Girmitiya and the Political Economy of a ‘Taste of Sweetness’ in Colonial India

Author(s): Sanjay Kumar

Abstract:

There are many literature which much provide information of the lives of the Girmitiya i.e. the people and their descendants whom the British brought between 1879 and 1916 from colonial India to work as indentured labourers on the sugarcane plantations of Fiji and many more islands. The Britishers became much more about significance and importance of ‘a taste of sweetness’ in everyday life of human being. So, the colonial government had carried Indian food-style to glob on cost of repressive rules and exploitative behavior of the state’s machinery. In course of time, Girmitiya identified as a symbol of a taste of sweetness on alien land after losing everything in own native land. The colonial government expanded its political economy of sugar production and market from colonial India to island countries like Mauritius, Fiji, Trinidad, Surinam and so on. Since then, sugar emerged as the largest agro-based industry in India and Fiji. Sugar has a major influence on the country’s water, food, and energy security. In this paper, we use a comparative approach to assess interconnected water-food-energy and market challenges, with a specific focus on the political economy of the sugar industry in India and Fiji. Connecting the discourse of a taste of sweetness and Girmitiya in terms of producers, consumers, and policy makers, the text shows that the modern sugar habit took shape in the shadow of a growing empire. The paper also look on status of Indian sugar farmers and Sugar growers in Fiji as well as organizational structures, governance and trends of sugar industry in India and Fiji.

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Pages: 70-72     |    2 View     |    0 Download