LETTERS OF HINDU INDENTURED LABORERS

Letters of Jaipal Chamar and his son Ayodhya Das In 1912, Jaipal Chamar, then 25 years of age was indentured from his hometown in Basti District, Uttar Pradesh for five years of service in the Caribbean. Landed in Jamaica, he was sent to Westmoreland where he re-indentured himself after the initial five-year period. After his indentureship, he worked in various parts of Jamaica as a paid labourer, finally settling down in Kingston where he resides at the home of an adopted daughter. In his day Jaipal who was a noted dancer, and today treasures his old dancing costume, brought from India, as dear as life. In 1954 at age 66, Jaipal who had lost touch with his family in India was able to re-establish his Indian connection: he was able to trace and write to a son in Calcutta who was born some months after Jaipal's departure; born to a mother forcibly widowed by the vagaries of the system which Indians neither created nor desired. From Calcutta, Ayodhya Das was equally happy to renew his connection. His letters to his father are as informative as they are poignant: "Respected father, You will be surprised to know that a son whom you might not have seen is replying from this side. I was about to born when you left this place. We were two brothers. Our mother looked after us anyhow and we came to Calcutta for service. Fifteen years ago my brother Dwarika passed away and left me alone in this unlucky world." As the correspondence developed, Jaipals eagerness to find out about his wife and his village friends increased: "Write me about your mothers welfare and the rest of the village. Respectful greetings to all who know me." Ayodhya had a fervent wish to see his father. He begged him to return: "Whenever your letter comes I wish I had wings And could fly away to see you. Your destitute sister has no one and I am looking after her. She has gone blind crying for you. She now lives only with the hope of seeing her brother's face. And my mother after receiving your first letter cried for ten days and died." (Quoted in: Brinsley Samaroo: The Indian Connection: The influence of Indian Thought and Ideas on East Indians in the Caribbean. In India in the Caribbean. Edited by Dr. David Dabydeen and Dr. Brinsley Samaroo. 1987)

A Brief Summary of the Arrival of Hindus in the Caribbean: The Indentureship system - 1838 to 1917 Compiled by Dr. Somdat Mahabir (Summer 2001) With the abolition of slavery in the British colonies in 1833, large numbers of Indians (primarily Hindus), through an indentureship system, were brought to the sugar colonies to continue the production of sugar. As a result of this movement, Indians were transported to the British colonies of Fiji, Mauritius, Natal, Guyana, Trinidad, Jamaica, and some smaller Caribbean, including Reunion, Martinique and Guadeloupe among French colonies, and to the Dutch colony of Surinam. "Understanding the background of the Indians who came to the Caribbean, is crucial to the understanding of the development of Hinduism in Guyana. That the labourers were exclusively rural and illiterate, that the majority belonged to the lower castes and were engaged as cultivators; that in the early years large numbers of tribal peoples were among the recruits, that a mere third of those who came were women, and that children, under 10 years, accounted for about 10% of the immigrants; that an adult was reckoned to be anyone over ten years, and that recruits between 10-20 years made up more that 25% of the total; that though numerically small there was a South Indian recruitment, all these factors combined to affect the nature of Hinduism that emerged in Guyana and elsewhere in the Caribbean." - (Swami Aksharananda: Hinduism in Guyana: A study in traditions of worship. 1993). The journey of the Hindus across the kala-pani (black waters) to their destination of bondage to the sugar plantations was one of fear and trauma. Many had the fear that: "...they will be converted into Christianity... and the Hindoos will be fed beef and the Mohammedans with pork; the thread of the Brahmins and the heads of the Hindoos will be taken off and they will not be able to keep their caste." - (Quoted by: Emmer, PC. The Importation of the British Indians in Surinam 1873-1916. In: International Labour Migration, 1984.) Once Indians arrived in the Caribbean, the plantation housed them in the former slave barracks. The white expatriate managers, described as the "czar, prosecutor, king and judge all in one" lived in massive mansions while the white supervisory staff on the estates lived in their own segregated areas in what must have looked like a plantation type apartheid system. "Whatever public religion was permitted, it was within the framework of the structure and demand of the plantation that Hinduism was confronted with the greatest challenge in Guyana and the Caribbean. It did not remain unaffected and was forced to undergo a series of rapid transformation. Hinduism, of course, was never the "eternal" unchanging entity that it is often made out to be, not even in India. But changes in India were probably more organic and slower against the background of a permanent landscape with its sacred mountains and rivers, its major temples and centres of pilgrimage. Customs, beliefs, and practices, the interplay along the ever porous boundary between the Great and Little traditions, the challenge from and

