Peasants in Girmitiya Scholarship

This chapter argues that Girmitiya scholarship suffers from three blind spots: it has ignored the period when British Indians were primarily peasants. That is remarkable because it was precisely during this phase that their ethnic community formation matured and formed the basis for their further cultural, economic and political development. Second, it has overlooked that the workers experienced three distinct transformations: from various groups directly and indirectly involved in agriculture in British India to plantation workers, from plantation workers to peasants in Suriname, and from peasants to ‘urbanites’. Third, Girmitiya scholarship has ignored the sacrifices made by the labourers and peasants. That neglect entail a distorted view of Girmitiya history. The central hypothesis outlined in this chapter is that possessing agricultural knowledge and skills to practise agriculture has determined the three transformations of the British Indians. They could survive and be successful because the agricultural knowledge and skills could be mobilised by the ethnic group.