Beyond the Kala Pani: The Poetics of Trauma, survival and Cultural Hybridity in the Indian Indentured Narratives in Abhimanyu Anath’s Laal Pasina

This paper explores the literary map of indentured servitude in Mauritius in the framework of the classical work by Abhimanyu Anath, Lal Pasina (The Sweat of Blood, 1977). This paper will examine how the radical cultural hybridity was achieved by synthesizing trauma theories, Homi Bhabha's concept of the Third Space, and the theory of coolitude by Khal Torabully through the experience of the traumatic rupture of the Kala Pani (Black Water) crossing. Based directly on the text of Lal Pasina (here translated into English) the study suggests that the poetics of Anath transcends the story of a litany of pain and establishes the plantation as a melting pot of a strong, hybrid Indo-Mauritian identity. Historical trauma reprocessed into a claim of eternal belonging, the scenes of maritime horror, plantation cruelty, prison brotherhood and community ritual are all interpreted as an extended literary alchemy that creates enduring literary alchemy.