The Girmitiya Peasants in Suriname

Agrarian and Economic Transformations in a Plantation Society
2024
ISBN: 978-3-031-67960-5
Verlag: Springer

Buch, Englisch, 287 Seiten, Format (B × H): 160 mm x 241 mm, Gewicht: 635 g

This book examines the Indo-Surinamese Girmitiya peasants and their contributions to developing the ethnic community within their newly adopted home. It demonstrates the transformation of the Girmitiyas from agriculturalists in British India to plantation labourers to peasants and finally to urban dwellers.

The author argues that it was the Girmitiya peasants who had made greater contributions to developing the ethnic community over the labourers of whom about one-third returned to British India. The work covers the history of how the peasants institutionalised their practice, changed the physical landscape and integrated economically and politically as an ethnic group in their newly adopted homeland. Furthermore, the author presents arguments to demonstrate that Girmitiya peasants survived the plantation labour and peasant life due to their knowledge and skills of agrarian cultivation, known as agrarian human capital. The scholarly literature about the labour migration from British India has focused heavily on the fate of the labourers. Consequently, the history of the Girmitiya peasants as well as the cultural heritage they have produced has been grossly neglected. This book purports to fill this void by telling the history of Girmitiya peasants in Suriname, a Caribbean society adjacent to former British Guyana.

Zielgruppe

Research

Autoren/Hrsg.

Gowricharn, Ruben

Fachgebiete

• Naturwissenschaften Agrarwissenschaften Agrarwissenschaften
• Interdisziplinäres Wissenschaften Wissenschaft und Gesellschaft | Kulturwissenschaften Kulturwissenschaften
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtliche Themen Mentalitäts- und Sozialgeschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtliche Themen Kolonialgeschichte, Geschichte des Imperialismus
• Interdisziplinäres Wissenschaften Wissenschaft und Gesellschaft | Kulturwissenschaften Museumskunde, Materielle Kultur, Erinnerungskultur
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Geschichte einzelner Länder Amerikanische Geschichte

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Chapter 1. Peasants in Girmitiya scholarship.- Part I: From rural dweller to plantation labourer.- Chapter 2. Migration and agrarian human capital.- Chapter 3. Labourers on the plantations.- Chapter 4. An embryonic ethnic community.- Part II: From labourer to peasant.- Chapter 5. The rise of rice peasants.- Chapter 6. Homemaking in Suriname.- Chapter 7. Ruralisation policy.- Part III: From peasant to urban dweller.- Chapter 8. The mechanisation of rice farming.- Chapter 9. Ethnic and economic politics.- Chapter 10. The transition of rice farmers.- Conclusion: Transformations of the Girmitiya peasantry.

Über Autor(innen)

Ruben Gowricharn is professor of Indian Diaspora Studies at the VU University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Along with three edited volumes about the Indian diaspora (all Routledge) and numerous scholarly articles, his recent books include (2020), (2021), (2022) and (2023, co-authoredwith Jaswina Elahi). Since 2005, Gowricharn is also managing director of a doctoral program for adult migrant students in the Netherlands, geared at enlarging the capacity of communities and organizations.