The word girmit represented an Indian pronunciation of the English word "agreement" - from the indenture "agreement" of the British Government with labourers from the Indian subcontinent.[1] The agreements specified the workers' length of stay in foreign parts and the conditions attached to their return to the British Raj.[2] The word Jahāj refers to 'ship' in Indic languages (from the Arabic/Persian Jahāz/جهاز), with Jahaji implying 'people of ship' or 'people coming via ship'.[3]
In Fiji, GovernorArthur Hamilton-Gordon discouraged MelanesianFijians from working on the plantations in an attempt to preserve their culture.[1] Activist Shaneel Lal argues that Girmitiya were deceitfully enslaved by the British.[4]
Carter, Marina; Torabully, Khal (2002). Coolitude : an anthology of the Indian labour diaspora. London: Anthem. ISBN 1843310031.
Praveen Kumar Jha (2019). Coolie Lines Archived 2022-01-18 at the Wayback Machine. New Delhi: Vani Prakashan. ISBN 978-93-88684-04-0
External links
South Asian Indentured Labor – Online Archive of Research and Resources – an online archive and living syllabus of text-based resources related to Indian indentureship, with country-specific resources and material related to global Indian indenture diasporas