Between Coercion and Agency: Abolitionand the Afterlives of Slavery in Kerala(1843–1941)
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.66871/ihj.v1i1.003الكلمات المفتاحية:
slavery abolition، caste-based slvaery، agrarian labour، colonial kerala، post emancipation unfreedom، South Asian labour historyالملخص
Modern-day Kerala, or the Malayalam-speaking region of southern India, contained some of the most extensive systems of caste-based agrarian slavery in the Indian subcontinent. Prior to abolition, communities such as the Paraiyars and Pulayars were tied to agricultural labour through hereditary forms of servitude that contemporary observers frequently described as slavery. While the formal abolition of slavery in Travancore-Cochin in 1855 and earlier legislative measures in British Malabar removed the legal basis of slave ownership, the extent to which these reforms altered the everyday lives of former slave castes remains contested.
This article examines the aftermath of abolition in the Malayalam-speaking region between the mid-nineteenth century and the final decades of colonial rule. Drawing upon missionary writings, travel accounts, district manuals, and administrative reports alongside colonial census data from Travancore, Cochin, and Malabar, it investigates patterns of occupational continuity and living conditions among former slave castes. Particular attention is given to the Paraiyar and Pulayar communities, who constituted a substantial proportion of the agrarian labour force before abolition.
The evidence suggests that although abolition transformed the legal status of enslaved communities, many of the material structures that had sustained slavery persisted. Census data indicate that former slave castes remained overwhelmingly concentrated in agricultural labour decades after emancipation, while descriptive sources continue to record severe social exclusion, segregated settlements, and poor housing conditions. The article argues that abolition in the Malayalam region did not constitute a sharp transition from slavery to freedom, but rather a reconfiguration of existing relations of dependency within a changing colonial and princely-state framework. By combining quantitative census data with contemporary qualitative accounts, the study contributes to broader debates on caste, labour, and the afterlives of slavery in South Asia.
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