Centre for South Asian and Indian Ocean Studies
OVERVIEW
SAIOS is an interdisciplinary research centre established to study the shared culture of countries surrounding the Indian Ocean, that for centuries past have been linked together by the monsoon winds. A particular focus will be on the history, society and economy of South Asia (India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka)
Indian Overseas Migrants in the Colonial Era
Exploring the origins and contributions of 19th-century Indian labourers
Indians migrated overseas in large numbers from the 1830s onwards following the abolition of slavery in the British empire in 1834 and in the French empire a decade later. They first left home to work in sugar plantations in the British colonies in the Caribbean and southern Indian Ocean, as well as in South Africa and Fiji, and in the French colonies of Reunion, Guadeloupe, and Martinique.
