This thoroughly-researched and well-documented book looks at several of the key aspects of the phenomenon of Indian indentured labour in the West Indies, from beginning to end–from the methods of recruitment in Northern India, the conditions of potential labourers in the Calcutta depots and aboard ships in transit; through conditions on the plantations in British Guiana (Guyana) and the protests and strikes against abuses; to the final abolition campaign in India and its success in 1918.

“Basdeo Mangru is a careful and thorough scholar who has studied the sources in great detail, including records which have scarcely been examined by earlier writers on the Indian diaspora . . . A sound contribution to West Indian and Imperial history.”
–Donald Wood, University of Sussex

“. . . will make a lasting impact on Indo-Caribbean scholarship. He is meticulous, original, and above all committed to his subject.”
–David Dabydeen

“. . . Erudite, lucid scholarship. Mangru’s meticulous research produces long-awaited and convincing evidence of the struggles of the Indians for their rightful place in the Caribbean.”
–Frank Birbalsingh, York University