Lascar
A lascar was a
Etymology
The Oxford English Dictionary states that the word has two possible derivations:
- Either an erroneous European use of Urdu lashkar army, camp [...], or a shortened form of its derivative lashkarī [...] In Portuguese c1600 laschar occurs in the same sense as lasquarim , i.e. Indian soldier; this use, from which the current applications are derived, is not recorded in English.[1]
The Portuguese adapted the term to "lascarins", meaning Asian militiamen or seamen, from any area east of the Cape of Good Hope, including Indian, Malay, Chinese and Japanese crewmen. The English word "lascarins", now obsolete, referred to Sri Lankans who fought in the colonial army of the Portuguese until the 1930s.
The British of the East India Company initially described Indian lascars as 'Topass', but later adopted the Portuguese name, calling them 'lascar'.[2]
The word lascar was also used to refer to Indian servants, typically engaged by British military officers.[3]
History
Sixteenth century
Indian seamen had been employed on European ships since the first European made the sea voyage to India. Vasco da Gama, the first European to reach India by sea (in 1498), hired an Indian pilot at Malindi (a coastal settlement in what is now Kenya) to steer the Portuguese ship across the Indian Ocean to the Malabar Coast in southwestern India. Portuguese ships continued to employ lascars from the Indian subcontinent in large numbers throughout the 16th and 17th centuries, mainly from Goa and other Portuguese colonies in India. The Portuguese applied the term "lascar" to all sailors on their ships who were originally from the Indies, which they defined as the areas east of the Cape of Good Hope.
Through the Portuguese and Spanish maritime world empires, some Indian lascars found their way on to British ships, and were among the sailors on the first British East India Company ships to sail to India. Lascar crewmen from India are depicted on Japanese Namban screens of the sixteenth century.[4] The Luso-Asians appear to have evolved their own pidgin Portuguese which was used throughout South and Southeast Asia.[5]
Seventeenth century
When the British adopted the term "lascar", they initially used it for all Asian crewmen, but after 1661 and the ceding of
The number of Indian seamen employed on UK ships was so great that the British tried to restrict this by the Navigation Acts in force from 1660, which required that 75 percent of the crew of a British-registered ship importing goods from Asia had to be British. Initially, the need arose because of the high sickness and death rates of European sailors on India-bound ships, and their frequent desertions in India, which left ships short of crew for the return voyage. Another reason was war when conscription of British sailors by the Royal Navy was particularly heavy from Company ships in India.[6]
Eighteenth century
In 1756, a fleet under admirals
Lascars were paid only 50% of their fellow white sailors' wages and were often expected to work longer hours as well as being given food of often inferior quality and in smaller portions.[8] The remuneration for lascar crews "was much lower than European or Negro seamen"[9] and "the cost of victualling a lascar crew was 50 percent less than that of a British crew, being six pence per head per day as opposed to twelve pence a day."[9] The lascars lived under conditions not unlike slavery, as shipowners could keep their services for up to three years at a time, moving them from one ship to the next on a whim. The ill-treatment of lascars continued into the nineteenth century.[10]
Nineteenth century
The British East India Company recruited seamen from areas around its factories in Bengal, Assam and Gujarat, as well as from Yemen, British Somaliland and Portuguese Goa. They were known by the British as lascars. These seamen included Indian sailors, who would go on to serve on British (and European ships) until the 1960s.
