Jumping Ship: Indians, Aborigines and Australians Across the Indian Ocean
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Published:
Feb 25, 2008
Keywords:
India, Australia, lascars
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Abstract
Relationships between South Asians and Australians during the colonial period have been little investigated. Closer attention to the dramatically expanded sea trade after 1850 and the relatively uncontrolled movement of people, ideas and goods which occurred on them, despite claims of imperial regulation, suggests that significant numbers of Indians among others entered Australia outside the immigration restrictions of empire or settlers. Given that many of them entered or remained in Australia without official sanction, their histories will not be found in the official immigration records, but rather in the memories and momentos of the communities into which they might have moved. Exploring the histories of Aboriginal communities and of maritime working class networks does allow a previously unwritten history to emerge: not only of Indian individuals with complex personal and working histories, but often as activists in the campaigns against racial discrimination and in support of decolonization. Yet their heritage has been obscured. The polarizing conflict between settlers and Aboriginal Australians has invariably meant that Aboriginal people of mixed background had to ‘choose sides’ to be counted simplistically as either ‘black’ or ‘white’. The need to defend the community’s rights has meant that Aboriginal people had to be unequivocal in their identification and this simplification has had to take precedence over the assertion of a diverse heritage. In working class histories, the mobilization of selective ethnic stereotyping has meant that the history of Indians as workers, as unionists and as activists has been distorted and ignored.
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References
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Balachandran, Gopalan (2002) "Conflicts in the International Maritime Labour Market: British and Indian Seamen, Employers and the State, 1890-1939." In The Indian Economic and Social History Review, 39 (1): 96-99. https://doi.org/10.1177/001946460203900103
Balachandran, Gopalan (2003) "Circulation through Seafaring: Indian Seamen 1890 - 1945." In Society and Circulation: Mobile Peoples and Itinerant Cultures in South Asia, 1750-1950, edited by Claude Markovits, Jacques Pouchepadass and Sanjay Subrahmanyam, 89-130. New Delhi: Permanent Black.
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Barclay, Kate (2008, forthcoming) "Ocean, Empire and Nation: Japanese Fisheries Politics." In Fresh and Salt: Water, Borders and Sovereignty, edited by Devleena Ghosh and Heather Goodall. London: Routledge.
Blainey, Geoffrey (1982) The Tyranny of Distance: How Distance Shaped Australia's History. Melbourne: Macmillan.
Broadbent, James, Suzanne Rickard, & Margaret Steven (2003) India, China and Australia: Trade and Society 1788 - 1850, Historic Houses Trust.
Broeze, Frank (1998) Island Nation: A History of Australians and the Sea. Sydney: Allen and Unwin.
Brown, Max (1964) "Fernando, the Story of an Aboriginal Prophet ]." Aborigine Welfare Bulletin, Vol. 4(1): 7.
Burgmann, Verity (1995) Revolutionary Industrial Unionism: The Industrial Workers of the World in Australia. Melbourne: Cambridge University Press.
Curthoys, Ann (2003) "Constructing National Histories." In Frontier Conflict: The Australian Experience, edited by Bain Attwood and Stephen Foster, 185-200. Canberra: National Museum of Australia.
Curthoys, Ann, and Marilyn Lake, (eds.) (2005) Connected Worlds: History in Transnational Perspective. Canberra: ANU ePress.
D'Arcy, Paul (2006) The People of the Sea: Environment, Identity and History in Oceania. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press.
D'Souza, Rohan (2006) Drowned and Dammed: Colonial Capitalism and Flood Control in Eastern India. New Delhi: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195682175.001.0001
Ewald, Janet (2000) "Crossers of the Sea: Slaves, Freedmen, and Other Migrants in the Northwestern Indian Ocean, C. 1750 - 1914." American Historical Review 105, no. 1-42.
Fitzpatrick, Brian & Rowan J. Cahill (1981) The Seamen's Union of Australia: 1872-1972. A History. Sydney: The Seamen's Union of Australia.
Goodall, Heather (1983) "Pearl Gibbs: Some Memories." Aboriginal History 7, no. 1:20-22.
Goodall, Heather (1989) "Angry Ambassador: Anthony Fernando in Italy and England, 1887 to 1939." Land Rights News February.
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Goodall, Heather (2006) "Karoo: Mates. Communities Reclaim Their Images." Exchanging Histories: Aboriginal History 30: 47-65.
Goodall, Heather (2008, forthcoming) "Port Politics, Race and Change: Indian Seamen, Australian Unions and Indonesian Independence, 1945 -1947." Labour History.
Gregory, Derek (2004) The Colonial Present: Afghanistan, Palestine, Iraq. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing.
Hau'ofa, Epeli (1994) ""Our Sea of Islands"." The Contemporary Pacific 6, no. 1: 148-61.
