Strong Daughters of the Kalkatiyans: A Tribute to My Nani Jagdei

Abstract

Oral histories and personal accounts have become important sources of history writing in the present times. This paper is a narration of a granddaughter about her maternal grandmother, who was the daughter of an indentured labourer in Suriname. ‘My nani, whose name was Jagdei, was born on 1 July 1915 in Suriname. Her father was wanted by police for his obstructive behaviour as a panchayat leader in India, and her mother was a widow. When Jagdei was nine years old, she was given away for taking care of the grandparents of my maternal grandfather. Jagdei was very fond of reading the Ramayan (Indian epic: The story of Lord Rama.) and looked after the well-being of every member of the household. At the same time, she was the one who ruled the estate and made the calculations of the profits. She practiced supernatural healing and sang in ‘bhaitak gana’ensemble groups. (Bhaitak gana is Indian folk music evolved in Suriname in the 1920s after the indentureship period. The musicians and the singer sit in an ‘U’ formation. The main instruments are a harmonium, a dholak and a dhantal. There were female bhaithak gana music groups then.) Jagdei treated her daughters and daughters-in-law very well, laughed and joked with them and got a lot of respect in return. Challenging the established patriarchal norms, Jagdei allowed her daughters to go to school and sent four of five of her daughters to Holland to study. These daughters saw the harsh lives that the wives of ‘Hindostani’ men had in Suriname and chose Dutch husbands instead refusing to return to Suriname and got full support from Jagdei who never discriminated girls against boys. She often travelled alone and managed to find her way even when she did not speak Dutch or any other foreign language. Jagdei passed away at the age of 76 years old in Holland. Jagdei lived a life of a matriarch and this chapter is an ode to her illustrious life and her successes.