Between the 1830s and 1920s over 1.3 million Indians travelled as labourers to locations in the Indian Ocean, Caribbean and across the world. When their contracts ended some returned to India, while others chose to remain and form new communities in their adopted homes. Represented at the time and since as a 'new system of slavery', those who migrated are portrayed simply as passive victims of colonial coercion and exploitation. This talk explores indentured labour and its origins in British imperialism.