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Asians
The
East Indians
By 1844, it
became apparent that efforts to replace emancipated
slave labor with Portuguese, Chinese, or African
workers were not going to be sufficient. As a
result the British government agreed to allow
immigration from the Indian subcontinent to the
West Indies. The immigration was permitted from the
ports of Madras and Calcutta, and was to be
undertaken at public expense. These workers were to
be indentured, and required to serve a five year
contract at a predetermined wage rate. Trinidad's
initial quota was set at 2,500, and the first ship
arrived on May 10, 1845 with 217 immigrants aboard.
This ship was called the Fatel Rozack. Legal
immigration continued until 1917.
The laws
regulating the immigrants were numerous and
complex. These laws included regulations for the
arrival and allotment of the immigrants, their
dwellings, food, health care, pay, discipline, and
contract termination. The immigrants mostly lived
in barracks, with little sanitation and privacy.
Pay was lower than the local prevailing wages, and
the work was difficult. Indentured servitude was
little better than slavery, and the immigrants
resisted their employers in a passive way. In his
book, The People of Trinidad and Tobago,
Eric Williams notes that on one Trinidad plantation
"one day in every three was lost through sickness".
Although a portion of these days were due to
legitimate illness, Williams gives examples like
French Guiana in 1875, where statistics show that
the average immigrant worked only twleve days in a
month.
Another issue was
the expense of returning the immigrants to India
after their contract was completed. Many chose not
to renew their indenture and accepted the
guaranteed passage home. By 1924, Williams notes
that approximately one-quarter of all Indian
immigrants introduced into Trinidad and British
Guiana had returned home. This situation eventually
reached a point where more Indians were returning
home each year than arrived. In an effort to reduce
this exodus, the Indians were offered grants fo
land as an incentive to stay. Many chose this
route, and a new class of landowner was the
result.
As time passed,
Indians became more successful economically, and
they are now in a position of significant economic
and political strength in the island.
(The information
in the preceding section was drawn largely from
The History of Trinidad and Tobago by Dr.
Eric Williams.)
The
Journey
Immigration to
Trinidad began in 1845, as mentioned above, and
continued until 1848, when a temporary economic
downturn stopped the process. It resumed in 1851,
and continued until 1917.
The process began
with an Emigration Agent, hired buy the Trinidad
Government, who in turn employed Indian recruiting
agents. These recruiting agents used whatever means
necessary to convince people it would be beter to
emigrate than to starve at home.THe prospective
immigrants were rounded up at local depots, then
made their way to Calcutta, the chief port of India
at the time. In Calcutta they were made to bathe
and were given new clothes for the journey. They
also underwent a medical inspection. The immigrants
would spend anywhere from one to three weeks at
this depot before boarding a ship headed for
Trinidad via the Cape of Good Hope. These vessels
were mostly three masted schooners, around 500
tons.
A fellow
researcher, Richard Cheddie, has compiled a
list
of ships
that carried Indian Immigrants to Trinidad during
the period of indenture.
The voyage lasted
an average of three months, but the actual
durations varied greatly. Mortality rates were high
in the beginning, an average of one in eight in the
1850's. This rate soon dropped down to one to two
percent.
Once the ship
docked, the immigrants were brought to shore and
met by Immigration Agents. They were then all
housed in a large structure until they could make a
deal with a planter who needed labor.
The
Estate
On the estate the
immigrants lived in barracks type housing. Each
building had several rooms which measured
approximately 10' x 10' x 12'. These rooms would
house a couple with all their childer, or up to
four single adults. Privacy was virtually
non-existent. Cooking was done outside, and
sanitation was poor. The estate was required to
have a hospital, and provide a Doctor every two
weeks.
The immigrants
were paid a fixed wage, and normally worked five
days a week, except during harvest time. The day
usually started at around 6:00 in the morning, and
depending on the pace of the individual could be
over as early as 2:00 p.m.
(The information
in the preceding two sections was drawn largely
from Eight East Indian Immigrants by Father
Anthony de Verteuil)
Books
Here is a list of
books that contain information on Indian
immigration to Trinidad. In some cases I have
provided links to resources where I located them.
Libraries may be able to acquire them for you on
inter-library loan.
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Breaking
the bonds of indentureship :
Indo-Trinidadians in
business,
by Dave Ramsaran.
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East
Indians in Trinidad : A Study of
Cultural
Persistence,
by Morton Klass
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East
Indians in the West Indies, by
Arthur and Juanita Niehoff
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Eight
East Indian immigrants : Gokool,
Soodeen, Sookoo, Capildeo, Beccani,
Ruknaddeen, Valiama,
Bunsee,
Fr. Anthony de Verteuil
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Indentured
labor, Caribbean sugar: Chinese and
Indian migrants to the British West
Indies,
1838-1918,
by Walton Look Lai.
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Indian
Emigration, by G.S. Arora
(published in India, found at the
Library
of
Congress.)
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A
Short History of the East Indian
Progress in Trinidad and Lives of
Famous Indians, 1845-1984, by
Samuel Doodnath.
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Solving
East Indian Roots in Trinidad, by
Shamsu Deen.
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Survivors
of Another Crossing : a History of East
Indians in Trinidad, 1880-1946, by
Marianne D. Soares Ramesar.
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