From Indenture to Precarity: Coolitude and Marxist Readings of Indian Diasporic Fiction

Abstract

Indian diasporic literature frequently focuses on migration caused by economic hardship and labor exploitation. The paper examines the Indian diasporic novels Amitav Ghosh’s Sea of Poppies (2008) and Sunjeev Sahota’s The Year of the Runaways (2015) through the combined perspectives of Coolitude and Marxist theory. Although these novels are set in different historical periods, both depict how Indian migrant workers are controlled and exploited by capitalist systems. Coolitude, a concept developed by Khal Torabully, helps recover the shared identity, memory, and cultural strength of migrant laborers, while Marxist theory explains how capitalism turns labor into a commodity. The paper argues that Indian diasporic literature shows a strong continuity from colonial indenture to contemporary migrant precarity, revealing that systems of exploitation continue even though their forms have changed.