Fiji

Perhaps the most vulnerable people in the lines were women. Presumed by outsiders to be of low moral character – ‘unstable and mercenary’, according to the agent general of immigration in 1902, ‘as joyously amoral as a doe rabbit’, according to an Australian overseer, or a 'rudderless vessel [without any] controlling hand', according to C. F. Andrews-they were traded by their own men, abused by overseers and sirdars, and blamed for all man­ner of ills afflicting the Indian community. Sexual assaults on them were common and frequently ignored by the authorities. No burden, however, was as serious for them as the widespread belief that they were responsible for the high suicide rate among Indian men in Fiji: at the turn of the century, the rate was the highest among Indian labour importing colonies. 'Sexual jealousy' was the phrase used: women, so it was said, traded on their scarcity and deserted their marriages or relationships for men who offered more comfort or luxury, leaving the jettisoned, jilted partner to end his life. The truth was more complex; women as much the victims of indenture as men, and sometimes more victimised, as has been said, ‘not just by actions, hostilities, or indifferences of men, but by the institutions of law, invested as they were with the majesty of the state, the formidability of the male jurists and lawyers, and the unbroken faith of the public’, in the words of Bertram Wyatt-Brown, an American scholar. No doubt, some women were unscrupulous, but the harshness of plantation life and the anxiety associated with the realisation that there was no going back to India sufficiently account for most suicides. It is worth noting that 22 per cent of the suicides occurred within six months of the deceased’s residence in Fiji, 30 per cent within the first year, and 75 per cent within the first five years. Whatever the truth about these suicides, the publication of reports in India of the ill-treatment of Indian women in the archipelago led to the abolition of indentured emigration to Fiji.

Indo-Fijians once comprised half of the population of Fiji. In a few years time, their numbers ill decline to about a third because of low birth rates and migration. Their history in Fiji has been a tragically ironic one. They were brought to the islands so that the Fijians could be spare the ordeal of plantation work and thus preserve their way of life, their land and their labour, all under threat from European encroachment. The Fijians prospered in their subsistence environment because Indians toiled on the plantations, but they came to view Indians as their nemesis. After more than a century, Indo-Fijians still struggle for political equality in the land of their birth. The deeply felt but often unacknowledged need of the human soul to belong, to have a place of one’s own, to be rooted is denied them. How long, they ask, should a people live in a place before they are allowed to call it home? ‘From Immigrated to Emigration’; that may in time come to be the epitaph of Fiji’s Indo-Fijian community.

By Brij Lal

 The French Caribbean  

The first ship to arrive from India was the Aurelie, which docked in St Pierre, Martinique, on 6 May 1853, and again a year later in Guadeloupe. Indian immigration to Martinique continued until 1883 and to Guadeloupe until 1889. Its end was brought about by the increasing industrialisation of sugar production from sugar beets in Europe, which brought world sugar prices down, thus weakening the economic base of planters in the Caribbean islands considerably.

Recruitment
The main ports of embarkation in India for the journey to the Caribbean islands were Calcutta, Madras, Karaikkal and Pondicherry. Whereas in the non-French Caribbean region Indian migrants were primarily from North India, in the French Caribbean, the picture was differ­ent: 60 per cent of the Indian population in Guadeloupe and up to 100 per cent on the other French islands were from South India. Although the main ports of embarkation for the French islands were those located in the French enclaves of India (Pondicherry and Karaikkal), the recruitment of labourers took place large­ly beyond French territories-initially in a clandestine manner designated by Madras newspapers as 'kidnapping'. In 1861, a more regular process was instituted following a convention between British and French authorities in India. Labourers who embarked at French ports came from a wide range of districts in the Madras Presidency, and from the French colonies of Yanam, Karaikkal and Pondicherry.

