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Banjara
A powerful literary debut from an astonishing new Kiwi voice, focusing on the Indo-Fijian indenture system and how it affected generations across the Pacific.
Rajasthan 1888: Avani Rathod, a nomad of the Banjara community, is summoned to teach a blue-eyed colonial officer the trees of her region, but instead is misled into indenture to the sugarcane plantations of Fiji. While on the voyage that leads her away from her ancestral land, Avani's baby forms in her belly and she forges close friendships with the other women bound for the Pacific - bonds that will be tested once they reach the islands, under the suffocating colonial powers.
Aotearoa 2016: Avani's great-granddaughter, Meera Chand, seeks the true history of her ancestors - the forgotten and displaced Girmitiya. Meera's search for her great-grandmother's origins leads her to a region of India, where she learns the rhythms of Odissi dance and where she meets up with her former lover - the man she can never have, but whom she can't forget.
Set in Aotearoa, Australia, India and Fiji, Banjara is an essential reimagining of Indo-Fijian Girmitiya history, and a love letter to our ancestors whose stories live on in our genes.
Rajasthan 1888: Avani Rathod, a nomad of the Banjara community, is summoned to teach a blue-eyed colonial officer the trees of her region, but instead is misled into indenture to the sugarcane plantations of Fiji. While on the voyage that leads her away from her ancestral land, Avani's baby forms in her belly and she forges close friendships with the other women bound for the Pacific - bonds that will be tested once they reach the islands, under the suffocating colonial powers.
Aotearoa 2016: Avani's great-granddaughter, Meera Chand, seeks the true history of her ancestors - the forgotten and displaced Girmitiya. Meera's search for her great-grandmother's origins leads her to a region of India, where she learns the rhythms of Odissi dance and where she meets up with her former lover - the man she can never have, but whom she can't forget.
Set in Aotearoa, Australia, India and Fiji, Banjara is an essential reimagining of Indo-Fijian Girmitiya history, and a love letter to our ancestors whose stories live on in our genes.
314 pages, Kindle Edition
Published April 14, 2026
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
June 11, 2026
Though the story is fictional, Banjara portrays an accurate depiction of the Indo-Fijian indenture and how my people came to be. The two perspectives of and Indo-Fijian in modern day New Zealand and her ancestor in Gujarat is so thought provoking when comparing the two parallels.
Though many Indo-Fijians like myself know our heritage and the story's of our ancestors its really inspiring seeing it published and out into the world. I highly encourage everyone read this because wow. This isn't just a fictional piece but also educational and beautifully written. Shana's writing really takes you into the depths and heart of the story and makes you feel like you're there.
Though many Indo-Fijians like myself know our heritage and the story's of our ancestors its really inspiring seeing it published and out into the world. I highly encourage everyone read this because wow. This isn't just a fictional piece but also educational and beautifully written. Shana's writing really takes you into the depths and heart of the story and makes you feel like you're there.
May 16, 2026
Before reading this book, I had no prior knowledge about the girmitiya got to Fiji. When I’ve visited Fiji, my ignorant ass assumed they immigrated there. This history is so close to Aotearoa, why is it not taught at school!? I am so glad to have read this book just after it got published, I know it is going to become a classic in our South Pacific corner of the world.
One thing I am cautious about this book is the blatant presentism bias that Avani has for the British. Avani interprets the colonisers with the same lens of the contemporary values we hold for colonisers today. There is a lot of comparison between traditional indigenous practices vs white people traditions: “And I wonder why their medicine is so white, the colour of our dead, and not the green of our leaves, the colour of the living” (page 74). I’m sure Avani must have questioned the colour of British medicine but probably not to the extent where she would value her medicine more without actually seeing the impacts of British medicine. It looks like the author has imported a 21st century holistic view to medicine and given it to a 19th century character.
Another example on page 178: “It’s strange to think of them coming from the gora’s hands. It does not seem like their work, to use their hands to build with materials already here. They like to make new things to show off their industry, causing them to fell trees too quickly.” Definitely a thought an 18th century indigenous person would have. However, when put together will the other coloniser critiques, again it looks like what a modern person stating the obvious about what an indigenous person would think.
