Colonial indentured labor blurred into informal economies despite contract protections

Evidence

In the early colonial period, indentured labor was defined as temporary work and restricted by the state to periods of about five years. As experiments with this form of labor continued, it became clear that indentured labor easily blurred into an informal and unregulated economy even under the aegis of contractual guarantees and protections (Carter 1995; Kale 1998; Lal 1983; Look Lai 1993; Ramdin 2000; Tinker 1974, 1977). — Junaid Rana, Terrifying Muslims, 459