Indian Minorities in Sub-Saharan Africa: British Colonial Immigration Laws And the Making and Unmaking of Subjecthood

• In Event: Licit and Illicit Lives in the Indian Ocean

Abstract

This paper examines Indian identity, citizenship and notions of the ‘diaspora’ across southern and East Africa. It focuses on the development of cross-imperial British ideas about Indian, African and European economic interests through the lens of colonial immigration laws. These laws provide an insight into the social and political impact of Indian migrants in the economy and underscore the implications of legislation for shifting identities and discourses around legitimacy, citizenship, exclusion and alienation in British colonies.

Author

• Marina Martin, Goethe University, Frankfurt am Main