Brij V. Lal Prize
Call for Submissions
Brij V. Lal Prize
Indian Indentureship, Girmit and Gimitiya, and its Legacies
About the Prize
In memory of late Professor Brij V.Lal, who passed away on Christmas day, 2021, the Lal family has established an annual Brij V. Lal Prize of £1000 for the best published article in any academic journal covering the broad subject of Indian indentureship, Girmit and Girmitya, and its legacies. ‘Legacies’ is taken to mean the specific legacies of the Indian indenture – including diasporic descendants of the original indentured migrants.
Reflecting Brij’s academic interests and extensive body of publications on this broad subject, this Prize will underscore Brij’s emphasis on originality, academic rigour and excellence in research and writing, as well as a depth of understanding and passion about historical or contemporary lived experience of Girmitiyas living in Indo-African -Caribbean-Pacific countries, and their global diasporic communities.
About Professor Brij V. Lal
Brij Vilash Lal was Emeritus Professor at the Australian National University and Honorary Professor at the University of Queensland. He taught History at the ANU, the University of Hawaii at Manoa, the University of the South Pacific and the University of Papua New Guinea. He was a Life Member of Clare Hall, University of Cambridge. He was the author of more than twenty books and editor of another twenty on the history and culture of the Indian diaspora and on the history and politics of Fiji. Among his many publications are Chalo Jahaji: On a Journey Through Indenture in Fiji (ANU Press, 2013), Plantation Workers: Resistance and Accommodation (University of Hawaii Press, 1994) and The Encyclopaedia of the Indian Diaspora (Editions Didier Millet, 2007). He died on 25 December 2021.
Call for Submissions
The inaugural Prize will be awarded for the best article published in a journal in the calendar years 2023 and 2024. Submissions comparing Indian indenture with other forms of unfree labour or with other racial categories of indentured labourers will be accepted so long as Indian indentured labourers are integral to the discussion. Fiction and creative writing are not eligible for submission. Submissions must be in the English-language.
The judges will privilege conceptually sophisticated submissions as well as empirically-based submissions drawn from rigorous analysis of archival records and/or field observations, and which demonstrate a fine literary sensibility.
Entries must be submitted by the author, or by a third party with the author’s agreement, to bvlprize@gmail.com, co-authored articles are welcome. A PDF of the entry should be provided.
Closing date of submissions is 15th May 2025. The winner will be announced on 21 August 2025 to coincide with Brij’s date of birth.