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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 17 May 2011
This paper looks at various circumstances of labor migration from South Asia to Iraq between 1900 and 1935. It stresses that inter-regional labor migration existed to varying degrees before, during, and after the First World War. This was predominantly a function of longstanding commercial ties besides the wartime engagement. At another level, the article offers an interpretation of how labor migration intersects with imperial formations as well as nationalisms evolving in both realms. It argues that the issue of migration to Iraq has to be seen in the context of a plethora of interventions and demands in the relationship between India and the Persian Gulf region over a much longer time period.
This paper is a revised part of my unpublished M.A. thesis, “Entangled Boundaries: British India and the Persian Gulf region during the transition from empires to nation states, c. 1880–1935.” All primary material is from the National Archives of India, New Delhi, unless otherwise stated. I thank the archival staff for their support and Ravi Ahuja, Prasannan Parthasarathi, and Radhika Singha for comments on earlier drafts of this paper.
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38. Railway Board (RB) to Railway Agents (RyA) of Indian railway companies, Dec 4, 1915. RB, Establishment (Est.), Apr 1916, 47/E.1-19 B.
39. RyA to RB, 7, 8 Dec 1916. Ibid.
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44a. These arguments are developed in Singha, “Finding Labour from India for the War in Iraq,” 415–22.
44b. Labeling coolies as “war measure” was just one of many methods. “The Indian jail population offered another resource of labor.” Ibid., 424–37.
45. Commander-in-Chief, Simla to Secy, War Office, Oct 5, 1917. FPD, Sec. Ext., Feb 1921, 56.
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53. Order in Council, Apr 30, 1920. HD, Pol., Jan 1921, 21 B.
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63. Ibid., 292–93.
64. “Indians in Iraq-Discarded Tools of British Imperialism,” Bombay Chronicle, 17, Mar 19, 1926, Apr 9, 1926. Education, Health and Lands, Overseas, Jan 1927, 95–122 B.
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66. Fifth Annual Report of the Indian Association in Iraq for the year ended March 31, 1927. FPD, N., 1928, 47.
67. Twelfth Annual Report of the Indian Association in Iraq for the year 1935–1936. FPD, N., 1936, 498.
68. Iraq Passport and Residence Laws, 1923. FPD, Ext., 1923, 118.
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72. M. N. Dean, Basra to Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, Oct 22, 1935. Ibid.
73. Letters from the Nagpur Nagar Hindu Sabha, Indian Merchant's Chamber, Imperial Indian Citizenship Association, Indian Overseas Association to governmental bodies in FPD, N., 1935, 592.
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76. Various notices of questions in: FPD, N., 1935, nos. 644, 653, 654, 656, 674, 1936, nos. 59, 97.
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