Between 1803 and 1813, there were more than 10,000 lascars from India visiting British port cities and towns.[11]: 140, 154–6, 160–8, 172 By 1842, 3,000 lascars visited the UK annually, and by 1855, 12,000 lascars were arriving annually in British ports. In 1873, 3,271 lascars arrived in Britain.[12]: 35 Throughout the early 19th century lascars visited Britain at a rate of 1,000 every year,[11]: 140, 54–6, 60–8, 72 which increased to a rate of 10,000 to 12,000 every year throughout the late 19th century.[13][14] Lascars would normally lodge in British ports in between voyages.[15] Some settled in port towns and cities in Britain, often because of restrictions such as the Navigation Act or due to being stranded as well as suffering ill treatment. Many were abandoned and fell into poverty due to quotas on how many lascars could serve on a single ship. Lascars sometimes lived in Christian charity homes, boarding houses and barracks.[16][17]
At the beginning of
Language barriers between officers and lascars made the use of translators very important. Very few worked on deck because of the language barrier. Some Europeans managed to become proficient in the languages of their crew. Skilled captains such as John Adolphus Pope became adept linguists and were able to give complicated orders to their lascar crew. Often native bosses known as "serangs", as well as "tindals" who often assisted serangs, were the only men able to communicate directly with the captain and were the men who often spoke for the lascars.[20][21] Many lascars made attempts to learn English but few were able to talk at length to their European captains.[22]
Lascars served on ships for
By 1815, the Committee Report on Lascars and other Asiatic Seamen introduced requirements for equipping lascar workers, that they be provided with "a bed, a pillow, two jackets and trousers, shoes and two woollen caps."[9]
Twentieth century
Lascars served all over the world in the period leading up to the First World War. Lascars were barred from landing at some ports, such as in British Columbia. At the beginning of World War I, there were 51,616 lascars working on British merchant ships in and around the British Empire.[23]
In
In the 1950s the use of the term "lascar" declined with the ending of the British Empire. The Indian “Lascar Act” of 1832 was finally repealed in 1963.[20] However, "traditional" Indian deck and Pakistani engine crews continued to be used in Australia until 1986 when the last crew was discharged from the P&O and replaced by a general-purpose crew of Pakistanis.[20]
Lascars in the Mascarene Islands
Presumably because Muslim lascars manned the "coolie ships" that carried Indian and Chinese
Lascars in Britain
Lascars began living in England in small numbers from the mid-17th century as servants as well as sailors on English ships. Baptism records show that a number of young men from the
Lascars often lived in Christian charity homes, boarding houses and barracks and sometimes cohabited with local British women. The first and most frequent Indian travelers to Britain were Christian Indians and those of European-Asian mixed race. For Muslim Indians considerations about how their dietary and religious practices would alienate them from British society were brought into question but these considerations were often outweighed by economic opportunities. Those that stayed often took British names, dress and diet.[11]: 12 Although the Indian presence in London during the 19th century mainly constituted male lascars and sailors, some women were included.[11]: 186 In the Limehouse and Shadwell areas of London, many lascars formed communities in the Oriental Quarter, areas where they could form connections and retain degrees of fellowship. Conditions in the quarter, however, were no better than that of the streets. Joseph Salter, a Christian missionary known for his work with lascars, once stated that “We are now fairly in the Oriental Quarter; there are several houses here devoted to Asiatics, presided over by Chinese, Malays, and Indians according to the country of the Asiatic seeking companionship, how shamelessness has its premium and admirers, and honestly truth and self-respect are trampled in the dust. Here disease and death decked in gaudy tinseled robes allure the victim to the grave.” Overcrowding in dilapidated accommodation was all too often a sight; slime, dirt and excrement a common experience of life in the Oriental Quarter.[10]
A small number of lascars settled down and married local British and Irish women, at least partly due to a lack of Asian women in Britain at the time, leading to small multiracial communities in port towns.[11]: 111–119, 129–30, 140, 154–6, 160–8, 181 [30] Some of them converted to Christianity (at least nominally) as it was legally required to be Christian in order to marry in Britain at this time.[31]
British women cohabiting with lascars became an issue, and a magistrate of the
Lascars commonly suffered from poverty in Britain.
