The Caribbean East Indians, Part 1 of 2

The “East Indians” of the Caribbean and Caribbean rim countries are the descendants of immigrants from the Indian sub-continent. Despite their name they are no relation to the indigenous aboriginal “Indians” who inhabit or formerly inhabited the area. The East Indians are, along with Black Afro-Caribbeans (“West Indians”), one of the two major ethnic groups in Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana and Suriname. There are also East Indian communities in Jamaica (one estimate for 1980 gives the East Indian population as 50,000), Grenada and the French islands of Martinique and Guadeloupe.

Indians were first brought to the Caribbean from the mid-1840s to work on white-owned sugar plantations as indentured labour to replace newly freed African slaves. The majority of immigrants were young men; later disturbances on the plantations forced the authorities to try and correct the imbalance. Indenture was usually for five years and the labourer was subject to restricting and paternalistic regulations which were sometimes described as “a new system of slavery”. After an initial number of years it was possible for the labourer to return to India but since many were offered land in order to entice them to stay near the estates, most stayed in their new country.

The racial tensions and stereotypes of later years were formed during the colonial period. Indians worked for less than Africans and were regarded as cheap and malleable labour. There were differences of culture between the Hindu and Muslim Indians and the Christian Africans. While the Africans, who were more likely to be literate in English, filled the jobs in the urban and commercial sectors, Indians were most likely to remain labourers and small farmers.

[RK-lnkx]

I was born and bought up in India and now settled in North America. I had a chance to visit Guyana and on the way back I touched down at Trinidad Airport. I was quite surprised to see a large number of people of Indian origin in both Guyana and Trinidad. This part of Indian history during the British occupation is still hidden from the text books in schools in my province in India. I just did not have any clue about the size of the population of Indian origin in countries like Guyana and Trinidad. It is very cruel and mean minded to hide this part of history from the modern generations of Indians in India. It is clear that still there are British slaves in India who wants to whitewash the dark history of British in India.

[sushilashukla]

Namaste. I am South African Indian.
Interesting how our background is similar. Our ancestors arrived in 1860.We celebrate the arrival of our ancestors because they slogged for the life that we have today. My great grandfather came from Bihar.
We recently had a "Para Parayan Ramayan" Was beautiful online with all of the diaspora including Bharat.
Lots of love from South Africa

[mrsekeremor]

Loved this video. I learned a lot more in 28 mins then in my American History books. All people around the world need to share your history. We have had outsiders tell our stories too often and they don't do us justice.

[sugarplumzredz]

I’m proud of my East Indian heritage my great grandmother was from Calcutta she went to Jamaica and worked in a place called Frome

[Yash-emqm]

Love and regards from India 🇮🇳 to all our Indian community in West Indies . We support West Indies in cricket and feel proud to see Indians in cricket team .
AUM NAMAH SHIVAY 🕉🙏💓

[StephanieWilliams]

This was great and just what I needed to understand more of the East Indian history in the Caribbean. My Mothers country "Belize" was not mentioned but they share the same history as East Indian descendants in the Caribbean. They have a very small but rich cultural population of East Indians in the South of Belize where my Mother is from. She along with her Sisters/Brothers are full 100% East Indian.They are the last of this breed. I'm doing the best I can to learn more as they are all older and many have passed on. Thank you for this information! Gold!

[gabriellepalandy]

I’m really happy that I was able to learn y’all history. I’m of Afro descent but my great great grandmother was and Indian born during indentureship. I needed to understand what her parents life was like. She ended up being an orphan once her mother died on the way to Trinidad. Her son was also an Indian. I needed to understand to complete my family linage and history.

[Hi_i_am_cindy]

i wanted once in my life to meet a carribean indian..because im fiji indian..like you my ancestors was sent to fiji. i always wondered how much would be our family.
To know how your forefathers struggle. mine to were brought as farmers. to all my carribean brothers and sister we indians from fiji send our love.

Thank you for all commenting, so nice to meet everyone! Hi, Namaste, Ram ram, Namaskaram, Aslam Walaikum, Prabhu ke jai❤

This comment was posted 4 years ago, truly honoured with all responses❤

[cherelle]

Really thankful for this video, My granddad who is half south asian was born in Jamaica his mother was born in Bangladesh and we always wondered and asked my granddad how his Mother ended up in Jamaica and he never knew. I have looked further into this and this video has helped to answer questions my family always wanted to know. God bless and thanks for making the video 😊

[stevemohammed]

Great to know about our ancestors who came to Guyana, Trinidad Jamaica and others what they endured during indentured ship period of their settlement. The colonial masters were not concerned about their welfare but exploited them. Nevertheless with their strong will power they kept their culture which is still maintained today. God rest their soul.

[longdragon]

Not an Indian but found it highly fascinating and educational!

[ChristcentredNaturalgee]

I found this documentary quite interesting because nobody talks about this part of Indian history.This is very interesting because my mum told me that there is a bit of Indian in my ancestry (I'm black)She said that my grandma's grandfather was half Indian.Also there is a lot they don't tell you \they don't want you to know about the history the British has with other countries/islands.

[dharmakissoon]

love to read everybody comments, i've heard stories from my grandmother that her mother had a family and lost majority of them i am grateful to be here. i am Indian Guyanese nyc born

[PS-icbp]

Really loved hearing this - didnt know this part about our Indian history! V shameful that this is not taught in our schools in India

[rickyt]

Very interesting. In life, you will never stop learning.

[nadiasukhu]

Host keeps cutting off his speakers. Very rude!

[shaneramjit]

The first Indians who came to south Africa, came in the 16th century with the Dutch, very few though. But in the 1860 many came. Durban which is a city in south Africa, has the largest population of Indians outside of India. Glad to know this about the Indians in the carribean, I always wondered when I watched cricket and I listened to chutney musicians such as babla kachan.

[udaynj]

Fascinating. Many of the folks here in the Caribbean and in Fiji were from the state of Bihar. They were bonded labor due to loans due to the British. Glad to see many are doing fantastic!

[chieftain]

The Encyclopedia of the Indian Diaspora was publiished in 2006. You may find it in any major Library or Amazon. Very thorough. Was edited by Raj Patel and Jim Reeves. Very comprehensive and deals with peoples of Indian Origin all over the world! There are other books written on the subject as well.

[sonjuk]

Government of India is issuing PIO (People's of Indian Origin) status to all people of Indian diaspora. We all are brothers and sisters. Our unity is our strength.