The University of Cambridge has established a first-of-its-kind visiting fellowship focused on the study of indentured labour, a contentious system that replaced slavery and involved millions of Indians during British colonization. 

Selwyn College at the University and the Ameena Gafoor Institute, under the leadership of novelist, poet, academic, and alumnus professor David Dabydeen, have joined forces to establish this unique initiative. The program facilitates a scholar’s research stay of eight weeks at the University for the study on indentured labour history. The program is set to operate for an initial period of five years.

Selwyn College has named professor Gaiutra Bahadur as the "Ramesh and Leela Narain Visiting Bye-Fellow in Indentureship Studies." Professor Bahadur is renowned for her book "Coolie Woman: The Odyssey of Indenture," which was a finalist for the Orwell Prize. Her work extensively explores the experiences of Indian women who were indentured labourers on colonial plantations during the nineteenth century.

Professor Bahadur, who works at Rutgers University-Newark, said, “I am honoured and delighted to be the inaugural visiting bye-fellow in indentureship studies. When I first began doing research in this area, the funding just wasn't there, so it was in many ways a labour of love. That's why I'm so happy to see there's now visibility and funding like this to help future researchers,” she added. 

Commenting on the initiative, professor Dabydeen said: "The study and documentation of indentureship are undoubtedly valuable, but it has barely been included in the history syllabi of British and European Universities - a staggering omission considering the millions of individuals, and indeed entire cultures, irrevocably shaped by indentureship and its legacies.

"That is why this fellowship, and hopefully eventually establishing a Professorship, is so important. Cambridge has created an academic subject, bringing it from the margins to the very centre. I am immensely grateful to the Gafoor family in Guyana for helping to make all this possible."