Girmit [rare books]

Author with two girmitiyas he interviewed in 1974

The indenture system, called girmit, by the Indian labourers, who served under its five year contract, brought some 60,553 workers to Fiji from the 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 labourers, when only a few remained alive.

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