They are scattered around the globe now, descendants of girmitiyas, indentured labourers, and other subaltern groups of Indians. The journey of their forebears, from India to the tropical sugar colonies in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries was fraught, but they emerged from the debris of subalternity to lay the foundations of many a colony, from South Africa to Suriname and many places in-between. For the most part, however, they have been ignored by history books as a people without agency or humanity, unworthy of consideration. This picture has been changing in recent decades largely as the result of scholars such as those represented in this volume. They have shifted the focus of research from the imperial discourse of policy and high politics to the lived experience of people in the colonies and their concerns, hopes and struggles.