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Banjara

By Shana Chandra
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Brief Description
A powerful literary debut from an astonishing new Kiwi voice, focusing on the Indo-Fijian indenture system and how it affected generations across the Pacific.Rajasthan 1888: Avani Rathod, a nomad of the Banjara community, is summoned to teach a blue-eyed colonial officer the trees of her region,... Read More
Format: Paperback / softback
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Shirl's Pick

Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description
A powerful literary debut from an astonishing new Kiwi voice, focusing on the Indo-Fijian indenture system and how it affected generations across the Pacific.

Rajasthan 1888: Avani Rathod, a nomad of the Banjara community, is summoned to teach a blue-eyed colonial officer the trees of her region, but instead is misled into indenture to the sugarcane plantations of Fiji. While on the voyage that leads her away from her ancestral land, Avani's baby forms in her belly and she forges close friendships with the other women bound for the Pacific - bonds that will be tested once they reach the islands, under the suffocating colonial powers.

Aotearoa 2016: Avani's great-granddaughter, Meera Chand, seeks the true history of her ancestors - the forgotten and displaced Girmitiya. Meera's search for her great-grandmother's origins leads her to a region of India, where she learns the rhythms of Odissi dance and where she meets up with her former lover - the man she can never have, but whom she can't forget.

Set in Aotearoa, Australia, India and Fiji, Banjara is an essential reimagining of Indo-Fijian Girmitiya history, and a love letter to our ancestors whose stories live on in our genes.

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Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9781869718411

Publisher: Hachette Aotearoa New Zealand

Book cover type: Paperback

Genre: Literature, Historical fiction

Language version: ENG- English

Target audience: Adults

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 14 April 2026

Country: New Zealand

Imprint: Moa Press

Audience: General / adult, Tertiary education, Professional and scholarly

DIMENSIONS

Weight: 300g

Pages: 336

Collections

2026 Auckland Writers Festival Aotearoa New Zealand History Best Sellers at Book Hero Best Selling Books Education & Reference Fiction General Fiction Hero Picks Historical Fiction History & Archaeology History & Military In Stock Books In-Stock Fiction Books Literary Fiction Mother's Day Gifts New Release Fiction New Zealand and Australia Published New Zealand Fiction New Zealand History New Zealand Published Shana Chandra Shirl's Picks

About the Author

Shana Chandra is a Tamaki Makaurau born writer, researcher and educator of Indo-Fijian heritage and Girmitiya descent, currently based in Limoges, France. Her writing voices the history of her displaced and forgotten indentured-labourer ancestors in their words, repairing and restoring it from beneath the empire's shadow and exploring how the violence and complexities of their indenture rooted into her life growing up in Aotearoa. After living in Japan and Naarm (Melbourne), in 2016 she completed her Masters of Creative Writing at the University of Technology in Sydney. Her writing has appeared in Lindsay, Love in the Time of Covid Chronicle, UTS Anthology: The Light Borrowers and Landfall magazine. For the past decade Shana has also worked as a freelance writer and has been featured in international fashion, arts and culture publications.

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