Bookish !

 About forty years back, I was loitering under the long canopy of Connaught Place, New Delhi . As I am a book lover so indulging in window shopping of book stores!

  I just stood in front of Golgotia book store which encased rare books which were not affordable to me , though I wanted to purchase them & wanted to keep them in my collection .Just nearby , on the pavement a vendor was keeping good assortment of pirated books in a heap costing  Rs 5/- & Rs 10/-. I just selected two books from the heap. ,which caught my fancy .The 'Roots' by Alex Hailey & Dracula by Bram Stoker.

                  I was very happy as I was to lay my hand on Roots ,very much acclaimed book  & Dracula , its Hindi version 'Pichas ki Pyas' .I had read in my school days .The passion with which Alex Hailey tried to find his roots from a African boy Kunta Kinte from 1750 to present generation of 'Alex Hailey' in 1970ies , the whole narrative & saga of effort is mouthwatering & charmed me as a great novel & I concede,  I have read it umpteen times to catch the nuances of  slavery & slave persons.

                 Years passed , decades passed but not the passion to find the lost origin . Though Alex Hailey got prestigious  Pulitzer prize in fiction genre & the author of 'Coolie Woman, the odyssey of indenture' Gaiutra Bahadur was finalist of 2014 Orwell prize is a Guynise author.  The passion to find her origin was same ! The famous quote 'The British didn't recruit "coolies" for their sugar cane fields. rather ,they made "Coolies" & this was the essence of odyssey of an indenture , who for all practical purposes was a 'coolie'.

I was interested in the indenture stories as maximum of indentures had emigrated from Bihar & eastern U.P. Their language in adopted countries are Bhojpuri or the colloquialism developed mixing it in local language . The author made a passionate search for her great-great-great grandmother who hailed from village Bhurhari pur of Manjhi police station of Saran Distt of Bihar. I had gone to Manjhi village in a 'barat' during my childhood .
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           The book is well researched & her fanatical zeal in searching the origins of her great grandmother  Sujaria  ,the indenture .    

Gaiutra Bahadur

 

 Sujaria was recruited from Faizabad U.P. nearby of Vridavan where there is galore of Vaishnavite Ashrams of widowed women & they still exist . She embarked on a coolie ship 'Clyde' in 1903 The search of her grandmother in the old register of Calcutta Port Trust & chaffing various archival material in various archives round the globe is fascinating & captivating .

The author's grandmother was four month pregnant during ship's journey & it docked in Darmera in Guyana where she was earmarked for a sugar cane plantation farm . It is in plantation indenture quarters , she gave birth to her child & saga of struggle of indenture's pathos & emotion started  there with vicissitude of time .They lived in so much penury ,they had no option left except to meditate for survival of life . Really funny !

                          The author Gaiutra Bahadur is at present Assistant professor at Rutgers University , Newark school of arts & sciences thought ,how her grand mother felt ,remained in the plantation with her son & of coming generation of hers is a saga ,so bewitching , enchanting & captivating One finds it difficult to live the book in between    

                     As an author , she keeps a tong of a surgeon in unraveling the truth of her grand mother , the original indenture . In her words ' what then was the truth , in which category of recruit did my great grand mother fall ! Who was she , displaced peasant, runaway wife , kidnap victim , Vaishnavite pilgrim or widow ? Was the burn mark on her left leg,  a scar from escaping a husband's funeral pyre ?Was she a prostitute  or did indenture save her from sex work ?Did she found herself as part of the "Fishing Fleet"( searching for husbands) . Were the coolie woman caught in the clutches of unscrupulous recruiters who tricked them ? On the contrary she was choosing to flee , were these two possibilities mutually  exclusive or could both things be true' ? 

                       The author unravels , the Sujaria's emigration pass from Walter Rodney Archives in Georgetown , Guyna . The departure date of sail ship Clyde from Calcutta port trust & globe trotting various archives , navigating various archival materials from which faces of Makundi , Mukhlal . Lachman , Ramautar ,Chhablal , Mathura Singh & many other bearing their names & their stories peeps out of misery & wretchedness . Gender disproportion was so much among male & female indenture, for a mere 'saree' woman indentures were enticed & ready  to change their life partners !

Clyde like ship

 The book has nowhere person to person interaction & written in third person as the narrative builds up . This novel is replete with anecdotes of indenture life ,turning it into captivating essay of the plight of indentures , many a time forsaking self esteem on slight of favor shown . The stealing of wives by white overseers was a common story in the sugar cane plantation .

                         One indenture litterateur Lal Behari Sharma composed many a copulets on the festival of holi ,generally told in colloquial lingo as 'Fawah' based on Ram Charit Manas had also composed certain poems showing the image of white overseers .

                     Galloping into the fields

                     On the heels of the people,

                     comes the Sahib,

                     with a whip in his hand ,

                     The white man's tall hat ,

                     Like a helmet,

                     High on the head .

Another poem of his showing the maimed feeling of indentures craving for justice , wails

                     On the island of Demerara,

                     All around there are police stations,

                     All around there are ill consequences

                     Lord, where have you guided us,

                     Lord, where have you misled us , 

                     Deceived creatures .

This odyssey also tells of the migrated family of indentures of remaining under the spell of constant fear of racial violence .The emigrants were known as Hindues suffered from the violence of blacks , marauding gang of 'dot busters '. Dot Busters means attacking women who kept small 'bindis' in the center of their forehead . This was one of the reasons , father of the author migrated to U.S.A. from Guyna living his ancestral plot of land in Guyna . The emigrants always suffered this way or that way before attaining name & fame for them in life

               But this book of migration also forces me to think , those who didn't adopt the option of emigration as indenture to far off places of the globe, are they better placed in life ? The progenies of indenture have made a name for themselves famously uttered as Indian diaspora , second to none as ethnic groups , gloat with glam quotient of luxury & prosperity .

             Where as their left of bretheren are still rotting & wallowing in the pit of misery & poverty . Their gulf between rich & poor has not diminished. I don't know who will answer these questions.