Imperial Footprints

A new perspective on immigration: through the eyes of children

Often absent from historical accounts and narratives, migrant children were instrumental not only in shaping Indian national and diasporic identities during the time of the British Empire, but British identity too. They were marginalised by their political status, their race, and their age, and yet they were fundamental to historical change.

Focusing on a crucial aspect of British and South Asian history, Imperial Footprints explores the history of migration from the Indian subcontinent to Britain through the eyes of its youngest migrants. Sumita Mukherjee vividly explains how the immigration of South Asian children to Britain was instrumental in shaping new Indian national identities and shaping ideas of race and belonging within Britain. From the children sent to boarding schools, to runaway servants and sailor children, to the refugees of war and partition, interweaving informed reflections on postcolonial legacies, Imperial Footprints offers an important history of imperial migration before the larger waves of migration to Britain from the post-war period.

Imperial Footprints challenges the assumptions of the historical voices that we foreground and in doing so rewrites the history of migration and empire.