Slavery in India

There is evidence of the existence of slavery or personal circumstances resembling slavery and bonded-servitude since ancient times. However the study of its history in India is complicated by contested definitions, ideological and religious perceptions, difficulties in interpreting written sources, and perceptions of political impact of interpretations of written sources.

The term dāsa and dāsyu in Vedic and other ancient Indian literature has also been translated as "slave", but other scholars have translated it as "servant", its current meaning, or as "religious devotee", and as other abstract concepts depending on context.Kautilya's Arthasastra dedicated a chapter to dasa, in which their legal rights are acknowledged, and in which abuse, hurt and rape against dasas are explicitly criminalized and condemned. Passages of the Arthasastra, Smritis and the Hindu epic Mahabharata suggest that the social institutions which can be considered akin to slavery existed in India by the 1st millennium BCE, likely by the lifetime of the Buddha.

Historians agree that the preponderance of slavery increased with the military campaigns and raids by Muslim armies into India. Large numbers of prisoners of war were captured, enslaved and sold in the slave-markets of central Asia. The revenues thus accrued were used to further expand the raids and territories of Muslim kingdoms. There was extensive slavery within India during its Islamic period starting from the 10th century through to the 18th century. Slaves were also seized in India and exported to Islamic societies outside the subcontinent. "The institution of slavery continued (in India), in various manifestations, well after the decentralization of the Mughal Empire in the early 18th century".

After declining during the Mughal Empire, the institution of slavery again received a boost during its subsequent fragmentation and collapse, as various local potentates now had free-rein to enslave populations with little oversight.

The arrival of European traders, during this period further increased the prominence of slavery as a segment of the Indian economy, with these forces playing an active role (with the assistance of local collaborators) in enslaving and transporting Indians for use in the expanding plantation economies of their colonies in South America and the Caribbean. As an example in September 1687, 665 slaves were exported by the English from Fort St. George, Madras and most of the Portuguese in Goa, had according to Albert. D. Mandelslo, a contemporary German writer, had many slaves of both sexes, whom they employ not only on and about their persons, but also upon the business they are capable of, for what they get comes with the master.

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