Fellowship for Zack White: Sepoys & Slave Seamen: Race, Empire & the law in British India, 1795-1830

Recent research has helped uncover the voices of enslaved Africans within Britain’s Empire, yet the experiences of Indians remains neglected. British control and trade in India depended on local labour (sepoys in the East India Company’s army, impressed lascars in the navy). Fusing military, socio-cultural history, and digital-humanities techniques, this project examines how discipline was maintained amongst these men, exploring whether racial profiling resulted in harsher punishments, or if dependency on them as a labour force afforded them agency. This offers fresh perspectives on race’s interaction with Britain’s efforts to expand in India, uncovering this ethnic group’s forgotten voices.