Kala Pani Crossings Revisiting 19th Century Migrations from India's Perspective

"How exciting and unusual to come across a multi-disciplinary approach to the understanding of Indentureship, and the Kala Pani crossings in particular, giving space to historical and literary analyses as well as to musicology and the study of Cinema. What is especially superb is the involvement of Indian scholars from India, given that Indentureship and its legacies are hardly remembered in academia there. The highly ambitious and praiseworthy attempt of this book is to give Kala Pani Studies significance, thus enabling a rich relationship with Middle Passage/Atlantic Studies." 

- David Dabydeen, Director, Ameena Gafoor Institute; formerly, University of Warwick, 1984-2019); Guyana's Ambassador to China (2010-2015); Guyana's Ambassador to UNESCO (1997-2010)

"The Kala pani paradigm has been central to me for the past 30 years. It enabled me to elaborate a matrix of new cultural visions and social relations. It fostered an archipelagic humanism of diversity to emerge in the Global South, enhancing a creative praxis in post-indentureship. In keeping with the Kala pani episteme, this collection deftly explores the dark waters aesthetics. In the wake of a growing interest for indenture in academia, it constitutes a remarkable chapter of present-day transdisciplinary scholarship, making representations, memories and histories of the 'coolie' trade more fluid."

- Khal Torabully, poet, film-maker and author of the 'Coolitude: An Anthology of the Indian Labour Diaspora'

"This volume is an essential read for anyone interested in the Indian diasporas formed in the wake of the indentured labour system. It is a pioneering analysis, crucial to the mapping of the recently formed 'Kala Pani studies'. The importance of those 'Kala Pani Crossings', though much-ignored in India, is weighed and explored, highlighting the  centrality of the moment for the writing of a new national narrative for India."

- Françoise Le Jeune, British Imperial history, Nantes University; co-convenor of DIASCOM

"The essays in this collection provide a rich and nuanced account and analysis - from literature to cinema and from narratives to songs  - of the histories of crossing the Kala Pani. 'Kalapani crossing' certainly enhances India's understanding of the nineteenth-century Indian labour migration overseas under the indenture system."

- Ashutosh Kumar, author of the 'Coolies of the Empire'