Indo-Caribbean people or Indo-Caribbeans are Caribbean people with roots in India or the Indian subcontinent. They are mostly descendants of the original indentured workers brought by the British, the Dutch and the French during colonial times.
The antiquated term East Indian is still used in the English-speaking Caribbean and by the Canadian mainstream media. In Surinam, the term East Indian refers to people with roots in the former Dutch East Indies (i.e. Indonesiaa). Those with roots in India are called Hindustani and were during colonial times referred to as "British Indians."[citation needed] In day to day parlance, Indian is used in the English-speaking Caribbean.
Most Indo-Caribbean people live in English speaking Caribbean nations, Suriname and Netherlands, as well as in the French overseas departments (primarily Guadeloupe & Martinique.
Sub-groups
Caribbean Islands
Indians in Barbados
Indo-Haitian
Indo-Grenadians
Indians in Guadeloupe
Indo-Martiniquais
Indo-Jamaican
Indo-Trinidadian and Tobagonian
Mainland Caribbean
Indians in Belize
Indians in French Guiana
Indo-Guyanese
Indo-Surinamese
Diaspora
Indo-Caribbean American
British Indo-Caribbean community
Indians in Venezuela
Migration history
Colonial powers that brought Indo-Caribbeans to the West Indies called them East Indian Coolies - manual labourer or slave from India. An image of Indo-Caribbeans in 19th century celebrating the Indian culture in West Indies through dance and music.
From 1838 to 1917, over half a million Indians from the former British Raj or British India, were taken to thirteen mainland and island nations in the Caribbean as Indentured workers to address the demand for sugar cane plantation labour following the abolition of slavery. Attempts at importing Chinese, Portuguese and others as indentured labourers had failed.
Sugarcane plantations in the 19th century
A 19th century lithograph by Theodore Bray showing a Caribbean sugarcane plantation. On right is the European overseer. Workers toil during the harvest. To the left is a flat-bottomed vessel for cane transportation.
Much like cotton, sugarcane plantations motivated large scale near-enslavement and forced migrations in the 19th and early 20th century.[1]
Following the emancipation of slaves in 1833 in the United Kingdom, many liberated Africans left their former masters. This created an economic chaos for British owners of sugar-cane plantations in the Caribbean region, and elsewhere. The hard work in hot, humid farms required a regular, docile and low-waged labour force. The British looked for cheap labour. Since slavery had been abolished, the British crafted a new legal system of forced labour, which in many ways resembled enslavement.[2] Instead of calling them slaves, they were called indentured labourers. Indians, primarily began to replace Africans previously brought as slaves, under this indentured labour scheme to serve on sugarcane plantations across the British empire.
The first ships carrying indentured labourers for sugarcane plantations left India in 1838 for the Caribbean region. In fact, the first two shiploads of Indians arrived in British Guiana (now Guyana) on May 5, 1838 on board the Whitby and Hesperus. These ships had sailed from Calcutta. In the early decades of the sugarcane-driven migrations, indentured Indians were treated as inhumanely as the enslaved Africans had been. They were confined to their estates and paid a pitiful salary. Any breach of contract brought automatic criminal penalties and imprisonment. Many of these were brought away from their homelands deceptively. Many from inland regions over a thousand kilometers from seaports were promised jobs, weren't told the work they were being hired for, or that they would leave their homeland and communities. They were hustled aboard the waiting ships, unprepared for the long and arduous four-month sea journey. Charles Anderson, a special magistrate investigating these sugarcane plantations, wrote to the British Colonial Secretary declaring that with few exceptions, the indentured labourers are treated with great and unjust severity; plantation owners enforced work in sugarcane farms so harshly, that the decaying remains of immigrants were frequently discovered in sugarcane fields. If labourers protested and refused to work, they were not paid or fed: they simply starved.[1]
The sugarcane plantation-driven migrations led to ethnically significant presence of Indians in Caribbean.[3] In some islands and countries, these Indo-Caribbean migrants now constitute a significant proportion of the population. Sugarcane plantations and citizens of Indian origin continue to thrive in countries such as Guyana, formerly, British Guiana, Jamaica, Trinidad, Martinique, French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Grenada, St. Lucia, St. Vincent, St. Kitts, St. Croix, Suriname and Nevis.[1][4] By some estimates, over 2.5 million people in the Caribbean are of Indian origin. Many have ethnically blended with migrants from other parts of the world, creating a unique syncretic culture.
