Slavery in India

There is evidence of Slavery in India in ancient times, offer a different interpretation, and suggest that the word
a practice that escalated with invasions of India in 8th dasa in Sanskrit is better translated as “enemy”, “servant”
century, and particularly after the 12th century.[1][2] The or “religious devotee” depending on the context. More re-
study of its history in India is complicated by contested cent scholarly interpretations of the Sanskrit words dasa
definitions, ideological and religious perceptions, diffi- or dasyu suggest that these words used throughout the
culties in interpreting written sources, and perceptions of Vedas represents “disorder, chaos and dark side of hu-
political impact of interpretations of written sources.[1] man nature”, and the verses that use the word dasa mostly
The term dāsa and dāsyu in Vedic and other ancient In- contrast it with the concepts of “order, purity, goodness
dian literature has been translated as “slave”, but other and light.”[4] In some contexts, the word dasa refers to en-
scholars have translated it as “servant”, “religious devo- emies and in other contexts, those who had not adopted
tee” and an abstract concept depending on context.[3][4] Vedic beliefs.[4] Dasa also appears in ancient Buddhist lit-
Kautilya's Arthasastra dedicated a chapter to dasa, in erature in various contexts. For example, “king’s dasa”,
which their legal rights are acknowledged, and in which where it refers to “a personal servant"; and “Buddha-
abuse, hurt and rape against dasas are explicitly crimi- dasa”, where it refers to “one in service of Buddha”.[12]
nalized and condemned.[5][6] Passages of the Arthasas- Buddhist manuscripts also mention kapyari, which schol-
tra, Smritis and the Hindu epic Mahabharata suggest that ars have translated as a legally bonded servant (slave).[13]
the social institution of slavery existed in India by the 1st Kautilya’s Arthasastra dedicates the thirteenth chapter on
millennium CE, likely by the lifetime of the Buddha.[1] dasas, in his third book on law. This Sanskrit docu-
Historical consensus points to the escalation of slavery ment from the Maurya Empire period (4th century BCE)
in India with the military campaign of Muslim armies in has been translated by several authors, each in a dif-
India.[1] There was extensive slavery in India’s Islamic pe- ferent manner. Shamasastry’s translation of 1915 maps
dasa as slave, while Kangle leaves the words as dasa and
riod from the 8th century through to the 18th century.[2]
Slaves were also seized in India and exported to Islamic karmakara. Kangle suggests that the context and rights
granted to dasa by Kautilya implies that the word had a
societies outside the subcontinent.[7] Scott Levi states
that, “the institution of slavery continued (in India), in different meaning than the modern word slave, as well as
the meaning of the word slave in Greek or other ancient
various manifestations, well after the decentralization of
the Mughal Empire in the early 18th century”. [1] and medieval civilizations.[5]
According to Arthasastra, anyone who had been found
guilty of nishpatitah (Sanskrit: निष्पातित, ruined,
1 Slavery in Ancient India bankrupt, a minor crime)[14] may mortgage oneself to be-
come dasa for someone willing to pay his or her bail and
employ the dasa for money and privileges.[5][6]
Scholars differ as to whether or not slaves and the in-
stitution of slavery existed in ancient India. These En- Shamasastry’s 1915 foundational translation of the
glish words have no direct, universally accepted equiva- Arthasastra describes the rights of the dasa, confirming
lent in Sanskrit or other Indian languages, but some schol- Kangle’s contention that they were quite different than
ars translate the word dasa as slaves.[3] Ancient historians slaves in other ancient and medieval civilizations. For ex-
who visited India offer the closest linguistic equivalence ample, it was illegal to force a dasa (slave) to do certain
in Indian society and slavery in other ancient civilizations. types of work, to hurt or abuse him, or to commit rape
For example, the Greek historian Arrian, who chronicled against a female dasa.[6]
India about the time of Alexander the Great, wrote in his
Indika,[8] Employing a slave (dasa) to carry the dead
or to sweep ordure, urine or the leavings of
The Indians do not even use aliens as slaves, food; keeping a slave naked; hurting or abusing
much less a countryman of their own. him; or violating the chastity of a female slave
— The Indika of Arrian[8] shall cause the forfeiture of the value paid for
him or her. Violation of the chastity shall at
once earn their liberty for them.
