Colonial policy feared lower-middle-class political sensibilities more than destitution

Evidence

Destitution was not the only concern. Some architects of colonial policy were as worried about those who were approaching the lower-middle class and the political sensibilities that might accompany that status. This was not taxonomic trivia. Different rehabilitative visions of what they could become were contingent on these varied assessments of what kinds of political sensibilities different forms of labor might nurture. Fundamental disagreement remained about how dissent and discontent might be curbed and what cross-section of this colonial underclass already harbored those inclinations. — Ann Laura Stoler, Along the Archival Grain_ Epistemic…, 665

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the reader’s broader colonial epistemic-anxiety theme: classification drives governance responses.
• SEED: Possible essay on how regimes read ‘political sensibilities’ into labor categories, mirroring debates about class and loyalty.