Not just British colonies, sugarcane production affected human history in colonies controlled by other pre-World War II powers. France, for example, negotiated with Britain leading to Act XLVI of 1860, whereby large numbers of Indian indentured labourers were brought for harsh sugarcane plantation work in French colonies in the Caribbean region.[5] The Caribbean colonies of the Netherlands too benefitted from the indentured laborers from India.
Post world war II trends
Indian indentured laborers worked for decades for meagre wages in sugar cane plantations of the Dutch East Indies. This image from Tropenmuseum Royal Tropical Institute shows two Indo-Caribbean people walking towards the house of a Dutch engineer in a Caribbean sugar cane plantation.
The majority of the Indians living in the English-speaking Caribbean came from eastern Uttar Pradesh and western Bihar, while those brought to Guadeloupe and Martinique were mostly from, but not only, from Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. About twenty percent (20%) of the indentured were Tamils and Telugus particularly in Trinidad and Tobago, and Guyana.
A minority emigrated from other parts of South Asia, including present-day Pakistan and Bangladesh.
Indo-Caribbeans comprise the largest ethnic group in Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago.
They are the second largest group in Suriname, Jamaica, Grenada, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Saint Lucia, Martinique and Guadeloupe.
There are also small populations in Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, French Guiana, Panama, Dominican Republic, Haiti and the Netherlands Antilles. There are also small groups often called "mulatts" who are of Indian descent in Haiti.
Modern-day immigrants from India (mostly Sindhi merchants) are to be found on Saint-Martin / Sint Maarten, St. Thomas, Curaçao and other islands with duty-free commercial capabilities, where they are active in business. Other Indo-Caribbean people descend from later migrants, including Indian doctors, Gujarati businessmen and migrants from Kenya and Uganda.
Indo-Caribbeans have migrated to the United States, Canada, Hispanic America (notably Panama & Venezuela), The Netherlands, France and the United Kingdom, and to other parts of the Caribbean.
Culture
Many Caribbean islands celebrate traditional Indian festivals, such as Diwali as shown in this Divali Nagar decorations from Trinidad and Tobago.
The indentured Indians and their descendants have actively contributed to the evolution of their adopted lands in spite of many difficulties.
Commemmoration
In recent years, attempts to commemorate the Indian presence and contributions have come to fruition:
In 1995, Jamaica started to celebrate the arrival of Indians in Old Harbour Bay, St. Catherine Parish on May 13.
In 2003, Martinique celebrated the 150th anniversary of Indian arrival. Guadeloupe did the same in 2004. These celebrations were not the fact of just the Indian minority, but the official recognition by the French and local authorities of their integration and their wide-scale contributions in various fields from Agriculture to Education, Politics and to the diversification of the culture of the Creole peoples. Thus, the noted participation of the whole multi-ethnic population of the two islands were in these events.
St. Lucia and many Caribbean countries have dedicated commemorative days to acknowledge the arrival and important contributions of their Indo-Caribbean populations. St. Lucia celebrates it Indo-Caribbean heritage on May 6. Other dates when the India Arrival Day is celebrated in the Caribbean include May 5 (Guyana), May 10 (Jamaica), May 30 (Trinidad and Tobago), June 1 (St. Vincent), and June 5 (Suriname).[4]
Indo Caribbean Media - Canada
There are three Indo-Caribbean newspapers based in Toronto:
Indo-Caribbean World - has been in existence for 25 years.
Caribbean Xpress - has been in existence for 5 years.
Indo-Caribbean Times - had been in existence for about 2 years. After the death of one its founding members in April 2010, the paper has not been published.
Notable Canadian Indo Caribbeans
Anjulie - singer/songwriter. Her parents migrated from Guyana.
