Girmit: How a Million Indians Were Shipped Across the World

'Girmit' is the village pronunciation of 'agreement' — the labour contract that gave a whole diaspora its name.

From 1834 to 1917, well over 1.6 million Indians sailed to colonies like Mauritius, Fiji, Trinidad and Guyana.

Most were recruited from the Bhojpuri belt and the Tamil-Telugu south, lured by inflated promises of easy work.

Fighting indenture was Gandhi's first political cause, two decades before he led India's freedom movement.

Surviving 'emigration passes' let descendants today trace an ancestor's exact village, ship and year.