Literature of Girmitiya: History, Culture and Identity

269 Pages·2023·3.725 MB·English

by  Neha Singh, Sajaudeen Chapparban

Literature of Girmitiya
History, Culture and
Identity
Edited by
Neha Singh · Sajaudeen Chapparban
Literature of Girmitiya
·
Neha Singh Sajaudeen Chapparban
Editors
Literature of Girmitiya
History, Culture and Identity
Editors
Neha Singh Sajaudeen Chapparban
Department of Languages, Centre for Diaspora Studies
Literatures and Cultural Studies, Central University of Gujarat
School of Humanities and Social Gandhinagar, India
Sciences
Manipal University Jaipur
Rajasthan, India
ISBN 978-981-19-4620-2 ISBN 978-981-19-4621-9 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-4621-9
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Contents
1 Literature of Girmitiya: History, Culture, and Identity 1
Neha Singh and Sajaudeen Chapparban
Part I Language, Literature, and Identity
2 Language, Literature and Cultural Identity:
A Narrative from the Malaysian Tamil Diaspora 23
M. Mahalingam
3 Poetics of the Crossing: Rerouting Identity in Indian
Indenture 43
Anjali Singh
4 Unutterable Sufferings of Girmitiyas in Amitav
Ghosh’s Sea of Poppies 59
Pulkita Anand
5 A Critical Reflection on Imperialism, Nostalgia
and Traumatic Experiences in Totaram Sanadhya’s
My Twenty-One Years in the Fiji Islands 73
Rabindra Kumar Verma
v
vi CONTENTS
Part II Culture, Music, and Songs
6 Tracing the Girmitiya Consciousness in Bhojpuri
Folkloric Songs: A Study of Three Bhojpuri Video
Songs 91
Anisha Badal-Caussy and Jay Ganesh Dawosing
7 The Poetics of Unsung Chutney Singer Lakhan
Karriah of Trinidad 111
Kumar Mahabir
8 Preservation of Cultural Heritage: A Case Study
of Asians in Mauritius 127
Zareen Beebeejaun-Muslum
9 Relocating Cultural Identity: Pattern and Conditions
of Indian Diaspora in Fiji 145
Sushma Pandey
10 Vivid Girmitiya Sacraments and Ganga Talao 179
Anshuman Rana
Part III Migration and History
11 Girmit as a Global Labour Regime: Essentials,
Expansion and Exceptions 197
Amit Kumar Mishra
12 ‘Convicts’ as the Indentured Labour: Contribution
of Indians to the Development in Southeast Asia 227
Aparna Tripathi
13 The Girmityas and Power Politics: A Genealogical
Analysis of Colonial Fiji 241
Dhanya Joy
14 Indentured Labour Migration from Bombay
Presidency: A Study of Marathi-Speaking Community
in Mauritius 255
Dhanraj Gusinge
Index 267
Notes on Contributors
Pulkita Anand is Assistant Professor of English at Shahid Chandrasekhar
Govt. PG College, Jhabua. Her areas of research are Indian Writing in
English, British Drama, Gender studies and Afro-American literature. She
is the author of a book. She has participated in many workshops, sympo-
siums, international conferences, and national seminars and has written
papers that have been published in reputed journals. Her creative work
has been published in various journals.
Anisha Badal-Caussy is Lecturer from the Department of Mauritian
Studies at the Mahatma Gandhi Institute, Mauritius. Her research inter-
ests are Mauritian Literature, Postcolonial Literature, Border Studies,
Cultural Studies, Feminism, and Postmodernism. She has participated in
many national and international conferences.
Mrs. Zareen Beebeejaun-Muslum is a senior lecturer at the Depart-
ment of Mauritian Studies, Mahatma Gandhi Institute. She has lectured
for more than fifteen years in the field of Sociology and Anthropology.
Apart from teaching, her research interests are as follows: Gender Issues,
Contemporary Mauritian Society, HIV/AIDS related stigma and discrim-
ination, Social impact of Type II Diabetes amongothers. She recently
collaborated on a book publication titled ‘Achieving Work-Family-Balance
(WFB) among professional working women in Mauritius’.
Sajaudeen Chapparban is Assistant Professor in the Centre for Diaspora
Studies at Central University of Gujarat, Gandhinagar, India.
vii
viii NOTESONCONTRIBUTORS
Jay Ganesh Dawosing is a Lecturer from the Department of Bhojpuri,
Folklore and Oral Traditions at the Mahatma Gandhi Institute, Mauritius.
His research interests are Bhojpuri Language and Culture, Bhojpuri folk
songs, Heritage, Folklore and Oral Traditions. He has published several
papers and is an active researcher in his fields of interest.
Dhanraj Gusinge is Assistant Professor in Department of History at
Guru Ghasidas Vishwavidyalaya, Bilaspur, Chhattisgarh. He completed
his Ph.D. entitled ‘History and Cultural Identity of Marathi Diaspora in
Mauritius’ under the Centre for Diaspora Studies at Central University
of Gujarat. He completed his M.Phil. entitled ‘Indian Diaspora in Mauri-
tius: A Historical Study of Indentureship (1834–1920)’ from the Central
University of Gujarat. He was awarded the ICSSR Doctoral Fellowship
in 2018–2019. He has presented research papers in various International
and National Seminar/Conferences. His area of interest includes Indian
Diaspora, Migration, Indian History, Culture and Identity.
Dhanya Joy is Assistant Professor of English at St. Joseph’s College for
Women, Alappuzha (affiliated to Kerala University, India). Her interests
