Passages of ink: Decoding the Natal indentured records into the Digital Age
In every British colony that received indentured workers from India, officials recorded personal and social details for identifying the arriving migrants. In Natal, 152,184 migrants were inscribed into such lists between 1860 and 1911. This article traces the history of this set of documents from th...
Main Authors: | , |
---|---|
Format: | Article |
Language: | English |
Published: |
University of the Western Cape, Centre for Humanities Research and the History Department
|
Series: | Kronos |
Online Access: | http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0259-01902014000100003&lng=en&tlng=en |
id |
doaj-34ccf478393f45a18a82db06371e63e8 |
---|---|
record_format |
Article |
spelling |
doaj-34ccf478393f45a18a82db06371e63e82020-11-25T03:29:20ZengUniversity of the Western Cape, Centre for Humanities Research and the History DepartmentKronos0259-01902309-95854014573S0259-01902014000100003Passages of ink: Decoding the Natal indentured records into the Digital AgeThembisa Waetjen0Goolam Vahed1Durban University of TechnologyUniversity of Kwa-Zulu NatalIn every British colony that received indentured workers from India, officials recorded personal and social details for identifying the arriving migrants. In Natal, 152,184 migrants were inscribed into such lists between 1860 and 1911. This article traces the history of this set of documents from their mid-nineteenth-century origins as registers of imperial labour control to their twenty-first century digitisation by an amateur historian in a relational database, available online. Against the backdrop of transforming informational technologies, the story of the shipping lists is the story of their changing social and political meanings in relation to the circumstances of the Indian diaspora in South Africa over one hundred and fifty years. Now held at the Durban Archives Repository, these records are regularly drawn upon by South Africans of indentured ancestry to establish family origins for the purposes of applying for the status of 'Person of Indian Origin' or 'Overseas Citizen of India', offered by the Indian government to individuals who can prove Indian ancestry within a number of generations. Thus, the ships' lists are bracketed by very different periods in which the creation of an 'exceptional' political status was legislated to serve economic interests by harnessing linkages of the Global South.http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0259-01902014000100003&lng=en&tlng=en |
collection |
DOAJ |
language |
English |
format |
Article |
sources |
DOAJ |
author |
Thembisa Waetjen Goolam Vahed |
spellingShingle |
Thembisa Waetjen Goolam Vahed Passages of ink: Decoding the Natal indentured records into the Digital Age Kronos |
author_facet |
Thembisa Waetjen Goolam Vahed |
author_sort |
Thembisa Waetjen |
title |
Passages of ink: Decoding the Natal indentured records into the Digital Age |
title_short |
Passages of ink: Decoding the Natal indentured records into the Digital Age |
title_full |
Passages of ink: Decoding the Natal indentured records into the Digital Age |
title_fullStr |
Passages of ink: Decoding the Natal indentured records into the Digital Age |
title_full_unstemmed |
Passages of ink: Decoding the Natal indentured records into the Digital Age |
title_sort |
passages of ink: decoding the natal indentured records into the digital age |
publisher |
University of the Western Cape, Centre for Humanities Research and the History Department |
series |
Kronos |
issn |
0259-0190 2309-9585 |
description |
In every British colony that received indentured workers from India, officials recorded personal and social details for identifying the arriving migrants. In Natal, 152,184 migrants were inscribed into such lists between 1860 and 1911. This article traces the history of this set of documents from their mid-nineteenth-century origins as registers of imperial labour control to their twenty-first century digitisation by an amateur historian in a relational database, available online. Against the backdrop of transforming informational technologies, the story of the shipping lists is the story of their changing social and political meanings in relation to the circumstances of the Indian diaspora in South Africa over one hundred and fifty years. Now held at the Durban Archives Repository, these records are regularly drawn upon by South Africans of indentured ancestry to establish family origins for the purposes of applying for the status of 'Person of Indian Origin' or 'Overseas Citizen of India', offered by the Indian government to individuals who can prove Indian ancestry within a number of generations. Thus, the ships' lists are bracketed by very different periods in which the creation of an 'exceptional' political status was legislated to serve economic interests by harnessing linkages of the Global South. |
url |
http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0259-01902014000100003&lng=en&tlng=en |
work_keys_str_mv |
AT thembisawaetjen passagesofinkdecodingthenatalindenturedrecordsintothedigitalage AT goolamvahed passagesofinkdecodingthenatalindenturedrecordsintothedigitalage |
_version_ |
1724579910441238528 |