Upinder Singh interprets the word dasa (Sanskrit: दास) — Arthashastra, Translated by
in the Rig Veda as “slave”.[9] Kangle,[10] and others,[11] Shamasastry[6]

1
2 2 SLAVERY IN MEDIEVAL INDIA
When a master has connection (sex) with
a pledged female slave (dasa) against her will,
he shall be punished. When a man commits
or helps another to commit rape with a female
slave pledged to him, he shall not only for-
feit the purchase value, but also pay a certain
amount of money to her and a fine of twice the
amount to the government.
— Arthashastra, Translated by
Shamasastry[6]
A slave (dasa) shall be entitled to enjoy not
only whatever he has earned without prejudice
to his master’s work, but also the inheritance
he has received from his father.
— Arthashastra, Translated by
Shamasastry[6]
2 Slavery in medieval India
Slavery escalated during medieval era in India with the
arrival of Islam.[1][2] Wink summarizes the period as fol-
lows,
Slavery and empire-formation tied in par-
ticularly well with iqta and it is within this con-
text of Islamic expansion that elite slavery was
later commonly found. It became the predom-
inant system in North India in the thirteenth
century and retained considerable importance
in the fourteenth century. Slavery was still
vigorous in fifteenth-century Bengal, while af-
ter that date it shifted to the Deccan where it
persisted until the seventeenth century. It re-
mained present to a minor extent in the Mughal
provinces throughout the seventeenth century
and had a notable revival under the Afghans in
North India again in the eighteenth century.
— Al Hind, André Wink[15]
Slavery as a predominant social institution emerged from
the 8th century onwards in India, particularly after the
11th century, as part of systematic dethesaurization
(plunder) and enslavement of infidels, along with the use
of slaves in armies for conquest.[16] For each conquest, the
religious law on khums incentivized and distributed 80%
of the plunder and slaves to the soldiers, while requiring
20% of the captured wealth and slaves[17] be transferred
to the Caliph and sponsoring Islamic state.[16][18]
2.1 Islamic invasions (8th to 12th century
AD)
Islamic military conquests in north and northwest India
led to widespread seizure and slavery of non-Muslims and
an increased supply of Indian slaves for export to mar-
kets in Central Asia.[1] The early Arab rulers of Sindh
in the 8th century, the armies of the Umayyad comman-
der Muhammad bin Qasim enslaved thousands of Indi-
ans, including both children[19] and women.[20][21][22] An-
dre Wink summarizes the slavery in 8th and 9th century
India as follows,
(During the invasion of Muhammad al-
Qasim), invariably numerous women and chil-
dren were enslaved. The sources insist that
now, in dutiful conformity to religious law, 'the
one-fifth of the slaves and spoils’ were set apart
for the caliph’s treasury and despatched to Iraq
and Syria. The remainder was scattered among
the army of Islam. At Rūr, a random 60,000
captives reduced to slavery. At Brahamanabad
30,000 slaves were allegedly taken. At Mul-
tan 6,000. Slave raids continued to be made
throughout the late Umayyad period in Sindh,
but also much further into Hind, as far as Ujjain
and Malwa. The Abbasid governors raided
Punjab, where many prisoners and slaves were
taken.
— Al Hind, André Wink[23]
According to the Persian historian Firishta, after the
Ghaznavid capture of Thanesar (c. 1014), “the army
of Islam brought to Ghazna about 20,000 captives, and
much wealth, so that the capital appeared like an Indian
city, no soldier of the camp being without wealth, or with-
out many slaves”, and that, subsequently Sultan Ibrahim’s
raid into the Multan area of northwestern India yielded
10,000 captives.
