Coolie Woman -story of woman struggles during Migration

New Delhi: Coolie Woman is the story of a young woman who sailed all the away from India to Guiana as a "coolie". British had coined this term for the indentured laborers who worked as slaves on sugar plantation around the world.

The protagonist in the book is pregnant and traveling alone and like many others, her story has faded in past. Gaiutra Bahadur, the writer, and great-granddaughter of the woman, is on a journey to find her. During her expedition through three continents and uncounted colonial archives, she finds the lost stories of million other women like her great-grandmother who were widows, runaways or outcasts.

Coolie woman is the story of survival. It is the story of the beginning of the Indian culture existing today in the Caribbean islands.

Coolie Woman was published in 2013 in the US, UK, India, Caribbean and South Africa. The book was shortlisted for the UK's Orwell Book Prize and was the winner of 2014 Gordon K and Sybil Lewis Prize for the best book about the Caribbean.

Writer Gaiutra Bahadur is an award-winning American journalist. She writes on the issue of migration and gender. Her many articles have been published at various places New York Times, Washington Post and The Observer.