Girmitiyas and the Global Indian Diaspora
Origins, Memories, and Identity

Examines the challenges faced by migrant Indian labourers who settled in the former European plantation colonies.

Ashutosh Kumar (Edited by), Crispin Bates (Edited by)

9781009342612, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 4 July 2024

260 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 2.1 cm, 0.703 kg

'Girmitiyas and the Global Indian Diaspora combines in-depth analysis of the history of indentured migrations from India and the many impacts to societies such as Fiji, South Africa, Surinam and Trinidad. Moving beyond mere quantitative studies of numbers and dusty colonial reports, the assembled essays tackle issues of recruitment, gender, ageing, citizenship, folklore, biography and anti-caste activism in girmitiya spaces across the globe. In doing so, this collection offers numerous insights into one of the most important facets of South Asian contributions to the making of the modern world.' Neilesh Bose, University of Victoria

Many Indians journeyed out of India to supplant the loss of slave labour in the former European plantation colonies of Mauritius, South Africa, Fiji, and the Caribbean from the early nineteenth century onwards. This book aims to highlight the careers of these migrants who served as vital agents in building the global society of the twenty-first century. It explores the transformative experiences of those who migrated, and the memories of those who did not return after expiration of their contracts but chose instead to stay in their respective host countries. It describes the many challenges they faced — ageing in a society far from home, the loss of their formal Indian identity after Indian independence, their efforts to preserve a sense of community in the post-independence societies of South Africa and the Caribbean, and their adapting to the new political and social realities they faced as minorities in the countries in which their ancestors had adventurously determined to settle and live.

List of illustrations/figures
List of tables
List of abbreviations
Introduction Crispin Bates and Ashutosh Kumar
Part I. Origins: 1. 'Coolie Catching': The Recruitment of Indentured Women to Colonial Natal Kalpana Hiralal
2. Life on the Plantations: Indentured Indians in South Africa and Fiji, 1860-1917 Archana Kumari
3. Stories of Girmitiyas: Folklore and Socio-Cultural World of Indentured Indians in the Sugar Colonies Ashutosh Kumar
4. The 'Ageing' Traces of Female Bhojpuri Migrants in Suriname Sarojini Lewis
5. Girmityas and the Story of Salt behind the Sugar Bobby Luthra Sinha
Part II. Afterlives: 6. Sanctions for Citizenship: Indians Overseas and Imperial Reciprocity Heena Mistry
7. 100 Years after Indenture: The Present Generation of Indo-Trinbagonians and Their Cultural Environments Satnarine Balkaransingh
8. Emigration Against Caste and the Globalization of Castelessness Gajendran Ayyathurai
9. Memory, Nostalgia and Reality: A Socio-historical Perspective of Culture and Education in the Grey Street Complex Tashmica Sharma
10. Rooting History: Indian Indenture in South Africa and the Sultan of many journeys Goolam Vahed and Ashwin Desai
Index.

Subject Areas: Asian history [HBJF]