cover image Bonded Labor: Tackling the System of Slavery in South Asia

Bonded Labor: Tackling the System of Slavery in South Asia

Siddharth Kara. Columbia Univ., $29.50 (320p) ISBN 978-0-231-15848-0

Kara (Sex Trafficking: Inside the Business of Modern Slavery) turns his attention to bonded labor, “a type of slavery in which the servitude commences with an agreement whereby credit is provided in exchange for pledged labor.” Based on a decade of research and travel in the epicenter of the practice (India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Nepal), Kara’s book offers a scholarly account of the practice that delineates its cultural and legal history. He is sensitive to nuances between regions and occupations; intimate and affective in individual conversations with victims, perpetrators, and defenders; and usefully explicit about the actions individuals, groups, and governments can take to end the practice. Obstacles to completing this project were abundant, ranging from secrecy at Bangladeshi processing plants to impedance by Pakistani officials. As Kara observes, “Virtually everyone’s life, everywhere in the world, is touched by bonded labor in South Asia,” which for American consumers may make frozen shrimp less sweet, tea less comforting, and hand-woven carpets less lovely. Passionate (“Pray there is a special place in hell for scoundrels such as these”), yet data-driven and absent of sensationalism, Kara’s spotlight on debt bondage, “at once the most ancient and most contemporary face of human servitude,” warrants profound attention. Agent: Susan Cohen, Writers House. (Oct.)