Cooli vs. Coolie

Cooli

The word coolie (also spelled koelie, kuli, cooli, cooly and quli); (Hindi: कुली, Bengali: কুলি, Gujarati: કૂલી, Punjabi: ਕੁਲੀ, Tamil: கூலி, Telugu: కూలీ, Kannada: ಕೂಲೀ, Malayalam: കൂലി, Sinhala: කූලී, Urdu: ٹھنڈا‬, Chinese: 苦力, Persian: کولی) meaning a labourer, has a variety of other implications and is sometimes regarded as offensive or a pejorative, depending upon the historical and geographical context. It is similar, in many respects, to the Spanish term peon, although both terms are used in some countries, with slightly differing implications.

During the 19th and early 20th centuries, coolie was usually a term implying an indentured labourer from South Asia, South East Asia or China.

In South Asia, it is now a commonly used and inoffensive word for workers in unskilled manual labour, especially porters at railway stations.However, coolie is now regarded as derogatory and/or a racial slur in the Caribbean, Africa, Oceania, North America, Southeast Asia and Europe – in reference to people from Asia. This is particularly so in South Africa, East Africa, Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, Suriname, Jamaica, Mauritius, Fiji, and the Malay Peninsula. In 2000, the parliament of South Africa enacted the Promotion of Prevention of Unfair Discrimination Act, which has among its primary objectives the prevention of hate speech terms such as coolie (koelie).

Coolie

The word coolie (also spelled koelie, kuli, cooli, cooly and quli); (Hindi: कुली, Bengali: কুলি, Gujarati: કૂલી, Punjabi: ਕੁਲੀ, Tamil: கூலி, Telugu: కూలీ, Kannada: ಕೂಲೀ, Malayalam: കൂലി, Sinhala: කූලී, Urdu: ٹھنڈا‬, Chinese: 苦力, Persian: کولی) meaning a labourer, has a variety of other implications and is sometimes regarded as offensive or a pejorative, depending upon the historical and geographical context. It is similar, in many respects, to the Spanish term peon, although both terms are used in some countries, with slightly differing implications.

During the 19th and early 20th centuries, coolie was usually a term implying an indentured labourer from South Asia, South East Asia or China.

In South Asia, it is now a commonly used and inoffensive word for workers in unskilled manual labour, especially porters at railway stations.However, coolie is now regarded as derogatory and/or a racial slur in the Caribbean, Africa, Oceania, North America, Southeast Asia and Europe – in reference to people from Asia. This is particularly so in South Africa, East Africa, Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, Suriname, Jamaica, Mauritius, Fiji, and the Malay Peninsula. In 2000, the parliament of South Africa enacted the Promotion of Prevention of Unfair Discrimination Act, which has among its primary objectives the prevention of hate speech terms such as coolie (koelie).