Levi notes that these figures cannot be entirely dismissed
as exaggerations since they appear to be supported by
the reports of contemporary observers. In the early 11th
century Tarikh al-Yamini, the Arab historian Al-Utbi
recorded that in 1001 the armies of Mahmud of Ghazni
conquered Peshawar and Waihand (capital of Gandhara)
after Battle of Peshawar (1001), “in the midst of the
land of Hindustan", and enslaved thousands.[24][25] Later,
following his twelfth expedition into India in 1018–19,
Mahmud is reported to have returned to with such a large
number of slaves that their value was reduced to only two
to ten dirhams each. This unusually low price made, ac-
cording to Al-Utbi, “merchants came from distant cities
to purchase them, so that the countries of Central Asia,
Iraq and Khurasan were swelled with them, and the fair
and the dark, the rich and the poor, mingled in one com-
mon slavery”. Elliot and Dowson refers to “five hundred
thousand slaves, beautiful men and women”.[26][27][28]
2.3 Mughal Empire (16th to 19th century) 3

Al Biruni who visited and lived in India for 16 years in being supported by available figures.[1][38] Zia uddin
early 11th century, mentions slavery but only in context of Barani suggested that Sultan Alauddin Khilji owned
demand for Hindu slaves in Islamic territories. He wrote, 50,000 slave-boys, in addition to 70,000 construction
slaves. Sultan Firuz Shah Tughluq is said to have owned
Kumair is the name of a people the colour 180,000 slaves, roughly 12,000 of whom were skilled
of whom is whitish. They are of short stature artisans.[31][38][41][42][43][44] A significant proportion of
and of a build like that of the Turks. They slaves owned by the Sultans were likely to have been mili-
practice the religion of the Hindus, and have tary slaves and not labourers or domestics. However ear-
the custom of piercing their ears. Some inhab- lier traditions of maintaining a mixed army comprising
itants of wakwak islands are of black colour. In both Indian soldiers and Turkic slave-soldiers (ghilman,
our countries there is a great demand for them mamluks) from Central Asia, were disrupted by the rise
as slaves. of the Mongol Empire reducing the inflow of mamluks.
— Abū Rayḥān al-Bīrūnī [29] This intensified demands by the Delhi Sultans on local
Indian populations to satisfy their need for both military
and domestic slaves. The Khaljis even sold thousands of
captured Mongol soldiers within India.[32][41][45] China,
2.2 Delhi Sultanate (12th to 16th century Turkistan, Persia, and Khurusan were sources of male
AD) and female slaves sold to Tughluq India.[46][47][47][48][49]
The Yuan Dynasty Emperor in China sent 100 slaves of
During the Delhi Sultanate period (1206–1555), refer- both sexes to the Tughluq Sultan, and he replied [50] by also
ences to the abundant availability of low-priced Indian sending the same amount of slaves of both sexes.
slaves abound.[1][30] Many of these Indian slaves were
used by Muslim nobility in the subcontinent, but others
2.3 Mughal Empire (16th to 19th century)
were exported to satisfy the demand in international mar-
kets. The Mughals continued the slave trade.[51] Abd Allah
The revenue system of the Delhi Sultanate produced a Khan Firuz Jang, an Uzbek noble at the Mughal court
considerable proportion of the Indian slave population during the 1620s and 1630s, was appointed to the posi-
as these rulers, and their subordinate shiqadars, ordered tion of governor of the regions of Kalpi and Kher and,
their armies to abduct large numbers of locals as a means in the process of subjugating the local rebels, ``beheaded
of extracting revenue.[31][32] While those communities the leaders and enslaved their women, daughters and chil-
that were loyal to the Sultan and regularly paid their dren, who were more than 200,000 in number.[52]
taxes were often excused from this practice, taxes were When Shah Shuja was appointed as governor of Kabul,
commonly extracted from other, less loyal groups in the he carried out a ruthless war in Indian territory beyond
form of slaves. Thus, according to Barani, the Shamsi the Indus. Most of the women burnt themselves to death
“slave-king” Balban (r. 1266–87) ordered his shiqadars to save their honour. Those captured were “distributed”
in Awadh to enslave those peoples resistant to his au- among Muslim mansabdars.[34][53] “Under Shah Jahan
