Race, Religion and the Lascar’s Body in British Port Cities, C.1815–1914

This paper explores the relationship between religion, gender, race and empire, in the context of Christian missions to Asian seafarers (primarily South Asian ‘lascars’) in British port cities such as London and Hull between 1815 and 1914. Investigating the social spaces of lodgings and seamen’s homes and burial spaces, it interrogates the religious practices of Asian seafarers in Britain. Using contemporary accounts, newspapers, religious tracts and images, the paper focuses on the ways in which seafarers’ bodies were sites of anxiety in British port cities and missionaries projected ideas of race, religion, gender and empire onto those bodies.