RESPONSE to DR. VISHNU BISRAM.

 ON THE SACRED RIVERS

The Untold Journey from Indenture to Abolition, 1838–1917

On the Sacred Rivers traces the history of Indian indentureship from its beginnings in the aftermath of the abolition of slavery in the British Empire to the eventual ending of the system of indentured recruitment in 1917.

Beginning in 1838, the book follows the movement of Indian men and women from the villages and towns of India across the oceans to the sugar plantations of British Guiana and other British colonies. It examines how a system presented by colonial authorities as a legitimate labour arrangement developed into a harsh form of bound labour that critics increasingly compared with slavery.

At the heart of the book is the human story. These were not simply statistics or anonymous workers transported across the seas. They were people with families, caste identities, religious traditions, hopes and fears who left the banks of India's sacred rivers for an uncertain future in distant colonies.

On the Sacred Rivers also challenges the simplified version of the abolition story in which the campaign begins and ends with Mahatma Gandhi. Gandhi eventually became a powerful voice against indentureship, particularly during the crucial years immediately preceding abolition. In 1917 he described the system as a form of "temporary slavery" and argued that it could not simply be reformed—it had to end.

But the struggle had a much longer history.

The book brings attention to the experiences and resistance of indentured workers themselves, including the courageous story of Kunti, whose experience in Fiji in 1913 became an important symbol in the campaign against the treatment of indentured women. Historical scholarship records how Kunti's ordeal helped galvanize opposition to the system in India.

It also examines the remarkable contribution of Totaram Sanadhya, himself a former indentured labourer in Fiji. His testimony and writings helped expose the reality of indentureship to audiences in India and contributed to the growing campaign for its abolition.

This is important because the abolition of indentureship was not the achievement of one individual. It was the culmination of decades of suffering, testimony, protest, investigation, journalism, political agitation and resistance by indentured people and their advocates.

The book therefore asks a fundamental historical question:

Who should receive recognition for ending Indian indentureship?

Rather than placing the entire story at the feet of one celebrated leader, On the Sacred Rivers reconstructs the long road to abolition—from the first arrivals in 1838, through the development of the plantation system, the experiences of men and women under indenture, the growing resistance to recruitment, the testimony of former labourers, and the campaigns that eventually forced the British and Indian governments to act.

By 1917, the Government of India suspended the recruitment of Indian indentured labour. The remaining contracts in some colonies continued for a period afterward—for example, Fiji's existing indentures were formally cancelled in 1920—so the distinction between the end of recruitment in 1917 and the final ending of existing contracts is historically important.

On the Sacred Rivers is ultimately more than a history of labour migration. It is a history of human dignity.

It connects the villages of India with the plantations of the Caribbean, Africa and the Pacific and shows how the experiences of indentured Indians helped create new communities and identities throughout the Indian diaspora.

The title itself carries a deeper meaning. The rivers of India—the Ganges, Yamuna and other sacred waterways—represent the civilization, memories and traditions from which these migrants came. They crossed the kala pani, leaving those rivers behind, yet carried their culture, faith, languages and memories with them to new shores.

From 1838 to 1917, On the Sacred Rivers follows that extraordinary journey: from recruitment to resistance, from suffering to political awakening, and ultimately from indentureship to freedom.

It is a story that belongs not only to India, but also to Guyana and the wider Caribbean, Africa, Fiji and the global Indian diaspora.

Most importantly, it restores the indentured labourer—not the colonial administrator, plantation owner or political celebrity—to the centre of the story.