Coolies of the Empire: Indentured Indians in the Sugar Colonies, 1830–1920
Cambridge University Press, 9/15/2017
EAN 9781107147959, ISBN10: 1107147956
Hardcover, 338 pages, 23.9 x 16.9 x 2.3 cm
Language: English
Originally published in English
This book studies Indian overseas labour migration in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, which involved millions of Indians traversing the globe in the age of empire, subsequent to the abolition of slavery in 1833. This migration led to the presence of Indians and their culture being felt all over the world. This study delves deep into the lives of these indentured workers from India who called themselves girmitiyas; it is a narrative of their experiences in India and in the sugar colonies abroad. It foregrounds the alternative world view of the girmitiyas, and their socio-cultural and religious life in the colonies. In this book, the author has developed highly original insights into the experience of colonial indentured migrant labour, describing the ways in which migrants managed to survive and even flourish within the interstices of the indentured labour system and how considerably the experience of migration changed over time.
List of figures and maps
List of tables
Preface
Abbreviations
1. Introduction
indentured emigrants in the literature
2. Naukari, network and indenture
3. Regulating indenture
4. The journey
5. Agriculture and culture between two worlds
6. Writing the girmitiya experience
7. The end of the indenture system
8. Conclusion
Appendices
Glossary
Bibliography
Index.