thority, implying those who refused to supply him with
peasants were compelled to sell their women and children
tax revenue.[33] Sultan Alauddin Khilji (r. 1296–1316) to meet their revenue requirements...The peasants were
is similarly reported to have legalised the enslavement of
carried off to various markets and fairs to be sold with
those who defaulted on their revenue payments.[33] This their poor unhappy wives carrying their small children
policy continued during the Mughal era.[34][35][36][37][38]
crying and lamenting. According to Qaznivi, Shah Jahan
An even greater number of people were enslaved as a had decreed they should be sold to Muslim lords.”[54][55]
part of the efforts of the Delhi Sultans to finance their The Augustinian missionary Fray Sebastiao Manrique,
expansion into new territories.[39] For example, while he who was in Bengal in 1629–30 and again in 1640, re-
himself was still a military slave of the Ghurid Sultan marked on the ability of the shiqdār—a Mughal offi-
Muizz u-Din, Qutb-ud-din Aybak (r. 1206–10 as the cer responsible for executive matters in the pargana,
first of the Shamsi slave-kings) invaded Gujarat in 1197 the smallest territorial unit of imperial administration
and placed some 20,000 people in bondage. Roughly to collect the revenue demand, by force if necessary,
six years later, he enslaved an additional 50,000 peo- and even to enslave peasants should they default in their
ple during his conquest of Kalinjar. Later in the 13th payments.[53]
century, Balban’s campaign in Ranthambore, reportedly A survey of a relatively small, restricted sample of
defeated the Indian army and yielded “captives beyond seventy-seven letters regarding the manumission or sale
computation”.[38][40] of slaves in the Majmua-i-wathaiq reveals that slaves of
Levi states that the forcible enslavement of non-Muslims Indian origin (Hindi al-asal) accounted for over fifty-
during Delhi Sultanate was motivated by the desire for eight percent of those slaves whose region of origin
war booty and military expansion. This gained mo- is mentioned. The Khutut-i-mamhura bemahr-i qadat-i
mentum under the Khilji and Tughluq dynasties, as Bukhara, a smaller collection of judicial documents from
4 3 UNDER EARLY EUROPEAN COLONIAL POWERS

early-eighteenth-century Bukhara, includes several let- 2.4 “Export” of Indian slaves to interna-
ters of manumission, with over half of these letters re- tional “markets”
ferring to slaves “of Indian origin”. Even in the model of
a legal letter of manumission written by the chief qazi for Alongside Buddhist Oirats, Christian Russians, non-
his assistant to follow, the example used is of a slave “of Sunni Afghans, and the predominantly Shia Iranians, In-
Indian origin”.[56] dian slaves were an important component of the highly
Levi is of the opinion that the supply of Indian slaves for active slave markets of medieval and early modern Cen-
“export” dwindled as the Mughal empire weakened, de- tral Asia. The all pervasive nature of slavery in this pe-
centralised and its military expansion came to an end.[1] riod in Central Asia is shown by the 17th century records
The degeneration of the Mughal empire coincided with of one Juybari Sheikh, a Naqshbandi Sufi leader, owning
the increasing general exclusion of slaves from the tax- over 500 slaves, forty of whom were specialists in pot-
revenue systems of the successor states and the growing tery production while the others were engaged in agricul-
commercial and cultural separation of India and its neigh- tural work.[67] High demand for skilled slaves, and India’s
bours to the north and west under the British Raj. larger and more advanced textile industry, agricultural
production and tradition of architecture demonstrated to
its neighbours that skilled-labour was abundant in the sub-
2.3.1 Fatawa-i Alamgiri continent leading to enslavement and “export” of large
numbers of skilled labour as slaves, following their suc-
Main article: Fatawa-e-Alamgiri cessful invasions.[68]
After sacking Delhi, Timur enslaved several thousand
The Fatawa-e-Alamgiri (also known as the Fatawa- skilled artisans, presenting many of these slaves to his
i-Hindiya and Fatawa-i Hindiyya) was sponsored by subordinate elite, although reserving the masons for
use in the construction of the Bibi-Khanym Mosque in
Aurangzeb in the late 17th century.[57] It compiled the
