Shipping Lords and Coolie Stokers - Class, Race, and Maritime Capitalism in the Early Twentieth Century

When eighty-seven passengers and crew died in the shipwreck of the Royal Mail ship Egypt in 1922, the accident gave rise to a racist international press campaign against the employment of Indian seafarers, such as those who made up most of the ship’s crew. This was not unusual at a time when a fifth of the British mercantile marine’s workforce was recruited from the subcontinent. Ravi Ahuja explains the business logic behind a labour regime steeped in racist irrationalism and examines the scope for solidarity among a divided workforce in an age of imperialism – an issue that is no less relevant in our own time.

List of contents

Introduction: ‘Lascar’ Seamen and ‘Racial Management’ under Steamship Capitalism

1. Collision Course: British Merchant Shipping and the Loss of a Mail Steamer
2. Good Copy: The Savagery of Panic-Stricken ‘Natives’
3. Spelling Disaster: Class and Race When a Ship Goes Down
4. Indian Outrage: Who Speaks for the ‘Lascar’?
5. Lines of Defence: ‘Natives, Properly Led’
6. Discomforting Testimonies: Eight ‘Native Seamen’ in Court
7. Communication Collapse: The Steamship and ‘Naval Hindustani’
8. Fireroom Hierarchy: Stoking, Skill, and Status
9. Stoker’s Stigma: The Two Lives of the ‘Hairy Ape’
10. Gains of ‘Racial Management’: Manning Scales and Liner Schedules
11. The Break-Up: Findings, Rulings, and the Limits of ‘Racial Management’
12. Course Adjustment: The Names of the ‘Native’

Acknowledgements
Index

About the author

Ravi Ahuja

Summary

A TRAGIC SHIPPING ACCIDENT OPENS A WINDOW ON RACIALIZED LABOUR MANAGEMENT IN AN AGE OF IMPERIALISM

Product details

• Authors: Ravi Ahuja, Ahuja Ravi
• Publisher: Verso
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 29.10.2024
• EAN: 9781804293515
• ISBN: 978-1-80429-351-5
• No. of pages: 256
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > History > Cultural history; Non-fiction book > History > Miscellaneous; HISTORY / Social History, HISTORY / Maritime History & Piracy, HISTORY / Europe / Great Britain / 20th Century, Colonialism & imperialism, Social discrimination & inequality, Colonialism and imperialism, Sociology: work & labour, Sociology: work and labour, Social discrimination and social justice