Mahishan Gnanaseharan

I am broadly interested in the social, political, and intellectual histories of South Asian migrants across the Indian Ocean during the 19th and 20th centuries. Within this broad area, I focus on the migrations of Tamil-speaking laborers from British India to British colonial plantations in Ceylon, Malaya, and southern Africa. I seek to better understand what freedom and belonging meant to these laborers by examining their experiences with slavery, global commodity markets, and decolonization. I prioritize questions about caste in exploring archives currently ranging from 19th century agronomic science to 20th century Dravidian political thought.