Reinscribing History, Culture and Gender Dynamics Through Girmitiyas' Fables.

The indenture system gave rise to the migration and settlement of Indians--as a substitute for slave labor--in various plantation colonies overseas. The scholarship of the West/colonizers pushed such events of the East/colonies to the fringes. Amitav Ghosh, known for his historical fiction writing, delves deep into the recesses of history and lends voice to the marginalized in the Ibis Trilogy, set in the earlier decades of the 19th century when the Slavery Abolition Act of the British Empire (1833) came into existence. The plantation owners were seeking substitution for the former slaves, and a solution was soon found in the form of girmitiyas (indentured laborers). Krishna Gubili, a descendant of an indentured Indian, also meditates on the plight of the 'coolies' on the plantation sites of the British Empire. Both Ghosh and Gubili critically reflect on the unmapped and unheard Girmitiya Saga. The paper studies Ghosh's Sea of Poppies (2008) and Gubili's Viriah... (2018) to understand the causes behind the migration of the multitude of Indians to unknown lands and their experiences. It also examines the gender dynamics of the migration, the state of the laborers, the experiences of the female, and the 'cultural assimilation.' [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]