Lockwood, Rupert (1982) Black Armada: Australia and the Struggle for Indonesian Independence 1942-49. Sydney: Hale and Iremonger.
Mann, Michael (2006) "Delhi's Belly: The Management of Water in a Changing Urban Environment, 1803-1912." Paper presented at the History of Waters, Jadavpur University.
Masselos, Jim (1992) "Changing Definitions of Bombay: City State to Capital City." In Ports and Their Hinterlands, 1700-1950, edited by Indu Banga, 273-316. New Delhi: Manohar Publications.
Maynard, John (2007) Fight for Liberty and Freedom, Aboriginal Studies Press, Canberra.
Morgan, Sally (1988) My Place. Fremantle: Fremantle Arts Centre Press.
Quinlan, Michael (1996) "Industrial Relations before Unions: New South Wales Seamen 1810 - 1852." Journal of Industrial Relations 38, no. 2: 264-93. https://doi.org/10.1177/002218569603800205
Rajkowski, Pamela (1987) In the Tracks of the Camelmen. Sydney: Angus and Robertson.
Stevens, Christine (1989) Tin Mosques and Ghantowns: A history of Afghan camel drivers in Australia, Oxford University Press, Melbourne.
Tabili, Laura (1994) "We Ask for British Justice": Workers and Racial Difference in Late Imperial Britain. New York: Cornell.
TravelOnLine (nd 2006) P&O Cruise History, Available online from http://www.travelonline.co.nz/cruises/po-history.html
Tyrrell, Ian (2002) "Beyond the View from Euro-America : Environment, Settler Societies, and the Internationalization of American History." In Rethinking American History, edited by Thomas Bender, 186 - 91. Berkeley: University of California Press. https://doi.org/10.1525/california/9780520230576.003.0008
Veracini, Lorenzo (2003) "The Evolution of Historical Redescription in Australia and Israel and the Question of Founding Violence." Australian Historical Studies, 122: 326-45. https://doi.org/10.1080/10314610308596258
Visram, Rozina (1986) Ayahs, Lascars and Princes: Indians in Britain 1700-1947. London: Pluto Press.
Wolfe, Patrick (2005) "Islam, Europe and Indian Nationalism: Towards a Postcolonial Transnationalism." In Connected Worlds: History in Transnational Pespective, edited by Ann Curthoys and Marilyn Lake. Canberra: ANU ePress.
Australia, Indian Seamen's Union in. "Union Membership Card Index 1945 - 1949." In Noel Butlin Archive of Business & Labour. Canberra, 1945 - 1949.
Balachandran, Gopalan (1996) "Searching for the Sardar: The State, Pre-Capitalist Institutions and Human Agency in the Maritime Labour Market, Calcutta, 1880-1935." In Institutions and Economic Change in South Asia, edited by Burton Stein and Sanjay Subrahmanyam, 206-36. Bombay: Oxford University Press.
Balachandran, Gopalan (2002) "Conflicts in the International Maritime Labour Market: British and Indian Seamen, Employers and the State, 1890-1939." In The Indian Economic and Social History Review, 39 (1): 96-99. https://doi.org/10.1177/001946460203900103
Balachandran, Gopalan (2003) "Circulation through Seafaring: Indian Seamen 1890 - 1945." In Society and Circulation: Mobile Peoples and Itinerant Cultures in South Asia, 1750-1950, edited by Claude Markovits, Jacques Pouchepadass and Sanjay Subrahmanyam, 89-130. New Delhi: Permanent Black.
Balachandran, Gopalan (2006) "Coolie, Class, and Nation." Paper presented at the Culture and Commerce in the Indian Ocean, Leiden.
Balachandran, Gopalan (2008, forthcoming) "Cultures of Protest in Transnational Contexts: Indian Seamen Abroad, 1885-1945." In (Indian Ocean - Leiden Conf), edited by Devleena Ghosh and Stephen Muecke. https://doi.org/10.5130/tfc.v3i2.922
Barclay, Kate (2008, forthcoming) "Ocean, Empire and Nation: Japanese Fisheries Politics." In Fresh and Salt: Water, Borders and Sovereignty, edited by Devleena Ghosh and Heather Goodall. London: Routledge.
Blainey, Geoffrey (1982) The Tyranny of Distance: How Distance Shaped Australia's History. Melbourne: Macmillan.
Broadbent, James, Suzanne Rickard, & Margaret Steven (2003) India, China and Australia: Trade and Society 1788 - 1850, Historic Houses Trust.
Broeze, Frank (1998) Island Nation: A History of Australians and the Sea. Sydney: Allen and Unwin.
Brown, Max (1964) "Fernando, the Story of an Aboriginal Prophet ]." Aborigine Welfare Bulletin, Vol. 4(1): 7.
Burgmann, Verity (1995) Revolutionary Industrial Unionism: The Industrial Workers of the World in Australia. Melbourne: Cambridge University Press.
