Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Indian Indentured Laborers in the Caribbean

  • Living reference work entry
  • First Online:
The Palgrave Handbook of Ethnicity

Abstract

Between 1838 and 1920, more than half a million Indians (South Asians) migrated to the Caribbean as Indian indentured laborers. During the 82-year tenure of the system, Indians had an indelible impact on the Caribbean landscape, not just by fulfilling their ascribed economic role as the proverbial “saviors” of the sugar industry but also in terms of their social, cultural, and emotional presence. The system was terminated in 1920, which set the stage for a new dynamic for those Indians who had opted to make the Caribbean their home, especially since they were now unfettered by the rules, regulations, and restrictions of the system of Indian indenture. This paper endeavors to trace the experiences of these indentured laborers as, at first, sources of labor on the various plantations and, as they left said plantations, as migrants embarking on the very complex journey of settlement in a foreign location, the Caribbean.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Brereton B (1982) A history of modern Trinidad 1783–1962. Heinemann International, Kingston

    Google Scholar 

  • Brereton B (1985) The experience of indentureship: 1845–1917. In: La Guerre J (ed) Calcutta to Caroni: the East Indians of Trinidad. Extra Mural Studies Unit, U.W.I, St. Augustine, pp 23–24

    Google Scholar 

  • Brereton B (1994) The other crossing: Asian migrants in the Caribbean, a review essay. J Caribb Hist 28(1):99–122

    Google Scholar 

  • Carter M (1995) Servants, sirdars and settlers:Indians in Mauritius, 1834–1874. Oxford University Press, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Grant KJ (1923) My missionary memories. The Imperial Publishing Company, Halifax

    Google Scholar 

  • Harakasingh K (1976) Aspects of the Indian experience in the Caribbean. In: La Guerre J (ed) Calcutta to Caroni: the east Indians of Trinidad. Extra Mural Studies Unit, U.W.I. St. Augustine, pp 155–169

    Google Scholar 

  • Haraksingh K (1988) Structure, process and Indian culture in Trinidad. In: Immigrants & minorities. Frank Cass and Company Limited, London

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hoefte R (2006) Surinam. In: Lal BV (ed) The encyclopedia of the Indian diaspora. Editions Didier Millet, Singapore

    Google Scholar 

  • Kanhai R (2008) Matikor: the politics of identity for Indo-Caribbean women. The University of the West Indies School of Continuing Studies, St. Augustine

    Google Scholar 

  • Kanhai R (2012) Bindi: the multifaceted lives of indo-Caribbean women. University of the West Indies Press, Jamaica

    Google Scholar 

  • Kassim H (2002) The transformation of Trinidad Islam: the works of Moulvi Ameer Ali and Moulvi Nasir Ahmad, 1935–1942. In: Paper presented at conference on religions of the new world. University of the West Indies, St. Augustine

    Google Scholar 

  • Kirpalani MJ (1945) Indian centenary review. 100 years of progress 1845–1945. Indian Centenary Review Committee, Port-of-Spain

    Google Scholar 

  • Klass M (1961) East Indians in Trinidad: a study of cultural persistence. Waveland Press, Illinois

    Google Scholar 

  • Lal BV (ed) (2006) The encyclopedia of the Indian diaspora. Editions Didier Millet, Singapore

    Google Scholar 

  • Laurence KO (1994) A question of labour: indentured immigration into Trinidad and British Guiana, 1875–1917. Ian Randle Publishers, Jamaica

    Google Scholar 

  • Look Lai W (2004) Indentured labour, Caribbean sugar: Chinese and Indian migrants to the British West Indies, 1838–1918. John Hopkins University Press, Baltimore

    Google Scholar 

  • Mahabir K (2011) The Indian diaspora in Belize, Guadeloupe and Suriname. In: Indian arrival day commemorative Magazine. Indo-Caribbean Cultural Centre, Trinidad

    Google Scholar 

  • Malik Y (1971) East Indians in Trinidad: a study in minority politics. Oxford University Press, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Mandelbaum DG (1972) Society in India: volume one. Continuity and change. University of California Press, Los Angeles

