For decades after 1947, officials colluded to deprive underprivileged Indians passports, studies reveal.
More than a million Indians migrated to all corners of the British Empire like Jamaica to carry out indentured labour
"Such a stark delineation effectively made the Indian passport-holder as a state sanctioned, desirable representative of India, defined in opposition to the 'undesirable' 'coolie', a narrative that continued to shape India's passport regime after 1947," Kalathmika Natarajan, a historian at the University of Exeter, told me.
As scholars like Ms Natarajan have found, this was also done in connivance with British officials to prevent the mobility of lower caste and class citizens seeking to emigrate to Britain after 1947. Officials in both countries constructed a category of Indians who were regarded - to varying degrees, by both sides - as "undesirable" for entry into Britain.
The most marginalised communities - like the "scheduled" castes or Dalits who account for more than 230 million of India's 1.4 billion population today - were denied passports along with political "undesirables" like members of the Communist Party of India, scholars found.
Belgique Dernières Nouvelles, Belgique Actualités
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