Another one on page 240: “They reminded me of the porcelain bowls that the gora…would eat from. I never understood why hey would try to recreate something when the earth always provides in perfect forms.” Avani continuously compares her culture to the white man’s, depicting hers as natural, theirs as inherently wrong. I would have thought she would have had some more curiosity around their disparate culture, not the resentment of a modern Western progressive viewpoint.
Again: “He’s blessing you’ says the translator in a voice that tells me I should be grateful. They always give us things without asking…as if in their eyes we are somehow always lacking” (page 258).
There are many more examples in the book, but I will sum it up with this quote from Meera: “Had my trip to Rajasthan…been a fantasy? Orientalising my own origins, the exact sin of the coloniser?” (page 312). Considering the author also grew up in Aotearoa, she is very aware of how our perceptions have been shaped by living in a colonised country, and then there is her extra layer of her heritage of India and Fiji being colonised. I fear these sources have led the author astray to depict Avani with the moral view of colonisation today. Anachronism is hard to avoid with historical writing, let alone writing between 18th and 21st century perspectives.
Avani was writing in 1888 when the British East India Company had been in India since 1757 so it is possible her views of white people had been shaped across the years they were in India. As Avani was a desert nomad, I am unsure how much contact she would realistically have had with the British to form these opinions of them. It would have been great to clear up Avani and her people's relationship and history with the British at the beginning of the book.
In conclusion, I have no idea how the girmitiya would have seen the British, it’s just that a lot of Avani’s views feel very modern. The author has an extensive research list, so she has major credit there. Loved this book, just thought I would take the chance to review it before anyone else does! Every time I read a book and its reviews, everyone has already said what I’ve been thinking.
One thing I am cautious about this book is the blatant presentism bias that Avani has for the British. Avani interprets the colonisers with the same lens of the contemporary values we hold for colonisers today. There is a lot of comparison between traditional indigenous practices vs white people traditions: “And I wonder why their medicine is so white, the colour of our dead, and not the green of our leaves, the colour of the living” (page 74). I’m sure Avani must have questioned the colour of British medicine but probably not to the extent where she would value her medicine more without actually seeing the impacts of British medicine. It looks like the author has imported a 21st century holistic view to medicine and given it to a 19th century character.
Another example on page 178: “It’s strange to think of them coming from the gora’s hands. It does not seem like their work, to use their hands to build with materials already here. They like to make new things to show off their industry, causing them to fell trees too quickly.” Definitely a thought an 18th century indigenous person would have. However, when put together will the other coloniser critiques, again it looks like what a modern person stating the obvious about what an indigenous person would think.
Another one on page 240: “They reminded me of the porcelain bowls that the gora…would eat from. I never understood why hey would try to recreate something when the earth always provides in perfect forms.” Avani continuously compares her culture to the white man’s, depicting hers as natural, theirs as inherently wrong. I would have thought she would have had some more curiosity around their disparate culture, not the resentment of a modern Western progressive viewpoint.
Again: “He’s blessing you’ says the translator in a voice that tells me I should be grateful. They always give us things without asking…as if in their eyes we are somehow always lacking” (page 258).
There are many more examples in the book, but I will sum it up with this quote from Meera: “Had my trip to Rajasthan…been a fantasy? Orientalising my own origins, the exact sin of the coloniser?” (page 312). Considering the author also grew up in Aotearoa, she is very aware of how our perceptions have been shaped by living in a colonised country, and then there is her extra layer of her heritage of India and Fiji being colonised. I fear these sources have led the author astray to depict Avani with the moral view of colonisation today. Anachronism is hard to avoid with historical writing, let alone writing between 18th and 21st century perspectives.
Avani was writing in 1888 when the British East India Company had been in India since 1757 so it is possible her views of white people had been shaped across the years they were in India. As Avani was a desert nomad, I am unsure how much contact she would realistically have had with the British to form these opinions of them. It would have been great to clear up Avani and her people's relationship and history with the British at the beginning of the book.
In conclusion, I have no idea how the girmitiya would have seen the British, it’s just that a lot of Avani’s views feel very modern. The author has an extensive research list, so she has major credit there. Loved this book, just thought I would take the chance to review it before anyone else does! Every time I read a book and its reviews, everyone has already said what I’ve been thinking.
May 19, 2026
Book of the year.
July 11, 2026
This incredible debut by Shana Chandra hit me right in the feels. It took me on a captivating journey to a period in history I knew nothing about - the forced indenture of the people of India to the island of Fiji.
This dual timeline story is about Avani, one of the nomadic people from the Banjara community of Rajasthan, and her great-granddaughter, Meera, who was born in New Zealand over a generation later.
In 1888, Avani is assaulted by a British officer and winds up on a ship that was also carrying hundreds of “girmitiyas” bound for Fiji where they were to begin servitude on the sugar plantations. Avani, along with her unborn child, is taken as one of them and begins a harrowing life far from her home.
125 years later, Meera, born of Indo-Fijian parents, grew up feeling untethered and lost. She decided to trace her origins leading her to India - and her great-grandmother, Avani.
Along the way, she reconnects with a former love, whom she never got over, but was promised to someone else.
Thank you so much to the author, and publisher, Moa Press, for sending me a copy of this beautiful, heartbreaking and eye-opening novel. I can’t begin to recommend it enough.
July 15, 2026
Banjara by Shana Chandra is a beautifully written and deeply moving debut that shines a light on a history I knew far too little about. Always happy to support Kiwi authors, and this literary debut is something special.
Spanning Rajasthan in 1888, where a young woman is deceived into indentured labour in Fiji while carrying a child, and Aotearoa in 2016, where Meera searches for answers about her family's past, this story travels across India, Fiji, Australia and New Zealand. It is both a reimagining of Indo-Fijian Girmitiya history and a heartfelt love letter to the ancestors whose stories continue to shape them.
This was such an eye-opening read. The realities of Indian indenture are told with honesty, compassion and care, while the relationships at the heart of the novel give it so much warmth and emotional depth. An essential read that taught me so much, and one I'll be thinking about for a long time.
Spanning Rajasthan in 1888, where a young woman is deceived into indentured labour in Fiji while carrying a child, and Aotearoa in 2016, where Meera searches for answers about her family's past, this story travels across India, Fiji, Australia and New Zealand. It is both a reimagining of Indo-Fijian Girmitiya history and a heartfelt love letter to the ancestors whose stories continue to shape them.
This was such an eye-opening read. The realities of Indian indenture are told with honesty, compassion and care, while the relationships at the heart of the novel give it so much warmth and emotional depth. An essential read that taught me so much, and one I'll be thinking about for a long time.
July 13, 2026
A beautiful and heartbreaking account of indenture and the experiences of girmitya who were taken to Fiji under hideous conditions. But also a tale of what it means to belong, and the ties and connections that bind us to our ancestors.
I was fortunate enough to attend a book club and talk to Shana Chandra about this beautiful novel and was above all struck by the amazing discussions and discoveries it has spurred within the families of her readers and indeed within her own family.
Thank you Shana for this beautiful book and may it continue to be a source of learning, sharing and healing for many!!
I was fortunate enough to attend a book club and talk to Shana Chandra about this beautiful novel and was above all struck by the amazing discussions and discoveries it has spurred within the families of her readers and indeed within her own family.
Thank you Shana for this beautiful book and may it continue to be a source of learning, sharing and healing for many!!
August 14, 2026
Read this during the period from when Motiba was hospitalised through to now, after her death has a crazy coincidence. It’s been so interesting to learn about my family history in the process of reading this book, especially finding out that my great-grandfather father was from Kenya. More than likely, his parents were taken from India in a similar way to those who were taken to Fiji as this book describes.
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April 6, 2026i’m ashamed to say that i knew very little about the history of indentured servitude in Fiji so this was a very eye-opening book. a very thoughtful and well-written way of understanding the unique Indo-Fijian identity and how this period has continued to shape the South Pacific.
August 25, 2026
I learned so much reading this, about the history of indentured labour in Fiji, which I knew only the vaguest outline of, to the different cultures within the continent we call India. While this book is about these things it is also about female friendships. Beautiful.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews