Discussion Papers in Management and Accounting History 2008.4 THE POWER AND PLASTICITY OF ACCOUNTING: A STORY OF INDIAN INDENTURED LABOUR TO BRITAIN’S SUGAR COLONIES

This discussion paper should not to be quoted without the permission of the authors. 1 This research study attempts to examine the use of accounting in the indenture, regulation and supervision of plantation labour into Britain’s sugar colonies between the early 19th and early 20th Century. The abolition of slavery and the policy on indirect rule, both as part of Britain’s self-proclaimed civilising mission exacerbated a shortage of cheap labour on colonial plantations. In turn this exacerbated shortage prompted a system of imperial labour reallocation that was to last for close to a hundred years. Britain’s response to the labour problem was a highly gender-specific “new system of slavery ” sourced from the Indian sub-continent. The principal official arguments for using imported workers from India were in terms of the availability of suitable agricultural labour and the corresponding lower costs. Importation of Indian workers to the plantation colonies was the answer to the question: ‘how to ensure plantocrac