"A remarkable, pathbreaking work--one of the finest takes on Indian diplomacy to have published for years, with enormous significance for historical and contemporary understanding. This exceptional archival study will herald a new wave of scholarship." -- Vineet Thakur, Assistant Professor of History, Leiden University, and author of Postscripts on Independence: Foreign Policy Discourses in India and South Africa"Natarajan demonstrates how startlingly conjoined are the figures of the "coolie" migrant and the Indian diplomat. Drawing on an impressive array of sources and an archipelago of locations far from the conventional sites of interstate diplomacy, she transforms our understanding of diplomatic history." -- Rahul Rao, Reader in International Political Thought, University of St Andrews, and author of The Psychic Lives of Statues and Third World Protest"An insightful analysis of how both British and independent India addressed the complex and sensitive issue of Indian laborers overseas. Carefully researched, it provides a timely and nuanced contribution to the study of Indian diplomacy and migration." -- Andrea Benvenuti, Associate Professor of Politics and International Relations, University of New South Wales, and author of Nehru's Bandung"Drawing on archival materials in multiple languages, Natarajan constructs a powerful, clear-eyed argument, decentering her analysis from typical sites of political power, and instead emphasizing the workings of caste, class, race and gender in the making of Indian diplomacy." -- Kalyani Ramnath, Assistant Professor of History, Columbia University, and author of Boats in a Storm: Law, Migration, and Decolonization in South and Southeast Asia, 1942-62"Revelatory for any reader curious about postcolonial India's quest for higher international status.

With inventiveness and clarity, Natarajan reveals key aspects of modern Indian diplomacy as a project of hierarchy-fixated caste elites--one subverted by anti-caste resistance." -- Kate Sullivan de Estrada, Associate Professor in the International Relations of South Asia, University of Oxford, and co-author of Rising India.