Deprovincializing Racial Capitalism: John Crawfurd and Settler Colonialism in India

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.

Actually existing racial capitalism: Financialisation and bordering in UK housing associations

“…But while important research is starting to do this, focussing on the USA's “specific history of slavery and settler colonialism” (Fields & Raymond, 2021, p. 13) through the lens of housing, there is need for research into different contexts and locations. Responding to calls to deprovincialise research on racial capitalism (Ince, 2022), this paper has shifted the focus—geographically and institutionally—to social housing in the UK context, illustrating HAs constitute important institutional sites of actually existing racial capitalism's (re)production. Housing Associations, we argue, provide an important empirical and political lens through which to critically interrogate the mutually reinforcing relationship between financialisation and bordering within racial capitalism.…”

“…The provincial nature of much of the racial capitalism literature to date (Ince, 2022) also raises issues, given the specificity—both temporal and spatial—of racial context. Although North American research has been strong on issues relating to certain settler colonialisms (Kent‐Stoll, 2020; McClintock, 2018) and Latinx geographies (Ramírez, 2020), such insights are much less applicable to the UK context and beyond.…”

“…It is crucial, therefore, to unpack different forms of global and local property regimes (Bhandar, 2018) as these produce variegated, actually existing racial capitalisms. Ince (2022) argues Britain's specific settler colonial history in Asia is sidelined in the literature's dominant focus on ‘Atlantic settler’ slave formations. Racial capitalism in the UK has been shaped by its own ‘boomerang’ of colonial violence, with racialised minorities suffering from political technologies honed in the colonies and meted out in various imperial metropoles (Danewid, 2020; Shilliam, 2018).…”

“…Racial capitalism's rapid uptake has, at the same time, raised concerns around conceptual overdetermination (Ince, 2022), and led to calls for greater analytical precision to ensure it is more than an ‘activist hermeneutic’ (Melamed, 2015)—although value certainly lies in this. As Bhattacharya (2018) stresses, the concept belies real complexity and there is thus a need for greater focus on both the variegations and the specificities of racial capitalism s plural (Strauss, 2020).…”

“…Racial capitalism is thus not simply a variety of capitalism (Jenkins & Leroy, 2021), but a long-overdue corrective that emphasises 'actually existing' capitalism's inherently and intersectionally differentiating nature (Lowe, 2015;Manning, 2021), something that leads to the 'premature death' of minoritised groups the world over (Gilmore, 2002). Racial capitalism's rapid uptake has, at the same time, raised concerns around conceptual overdetermination (Ince, 2022), and led to calls for greater analytical precision to ensure it is more than an 'activist hermeneutic' (Melamed, 2015)-although value certainly lies in this. As Bhattacharya (2018) stresses, the concept belies real complexity and there is thus a need for greater focus on both the variegations and the specificities of racial capitalisms plural (Strauss, 2020).…”