Deprovincializing Racial Capitalism: John Crawfurd and Settler Colonialism in India

Ince, Onur Ulas

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 transimperial analytic framework for writing connected histories of racial capitalism and settler colonialism.

Citation

Ince, O. U. (2022). Deprovincializing Racial Capitalism: John Crawfurd and Settler Colonialism in India. American Political Science Review, 116(1), 144-160. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003055421000939

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jul 20, 2021
• Online Publication Date: Sep 13, 2021
• Publication Date: Feb 5, 2022
• Deposit Date: Jan 10, 2022
• Publicly Available Date: Jan 10, 2022
• Journal: American Political Science Review
• Print ISSN: 0003-0554
• Electronic ISSN: 1537-5943
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 116
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 144-160
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003055421000939