A letter in The Times[when?] stated that "The lascars have been landed from the ship ... One of them has since died...the coffin being filled with food and money, under the idea that the food would maintain him till his arrival in the new other world... Some of the poor fellows have hitherto been shivering about the streets, wet and half-naked, exhibiting a picture of misery but little creditable to the English nation".[37]
In 1842, the Church Missionary Society reported on the dire ″state of the lascars in London″.[38] In 1850 40 lascars, also known as ″Sons of India,″ were reported to have starved to death in the streets of London.[39] Shortly after these reports, evangelical Christians proposed the construction of a charity house and gathered £15,000 in assistance of the lascars. In 1856 "The Strangers' Home for Asiatics, Africans and South Sea Islanders" was opened in Commercial Road, Limehouse under the manager, Lieutenant-Colonel R. Marsh Hughes. The home helped and supported lascars and sailors from as far as China. The home helped with employment and with leaving Britain. Additionally, it served as a repatriation centre where various sailors were recruited for ships returning East. It was also used as a missionary centre with Joseph Salter of the London City Mission as its missionary. Among the things provided by the home were a library of Christian books in Asian and African languages, a store room for valuables, and a place where lascars could send their earnings back to India.[40] Lascars were allowed entrance as long as they had the prospect of local employment, or were on a ship returning East.[25] The collective naming of these groups as "strangers" reflects British attitudes at the time.[38]
Lascar immigrants were often the first Asians to be seen in British cities and were initially perceived as indolent due to their reliance on Christian charities.[41]
In 1925 the Coloured Alien Seamen Order 1925 Act was brought into law by the Secretary of State for the Home Department. It stated that "any coloured alien seaman who is not already registered should take steps to obtain a Certificate of Registration without delay." Any foreign seaman, regardless of whether they had been in Britain for several months, had to register with the police. In 1931, 383 Indians and Ceylonese were registered.[42]
A letter dated 7 September 1925, from the wife of a Peshawar-born Indian domiciled in Britain and working as a sailor, describes the treatment of some Indians who were British subjects under the Home Office Coloured Aliens Seamen's Order, 1925: "My husband landed at Cardiff, after a voyage at sea on the SS Derville as a fireman, and produced his Mercantile Marine Book, R.S 2 No. 436431, which bears his Certificate of Nationality, declaring him to be British, and is signed by a Mercantile Marine Superintendent, dated 18 August 1919. This book and its certificate were ignored, and my husband was registered as an Alien. Would you kindly inform me if it is correct that the Mercantile Marine Book should have been ignored as documentary proof?"[43] Police eager to deport ''coloured'' seamen would often (and illegally) register seamen as aliens regardless of correct documentation.[44]
The transitory presence of lascars continued into the 1930s, with the Port of London Authority mentioning lascars in a February 1931 article, writing that: "Although appearing so out of place in the East End, they are well able to look after themselves, being regular seamen who came to the Docks time after time and have learnt a little English and know how to buy what they want."[45]
In 1932, the Indian National Congress survey of "all Indians outside India" estimated that there were 7,128 Indians in the United Kingdom, which included students, former lascars, and professionals such as doctors. The resident Indian population of Birmingham was recorded at 100. By 1945 it was 1,000.[46]
Surat Alley is a notable activist who fought for the rights of lascars within the Britain within the 1930s and 1940s.[47]
Lascars in Canada
Lascars were on board late 18th-century and early 19th-century ships arriving on the Pacific coast of north-west North America. In most cases the ships sailed from Macau, though some came from India. When
Lascars in Macau and Hong Kong
After the death of James Cook in Hawaii, HMS Resolution sailed to Macau with her cargo of furs from the north-west coast of North America. The ship was very undermanned and took on fresh crew at Macau in December 1779 including a lascar from Calcutta by the name of Ibraham Mohammed.[50]
Lascars were arriving in
Lascars in the United States
Lascars were on board early British voyages to the north-west coast of North America. These sailors were among the multinational crew arriving from Asia in search of furs. Among these was the Nootka in 1786 that arrived at the Russian port of
Lascar ranks and positions
These sailors served on British ships under "lascar agreements", which allowed shipowners more control than was the case in ordinary articles of agreement. The sailors could be transferred from one ship to another and retained in service for up to three years at one time.
In both deck and engine room departments, the lascars were headed by a serang (equivalent to the
Portrayal in literature and cinema
Sir
See also
- Lascar Row
- Lascar War Memorial
- Lascars in Fiji
- Lascarins
- Askari
- Sepoy
- First Anglo-Afghan War
- Kar (suffix)
- Visa policy of the United Kingdom
References
- ^ "Home : Oxford English Dictionary". www.oed.com. Retrieved 2022-08-01.
- ^ "Bengali-speaking community in the Port of London - Port communities - Port Cities". www.portcities.org.uk. Archived from the original on 12 March 2016. Retrieved 20 February 2016.
- ISBN 978-81-7023-872-0
- OCLC 30602150.
- ISBN 978-0-85771-582-1.
- ISBN 978-1-84645-008-2.
