A pilot study finds that India's digitised national archives contain almost no records of the emigration of more than a million indentured labourers — documents vital to descendants tracing their ancestral villages.
In 2025, under the leadership of the Ministry of Culture of India, significant progress was made in digitising the country's historical archival records. These digitised files are now accessible through India's national digital archive systems. The work, however, does not yet appear to be complete.
In October, as part of the planned activities of the interdisciplinary field of Girmitiyalogy, a research group conducted a pilot study to examine the availability of digitised records concerning the emigration of indentured labourers (Girmitiyas) under British colonial rule in India between 1833 and 1920. This concerns nearly 1.5 million young women and men from British India who were transported to French, British, and Dutch colonies overseas — approximately a third of whom returned to India after completing their contracts.
For each emigrant, systematic handwritten records were kept: documenting recruitment, selection, medical examination, the signing of labour contracts before magistrates at the sub-depots, and the transfer of workers to the major depots in Kolkata, Mumbai, and Chennai for overseas transport. These records were therefore expected to survive in the archives. They are of vital importance to the descendants of Girmitiyas worldwide who wish to reconnect with their ancestral villages in India. It is estimated that only a small percentage of descendants have so far succeeded in restoring these ancestral links.
After investigations at the National Archives in New Delhi and the Patna Archives Centre, the Girmitiyalogy research team reached a disappointing conclusion: the digitised collections contain no specific references to the emigration of the more than one million Indian citizens who left the country as indentured labourers during this period. Further inquiries revealed that the records sought appear to be missing altogether. It is said that, after the closure of the sub-depots in the Indian states and the main depots in the port cities, the British authorities removed these documents to London, where they may have been stored — possibly alongside copies held in Dutch archival centres.
The precise location of these archives remains unknown and requires systematic investigation. This is essential not only for accurate historical documentation, but also as an urgent means of tracing the ancestral villages from which the Girmitiyas departed.
Published in the BrainGain College Girmitiyalogy library. Back to all papers →