Girmitiyas: shaping new lives in new lands

Activity: Illustrated readings
Topic: History: Indian migration and indenture
Date: Friday 5th May 2023
Time: 11.00 AM Guyana
Link: https://youtu.be/hUNRn7itffc

Moray House Trust invites you to join us as we celebrate Arrival Day with a look at the lives of a few of those who came and their descendants. These readings draw heavily on the scholarship of the late Professor Brij Lal and Professor Brinsley Samaroo to provide a backdrop to the process of indenture and the experience of those who signed up for it, the girmitiyas. As with much of our history, the legacy of (what Professor Seecharan calls) ‘the supremacy of imperial institutions and definitions and the omnipotence of the colonial bureaucracy’, threaten to rob the indentured of agency, to obscure the intriguing course of individual lives and the validity of individual voices. The readings conclude with substantial extracts from the memoirs of two well-known Guyanese to give a flavour of the rich and varied experiences of those who came from India in service of sugar.

Title:        Girmitiyas: shaping new lives in new lands
Date:       Friday 5th May 2023
Time:      11.00 AM Guyana
YouTube: https://youtu.be/hUNRn7itffc

A reminder: Our previous readings are available here:
Kala Pani (2021):       https://youtu.be/U17dAhiGLu0
I am a Coolie (2022): https://youtu.be/dUirPfa8Fjg