syncretism with Islam, the emergence of bhakti, the encounter with the British with all its consequences, and the Hindu reformers who were themselves a product of this encounter, all these were important and permanent changes. But, Kailasa in the Himalayas stood its grounds, the Ganga kept on flowing, and Kasi, the eternal city, continued to beckon to pilgrims across the land. In Guyana and the Caribbean, however, these orienting and stabilizing signposts of the sacred landscape were absent and in the absence of its cultural context changes, in Hinduism in Guyana and the Caribbean, were more momentous, more rapid, and more drastic." - (Swami Aksharananda: Hinduism in Guyana: A study in traditions of worship. 1993). The following table shows the number of Indians taken to overseas European territories (excepting those of Southeast Asia) in the 19th and 20th centuries and population estimates. Table 1. Indians taken to overseas European territories (excepting those of Southeast Asia) in the 19th and 20th centuries. Colony (Country) Mauritius Guyana Natal (South Africa) Trinidad Reunion Fiji Guadeloupe Kenya Jamaica Surinam Martinique Seychelles St. Lucia Grenada St. Vincent TOTAL Period 1834-1912 1838-1917 1860-1911 1845-1917 1829-1924 1879-1916 1854-1885 1895-1901 1854-1885 1873-1916 1854-1889 1899-1916 1858-1895 1856-1885 1861-1880 Indian Immigrants Indian population 1980 est. 453 063 623 000 238 909 424 400 152 184 750 000 143 939 421 000 118 000 125 000 60 969 300 700 42 326 23 165 39 771 79 000 36 420 50 300 34 000 124 900 25 509 16 450 6 319 4 350 3 700 3 200 3 900 2 472 5 000 1,361,431 2,950,515

(Quoted in Swami Aksharananda: Hinduism in Guyana: A study in traditions of worship. PhD Thesis, 1993). Note: Table 1 excludes those who were taken to Burma (2.5 million), Malaysia (2 million), and Sri Lanka (1.5 million). (Source: Swami Aksharananda: Hinduism in Guyana: A study in traditions of worship. PhD Thesis, 1993).

Table 2 Immigration into Guyana 1835-1928 Immigrants Period Arrived Returned % Returned Portuguese 1835-1882 30 685 West Indians 1835-1928 42 512 Indians 1835-1917 239 756 75 792 31.6 Africans 1838-1865 13 355 Chinese 1853-1912 14 189 Others 1 282 TOTAL 341 799 (Source: Dwarka Nath: A History of Indians in British Guiana. 1970). Table 3 Areas from which Indians were taken to overseas British and French colonies between 1842 and 1871. Orissa Western Bengal Eastern Bihar NWP & Others Total Awadh British Guiana 719 14 028 2 166 239 24 681 25 681 1 164 68 547 Trinidad 378 8 396 1 305 176 11 278 16 027 853 38 413 Jamaica 147 3 214 341 106 4 496 4 654 377 13 335 W.I. Colonies 28 1 461 266 46 2 405 2 076 100 6 382 Mauritius 3 116 33 131 8 951 1 118 108 156 47 286 3 619 205 377 Natal 2 216 24 356 370 16 984 Reunion 19 1 667 171 29 4 027 4 469 262 10 644 TOTAL 4 409 62 113 13 224 1 713 155 399 100 433 6 391 343 782 PERCENT 1.28 18.08 3.85 0.49 45.22 29.22 1.86 100 (Quoted in: Swami Aksharananda: Hinduism in Guyana: A study in traditions of worship. PhD Thesis, 1993). Table 4 Emigration of Children to British and Foreign Colonies, 1842-1870 Country Adult Males Adult Females Children % of Children Total Mauritius 243 853 63 459 44 089 12.54 351 401 British Guiana 53 323 16 983 9 385 11.77 79 691 Trinidad 28 030 9 280 5 209 12.25 42 519 Jamaica 10 022 3 233 1 914 12.61 15 169 Natal 4 116 1 463 869 13.47 6 448 St. Vincent 1 008 395 234 14.29 1 637 St. Lucia 1 333 401 209 10.75 1 943 St. Croix 244 60 17 5.29 321 Grenada 1 810 626 323 11.70 2 759 St. Kitts 192 113 56 15.51 361 Reunion 10 751 2 939 1 315 8.76 15 005 Guadeloupe 5 813 2 331 738 8.30 8 882 Martinique 3 667 1 336 520 9.41 5 523 French Guiana 1 320 421 165 8.65 1 906 TOTAL 365 842 103 040 65 043 12.19 533 565 (Quoted in: Swami Aksharananda: Hinduism in Guyana: A study in traditions of worship. PhD Thesis, 1993). Destination