Records show that between the mid 1950s and the late 1880s nearly 68,000 indentured Indian labourers were brought to the French Caribbean. Descendants of those indentured workers now constitute a significant part of the islands’ population. In 2005, the population of Guadeloupe was estimated at 449,000, and that of Martinique at 433,000. ‘East Indians’ on both islands constitute less than 5 per cent of the population, but people of Indian descent have also assimilated with 90 per cent, or the majority, of the population, which is of mixed ancestry, and these people are predominantly Roman Catholic. Both islands have a community of Hindus, and in Guadeloupe, there is also a small Muslim population.

by Ulrike Niklas

 Jamaica

Historical Origins

Between 1845 and 1945, approximately 38,000 Indians went to Jamaica through Indian labour migration. The first batch of 261 immigrants arrived in 1845 on the Blundell Hunter.

Jamaica never developed a large, densely settled Indian community because irregular importation and repatriation (perhaps also combined with a low fertility rate initially and a high mortality rate) kept the population small and scattered. The Indian population in Jamaica in 1911 stood at only 17,380.

Indian immigration to Jamaica was meant to provide landholders with labourers who would return to India upon the expiration of their contracts. By the 1880s, however, Indian immigration had developed into a form of settler colonisation as fewer and fewer indentured workers returned. Voluntary return via the state repatriation scheme, along with involuntary settlement as a result of coercion on the part of the planters, and lack of finances when state-assisted repatriation was discontinued in 1930, resulted in close to 62 per cent of the Indian unmigrants settling permanently in Jamaica. The last return ship sponsored by the government in Jamaica was the SS SutleJ, which repatriated 425 Indians in 1929.

On the ships, single women were placed in the aft, followed by married people, with the single men in front. Attempts were made to ensure that the ships bad adequate crew, medical personnel, sweepers (topazes) and cooks to look after the welfare of the migrants. In the early years of Indian emigration, the topazes were black people. By the 20th century, they had been replaced by Indian topazes because of racial tensions between black topazes and Indians. Surgeon Superintendent Comins noted, 'I found the West Indian Topazes very useless, indolent and subordinate,' and that 'the prejudices and dislike of east and West Indians to each other, offer a great bar to their acting well together on board ship.'

By Verene Shepherd

 Surinam

In many Caribbean colonies, the planters resorted to hiring supposedly cheap and docile immigrants to replenish the labour pool. The Surinamese planters introduced Portuguese, Madeirans, Chinese, West Africans and inhabitants of other Caribbean territories to work in the fields and factories. Their numbers, however, were not enough to boost the industry; instead, they increased the heterogeneity of an already diverse population. Immigration really got off the ground with the importation of Indian labourers.

The recruitment of labourers from British India was not a first in Caribbean history. In fact, Indians had already arrived in neighbouring British Guiana some 35 years earlier. It was, however, an important moment in the history of Surinam. Ultimately, 34,304 Indians would come to the colony. The bulk of these immigrants settled in Surinam and soon formed a considerable part of the population. Initially, their impact on society at large was mainly demographic and economic, but in the 20th century their cultural influence and political power came ever more to the fore. The arrival of Indian contract labour and its aftermath markedly shaped the (recent) past and present of Surinam.

By Rosemarijn Hoefte

Guyana

Evolution of Indenture
The contract for indenture evolved progressively, but the basic terms were established by the 1870s. The immigrant had to work every day, except on Sunday or authorised holidays, with seven hours spent in the field or 10 hours in the factory. Able-bodied males aged 16 and over were paid 1 shilling (12 pence) per day; adult males who were not able-bodied, minors aged 10 to 15 and female adults were paid 8 pence per day, but were entitled to extra pay when working overtime. The contract legitimised child labour.