law for the Mughal Empire, and involved years of ef- Samarkand.[69] Young female slaves fetched higher mar-
fort by 500 Muslim scholars from South Asia, Iraq andket price than skilled construction slaves, sometimes by
150%.[70] Because of their identification in Muslim soci-
Saudi Arabia. The thirty volumes on Hanafi-based sharia
eties as kafirs, “non-believers”, Hindus were especially in
law for the Empire was influential during and after Auru-
demand in the early modern Central Asian slave markets,
angzeb’s rule, and it included many chapters and laws on
slavery and slaves in India.[58][59][60] with Indian slaves specially mentioned in waqafnamas,
and archives and even being owned by Turkic pastoral
Some of the slavery-related law included in Fatawa-i
groups.[71]
Alamgiri were,

• the right of Muslims to purchase and own slaves,[59] 2.5 Under the Marathas
• a Muslim man’s right to have sex with a captive slave During the period of Maratha Empire, some slaves were
girl he owns or a slave girl owned by another Muslim able to enjoy what ever they used to earn and entitled
(with master’s consent) without marrying her,[61] to inherit the property of his father. In most cases the
slaves were forced to work all their lives and their chil-
• a Muslim master’s right to acknowledge or decline dren were also slaves. The slaves were given food, shelter
recognition of children born to slave girls he “had and clothes and they did not have means to escape their
sex with” - a recognition that affected whether the owners. In short, the slavery under the Marathas was dif-
slave’s children would have any inheritance, the in- ferent than the slavery in Europe and America. Some
ability of infidels (non-Muslims) to inherit,[62] slaves were treated well and they were set free on sev-
eral occasions, festivals and due to their old age. They
• no inheritance rights for slaves,[63] were released on the suitable substitute for their owner
and allowed to marry with the person of their choice.
• the testimony of all slaves was inadmissible in a
[64] The marriage of slave girl means it was as good as her
court of law
manumission.[72]
• slaves require permission of the master before they
can marry,[65]
3 Under early European colonial
• an unmarried Muslim may marry a slave girl he owns
but a Muslim married to a Muslim woman may not
powers
marry a slave girl,[66]
According to one author, in spite of the best efforts of the
• conditions under which the slaves may be emanci- slave-holding elite to conceal the continuation of the in-
pated partially or fully[60] stitution from the historical record, slavery was practised
3.1 17th century
throughout colonial India in various manifestations.[73] In
reality, the movement of Indians to the Bukharan slave
markets did not cease and Indian slaves continued to be
sold in the markets of Bukhara well into the nineteenth
century.
3.1 17th century
Slavery existed in Portuguese India after the 16th century.
“Most of the Portuguese”, says Albert. D. Mandelslo, a
German itinerant writer, “have many slaves of both sexes,
whom they employ not only on and about their persons,
but also upon the business they are capable of, for what
they get comes with the master.
The Dutch, too, largely dealt in slaves. They were mainly
Abyssian, known in India as Habshis or Sheedes. The
curious mixed race in Kanara on the West coast has traces
of these slaves.[74]
The Dutch Indian Ocean slave trade was primarily me-
diated by the Dutch East India Company, drawing cap-
tive labour from three commercially closely linked re-
gions: the western, or Southeast Africa, Madagascar, and
the Mascarene Islands (Mauritius and Reunion); the mid-
dle, or Indian subcontinent (Malabar, Coromandel, and
the Bengal/Arakan coast); and the eastern, or Malaysia,
Indonesia, New Guinea (Irian Jaya), and the southern
Philippines.
The Dutch traded slaves from fragmented or weak small
states and stateless societies in the East beyond the sphere
of Islamic influence, to the company’s Asian headquar-
ters, the “Chinese colonial city” of Batavia (Jakarta),
and its regional centre in coastal Sri Lanka. Other
destinations included the important markets of Malacca
(Melaka) and Makassar (Ujungpandang), along with the
plantation economies of eastern Indonesia (Maluku, Am-
bon, and Banda Islands), and the agricultural estates of
the southwestern Cape Colony (South Africa).
