Women, Indenture, and Resistance.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Mishra, Margaret.

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource (300 pages)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Oxford : Oxford University Press, Incorporated, 2026.

Summary:

The book explores the lives of Indian women migrants in Fiji (1879-1920), focusing on themes like displacement, violence, motherhood, and economic hardship. Set in colonial sugar plantations, it highlights themes of resilience, resistance, challenging stereotypes, and their defiance despite limited choices.

Contents:

Cover

Half Title

Title Page

Copyright Page

Dedication

Acknowledgements

Table of Contents

Illustrations

1 Minor History and Interdisciplinary Intersections

Girmit and Fiji's Girmitiyas

Bagasse and Minor History

Colonial, Postcolonial, Subaltern, and Feminist Approaches

Archival Sources

Structure, Secondary Sources, and Chapter Themes

My Position in This Book

2 The 'Gamut' of Girmit

Fiji's Cession to Britain and the Birth of the Indenture System

The Recruitment Process

The Depot Experience

Across the Kala-Pani

The Colonial Record-Keeping Process

Indian Indentured Women Who Landed in Fiji

Migration Patterns Among Fiji's Indentured Women

The 'Twice-Born' Migrants

Rejected Or Set Aside

Plantation Life and Living Conditions

'Sexual Jealousy' and 'Wife-Chopping'

3 Wife Murder, Female Sexual Deviance, and Choice

'Sexual Jealousy' and Izzat

The Construct of 'Wife-Murder'

Female Deviance and Sexual Autonomy

Narasamma's Ear Ornaments: The 'Gift' and Its Return

Mawlee's 'Dreadful Murder at Fiji'

The Murderous Attack On Ramzani: Testimonial Silences

Sukhrania's Assertion of Sexual Autonomy

Conclusion

4 The 'Mad' Woman, Sexuality, and Uselessness

Colonization and Madness

The Feminization of Madness

The British Lunacy Acts and Categories of Madness

The Public Lunatic Asylum in Fiji

The Sad Song of Sookdaie

Dhurma: Unproductivity as Madness

Jaita: The 'Prostitute' and 'Imbecile'

Montowinie: Rejected, Insane, and Sexually Deviant

5 Maternal Negligence Or Systemic Harm

The Mothers of Indenture

The Infants and Children of Indenture

'Mother-Blaming' and the Death of Bilasi's Child

'Starved On Bad Tin Milk': The Deaths of Naval Kishore and Babulal

Bachni's Depot Baby, 7480: A Teat Without a Bottle.

Death By Fire: Brijpalee

The 'Prostitute' and the 'Little Coolie Girl With a Most Notorious Character'

Bullakan's Fourth Dead Infant and the 'Third Verdict'

6 The Merciful Vignettes of Kunti, Naraini, and Laliya

Indian Nationalism and Totaram Sanadhya's Polemic Tales

The Many 'Voices' of Kunti: Patriarchal Virtue and the Indenture System

Naraini's Violent Husband and the 'Burra Sahib'

Laliya and Ismail: Unscrupulous Recruiters, Severed Love, and Leprosy

7 Honour, Sisterhood, and Collective Protests

Lakshmi's Letter From the Depot

The 'Ladies' From India and the Cry for Izzat

The Australasian Committee of Enquiry Into the Social and Moral Conditions of Women

'First-Class Medical Woman of Fiji'

The Women's Gang: 'An Eye for an Eye'

Women-Led Strikes, Riots, and Petitions

The Women-Led Strikes and Protests of 1920

Jaikumari: A Threat to the Colonial Order

A Call for a Return to 'Femininity'

8 Reflections On Women's Resistance and Minor History

Patterns of Women's Resistance Across the Colonies

Coercion and Resistance

Challenges of Writing Girmitiya Women's Histories

Remembering Jasni

Index.

Notes:

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

0-19-897862-6

0-19-897859-6

9780198978596

OCLC:

1559239281