Imperial Hegemony and Colonial Labor

This paper explores Gramsci's theory of hegemony through an analysis of areas of colonial India and Indochina in 1860–1940. It investigates the commodification of labor under capitalism, arguing that the mass relocation of people through indenture was facilitated by state coercion. Such labor was allegedly consensual. However, in the colonies the state had to regulate plantation conditions to monitor the behavior of private companies. A new world-view emerged in which land ownership and land taxation paid for the apparatus of colonial governance. Examining peripheral colonial capitalism indicates to some extent how the state and private capital could behave when untouched by ideology or critique. It also shows how hegemony is reliant on both coercion and consent.