Coolie Migrants, Indian Diplomacy: Caste, Class, and Indenture Abroad, 1914-67

RSC Public Seminar Series, Hilary Term 2026

Series convened by Professor Tom Scott-Smith and Professor Catherine Briddick

About this talk

This talk recovers the histories and legacies of ‘coolie’ migrants as foundational to Indian diplomacy. Drawing on multi-archival research spanning the vast geographies of indenture and labour migration from India to Ceylon, the Caribbean, and Britain, I argue that Indian notions of the international realm were shaped by the prolific if ‘undesirable’ mobility of labourers and remained a space of anxiety defined by a caste-coded paranoia over the figure of the coolie. Through such a paradigm, my book addresses the longstanding neglect of caste and labour migration in Indian diplomatic history. It thereby provides a bottom-up approach to diplomatic studies and international relations that centres the experiences of migrants who have for too long been simply regarded as recipients and ‘problems’ of diplomacy.

About the speaker

Kalathmika Natarajan is Lecturer in Modern South Asian History at the University of Exeter and co-director of the Exeter South Asia Centre. Her interdisciplinary research combines critical approaches to diplomatic history and South Asian migration. She has worked at the University of Edinburgh, and received her doctoral degree from the University of Copenhagen.

The seminar will be followed by drinks in the Hall.

Registration not required.

All enquiries should be directed to rsc-outreach@qeh.ox.ac.uk