Today, it should not come as a surprise that the history of bonded labor in India sheds critical light on the era of western dominance. But if this is all that the kamias' history was to do, then it would not be very significant. For we already live in an age that has witnessed and celebrated the destruction of colonialism by anti-imperialist nationalism, and imperial ideologies no longer command respect. So, the view that colonialism did not live up to its promise, that the nineteenth-century introduction of railways and modern industry, far from inaugurating an era of progress and prosperity instead intensified colonial exploitation, would not provoke much dissent. In fact, transcending the issue of exploitation – so central to the reactive ideologies of imperialism and nationalism – recent scholarship has gone on to explore more subtle and enduring aspects of the colonial experience.