Girmitiyas’ Fables: Folklore of Indians in the Sugar Colonies

Abstract

This paper explores the folklore of indentured Indians and endeavors to understand the elements of Indian folk culture in the sugar colonies in the age of the empires. While examining the content and context of the folklore, it finds that the indentured folktales were very much influenced by the Indian socio-cultural life, however, these folktales got transformed and modified due to the contact with host countries’ languages, places and space. On the other hand, the content of the indentured folksongs not only depicted the culture and pain of separation from homeland and familial ties, but also became an instrument to resist against the plantation hardship.