debut: 2/16/17
39,579 runs
Indian arrival day T&T May 30th
When the first contingent of East Indians arrived in Trinidad on May 30, 1845, their status was that of “bonded coolies” and they found themselves working and living in similar conditions as those of the Africans when they were enslaved.But the common denominator of all our forefathers who came to this land was that they were impoverished and destitute. They were all literally starving to death in India. Hence the reason for contracting themselves into slavery as “bonded coolies” in Trinidad.During the period of indentureship the East Indians in Trinidad were exploited, brutalised, humiliated and discriminated against.The English view of the Indians was that they were naked savages and with the abolition of African slavery India was the obvious and natural reservoir for a new set of slaves for the English planters in the West Indies.
Lord Harris, governor of Trinidad, in his report of 1847 stated: “They are not, neither coolies or Africans fit to be placed in a position which the labourers of civilised countries may at once occupy: they must be treated like children, and wayward ones too: the former from their habits and their religion, the latter from the utterly savage state in which they arrive.”During the period 1845-1917, our forefathers suffered. They suffered immensely during the first few decades of their arrival. They were paid little wages and yet cheated in payments, their food rations were restricted and the mutton which some of them ate was rotten.No latrines were provided and they were reduced to the state of animals in that they had to resort to using the cane fields when nature called. They went about barefoot and half-naked suffering from hookworm and dysentery and other sicknesses. Their wives and sisters were very often raped by the white overseers. They lived in over-crowded barracks. (Town named Barrackpore in T&T)
The Trinidad colonists regarded Indians as “heathens” whose spending habits contributed nothing towards the internal trade of the island. The San Fernando Gazette looked down upon the indentured labourers “as the scum of the effete civilisation of India.”It was from those atrocious conditions we the people of the East Indian diaspora in Trinidad emerged. Today we are led by a Hindu East Indian woman prime minister who heads a multi-racial, multi-religious coalition party. And while many of us are well fed, well dressed and well educated, we must ponder on those of the diaspora who live in conditions of depravity and abject poverty.Indian Arrival Day reminds us that from suffering can rise greatness – but only if we rise together.
Israel B Rajah-Khan is the president of the Criminal Bar Association
When the first contingent of East Indians arrived in Trinidad on May 30, 1845, their status was that of “bonded coolies” and they found themselves working and living in similar conditions as those of the Africans when they were enslaved.But the common denominator of all our forefathers who came to this land was that they were impoverished and destitute. They were all literally starving to death in India. Hence the reason for contracting themselves into slavery as “bonded coolies” in Trinidad.During the period of indentureship the East Indians in Trinidad were exploited, brutalised, humiliated and discriminated against.The English view of the Indians was that they were naked savages and with the abolition of African slavery India was the obvious and natural reservoir for a new set of slaves for the English planters in the West Indies.
Lord Harris, governor of Trinidad, in his report of 1847 stated: “They are not, neither coolies or Africans fit to be placed in a position which the labourers of civilised countries may at once occupy: they must be treated like children, and wayward ones too: the former from their habits and their religion, the latter from the utterly savage state in which they arrive.”During the period 1845-1917, our forefathers suffered. They suffered immensely during the first few decades of their arrival. They were paid little wages and yet cheated in payments, their food rations were restricted and the mutton which some of them ate was rotten.No latrines were provided and they were reduced to the state of animals in that they had to resort to using the cane fields when nature called. They went about barefoot and half-naked suffering from hookworm and dysentery and other sicknesses. Their wives and sisters were very often raped by the white overseers. They lived in over-crowded barracks. (Town named Barrackpore in T&T)
The Trinidad colonists regarded Indians as “heathens” whose spending habits contributed nothing towards the internal trade of the island. The San Fernando Gazette looked down upon the indentured labourers “as the scum of the effete civilisation of India.”It was from those atrocious conditions we the people of the East Indian diaspora in Trinidad emerged. Today we are led by a Hindu East Indian woman prime minister who heads a multi-racial, multi-religious coalition party. And while many of us are well fed, well dressed and well educated, we must ponder on those of the diaspora who live in conditions of depravity and abject poverty.Indian Arrival Day reminds us that from suffering can rise greatness – but only if we rise together.
Israel B Rajah-Khan is the president of the Criminal Bar Association
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