Reflections: Twice Banished: Reinterpreting Fiji and Global Girmit History and Contemporary Girmit Issues

by Satish Rai

This book contains 22 articles that he has written on girmit. These articles cover a wide range of historical and contemporary issues. Dr Rai writes to provide an alternative narrative of Fiji and global girmityas which challenges the narratives set by the European and many of the Indian writers on these issues. He believes that a new narrative must be set that tells the global girmit history from the point of view of the girmityas and which challenges the narratives set by those who have justified the dreadful exploitation of young Indian men, women and children under the Indian indenture (girmit) system. This books contains a number of new and original ideas that will not be found in any other publication. It informs readers that majority of Fiji girmityas were prevented from returning to their homes and families in India. One article talks about the intergenerational traumas of girmityas and their descendants. Another article points out that the families of the girmityas in India and intrinsically connected to the global girmityas and their descendants. There are other more personal articles which are somehow linked with exile, home and identity issues.

328 pages, Kindle Edition

Published July 14, 2020