British colonial ‘martial race’ myths persist in today’s global racial system.

Evidence

These patterns of imperial migration therefore established South Asia as a source of military and manual labor. Indeed, the imperial rationale behind categorizing Indians as a ”martial race” perpetuated a racial system of classification that, in the present day, has become a complex and structurally amplified global racial system. Muslims and Sikhs were used in the military and police forces because of what the British claimed to be these groups’ violent nature. Other groups were also believed to be predisposed to particular occupations- for example, tribals as indentured laborers and Gujaratis and Tamils as traders. — Junaid Rana, Terrifying Muslims, 71

Categorization

• XREF: Chains to the caste-occupation stereoæstyping in Things Fall Apart’s colonial administration logic and general orientalism scholarship.
• DEFINE: Defines the mechanism of ‘martial race’ classification: racial categories forged to steer specific groups into military versus manual occupations.