Girmit: Indian Indenture Experience In Fiji

The indenture system, called Girmit, by the Indian laborers, who served under its five-year contract, brought some 60,553 workers to Fiji from ports of Calcutta and Madras between 1879 and 1916. 

In this work, a reprint to mark the 125th anniversary of the arrival of these girmitiyas, Ahmed Ali examines their experience in Fiji’s plantations. His interpretation is supplemented by interviews given by twenty-four of these laborers, when only a few remained alive. 

These recollections constitute an invaluable oral source for the study of a critical period of Fiji’s history.