early modern China; Laura de Lisi, economist, working on child labor in Africa and Nithya Joseph, economist and anthropologist, working on debt bondage in India.

Through researching key archives (colonial, national, local, judicial); structured interviews; the construction of a data base on migration and environmental factors and their impact; and the utilization of Dynamic Bayesian Networks which will permit us to establish in a robust manner relationships between the different variables (migrations, environmental events etc) from 1800 to the present day across the entire macro-region, we will be able to undertake comparative analyses that will not only bring the historical and contemporary dimensions of IOW bondage to the forefront of the research agenda, but through the strategic dissemination of research results, also increase public understanding of the causes and nature of IOW bondage, and help decision-makers formulate appropriate policies.

Environment: Alessandro Stanziani has developed a detail analysis of the cyclone impact on Mascarene Islands in the Nineteenth century. He has identified in unexplored archives all the cyclones touching the Mascarene Islands and the southern part of the Indian Ocean between 1750 and 1914. Scales, impact on human, material resources, local environment have been listed. The Canadian team has also identified the connection between droughts in India and emigration to the Mascarene Islands. Taken together, these outcomes show the strong impact of the environment on the economies and societies of the Indian Ocean and the deep connection between these sub-areas, such as droughts in India and cyclones in the south part of the Indian Ocean, that is, between lack of rice in both sides of the area precisely at the moment when starving people move more. An important database on the impact of the environment on the Indian Ocean since the eighteenth century through nowadays has been constructed at Mc Gill.
We have also indentified and quantified the main forms of bondage in Early Modern China, in India (19th century to nowadays) and in contemporary India and Africa.
We also identified the judicial archives in all the mentioned areas and specified the forms of litigations between bonded people and their masters and the issues.
We produced two databases on bondage and environment, published an individual monograph, two collective books, two more to be published, and 20 articles in peer review journals.
Conclusions:
-we have produced a brand new history of bonded labor in China.
- proved the role of the environment on bondage in the IOW
-proved the crucial role of debt as origin of bondage
Identified the origins and specificities of child labor in Africa.

The web site met a wide success and we intend to poursue its exploitation by widening its content to Africa.
we have also launched a stimulating cooperation with the ILO and NGOs and we will further developit, in terms of scientific collaboration and stages for our students.
Thank to this project, we were also able to launch a new international consortium at the EHESS, in Global history, with the Universities of Tokyo, Princeton and Humboldt.

G. Campbell, A. Stanziani (ed), Debt and Bondage in the Indian Ocean, forthcoming, Pickering and Chatto, 2013.

A. Stanziani, Sailors, Slaves and Migrants in the Indian Ocean, New York, Palgrave Mc Millan, 2014.

G. Campbell, A. Stanziani (eds), Environment, bondage and growth in the IOW, accepted by Palgrave Mac Millan, forthcoming.

Alessandro Stanziani, Local Bondage in Global economies. Reunion, Mauritius Island and the European Empires », Modern Asian Studies.

Isabelle Guérin, Bonded Labour, Agrarian change and Capitalism: Emerging Patterns in South-India, Journal of
Agrarian Change, 13(3) 2013: 105-423.

Picherit D. 2013. Labour, debt and power in rural South India: Perspectives on overindebtedness and protection. In Guérin Isabelle and Magdalena Villareal (Eds), 4. Guérin Isabelle and Magdalena Villareal (Eds), Microfinance, debt and over-indebtedness. Juggling with Money. Routledge.

Isabelle Guérin, G. Venkatasubramanian , Sébastien Michiels, Labour in Contemporary South India, Routledge (submitted).

It is estimated that some 27 million people live in contemporary forms of human bondage, notably in the Indian Ocean World (IOW), a vast region running from Eastern Africa, to the Middle East, South and Southeast Asia to China. International agencies such as Anti-Slavery International (ASI), the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) have for long agitated for the suppression of modern forms of bondage, but governments both in the region and in the West have to date failed to formulate effective policies.

This underscores the significance of the proposed research project which brings together a interdisciplinary Franco-Quebecois team of specialists on forms of human servitude in the IOW (historians Antonio Mendes and Johanna Ransmeier; economic historians Gwyn Campbell and Alessandro Stanziani; geographer Jon Unruh), political scientist Isabelle Guérin; anthropologist David Picherit); and a geoscientist expert in Dynamic Bayesian Networks (Margaret Kalácska). This team aims, for the first time, to carry out a comparative structure of coerced labour in three core regions of the IOW: China, South Asia, and East Africa. These regions are of major significance. China and India constitute major emerging economic powers and have historically played highly important roles in the IOW economy. By contrast, East Africa is home to some of the world’s poorest countries. Moreover, whereas democratic influences run deep in India, they are suppressed in China, and have only nominal influence in East Africa. As human rights form the foundation of democracy, the perpetuation of human bondage on a large scale in the IOW poses major threats to political and economic stability both within the region and world-wide.

This project will explore the relationship between historical and contemporary forms of servitude and human trafficking in the IOW within the context of socio-economic, institutional and specific environment interaction. Through researching key archives (colonial, national, local, judicial); structured interviews; the construction of a data base on migration and environmental factors and their impact; and the utilization of Dynamic Bayesian Networks which will permit us to establish in a robust manner relationships between the different variables (migrations, environmental events etc) from 1800 to the present day across the entire macro-region, we will be able to undertake comparative analyses that will not only bring the historical and contemporary dimensions of IOW bondage to the forefront of the research agenda, but through the strategic dissemination of research results, also increase public understanding of the causes and nature of IOW bondage, and help decision-makers formulate appropriate policies.