On the Indian subcontinent, Arakan/Bengal, Malabar,
and Coromandel remained the most important source of
forced labour until the 1660s. Between 1626 and 1662,
the Dutch exported on an average 150–400 slaves annu-
ally from the Arakan-Bengal coast. During the first thirty
years of Batavia’s existence, Indian and Arakanese slaves
provided the main labour force of the company’s Asian
headquarters. Of the 211 manumitted slaves in Batavia
between 1646 and 1649, 126 (59.71%) came from South
Asia, including 86 (40.76%) from Bengal. Slave raids
into the Bengal estuaries were conducted by joint forces
of Magh pirates, and Portuguese traders (chatins) operat-
ing from Chittagong outside the jurisdiction and patron-
age of the Estado da India, using armed vessels (galias).
These raids occurred with the active connivance of the
Taung-ngu (Toungoo) rulers of Arakan. The eastward The volume of the total Dutch Indian Ocean slave trade
expansion of the Mughal Empire, however, completed has been estimated to be about 15–30% of the Atlantic
with the conquest of Chittagong in 1666, cut off the slave trade, slightly smaller than the trans-Saharan slave
traditional supplies from Arakan and Bengal. Until the
5
Dutch seizure of the Portuguese settlements on the Mal-
abar coast (1658–63), large numbers of slaves were also
captured and sent from India’s west coast to Batavia, Cey-
lon, and elsewhere. After 1663, however, the stream of
forced labour from Cochin dried up to a trickle of about
50–100 and 80–120 slaves per year to Batavia and Cey-
lon, respectively.
In contrast with other areas of the Indian subcontinent,
Coromandel remained the centre of a sporadic slave
trade throughout the seventeenth century. In various
short-lived expansions accompanying natural and human-
induced calamities, the Dutch exported thousands of
slaves from the east coast of India. A prolonged period
of drought followed by famine conditions in 1618–20 saw
the first large-scale export of slaves from the Coroman-
del coast in the seventeenth century. Between 1622 and
1623, 1,900 slaves were shipped from central Coroman-
del ports, like Pulicat and Devanampattinam. Company
officials on the coast declared that 2,000 more could have
been bought if only they had the funds.
The second expansion in the export of Coromandel slaves
occurred during a famine following the revolt of the
Nayaka Indian rulers of South India (Tanjavur, Senji,
and Madurai) against Bijapur overlordship (1645) and the
subsequent devastation of the Tanjavur countryside by
the Bijapur army. Reportedly, more than 150,000 peo-
ple were taken by the invading Deccani Muslim armies
to Bijapur and Golconda. In 1646, 2,118 slaves were
exported to Batavia, the overwhelming majority from
southern Coromandel. Some slaves were also acquired
further south at Tondi, Adirampatnam, and Kayalpat-
nam.
A third phase in slaving took place between 1659 and
1661 from Tanjavur as a result of a series of successive
Bijapuri raids. At Nagapatnam, Pulicat, and elsewhere,
the company purchased 8,000–10,000 slaves, the bulk of
whom were sent to Ceylon while a small portion were ex-
ported to Batavia and Malacca. A fourth phase (1673–
77) started from a long drought in Madurai and south-
ern Coromandel starting in 1673, and intensified by the
prolonged Madurai-Maratha struggle over Tanjavur and
punitive fiscal practices. Between 1673 and 1677, 1,839
slaves were exported from the Madurai coast alone. A
fifth phase occurred in 1688, caused by poor harvests
and the Mughal advance into the Karnatak. Thousands of
people from Tanjavur, mostly girls and little boys, were
sold into slavery and exported by Asian traders from Na-
gapattinam to Aceh, Johor, and other slave markets. In
September 1687, 665 slaves were exported by the En-
glish from Fort St. George, Madras. Finally, in 1694–96,
when warfare once more ravaged South India, a total of
3,859 slaves were imported from Coromandel by private
individuals into Ceylon.[75] [76] [77][78]
6 6 REFERENCES

trade, and one-and-a-half to three times the size of the ships, unprepared for the long and arduous four-month
Swahili and Red Sea coast and the Dutch West India sea journey. Charles Anderson, a special magistrate
Company slave trades.[79] investigating these sugarcane plantations, wrote to the
British Colonial Secretary declaring that with few excep-
tions, the indentured labourers are treated with great and
3.2 18th to 20th century unjust severity; plantation owners enforced work in plan-
tations, mining and domestic work so harshly, that the
Between 1772 to 1833, the British parliament debates, decaying remains of immigrants were frequently discov-
as recorded in Hansard confirm the existence of exten- ered in fields. If labourers protested and refused to work,
sive slavery in India, primarily for Arabian and Euro- they were not paid or fed: they simply starved.[86][87]
pean colonial markets under the East India Company.[80]
When Britain abolished slavery in its Empire, through
Slavery Abolition Act 1833, it included a clause that al-
lowed slavery inside India and enslavement of Indians for
4 Contemporary slavery
[81]
colonial markets operated by the East India Company.