Curthoys, Ann (2003) "Constructing National Histories." In Frontier Conflict: The Australian Experience, edited by Bain Attwood and Stephen Foster, 185-200. Canberra: National Museum of Australia.
Curthoys, Ann, and Marilyn Lake, (eds.) (2005) Connected Worlds: History in Transnational Perspective. Canberra: ANU ePress.
D'Arcy, Paul (2006) The People of the Sea: Environment, Identity and History in Oceania. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press.
D'Souza, Rohan (2006) Drowned and Dammed: Colonial Capitalism and Flood Control in Eastern India. New Delhi: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195682175.001.0001
Ewald, Janet (2000) "Crossers of the Sea: Slaves, Freedmen, and Other Migrants in the Northwestern Indian Ocean, C. 1750 - 1914." American Historical Review 105, no. 1-42.
Fitzpatrick, Brian & Rowan J. Cahill (1981) The Seamen's Union of Australia: 1872-1972. A History. Sydney: The Seamen's Union of Australia.
Goodall, Heather (1983) "Pearl Gibbs: Some Memories." Aboriginal History 7, no. 1:20-22.
Goodall, Heather (1989) "Angry Ambassador: Anthony Fernando in Italy and England, 1887 to 1939." Land Rights News February.
Goodall, Heather (1990) "'Saving the Children': Gender and the Colonization of Aboriginal Children in NSW, 1788 to 1990." Aboriginal Law Bulletin 2, no. 44: 6-9.
Goodall, Heather (1996) Invasion to Embassy: Land in Aboriginal Politics in NSW 1770-1972. Sydney: Allen & Unwin with Black Books.
Goodall, Heather (2002) "Too Early yet or Not Soon Enough? Reflections on "Sharing" Histories as Process Not Collection." Australian Historical Studies 33, no. 118: 7-24. https://doi.org/10.1080/10314610208596176
Goodall, Heather (2006) "Karoo: Mates. Communities Reclaim Their Images." Exchanging Histories: Aboriginal History 30: 47-65.
Goodall, Heather (2008, forthcoming) "Port Politics, Race and Change: Indian Seamen, Australian Unions and Indonesian Independence, 1945 -1947." Labour History.
Gregory, Derek (2004) The Colonial Present: Afghanistan, Palestine, Iraq. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing.
Hau'ofa, Epeli (1994) ""Our Sea of Islands"." The Contemporary Pacific 6, no. 1: 148-61.
Lockwood, Rupert (1982) Black Armada: Australia and the Struggle for Indonesian Independence 1942-49. Sydney: Hale and Iremonger.
Mann, Michael (2006) "Delhi's Belly: The Management of Water in a Changing Urban Environment, 1803-1912." Paper presented at the History of Waters, Jadavpur University.
Masselos, Jim (1992) "Changing Definitions of Bombay: City State to Capital City." In Ports and Their Hinterlands, 1700-1950, edited by Indu Banga, 273-316. New Delhi: Manohar Publications.
Maynard, John (2007) Fight for Liberty and Freedom, Aboriginal Studies Press, Canberra.
Morgan, Sally (1988) My Place. Fremantle: Fremantle Arts Centre Press.
Quinlan, Michael (1996) "Industrial Relations before Unions: New South Wales Seamen 1810 - 1852." Journal of Industrial Relations 38, no. 2: 264-93. https://doi.org/10.1177/002218569603800205
Rajkowski, Pamela (1987) In the Tracks of the Camelmen. Sydney: Angus and Robertson.
Stevens, Christine (1989) Tin Mosques and Ghantowns: A history of Afghan camel drivers in Australia, Oxford University Press, Melbourne.
Tabili, Laura (1994) "We Ask for British Justice": Workers and Racial Difference in Late Imperial Britain. New York: Cornell.
TravelOnLine (nd 2006) P&O Cruise History, Available online from http://www.travelonline.co.nz/cruises/po-history.html
Tyrrell, Ian (2002) "Beyond the View from Euro-America : Environment, Settler Societies, and the Internationalization of American History." In Rethinking American History, edited by Thomas Bender, 186 - 91. Berkeley: University of California Press. https://doi.org/10.1525/california/9780520230576.003.0008
Veracini, Lorenzo (2003) "The Evolution of Historical Redescription in Australia and Israel and the Question of Founding Violence." Australian Historical Studies, 122: 326-45. https://doi.org/10.1080/10314610308596258
Visram, Rozina (1986) Ayahs, Lascars and Princes: Indians in Britain 1700-1947. London: Pluto Press.
Wolfe, Patrick (2005) "Islam, Europe and Indian Nationalism: Towards a Postcolonial Transnationalism." In Connected Worlds: History in Transnational Pespective, edited by Ann Curthoys and Marilyn Lake. Canberra: ANU ePress.