Alternative Title
Deprovincializing Racial Capitalism
Publication Type
Journal Article
Version
publishedVersion
Publication Date
2-2022
Abstract
Recent literature on racial capitalism has overwhelmingly focused on the Atlantic settler-slave formation, sidelining the history of European imperialism in Asia. This article addresses this blind spot by recovering the aborted project of British settler colonialism in India through the writings of its most prominent advocate, John Crawfurd. It is argued that Crawfurd’s vision of a liberal empire in India rejected slavery and indigenous dispossession yet remained deeply racialized in its conception of capital, labor, and value. Crawfurd elaborated a “capital theory of race,” which derived racial categories from a civilizational spectrum keyed to the capitalist organization of production. His proposals accordingly revamped the conventional terms of colonization by representing India as overstocked with labor but vacant of capital and skill that only European settlers could provide. The article concludes with the broader implications of a trans-imperial analytic framework for writing connected histories of racial capitalism and settler colonialism.
Keywords
racial capitalism, settler colonialism, British empire, liberalism, India, John Crawfurd
Discipline
Asian Studies | Race, Ethnicity and Post-Colonial Studies
Research Areas
Political Science
Publication
American Political Science Review
Volume
116
Issue
1
First Page
144
Last Page
160
ISSN
0003-0554
Identifier
10.1017/S0003055421000939
Publisher
Cambridge University Press
Citation
INCE, Onur Ulas.(2022). Deprovincializing racial capitalism: John Crawfurd and settler colonialism in India. American Political Science Review, 116(1), 144-160.
Available at: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/soss_research/3438
Copyright Owner and License
Authors
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Additional URL
https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003055421000939