Indentured labourers also had the option of task work, with higher remuneration computed ostensibly on the basis of wage rates obtained by unindentured workers. This was one of the most contentious issues, was workers continually disputed the basis on which earnings from task work were calculated. The alleged grievance was that the vagaries of differing tasks were often not given due recognition. Unlike enslaved Africans, however, Indians had recourse to the immigration agent general, or district agents authorised to visit plantations and investigate specific complains. In reality, indentured labourers tended to leave the plantations and march to the office of the protector to seek redress of grievances. This often resulted in labourers being prosecuted for breach of contract. In comparison with the rights of employers, those of Indian labourers were breached consistently, even within the judicial system. Between 1874 and 1875, only 208 employers were prosecuted successfully, whereas 65,084 indentured labourers were convicted

By Clem Seecharan

Trinidad and Tobago

Between 1845 and 1917, a total of 143,939 immigrants from India were taken to Trinidad under the system of indenture to work on sugar plantations. They were generally from the same catchments as immigrants to other British colonies where the indenture system was in effect. The first entry on the log of the first vessel to Trinidad is 'Bhuruth, male age 20' and he came from the main source of recruits, the aboriginal borderland of Chota Nagpur. Before long, the Calcutta hinterlands emerged as the prime recruiting ground. After 1870, the net was cast more widely, and thereafter, the eastern part of the North-Western Provinces and the extreme west of the Bengal Presidency, comprising modern-day Uttar Pradesh and Bihar respectively, supplied the majority of migrants. Smaller numbers came from Madras, but they developed a reputation for being more prone to sickness and less satisfactory labourers. Madras thus became a supplementary source of immigrants in times of severe scarcity from other areas, but in the last decade of indenture, several ships would sail from there to Trinidad as well.

By Kusha Haraksingh

East Africa

The year 1890 marked the end of the Arab ascendancy in East Africa and the region was partitioned among the European powers. By then, over 6000 Indians lived in Zanzibar and along the East African coast. Between 1890 and 1914, this relatively small number was augmented by almost 38,000 indentured labourers (mainly males) who worked on the construction of the Uganda Railway. These railway workers generally came from Punjab on a contract of between three and five years. Almost 80 per cent of them left East Africa at the end of their contracts. Roughly 7000, however, remained in East Africa at the end of their contracts. Upon its completion, the railway was manned for several decades by Indian drivers, foremen, stationmasters., linesmen, telegraphers, mechanics, gangers, repairmen, upholsterers, carpenters and other artisans.

By Gijsbert Oonk

South Africa

The first Indians in South Africa were slaves imported by the Dutch East India Company in the 17th century from Bengal and South India. They were few in number and came to be absorbed into the Cape Malay population. The majority, however, are descendants of the 152,184 indentured labourers introduced into Natal (now KwaZulu-Natal) between 1860 and 1911 to work on sugar plantations, as the indigenous Zulu, who had access to land on colonial locations and Christian missions, resisted absorption into the capitalist economy. Indian migrants were highly stratified: 62 per cent were men, 25 per cent were women, and 13 per cent were children; 60 per cent were Tamil and Telugu speakers from Tamil Nadu and Andrha Pradesh in southern India, while the rest were from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh in the north; over 80 per cent were Hindu, about 15 per cent Muslim, and there was a small number of Christians. Indian migrants comprised several hundred castes ranging from Brahmins to Pariahs. Madras was the point of departure from the south and Calcutta from the north.

By Surendra Bhana and Goolam Vahed

Thailand

The presence of Indians in modern Thailand can be traced back more than a century. Tamils from Penang are reported to have settled in Phuket in southern Thailand as early as the 1860s. King Chulalongkorn’s visit to India in 1871 created an opportunity for Indians to trade in the capital city of Bangkok. Those Tamils living in southern Thailand developed an expertise in the cattle trade and the mining of precious stones. Service groups, such as the Chettiars, began moving into Bangkok from Phuket, Penang and Singapore. This was when the Thai royalty offered a specially designated area for both Indian and Chinese traders. Not far from the Grand Palace and the Chinese settlement of Yaworat, and Indian market area known as Phahurat (Bahu-ratha in Sanskrit) was developed. It is still the only market where Indians own or run most of the shops. In 1879, king Chulalongkorn granted land to a group of South Indian businessmen living in Bangkok, on which the Sri Maha Mariamman Temple was built. By the early 20th century, the Bohras and Tamil Muslim merchants from Pondicherry and Karaikkal were the only important Indian businessmen in Thailand.

