What (who) is coolies - definition

Coolie (also spelled koelie, kuli, khuli, khulie, cooli, cooly, or quli) is a pejorative term used for low-wage labourers, typically of Indian or Chinese descent.

The word coolie was first used in the 16th century by European traders across Asia. By the 18th century would refer to migrant Indian indentured labourers. In the 19th century, during the British colonial era, the term would gain a new definition of the systematic transportation and employment of Asian laborers via employment contracts on sugar plantations that had been formerly worked by enslaved Africans.

The word has had a variety of negative implications. In modern-day English, it is usually regarded as offensive. In India, its country of origin, it is considered a derogatory slur. In many respects it is similar to the Spanish term peón, although both terms are used in some countries with different implications. "Coolie" is now regarded as derogatory and/or a racial slur in the Americas (more so in the Caribbean), Oceania, and in Africa and Southeast Asia, in reference to other people from Asia.

The word originated in the 17th-century Indian subcontinent and meant "day labourer," but since the 20th century, the word was used in British Raj India to refer to porters at railway stations. The term differs from the word "Dougla", which refers to people of mixed African and Indian ancestry. "Coolie" is instead used to refer to people of fully-blooded Indian descent whose ancestors migrated to the British former colonies of Africa, Asia and the Caribbean. This is particularly so in South Africa, the Eastern African countries, Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, Suriname, Jamaica, other parts of the Caribbean, Mauritius, Fiji, and the Malay Peninsula.

In modern Indian popular culture, coolies have often been portrayed as working-class heroes or anti-heroes. Indian films celebrating coolies include Deewaar (1975), Coolie (1983), and several films titled Coolie No. 1 (released in 1991, 1995, and 2020).