Letters of labourers: Girmitiya women, petitions, and patriarchy under indenture
By: Kumar, Ashutosh
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Material type: 
BookPublisher: Modern Asian Studies Description: 59(4), Jul, 2025: p.971-987.Subject(s): Indian indenture, Girmitya, Toolie, Super plantation, Colonialism, Gender and sexuality, Women agencies, Petitions, Letter, Labour
In:
Modern Asian StudiesSummary: This article explores the condition of Indian indentured women labourers on the colonial plantations of Fiji and Natal (now in South Africa) in order to understand the complexities of life in a radically different society and production regime. Opposed to the sources used by scholars to document the women under indenture, such as colonial documents, official reports, and writings of reporters, which have limitations of objective portrayal, this article uses the labourers’ petitions, depositions, and letters written largely in Indian languages either by women or men, individually or collectively, to different authorities. This is a source that has rarely been used hitherto to understand the plantation regime in terms of gender violence, sexuality, and patriarchy. Through a close reading of these letters and petitions and an examination of the conditions of their production and their reception by the colonial authorities, the article argues that plantations, as a radically different space, became a site of the violent struggle between women’s agency and Indian patriarchy in the process of reproduction of cultural selves away from the ‘home’. It further argues that by facilitating both women’s agency and male control, rather than taking an outright side, the colonial state created a space where both freedom and oppression coexisted, often leading to violent outcomes.-Reproduced
https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/modern-asian-studies/article/letters-of-labourers-girmitiya-women-petitions-and-patriarchy-under-indenture/07280492489C001F5EE051DD3F00B74E
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Articles
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Indian Institute of Public Administration | 59(4), Jul, 2025: p.971-987 | Available | AR139341 |
This article explores the condition of Indian indentured women labourers on the colonial plantations of Fiji and Natal (now in South Africa) in order to understand the complexities of life in a radically different society and production regime. Opposed to the sources used by scholars to document the women under indenture, such as colonial documents, official reports, and writings of reporters, which have limitations of objective portrayal, this article uses the labourers’ petitions, depositions, and letters written largely in Indian languages either by women or men, individually or collectively, to different authorities. This is a source that has rarely been used hitherto to understand the plantation regime in terms of gender violence, sexuality, and patriarchy. Through a close reading of these letters and petitions and an examination of the conditions of their production and their reception by the colonial authorities, the article argues that plantations, as a radically different space, became a site of the violent struggle between women’s agency and Indian patriarchy in the process of reproduction of cultural selves away from the ‘home’. It further argues that by facilitating both women’s agency and male control, rather than taking an outright side, the colonial state created a space where both freedom and oppression coexisted, often leading to violent outcomes.-Reproduced
https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/modern-asian-studies/article/letters-of-labourers-girmitiya-women-petitions-and-patriarchy-under-indenture/07280492489C001F5EE051DD3F00B74E
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