Though Thailand was able to avoid European colonial control, several European companies played a dominant role in the country. The contracts of several development projects were awarded to British companies operating there. By the beginning of the 20th century, many British citizens were holding senior positions in various government departments.

As a result, British Indian labourers from Malaya and Singapore arrived in Thailand to work on projects such as the railway link from Malaya to Bangkok. The labourers came from the Madras Presidency, the clerks were mostly Parsi and the watchmen were generally from the United Provinces (UP) and Punjab. Some Bengalis also came directly from Calcutta.

By Amarjiva Lochan

Singapore

Although most early Indians in Singapore arrived because of their association with the colonial militia of as ‘free’ come commercial and labour migrants, ‘forced’ Indian migration followed soon after the Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1824. The treaty, which secured the British position in Singapore, also resulted in the transfer of Bencoolen (present day Bengkulu, Indonesia) to the dutch in exchange for British control over Melaka. The closure of the British penal colony for Indian convicts in Bencoolen led to the establishment of an alternative detention facility in Singapore. In April 1825, the brig Horatio brought the first batch of 80 Indian convicts who had originally been transported from Madras to Bencoolen. This was followed by 122 convicts who arrived from Bengal a week later. The convicts represented a cross-section of Indian society, including Benares brahmanas, Sikh and Dogra Kshatriyas, Chettiar, Bengali and Parsi financiers and peasants, and untouchables from various other parts of the subcontinent.

Housed in a walled compound at Bras Basah Road, Indian convict labour was used to clear jungles and construct roads, jetties, canals, bridges and buildings. Some of the finest architecture in Singapore in the 19th century was the product of convict labour, including St. Andrew’s Cathedral (1862) and the Istana (1869). By 1860, the number of convicts on the island was 2275, of which few were known to have returned to India.

Large scale Indian labour migration followed with the expansion of the port and the growth of the plantation sector in the second half of the 19th century. Commercial plantations produced gambier, cloves, nut­meg, pineapple, sugar cane and, towards the end of the century, rubber. Although Chinese farmers domi­nated the agricultural sector, European planters employed Indian labour; and in dairy farming and the laundry sector, Indians occupied key positions. Furthermore, the majority of workers employed in public projects, servicing the budding administrative, development, commercial and defence functions in the settlement, were drawn from India.

For much of the 19th century, Indian labour recruitment for the plantation sector was carried out through the indenture system. As elsewhere, indentured labour in Singapore was regulated through contracts. The contracts were for five years, at meagre wages, and expenditures such as travel costs. During his sojourn, the labourer was subject to extreme demands made by employers. In 1876, following growing pressure to improve the plight of indentured labourers, the contract was shortened to three years. Nevertheless, through numerous liabilities which increased the labourers' debts, employers were often able to demand an extended period of indenture. From the 1870s, a parallel method called the kangani system was employed, whereby the kangani, a south Indian foreman, was paid by his employer to recruit labour from his home district or village.

By Rajesh Rai

Malaysia

Indian migration to Malaya was an important dimension of British colonial rule in Asia and coincided with the growth of the international economy in the second half of the 19th century. There were three main migration streams, each of which was associated with specific economic roles. The first and largest stream, the indentured workers, comprised mainly Tamils and Telugus who worked in the plantations, on the construction and maintenance of transportation lines (roads and railways), and at the ports. The second stream, the auxiliaries, consisted predominantly of North Indians who were recruited for the police force and security services, and Malayalis and Jaffna Tamils who were employed in clerical and subordinate civil service occupations. The third stream, the traders, comprised Indian merchants and the Chetttiars, a money lending caste from South India. North Indian migrants were far fewer compared to the other Indian migrant groups and constituted a distinct community. The occupational differentiation between the Indian migrants also had religious overtones and helped to create a distinctive diasporic consciousness among them.

