Volume : 10, Issue : 12, DEC 2024

INDIA IN THE GLOBAL SOUTH: A RISING ECONOMIC POWER

DISPLACEMENT, DISTRESS, AND DEFIANCE: SHARED TRAUMA OF GIRMITIYA AND KASHMIRI PANDIT MIGRANTS IN SELECTED NARRATIVES

SUBHASH CHANDRA TARD, DR. O.P. TIWARI

Abstract

Migration of indentured labourers (GIRMITIYA) and Kashmiri Pandits have distinctive natures in the context of history, culture and circumstances but both have shared traumas of suffering, inhuman living conditions, death, fear, displacement, nostalgia, and identity crisis. Girmitiya labourers migrated in the hope of living in better conditions because many of them were outcasts, subject to casteism and treated badlyin their homeland. Seeing their difficulties they were lured into agreements by colonialists. On the other hand, Kashmiri Pandits migrated due to fear of religious persecution. They were forced into exile, from better living conditions to worse, they had everything, generations of Kashmiri pandits lived there and built their homes brick by brick but everything was torn apart because of the escalation in insurgency. Hatred towards them by the majority became the reason for targeted killings. Whether it was Girmitiya labourers or Kashmiri pandits they had to face inhuman situations, women and children were the ones who suffered the most. The paper’s objective is to understand the pain, suffering and trauma of both indentured labourers and Kashmiri pandits caused due to displacement and how they are coping with it. Some of the theories of trauma studies will be used to provide a better perspective. Text which are used in this paper is Non-fiction Memoirs because they portray subjective reality experienced by affected individuals. Our Moon Has Blood Clots by Rahul Pandita relates to the exodus of Kashmiri pandit whileBrij V Lal’sChaloJahaji:On a journey through indenture in Fijiis based on the journey and anguish of Girmitiya labourers.

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