Indians will mark the centenary abolition of migration to Guyana in 2017

The year 1938 marked a special one for Indians in Guyana. It was 100 years after the first two Indian cargo ships, the Hesperus and the Whitby, departed the loading docks of Port Calcutta, largely influenced by the British East India Company. The ships sailed across the kala pani and landed in another colonial establishment of the British Empire, not far away from Sir Francis Drake’s mythical El Dorado. To celebrate their accomplishments after 100 years of indentureship, the British Guiana East Indian Association (BGEIA) brought together the elite Indians in the colony to examine their accumulated achievement over the century. Their accomplishments were deep and widespread, but participants agreed that much had to be done for Indians to mark their presence in their adopted home.
If one thing is certain, it is that the system of indentureship was a brutal experience for many Indians. Walter Rodney referred to indentureship as “neo slavery”, while Joseph Beaumont, the author of The New Slavery, who was the Chief Justice of British Guiana (1863-68), described the indenture system as a “rotten, monstrous system” that was “rooted upon slavery, grown in its stale soil” and “emulating its worst abuses”. History attributed the birth of this system to John Gladstone, a Scottish merchant who had made a fortune trading in corn with the United States and cotton with Brazil. Desperately trying to influence the British Government, Gladstone wrote on behalf of other plantation owners, including John Moss, a close friend and partner, proposing to Lord Glenelg that, given the size of his Demerara plantation in British Guiana, a ship should be sent to Calcutta “for the purpose of conveying about 150 of these ‘Hill Coolies’” from Bengal to Demerara to be “hired and engaged” in the same manner as in Mauritius. The rest is history.
The migration, which started in 1838, continued to the year 1917, which in itself marks another watershed year in the history of Indians, not just for Guyanese Indians, but for Indians in the wider diaspora. As a result, 2017 will mark one hundred years since the British Government issued a declaration to abolish official Indian migration to its colonial holdings. Under pressure from Indians in India, all migration was suspended permanently under the Defence of India Act on March 12, 1917. Even though an official date was established, there were still a number of attempts to encourage a continued Indian immigration flow to British Guiana, the most notable of which was the Nunan-Luckhoo scheme of 1923-24. This attempt generated a certain level of controversy, given the views expressed by “abolitionist” groups in Britain and the reluctance of Gandhi and the British Government to do so. No doubt, there were concerns by other groups in the colony also, including the Negro Prigrass Convention, which considered the increasing number of Indians to the colony as a threat to the limited economic and political status achieved by Africans. Remarkably though, the BGEIA and its leaders understood that their political actions had to be tempered out of consideration for Guyana’s delicate ethnic and racial balance. Members of the BGEIA, including Jung Bahadur Singh, a leader of the BGEIA, tirelessly advised the young Cheddi Jagan (confirmed by Dr Mohan Ragbeer) about this political reality in Guyana, but the radical communist brushed aside those concerns.
An assessment of the hundred years after 1917 will demonstrate that Indian arrival, and their continued presence, helped transform the Guyanese political and cultural landscape. The current ethnic divide, and the animosities and conflicts associated with the demographic composition of the nation, is rooted in this new turning point which dates back to 1838. Like the slaves, the indentured Indians were perceived, and in many cases treated as “property”, rather than “bounded labour” by the planter class.
A number of events are being organised to mark the 100 years since 1917. These events are being planned by Indian Diaspora communities which will allow Indians to assess the experience of indenture and the role of Indians in the communities in which they now live, as well as their relationship with members of other communities.
(Part of this column is excerpted from a forthcoming book on Jung Bahadur Singh).

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