You … may be largely acquainted with the Indian ‘coolie’ as he is called with some contempt. This book locates anxieties over the coolie migrant as foundational to Indian diplomacy. Second, it locates histories of both indentured and “assisted” labour migrants as intertwined with the origins and practice of Indian diplomacy. Third, it goes beyond the “high politics” focus of the scholarship to reframe the conventional subjects and spaces of Indian diplomacy. Excerpted with permission from Coolie Migrants, Indian Diplomacy: Caste, Class and Indenture Abroad, 1914-67, Kalathmika Natarajan, Oxford University Press.