Girmitiya lives: experiences of Dalit labourers under indenture

ABSTRACT

This paper examines the experience of Dalit labourers from India to the sugar colonies under the indenture system. Historiography on the girmitiya diaspora has homogenized the experience of Indian labourers, neglecting variations among different caste groups. Focusing on Dalit labourers, this paper argues that plantation life improved their sociocultural and economic standing by emphasizing on the accomplishment of the task than on the caste system prevalent in India. The plantation system facilitated mobility for Dalit labourers by removing caste barriers, enabling mingling, marriage, and a reduction in caste identities through employment. While economic mobility was not universal, the absence of rigid caste hierarchies in the plantation context fostered a more fluid and open social environment for communal and religious activities.

KEYWORDS:

• Indian diaspora
• girmitiya
• indentured labour
• Dalit
• migration

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the two anonymous reviewers of South Asian Diaspora for their valuable comments.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 The abolition was an effort of various people in various capacities. Prominent among them being William Wilberforce, Thomas Clarkson, James Stephen, Thomas Fowell Buxton, Thomas Whitmore and others. For more detail on abolition of slavery, see Williams (1944), Drescher (2009), and Davis (2006).

2 For the debate on colonialism's impact on education of Dalits, see Menon (1997), Bhattacharya (1998), Rao (2014), and Tschurenev (2019).

3 The Marathi term is used in Jyotibha Phule's own work, from 1873, Ghulamgiri, to denote the unity between the serving, labouring and the untouchable castes.

4 Translation from Hindi to English is ours (authors).

5 The term jajman implied patron, and kamin implied client. Jajman, usually upper-caste was provided services by his kamin, usually lower-caste. Wiser (1936) attributed its origin to the primary requirement of Hindu society which was division of labour along caste lines.

6 In Kumar (2017), Kunti's case is exemplified to show how lower-caste working women were only granted subjectivity when they demonstrated the perceived virtues associated with upper-class Hindu women.

7 For more discussion on caste and religion questions in colonial India, see Bose (2023).

8 Rawat and Satyanarayana (2016) stress that Dalits have been notably absent from mainstream historical narratives, as they do not advance the historiography of colonialism vs nationalism; and the failure to integrate the unique struggles and perspectives of Dalit communities into the broader narrative of India's history.

9 The emigration of labourers for the plantation work formally started from 1834 when ship Sarah reach the shore of Mauritius with 39 ‘coolies’ on 1st August 1834.

10 Giriraj Kishore, in his 2013 novel 'Pehla Girmitiya', refers to Gandhi as the first girmitiya.

11 Translation from Hindi to English is ours (authors).

12 Desai and Vahed (2010) mention three immigrants who were Brahmins but were registered as Thakur and Thapar by the Emigration Agent so that they could migrate. They claimed that the Agent promised them ‘easy work.’

13 Translation from Hindi to English is ours (authors).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the IoE, SRICC, Banaras Hindu University and NIHSS-ICSSR: JNI20/1026.

Notes on contributors

Ayushi Varma

Ayushi Varma is a Doctoral Candidate at Department of History, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi. Her PhD thesis explores Dalit migration under the indenture system from India to the plantation colonies in the 19th and early twentieth centuries with special reference to Surinam, Reunion and Fiji.

Ashutosh Kumar

Ashutosh Kumar is an Associate Professor of History at Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, India. He has published many books, and articles in international peer reviewed journals. His most recent publications include Coolies of the Empire: Indentured Indians in the Sugar Colonies, 1830–1920,’ Cambridge University Press, 2017; ‘The Indian Labour Diaspora’ (authored with Professor Crispin Bates), Edinburgh University Press, 2017; Re-visiting the First World War: Indian Soldiers in the Global Conflict (edited with Professor Claude Markovits), from Routledge Publication, 2021 and ‘Girmitiyas and the Global Indian Diaspora: Origins, Memories and Identity’ (edited with Professor Crispin Bates) from Cambridge University Press.