ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of key concepts discussed in this book. The book describes the journey of the migrants from the subdepots to Suriname. After being recruited by recruiters from their villages, migrants were first taken to the subdepots located in various places in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar where they had to spend a few days in virtual imprisonment so that they could not run away back to their villages. The book describes the various phases in the settlement history of the Bhojpuri migrants in Suriname. These phases are indentureship, post-indentureship, reconstruction, modernization and independence and the second wave of diaspora. The chapter provides an emotional history of the exile and separation of the Bhojpuri migrants from India to Suriname and then to the Netherlands, which gave rise to the bidesia bhav. It describes the mass migration that is still going on from the Bhojpuri region to various parts of India, especially to big cities like Delhi.