- ^ Arthur Wellesley Duke of Wellington; John Gurwood (omp.) (1837). The Dispatches of Field Marshal the Duke of Wellington, K.G.: India, 1794-1805. London: J. Murray. p. 279.
- ^ "The Lascars of London and Liverpool". Exodus. 5 November 2012.
- ^ S2CID 144539005.
- ^ a b c Anwar, Zeyd (19 November 2021). "The British Empire's Forgotten Lascars". New Politic. Retrieved 20 February 2022.
- ^ ISBN 978-81-7824-154-8.
- ^ ISBN 978-1-85065-685-2..
- ^ Robinson-Dunn, Diane (February 2003). "Lascar Sailors and English Converts: The Imperial Port and Islam in late 19th-Century England". Seascapes, Littoral Cultures, and Trans-Oceanic Exchanges. Archived from the original on 2 August 2012. Retrieved 13 January 2009.
- ^ ISBN 9780521699747.)
{{cite book}}
:|last=
has generic name (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link - ^ "The lascars' lot". The Hindu. Archived from the original on 2015-11-07.
- ISBN 978-1848852990. Retrieved 23 February 2016.
- ISBN 9781317316008.
- ISBN 978-1-85065-685-2.
- ^ visram (2002). Asians In Britain. pp. 254–269.
- ^ a b c "P&O Indian and Pakistani Crews". www.pandosnco.co.uk. Retrieved 2016-03-17.
- ISBN 9781107689329.
- ISBN 9781783270385.
- ISBN 9781850656869.
- ^ Research by Clifford J Pereira, Vancouver, 2016, British Columbia. Canada.
- ^ a b c "The Goan community of London - Port communities - Port Cities". www.portcities.org.uk. Retrieved 2016-02-23.
- ^ "Kube Publishing » The Last of the Lascars: Yemeni Muslims in Britain 1836-2012". www.kubepublishing.com. Archived from the original on 2018-02-03. Retrieved 2018-02-02.
- ^ "Bengalis in London's East End" (PDF). Bengalis in London. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2017-03-29. Retrieved 2016-02-22.
- ^ ISBN 9781317316008.
- ^ ISBN 9781317415336.
- ISBN 978-1848852990. Retrieved 30 December 2015.
- ISBN 9788178241548.
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- ^ "Growing Up". Moving Here. Archived from the original on 2014-04-06. Retrieved 2009-02-12.
- ISBN 978-0-8014-8146-8.
- ISBN 9781317316008.
- ^ "LMA Learning Zone > schooLMAte > Black and Asian Londoners > Timeline". www.learningzone.cityoflondon.gov.uk. Archived from the original on 2016-03-07. Retrieved 2016-02-21.
- ISBN 9781317316008.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-521-69974-7.
- ISBN 9781317316008.
- ^ "Strangers' Home for Asiatics, Africans and South Sea Islanders". The Open University.
- ^ Fathom archive. ""British Attitudes towards the Immigrant Community". Columbia University". Archived from the original on 2011-01-03.
- ISBN 9780714641850.
- ^ Bond, XiaoWei. "Asians in Britain: Ayahs, Servants and Sailors". www.bl.uk. Archived from the original on 2018-07-26. Retrieved 2016-03-19.
- ISBN 9780861047499.
- ^ "Lascars in the Port of London - Feb. 1931". www.lascars.co.uk. Retrieved 2016-01-22.
- ISBN 9781317415336.
- ^ "Surat Alley | Making Britain". www.open.ac.uk. Retrieved 2023-05-16.
- ISBN 978-0-486-25177-6.
- ^ Research by Clifford J. Pereira, 2015, Vancouver BC, Canada.
- OCLC 759092744.
- ^ Research by Pereira, Clifford J. 2016. Hong Kong, SAR. China.
- ^ Chi Man, Kwong & Yiu Lun, Tsoi. "Eastern Fortress - A Military History of Hong Kong, 1840-1970". Hong Kong, SAR, China 2014, p.10
- OCLC 123570120.
- JSTOR 1346001.
- .(subscription required)
Further reading
- W. H. Hood (1903), Wikidata Q118286993
External links
- Lascar history website
- "Wikidata Q118287895.