Coolie?

Image description: Screenshot of the definition of the word coolie in English from the British & World English Dictionary.

“The term 'coolie' derived from the Tamil word kuli, meaning wages or hire...across the globe the word evolved into an ethnic slur, and spilled fluidly from tongues of plantation managers and overseers as a reminder to indentured labourers of their menial origins and lowliness in the race hierarchy.

It was 'a subtle challenge to their claim to belong', Bahadur states in the preface. The author re-inscribes the c-word, explaining that while it may be offensive and painful for some, it is true to her subject.

‘My great-grandmother was a high-caste Hindu. That is a fact. But she left India as a 'coolie'. That is also a fact. She was one individual swept up in a particular mass movement of people, and the perceptions of those who controlled that process determined her identity at least as much as she did. To them, she was a coolie woman, a stock character possessing stereotyped qualities, which shaped who she was by limiting who she could ever be."

-Excerpt from Coolie Woman, by Gaiutra Bahadur