    Google Scholar 

  • Mangru B (1996) A history of East Indian resistance on the Guyana Sugar Estates, 1869–1948. Edwin Mellen Press, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Mangru B (1999) Indians in Guyana: a concise history from their arrival to the present. Adams Press, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Mansingh A, Mansingh L (1999) Home away from home: 150 years of Indian presence in Jamaica, 1845–1995. Ian Randle Publishers, Jamaica

    Google Scholar 

  • Mohammed P (2002) Gender negotiations among Indians in Trinidad, 1917–1947. Palgrave, New York

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Morton S (1916) John Morton of Trinidad. Westminster Company, Toronto

    Google Scholar 

  • Niehoff A, Niehoff J (1960) East Indians in the West Indies. Milwaukee Public Museums Publications in Anthropology, Milwaukee

    Google Scholar 

  • Roopnarine L (2007) Indo-Caribbean indenture: resistance and accommodation, 1838–1920. University of the West Indies Press, Jamaica

    Google Scholar 

  • Samaroo B (1975) Missionary methods and local responses: the Canadian Presbyterians and the East Indians in the Caribbean. In: Proceedings of conference on East Indians in the Caribbean: colonialism and the struggle for identity. University of the West Indies, St. Augustine

    Google Scholar 

  • Sankalia HD (1982) The Ramayana in historical perspective. Macmillan India Limited, Delhi

    Google Scholar 

  • Schwartz BM (ed) (1967) Caste in overseas Indian communities. Chandler Publishing Company, California

    Google Scholar 

  • Seecharan C (1997) “Tiger in the stars” the anatomy of Indian achievement in British Guiana 1919–29. Macmillan Education Ltd., London

    Google Scholar 

  • Seecharan C (1997) Guyana. In: Lal BV (ed) The encyclopedia of the Indian diaspora. Editions Didier Millet, Singapore

    Google Scholar 

  • Seesaran R (2002) From caste to class: the social mobility of the Indo-Trinidadian community 1970–1917. Rosaac Publishing House, Trinidad

    Google Scholar 

  • Shepherd V (1993) Transients to settlers: the experience of Indians in Jamaica 1845–1950. University of Warwick and Peepal Tree Books, England

    Google Scholar 

  • Shepherd V (2006) Jamaica. In: Lal BV (ed) The encyclopedia of the Indian diaspora. Editions Didier Millet, Singapore

    Google Scholar 

  • Singaravelou (1976) Indian religion in Guadeloupe, French West Indies. Caribbean Issues 11(3): 39–51

    Google Scholar 

  • Singh K (1988) Bloodstained tombs: the Muharram massacre 1884. Macmillan Caribbean, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Singh S (2012) The Ramayana tradition and socio-religious change in Trinidad, 1920–1990. Ian Randle Publishers, Jamaica

    Google Scholar 

  • Sookram R (2006) Culture and identity of the Indian Community in Grenada, 1857–1960. Aust Hist Stud 7:42–44

    Google Scholar 

  • Sookram R (2009) Challenges and achievements: the history of Indians in Grenada. VDM, Germany

    Google Scholar 

  • Tinker H (1974) A new system of slavery: the export of Indian labour overseas, 1830–1920. Oxford University Press, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Vertovec S (1992) Hindu Trinidad: religion, ethnicity and socio-economic change. Macmillan Education Ltd., London

    Google Scholar 

  • Williams E (1964) History of the people of Trinidad and Tobago. Andre Deutsch, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Wood D (1986) Trinidad in transition: the years after slavery. Oxford University Press, London

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. The University of the West Indies, St. Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago

    Sherry-Ann Singh

Authors
  1. Sherry-Ann Singh
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Sherry-Ann Singh .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Dept of Socio & Anthro, Rm 309, Univ of Canterbury Dept of Socio & Anthro, Rm 309, Christchurch, New Zealand

    Steven Ratuva

Section Editor information

  1. No affiliation provided

    Lyndon Fraser

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2019 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.

About this entry

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this entry

Singh, SA. (2019). Indian Indentured Laborers in the Caribbean. In: Ratuva, S. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Ethnicity. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-0242-8_94-1

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-0242-8_94-1

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore

  • Print ISBN: 978-981-13-0242-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-981-13-0242-8

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Political Science and International StudiesReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation