Kunti’s cry: Responses in India to the cause of emigrant women, Fiji 1913–16

Abstract

The publication in August 1913 of a letter attributed to Kunti, an Indian woman in Fiji, raised an outcry in India. First, the Hindi press took it up; then the Marwaris of Calcutta organised a campaign for the relief of emigrant labourers; and finally, the protection of Indian women in Fiji became a part of the nationalist campaign against indentured labour. This article examines the ideological basis of the agitation, arising from traditional male chauvinism merging with the anti-colonial upsurge, treating especially the reaction in the Hindi press, the Marwari intervention and the nationalist campaign.