Dave Baksh - former lead guitarist of the band Sum 41. A founding member of the mainly reggae band Brown Brigade. His parents migrated from Guyana.
Professor Frank Birbalsingh - born in Guyana, now retired. - taught English & Commonwealth Literaure for many years at York University, Toronto.
Bas Balkissoon - born in Trinidad and Tobago, is a member of the Provincial Parliament of the Province of Ontario.
Neil Bissoondath - Writer, born in Trinidad and Tobago.
Melanie Fiona - R&B singer and songwriter, born to Guyanese parents. Also of Afro-Caribbean descent.
Kamala-Jean Gopie - Educator and Political Activist (Jamaican born).
Ian Hanomansing - born in Trinidad and Tobago, is a television anchor & reporter with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC).
Shani Mootoo - Writer, born in Ireland to Trinidadian parents.
Hedy Fry - Long-standing Canadian federal politician and physician, born in San Fernando, Trinidad and Tobago. She was the fifth person to ever unseat a sitting prime minister, doing so in 1993.
Aimee Balkissoon - Youngest Indo Caribbean dance director in Ontario, Canada with Upscale Dance Academy. Her parents migrated from Trinidad & Tobago.
Notable Other Indo Caribbeans
V.S. Naipaul, an Indo-Caribbean was awarded a Nobel Prize in literature, for his works that compel us to see the presence of suppressed histories. In his Nobel lecture, Naipaul describes the destitution forced upon Indo-Caribbeans in Port of Spain, and their cultural struggles.[6]
Tatyana Marisol Ali- American actress and R&B singer. Also of Afro-Caribbean descent.
Jacques Bangou - the incumbent mayor of Pointe-à-Pitre, Guadeloupe.
Shivnarine Chanderpaul - Current West Indies cricketer and former captain of the side; from Guyana.
Serge Letchimy - President of Martinique Regional Council. Also of Afro-Caribbean descent.
Thierry Moutoussamy - is a ragga-zouk musician of Martiniquais heritage. Also of Afro-Caribbean descent.
Nicky Minaj - Singer. Born in Trinidad to a Indian father & African mother.
V. S. Naipaul - Writer, born in Trinidad, Nobel Prize in Literature (2001).
Nicole Narain - Nicole Narain is a Guyanese-American model and actress. Also of Afro-Caribbean descent.
Rozonda Ocelean Thomas - of the R & B group, TLC. Best known by her stage name Chilli. Also of African American descent.
See also
Caribbean portal
Hinduism in the West Indies
Tamil diaspora
Indo-Caribbean music
British Indo-Caribbean community
Indo-Caribbean American
Anglophone Caribbean
References
^ a b c "Forced Labour". The National Archives, Government of the United Kingdom. 2010. http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/pathways/blackhistory/india/forced.htm.
^ Hugh Tinker (1993). "New System of Slavery". Hansib Publishing, London. ISBN 978-1870518185.
^ K Laurence (1994). "A Question of Labour: Indentured Immigration Into Trinidad & British Guiana, 1875-1917". St Martin's Press. ISBN 978-0312121723.
^ a b "St. Lucia’s Indian Arrival Day". Caribbean Repeating Islands. 2009. http://repeatingislands.com/2009/05/07/st-lucia’s-indian-arrival-day/.
^ "Indian indentured labourers". The National Archives, Government of the United Kingdom. 2010. http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/records/research-guides/indian-indentured-labour.htm.
^ V.S. Naipaul (2001). "Nobel Lecture - Literature 2001". Nobel Prize Committee. http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/2001/naipaul-lecture-e.html.
External links
Indo-Caribbean Alliance, Inc. A 501(c)3 non-profit organization providing services and advocacy to New York City's growing Indo-Caribbean community.
Jahajee Sisters: Empowering Indo-Caribbean Women A movement-building organization, led by Indo-Caribbean women, committed to creating a safe and equitable society. Jahajee Sisters fosters solidarity and empowerment through dialogue, arts, leadership development and grassroots organizing.
Indian Heritage Foundation in St. Vincent - Unfortunately the site is currently inactive (Feb 2009).
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