Social and Cultural Dimensions of Indian Indentured Labour and its Diaspora

Maurits S. Hassankhan is Head of the History Department of the Faculty of Humanities at Anton de Kom University of Suriname. Lomarsh Roopnarine is Associate Professor of Caribbean and Latin American Studies at Jackson State University, United States. Radica Mahase holds a BA and PhD in History from the University of the West Indies, St. Augustine and a MA in Modern Indian History from Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi, India.

• Introduction PART 1: WOMEN, LABOUR AND NARRATIVES1. Plantation Patriarchy and Structural Violence: Women Workers in Sri LankaRachel Kurian and Kumari Jayawardena2. My Life My Story: Narratives of the Women Left BehindNivedita Singh 3. Tracing the Past of Hindustani Indentured Women in Suriname, 1873-1921Tanya Sitaram PART 2: SOCIAL ISSUES AMONG HINDUSTANI IMMIGRANTS IN THE NETHERLANDS4. Gender-specific Problems among Surinamese Hindustanis: Suicide and AlcoholismIndra Boedjarath 5. Elderly Surinamese Hindustanis in the NetherlandsNirmala Birjmohan 6. Emotional Loss among Hindustani Migrants in the NetherlandsRahina Hassankhan 7. Socializing for Educational SuccessAnita Nanhoe PART 3: RELIGION, ARTS AND IDENTITY8. Slavery and Indentured Labour from the Perspective of Art StudiesJ.S. (Mitra) Rambaran and R. Safdar Zaidi 9. Fu Moimoi: Body Art as Identity MarkerHilde Neus 10. God at the Fore-deck and at the After-deckJoop Vernooij PART 4: INDIAN MUSICAL TRADITIONS AND IDENTITY11. The Dhantal’s Irreverence: Off-beat as the In-between Time of IndentureAnanya J. Kabir 12. The Role of the Tassa Drum Ensemble in Trinidad and Tobago’s Cultural Identity FormationSatnarine Balkaransingh 13. The Mike Men of Trinidad: Cultural, Social and Political InfluencesPrimnath Gooptar Notes on Contributors Index