Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book focuses on the migrants who went from the Bhojpuri region of northern India to the Dutch colony of Suriname between 1873 and 1916 to work on the Caribbean country's sugar, coffee, cotton and cocoa plantations. It explains the folk culture of the Bhojpuri region of India from where large-scale migration is still taking place. The book addresses the formations of cultures in the process of identity-making of the approximately 20 crore Bhojpuri speakers scattered all over the world. It explains the story of the continuum of long-term migration from the Bhojpuri region through folk culture. It covers migration from Bhojpuri region from the colonial to the contemporary period. The book 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.