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Girmitiyas, (Bhojpuri: 𑂏𑂱𑂩𑂧𑂱𑂗𑂱𑂨𑂰) also known as Jahajis, were indentured labourers from British India transported to work on plantations in Fiji, South Africa, Eastern Africa (namely Mauritius, Seychelles, Réunion, Tanganyika, Kenya, and Uganda), Malaysia, Singapore, and the Caribbean (namely Trinidad and Tobago, British Guiana, and Suriname) as part of the Indian indenture system.

Etymology

The word girmit represented an Indian pronunciation of the English word "agreement" - from the indenture "agreement" of the British Government with labourers from the Indian subcontinent. The agreements specified the workers' length of stay in foreign parts and the conditions attached to their return to the British Raj. The word Jahāj refers to 'ship' in Indic languages (from the Arabic/Persian Jahāz/جهاز), with Jahaji implying 'people of ship' or 'people coming via ship'.

In Fiji, Governor Arthur Hamilton-Gordon discouraged Melanesian Fijians from working on the plantations in an attempt to preserve their culture. Activist Shaneel Lal argues that Girmitiya were deceitfully enslaved by the British.

See also

• Indian indenture system
• Indo-Caribbean people
• Indo-Fijians
• Fiji Hindi
• Global Girmit Museum

References

1. ^ "Girmit History". www.fijigirmit.org. Retrieved 2020-11-10.
2. "Article 2". www.fijigirmit.org. Retrieved 2020-11-10.
3. Lal, Brij V. "Chalo Jahaji – on a journey through indenture in Fiji". New Girmit.org. Retrieved 2021-01-15.
4. "Shaneel Lal: The Royal Family stole my ancestors". NZ Herald. Retrieved 2022-09-25.

Further reading

• Gillion, Kenneth (1962). Fiji's Indian migrants : a history of the end of indenture in 1920. Melbourne: Oxford U.P.
• Brij V. Lal and Kate Fortune, ed. (2000). "Girmitiya". The Pacific Islands : an encyclopedia (. ed.). Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press. pp. 110–111. ISBN 082482265X.
• Lal, Brij V. (2004). Girmitiyas : the origins of the Fiji Indians. Lautoka, Fiji: Fiji Institute of Applied Studies. ISBN 978-0-8248-2265-1.
• Gaiutra Bahadur (2014). Coolie Woman: The Odyssey of Indenture. The University of Chicago. ISBN 978-0-226-21138-1
• Carter, Marina; Torabully, Khal (2002). Coolitude : an anthology of the Indian labour diaspora. London: Anthem. ISBN 1843310031.
• Praveen Kumar Jha (2019). Coolie Lines Archived 2022-01-18 at the Wayback Machine. New Delhi: Vani Prakashan. ISBN 978-93-88684-04-0

External links

• South Asian Indentured Labor – Online Archive of Research and Resources – an online archive and living syllabus of text-based resources related to Indian indentureship, with country-specific resources and material related to global Indian indenture diasporas
• Interview Archived 2022-06-18 at the Wayback Machine of Mahendra Chaudhry about Girmitiyas in Fiji

• Fijian people of Indian descent
• Indentured servitude