Dr. Ritesh Kumar Jaiswal

This project investigates the interwar period as a transformative moment in the reordering of the political economy of the Bay of Bengal rim of the Indian Ocean, focusing on its intersection with emerging currents of anti-colonial nationalism and rising xenophobia. It explores how shifts in Indian migration patterns, the nature of labour intermediation, and the everyday experiences of migrants were shaped by and, in turn, influenced these broader dynamics. By centering questions of migration, intermediation, and labour regimes, the project examines the impact of the World Wars and the Great Depression on the intensification of ethnocentric mass politics and the proliferation of anti-migrant sentiments across the Bay of Bengal colonies of the British Empire (Ceylon, Myanmar, and Malaya). The research foregrounds the rhetoric and mass mobilisations against Indian migrant populations, situating them within the larger trajectory of anti-colonial national movements and the accelerating process of decolonisation. In tracing these developments, the project pays attention to the responses of migrant communities, from quotidian acts of negotiation and endurance to organised resistance and unionisation. These responses are crucial to theorising the political, social, and economic agency of migrants, offering new insights into their capacity for action within and against the larger structures of colonialism and nationalism.

• 2024. "'Ceylon for Sinhalese!': 'Depression Politics' and Indian Migrants in Ceylon." In Migrant Actors Worldwide. Leiden: Brill. Access
• 2022. "Scar of Association: Repercussions of the Great Depression and Xenophobic Nationalism on Indian Migrants in Burma." In Independent Journal of Burmese Scholarship (IJBS), 1: 233–280. Special Issue on the Rohingyas: Politics of Inclusion and Exclusion in Myanmar. 
• 2020. "Mediated (Im)mobility: Indian Labour Migration to Ceylon under the Kangany System (c. 1850–1940)." In The Palgrave Handbook of Bondage and Human Rights in Africa and Asia, edited by G. Campbell and A. Stanziani. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. Access
• 2018. "Ephemeral Mobility: Critical Appraisal of the facets of Indian Migration and Maistry Mediation in Burma (c.1880–1940)." In Almanack 19: 80–118. 
• 2015. "Indian Labour Emigration to Burma (c.1880-1940): Rethinking Indian Migratory Patterns." In Indian History Congress: 911–919. 75th Platinum Jubilee Session.