Fleeting agencies : a social history of Indian Coolie women in British Malaya / Arunima Datta.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Datta, Arunima, author.

Series:

Global South Asians

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Indigenous women--Malaysia--Malaya--Social conditions--History.

Indigenous women.

Unskilled labor--Malaysia--Malaya--Social conditions--History.

Unskilled labor.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xvii, 240 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Place of Publication:

Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2021.

Summary:

Fleeting Agencies disrupts the male-dominated narratives by focusing on gendered patterns of migration and showing how South Asian women labour migrants engaged with the process of migration, interacted with other migrants and negotiated colonial laws. This is the first study of Indian coolie women in British Malaya to date. In exploring the politicization of labour migration trends and gender relations in the colonial plantation society in British Malaya, the author foregrounds how the migrant Indian 'coolie' women manipulated colonial legal and administrative perceptions of Indian women; their gender-prescriptive roles, relations within patriarchal marriage institutions, and even the emerging Indian national independence movement in India and Malaya. All this, to ensure their survival, escape from unfavourable relations and situations, and improve their lives. The book also introduces the concept of situational or fleeting agency, which contributes to further a nuanced understanding of agency in the lives of Indian coolie women.

Contents:

Cover

FLEETING AGENCIES

General Editor

Title

Copyright

Dedication

CONTENTS

TABLES

FIGURES

ABBREVIATIONS

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

INTRODUCTION

NOTES ON THE TERM "COOLIE"

SITUATING THE HISTORY OF COOLIE WOMEN

SITUATIONAL AGENCY: (RE)CONCEIVING AGENCY

FINDING AND NARRATING A HISTORY OF COOLIE WOMEN

CHARTING UNCHARTED HISTORIES

1 COOLIE WOMEN IN THE EMPIRE'S RUBBER GARDEN: HISTORICAL AND CONTEXTUAL BACKGROUND

THE LABOR CONNECTION BETWEEN INDIA AND MALAYA

NEED FOR COOLIE WOMEN ON ESTATES IN MALAYA

ECONOMIC CONCERNS OF PLANTERS

POLITICAL CONCERNS OF PLANTERS

TENSIONS AMONGST PLANTERS IN MALAYA

ADDRESSING LABOR CONCERNS THROUGH PLANNED GENDERED LABOR RECRUITMENT

COOLIE WOMEN AND CALLS FROM THE EMPIRE'S RUBBER GARDEN

(RE)CONCEIVING INDIAN COOLIE WOMEN'S MIGRATION HISTORY

2 "TAPPING" RESOURCES: (RE)FIGURING THE LABOR OF COOLIE WOMEN ON ESTATES

PRODUCING AND REPRODUCING LABOR

PRODUCING LABOR

Weeding

Tapping

Factory Work

REPRODUCING LABOR

ASSESSING "DEPENDENCE" AND "DEPENDENT" IMAGES OF COOLIE WOMEN

COOLIE WOMEN, LABOR STRIKES, AND RIOTS

COOLIE WOMEN AND NEGOTIATIONS WITH ESTATE HIERARCHIES

REMEMBERING COOLIE WOMEN'S "IDENTITIES" AND CONTRIBUTIONS ON ESTATES

3 MANAGING "PARTNERSHIPS": DOMESTICITY AND ENTREPRENEURIAL ENDEAVORS

THE COOLIE HOUSEHOLD: SPATIALITIES OF VIOLENCE

COLONIAL DESIGNS FOR COOLIE HOUSEHOLDS

COMPLICATED REALITIES OF COOLIE HOUSEHOLDS

VARIOUS DEPICTIONS OF COOLIE HOUSEHOLDS

CONCEIVING THE POSITION OF COOLIE WOMEN IN COOLIE HOUSEHOLDS

COOLIE WOMEN AND THE POLITICS OF VIOLENCE

4 NEGOTIATING INTIMACIES AND MORALITIES: ENTICEMENTS, DESERTIONS, VIOLENCE, AND GENDERED TRIALS

COOLIE WOMEN'S INTIMATE RELATIONS AND COLONIAL JUDGMENTALISM

IN THE NAME OF SOCIAL ORDER AND NATIONAL HONOR.

(RE)VISIONING COOLIE WOMEN'S INTIMACIES

5 BECOMING "RANIS": COOLIE WOMEN AS RANI OF JHANSI REGIMENT RECRUITS IN WORLD WAR II

FORMATION OF THE RANI OF JHANSI REGIMENT (RJR)

EVERYDAY LIFE FOR INDIANS IN MALAYA UNDER JAPANESE OCCUPATION

NEGOTIATING (IN)SECURITY: ESTATE WOMEN, AGENCY, AND ACTS OF SURVIVANCE

THE REWARDS OF PARTICIPATION

THE RANIS AS A DISCURSIVE RESOURCE FOR INDIAN NATIONALISTS

(UN)COVERING THE HISTORY OF ORDINARY WOMEN IN EXTRAORDINARY TIMES

CONCLUSION

(RE)THINKING AGENCY

PLACING COOLIE WOMEN IN COLONIAL AND NATIONAL HISTORY

(RE)IMAGINING SOUTH ASIAN HISTORY

EPILOGUE

ACKNOWLEDGING "PAST CONTINUITIES"

GLOSSARY

NOTES

CHAPTER 1

CHAPTER 2

CHAPTER 3

CHAPTER 4

CHAPTER 5

BIBLIOGRAPHY

ARCHIVES AND ABBREVIATIONS USED

INDIA

MALAYSIA

SINGAPORE

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

JOURNALS, MAGAZINES, AND NEWSPAPERS

ORAL HISTORY ARCHIVES

PRINTED PRIMARY SOURCES

BRITAIN

PERSONAL INTERVIEWS

DISSERTATIONS

SECONDARY SOURCES

INDEX.

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 07 Jan 2021).

ISBN:

1-009-03236-4

1-108-93711-X

OCLC:

1244624608