span an eclectic range of cross-disciplinary domains including literary
theory, film studies, philosophy and life studies. She has published
research papers in various national and international journals. She is
currently working on the post-theoretical implications in the works of
Jorge Luis Borges, the master craftsman of Argentine literature.
Kumar Mahabir is a full-time anthropologist at the University of Guyana
(UG) and a Fellow of The Eccles Centre for American Studies—British
Library. He is also the founder and chief director of the weekly Sunday
ZOOM program hosted by the Indo-Caribbean Cultural Centre (ICC).
Dr. Mahabir is also a former Assistant Professor at the University of
Trinidad and Tobago (UTT). He obtained his Ph.D. in Anthropology
from the University of Florida (UF) in the USA, and his M.Phil. and B.A.
degrees in Literature in English from the University of the West Indies
(UW). He is the author of 12 books to date.
M. Mahalingam is currently working as Associate Professor at the Faculty
of Law of SGT University, Gurugram, Delhi-NCR, India. He has been
teaching history and sociology to law students since 2015. He has
numerous research publications to his credit. He is currently a Co-project
director for the research project of the Indian Council of Social Science
NOTESONCONTRIBUTORS ix
Research (ICSSR) entitled ‘The Plight of Migrant Labourers During the
Covid-19 Pandemic in Delhi- A Socio-Legal Study’.
Amit Kumar Mishra is Associate Professor, School of Global Affairs
at Ambedkar University Delhi, New Delhi. His research, teaching and
publications explore south asian diaspora, transnational migrations, and
diaspora-development. He was consultant to Truth and Justice Commis-
sion (Mauritius), Fellow Weatherhead Initiative on Global History
(Harvard University) and a member of UNESCO Indentured Labour
Route Project.
Sushma Pandey is currently working with ‘Jharkhand Anti Trafficking
Network’ as Project Coordinator, (SPARK Ranchi Jharkhand). She has
Ph.D. in diaspora studies and is a recipient of ICSSR Foreign Travel
grant. She conducted ethnographic research in Fiji. She has published a
paper on the topic of Invisible Indentured History of Women Migration
During Social Reform in India International Journal of Social Science
and Economic Research. She is a part-time research intern at women’s
studies centre Ranchi Dept. of Economics, Ranchi University, Supported
by Indian Association for Women’s Studies (IAWS). She worked with
Tribal Research Institute Ranchi Jharkhand. As a research associate, she
completed In-house Project ‘Megaliths of Jharkhand, Encyclopedia of
Tribes of Jharkhand’. She also worked with ‘Azim Premji University’ as
Research Associate on the project ‘15 meters back’: schemes to support
women working in traditionally male jobs, competition, and violence. She
has working experience with Himalayan Heritage Research and Develop-
ment Society (HHRDS) as a Cultural Counsellor/Program Coordinator
Sikkim and Uttarakhand.
Anshuman Rana is currently Assistant Professor and Head of the Depart-
ment in the Institute of Media Studies, Shri Ramswaroop Memorial
University, Lucknow. He holds a Doctorate in Diaspora Studies. He
has done his bachelor’s and master’s in Journalism and Mass Commu-
nication. His research interest lies in Lifestyle migration, Development
Communication and Culture Studies.
Neha Singh is Assistant Professor in the Department of Languages,
Literatures and Cultural Studies at Manipal University Jaipur, Rajasthan,
India.
x NOTESONCONTRIBUTORS
Anjali Singh holds a Ph.D. in English. Her areas of interest include
Indenture Studies, Migration Studies, Postcolonial Literature, Women’s
Writing, and Gender and Queer Studies. She has travelled widely and has
also presented research papers in Australia and Fiji, apart from publishing
papers in several peer-reviewed and referred journals. Her book Voices
and Silences: Narratives of the Girmitiyas and Jahajis from Fiji and the
Caribbean (2022) has been co-published by Manohar Publishers and
Routledge.
Aparna Tripathi is currently working as Ph.D. Research Scholar at
the Centre for Diaspora Studies, Central University of Gujarat, Gand-
hinagar, Gujarat. She has been awarded her M.Phil. from the same
centre. She published more than 4 papers in international and nation-
ally reputed journals and also published 2 book chapters in the edited
books. She obtained her B.A.(Hons.) and M.A. in Political Science
from Banaras Hindu University. Her research interests include Political
Thought, Indian Foreign Policy, Indian Diaspora in Southeast Asia and
USA and International Relations.
Rabindra Kumar Verma teaches English at the Department of
Languages, Literatures and Cultural Studies, Manipal University Jaipur.
He has earned 11 years of teaching experience in the domain of English
literature, language and literary theory and criticism. He was awarded
D.Phil. in 2011 by the Department of English & Modern European
Languages, University of Allahabad, India. He has published more
than 25 research papers in national, international, and Scopus-indexed
journals, and book chapters in the edited books.