Definition of coolies:
(n) :
An unskilled Asian worker, usually of Chinese or Indian descent; a labourer; a porter. Coolies were frequently transported to other countries in the 19th and early 20th centuries as indentured labourers.
(n) :
(Trinidad and Tobago, Caribbean, Guyana, Jamaica, Fiji, South Africa and other parts of Africa, ethnic slur) An Indian or a person of Indian descent.