Maharani’s Misery sheds new light on the ordeal of indentured Indians, especially women, as they crossed the oceans to labour on sugar plantations in the Caribbean (and elsewhere) in the nineteenth century. Narrating the tragedy of a young woman who died on one such passage, apparently after being raped by crewmen, the book analyses “sexploitation” as a routine aspect of the voyages of the “coolie ships”. The testimonies of those who gave evidence to the resulting enquiry in 1885 are included verbatim, an attempt to recover the voices of some of the indentureds, men and women, voices we rarely hear in the official documentation. This book is a valuable addition to the growing literature on nineteenth-century indentured Indian immigration/emigration and a gripping account of one woman’s tragedy.