Girmitiya Culture and Memory

Dr. Priyanka Chaudhary is a Professor of English in the Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultural Studies at Manipal University Jaipur, India. Her research interest lies in Gender Studies, South Asian Writings and Cultural Studies. She has supervised seven PhD scholars. She has published many articles and reviews in Scopus, Web of Science and UGC journals. She has co-authored / edited books five books. She has attended many FDPs, and workshops and convened two International Conferences.Dr. Neha Singh is an Assistant Professor at Institute of Management, Nirma University, Ahmedabad, India. She is a member of the International Scientific Committee-Indian Ocean Committee, Indentured Labour Route Project. She has published articles in reputed journals and in UNESCO’s World Heritage Site Aapravasi Ghat Trust Fund’s newsletter. She has co-edited a book Literature of Girmitiya: History, Culture and Identity, Palgrave Macmillan (2023). She is a recipient of ICSSR data collection abroad award and has been awarded an ICSSR funded research project in 2023. Her major interest lies in migration and diaspora studies, slaves’ narratives, and cultural production.

• 1. Introduction: Theorizing Girmitiya Culture and (Post)memory.- PART I-Retrieving Historical Narratives.- 2. Beyond Indenture: An Examination of the Life Stories, Social & Economic Mobility of Mohun and Teeluckdharry.- 3. The Indenture Experiment in Mauritius: A Comparison between the Administration of British and French Plantations.- 4. Mapping Locations in indenture Ship Lists to Current Locations in India.- 5. Struggles of Indian Indentured Women During the Indenture System in Fiji.- PART II Commemorating (Post)memory.- 6. Commemorating the Coolitude in the Caribbean Region.- 7. The Politics of Displacement and Shipboard Fatality: Analysing the Mental Health of Indentured Laborers.- 8. The Relationship and Impact of Bollywood on Indian Diaspora.- 9. Memory beyond Black Waters: Mapping History, Language and Culture in Kalapani Poetics from the Perspective of Female Indentureship.- PART III- The Context of Culture and Identity.- 10. Homemaking in Girmitiya Diaspora.- 11. Preserving Roots Abroad: The Girmitiyas’ Role in Indian Soft Power.- 12. Ganga Talao and Girmitya: Folklore and Oral Traditions.- 13. A Virtual Museum Experience in Fiji.- 14. Indo-Fijian Rāmlīlā as a Cultural Ethos among Girmitiyas.- PART IV-(Re)mapping Girmitiya Literature.- 15. The Tell-tale Poetry of the Woman Girmitiya: Analysing Torabully’s Coupeuses D’Azur.- 16. Fiji’s Subaltern Women’s Cry: Social and Psychological Repercussions of Migration.- 17. Struggle and Sufferings of Girmitiya: A Study of Writings of Indo-Fijians Writers.