"The first Indians to inaugurate the Indo-Caribbean identity were brought from Calcutta to Guyana as indentured laborers subsequent to the official abolition of slavery in 1838, with many belonging to some of the lowest designations of the Indian social system.
While a sizable percentage of the laborers, commonly called coolies, were recruited from the (modern) northern Madhya Pradesh and Bihar regions, many Indians also came from the Tamil and Telegu regions of South India. Our history books equip us with the term "recruitment" for characterizing the colonial transfer of Indians to the British West Indies, however, it is noteworthy to highlight that many Indians were "recruited" by means such as kidnapping or being placed into forced detention. These were practices that resulted from the realization of the desperate need to replace lost slave labor in an expedient manner subsequent to the abolition of slavery.
Women were the most vulnerable to this form of "recruitment" and many were commonly used by their European managers for sex while working on plantations. Some laborers were able to achieve repatriation. Many, however, never returned home again.
Upon their arrival in Guyana, the Indians were met with great hostility from the existing working class of newly freed slaves in Guyana.
"Do not speak to the Indians," said the British to the Africans. "They are vile and carry diseases." Accordingly, the first Indo-Guyanese dwelled in isolated communities where they were identically indoctrinated to despise their new countrymen...
my identity carries with it the weight of two migrations. A double diaspora. The first undertaken by forced detention, the second by way of a stamped visa...
Trauma begins with the brutal transfer of Indians to the West Indies and re-emerges when their progeny seek to strike their relevance from their identities."
http://www.browngirlmagazine.com/2015/12/the-indo-caribbean-experience-now-and-then/
Heyyyy it's some of my heritage. Joy.
This is a beautiful essay.
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