Colonial Labour Policy
Three principles governed colonial labour policy: the acquisition of a plentiful, diversified and cheap supply of labour for colonial and capitalist enterprises; the (limited) assurance of the labourer's freedom of movement; and the provision of a limited amount of protection for workers. Crucially, a diversified recruitment policy meant that migrant labour could be manipulated easily and ensured that workers were not easily assimilated or readily accepted by the local inhabitants. The colonial government and employers collaborated to maintain low wage costs and sustain occupational differentiation based on ethnicity, resulting in vertical cleavages of ethnicity, kinship and religion, and facilitating the substitution of one worker group by another.

Thousands of Indian labour migrants arrived annually in Malaya under the two recruitment systems: between 1844 and 1910, about 250,000 indentured labourers came to Malaya. The peak of kangani-assisted recruitment occurred in the 1910s, when about 50,000 to 80,000 Indian workers arrived annually. From 1844 to 1938, kangani-assisted migration accounted for 62.2 per cent of total Indian labour migration, compared to 13 per cent for indentured migration.

By Amarjit Kaur

Myanmar

After the British annexed lower Burma during the Second Anglo-Burmese War (in early 1853), making it a province of British India, the Indian government encouraged the flow of Indian labour into what was known as British Burma. During the decade following 1876, the government subsidised the migration process undertaken by private agents in India. (Even after British Burma was formally separated from India in April 1937, the colonial government's unrestricted immigration policy continued. Following the final takeover of the entire country in 1885, migration continued unabated well into the 20th century, taking its cue from the laissez-faire economy of British Burma, which became rapidly integrated with the economy of British India and, subsequently, to the international economy. For example, the total value of imports into British Burma tripled between 1884 and 1911, and doubled again in the next 1O years. Similarly, the value of exports to India as a share of British Burma's total exports increased from 21 per cent to 52 per cent between 1884 and 1921, while the value of total exports increased more than six times. As the modern monetised economy developed, many Indians came to British Burma to work. Indian migrants played a significant part in transforming Burma's subsistence economy into a commercialised export economy.

By Tin Maung Maung Than

Sri Lanka

Indian Communities in Sri Lanka other than “Estate Tamils”
Indian Tamils migrated from South India to Ceylon mainly in the course of the 19th and 20th centuries. The vast majority of these migrants supplied much sought after labour to the plantations, especially the tea estates, of the island's central hill districts around Badulla, Ratnapura and Nuwara Eliya. The 2001 census classified 855,888 people as Indian Tamils, out of which 695,705 live on estates. These plantation workers were neither the only Indians nor the only Tamils who came to Ceylon. Other Tamil migrants were recruited in the late 19th century for the expansion of Colombo Harbour as well as for the construction of the island's roads and railways, finding employment in the dock companies or the railway and public works departments. Between 1891 and 1911, for instance, a little more than 5000 Indians worked regularly at Colombo Harbour.

As the climate and altitude of the hill districts proved ideal for the cultivation of coffee, a real estate boom set in, and by 1860, coffee plantations covered almost the whole of central Ceylon. With a sufficient supply of water and a reasonably stable temperature, coffee plants provided a relatively rich and reliable yield without needing much care. Labour was needed to pluck, peel, wash and pack the coffee beans only during the harvest season between November and January. Sinhalese peasants were unwilling to undertake these tasks as they looked down on menial agricultural work, hence planters had to import labour from South India. After the ban on emigration was lifted in 1842, an increasing number of south Indians, mainly from the districts along the coast adjacent to the islands (Tinnevelly, Ramnad, South Arcot, Madurai, Chinapoli and Pudukottai), were recruited for the plantations.

By Tilman Frasch