Coolie Woman The Odyssey of Indenture eBook Gaiutra Bahadur
Download As PDF : Coolie Woman The Odyssey of Indenture eBook Gaiutra Bahadur 
In 1903, a Brahmin woman sailed from India to Guiana as a
‘coolie’ – the British name for indentured labourers who replaced
the newly emancipated slaves on sugar plantations all around the
world. Pregnant and travelling alone, this woman, like so many of
the indentured, disappeared into history. Now, in Coolie Woman,
her great-granddaughter Gaiutra Bahadur embarks on a journey into
the past to find her. Traversing three continents and trawling through
countless colonial archives, Bahadur excavates not only her greatgrandmother’s
story but also the repressed history of some quarter of
a million other coolie women, shining a light on complex lives.
Many were widows, runaways or outcasts who migrated alone in epic
sea voyages – traumatic ‘middle passages’ – only to face a life of hard
labour, dismal living conditions and sexual exploitation. As Bahadur
documents, however, it was precisely their sexuality that gave coolie
women a degree of leverage. In new worlds where they were the
scarcer sex, they could have their pick of Indian partners. This often
incited fatal retaliations by the men who were spurned. Meanwhile,
intimacy with white overseers sometimes conferred privileges. It also
provoked plantation uprisings, as a struggle between Indian men and their women intersected with one between coolies and their overlords.
The women’s shortage gave them sway but also made them victims,
caught in a shifting borderland between freedom and slavery.
Coolie Woman is a meditation on survival, a gripping story of a
double diaspora – from India to the West Indies in one century, and
from Guyana to the United States in the next – that is at once a
search for roots and an exploration of gender and power, peril and
opportunity.
Coolie Woman The Odyssey of Indenture eBook Gaiutra Bahadur
A well written and well researched book. I awaited its delivery with anticipation and could not put this book down after I started to read it. I enjoyed reading every chapter. Ms Bahadur has done an excellent job of presenting the evil of the indentured system that took place in then British Guiana during colonial times and its consequences. I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys deep and thoughtful reading.Product details
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Coolie Woman The Odyssey of Indenture eBook Gaiutra Bahadur Reviews
Well researched and very well-written. Reads, in part, almost like a novel. Relates how the British Empire handle labor shortages after end of slavery in its colonies.
It is the story of hardship and triumph!
amazingly good. highly recommend it. personal history combined with actual submerged history of movement of poor people from one continent to another to perform back breaking work in the 19th-20th century...definitely worth reading.
I enjoyed reading this book. It isvery beautifully written. The research was immense; but it was the binding of this research in such clear and thoughtful words that make this book such a great read. I highly recommend this book because it gives you a meticulous look of the thoughts that pervaded the minds of the immigrants and their bosses in the "new world".
My mom really wanted this book to share with her relatives and I am glad to see this book comes in paperback because it is cheaper than the hardcover edition. However, the pictures in the hardcover book are glossier than than the pictures in the paperback book. My mom said there is a lot of her personal history related to Guyana in this book and she would like more copies of this book to share with her extended family.
Excellent writer. Great story. My only negative is that way too much time was spent documenting the stories of so many women who suffered great injustices and were mutilated or killed on the plantations of Guyana. While this was most horrid, there were so many seemingly repetitive stories that I sometimes skipped over several pages.
Also, sometimes the verbiage got too lofty, I felt that the ordinary Guyanese reader might struggle a bit.
Otherwise, a great and valuable publication.
Thank you Gaiutra Bahadur for taking four precious years of your life to give us Coolie Woman.
Being a Guyanese at the age of 48, I too have been on the treadmill of life, neglecting to take time to understand the roots of my people. Your sources are refreshing and the stories are deeply moving.
The narratives, the names, the places, the stories, the local language, the description of the Indian culture and all the amazing details, evokes memories of my precious thirteen years in Guyana prior to emigrating to New York. Reading Coolie Woman was an emotional journey. The wonderful gift of Coolie Woman should be required reading for all of our Guyanese brothers and sisters.
Great job Gaiutra. I will say selfishly that I am proud to know that you are one of ours. Sujaria would be very proud of you.
We look forward to your next book.
Best wishes,
Sam Apanah
A well written and well researched book. I awaited its delivery with anticipation and could not put this book down after I started to read it. I enjoyed reading every chapter. Ms Bahadur has done an excellent job of presenting the evil of the indentured system that took place in then British Guiana during colonial times and its consequences. I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys deep and thoughtful reading.
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