Andrea Major notes,[82] According to multiple organizations, there were 30 mil-
lion people enslaved in 2013, with an estimated 13.9 mil-
In fact, eighteenth century Europeans, in- lion of those in India.[88]
cluding some Britons, were involved in buying,
selling and exporting Indian slaves, transfer-
ring them around the subcontinent or to Euro- 4.1 Child slavery
pean slave colonies across the globe. Morever,
many eighteenth century European households The existence of child slavery in South Asia and the
in India included domestic slaves, with the world has been alleged by NGOs and the media.[89]
owners’ right of property over them being up- With the Bonded Labour (Prohibition) Act 1976 and the
held in law. Thus, although both colonial ob- International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (con-
servers and subsequent historians usually rep- cerning slavery and servitude), a spotlight has been placed
resent South Asian slavery as an indigenous in- on these problems in India.
stitution, with which the British were only con-
cenred as colonial reforms, until the end of the
eighteenth century Europeans were deeply im- 5 See also
plicated in both slave-holding and slave-trading
in the region. • Veth
— Slavery, Abolitionism and Empire in
India, 1772-1843[82] • History of slavery in Asia

• Child labour in India

Indentured labor system • Labour in India

After the United Kingdom abolished slavery by mid 19th

century, it introduced a new indentured labor system that
scholars suggest was slavery by contract.[83][84][85]
6 References
In this new system, they were called indentured labour-
ers. South Asians began to replace Africans previously
brought as slaves, under this indentured labour scheme
to serve on plantations and mining operations across the
British empire.[86] The first ships carrying indentured
labourers left India in 1836.[86] In the second half of the
19th century, indentured Indians were treated as inhu-
manely as the enslaved people previously had been. They
were confined to their estates and paid a pitiful salary.
Any breach of contract brought automatic criminal penal-
ties and imprisonment.[86] Many of these were brought
away from their homelands deceptively. Many from in-
land regions over a thousand kilometers from seaports
were promised jobs, were not told the work they were
being hired for, or that they would leave their homeland
and communities. They were hustled aboard the waiting
[1] Scott C. Levi (2002), Hindus Beyond the Hindu Kush:
Indians in the Central Asian Slave Trade, Journal of the
Royal Asiatic Society, Series 3, 12, 3, pages 277-288
[2] • Burjor Avari (2013), Islamic Civilization in South
Asia, Routledge, ISBN 978-0415580618, pages
41-68;
• Abraham Eraly (2014), The Age of Wrath: A His-
tory of the Delhi Sultanate, Part VIII, Chapter 2,
Penguin, ISBN 978-0670087181;
• Vincent A. Smith, The early history of India, 3rd
Edition, Oxford University Press, Reprinted in
1999 by Atlantic Publishers, Books IV and V -
Muhammadan Period;
• K. S. Lal, Muslim Slave System in Medieval India
(New Delhi, 1994);

• Salim Kidwai, “Sultans, Eunuchs and Domestics:
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7 External links
• The law and custom of slavery in British India in a
series of letters to Thomas Fowell Buxton, esq., by
William Adam., 1840 Open Library
• Modern Slavery, Human bondage in Africa, Asia,
and the Dominican Republic
• The Small Hands of Slavery, Bonded Child Labor
In India
• India – bonded labour: the gap between illusion and
reality
• Child Slaves in Modern India: The Bonded Labor
Problem
• Legislative Redress Rather Than Progress? From
Slavery to Bondage in Colonial India by Stefan Tet-
zlaff
10 8 TEXT AND IMAGE SOURCES, CONTRIBUTORS, AND LICENSES

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