The history of a first-generation indentured couple

…laying the foundation for success of Muneshwer

By Dr Vishnu Bisram

My indentured ancestors, the girmityas, like others that came from India (1838 to 1917) laid the groundwork and economic foundation for the achievements of myself (in education at least) and others like Muneshwer in business (Water Street original proprietor who passed away around 1981; Muneshwer was born in 1910). My paternal great grandfather (par aja) and great grandmother (par aji) left behind a large clan (grandchildren, great grand and later generations) in Guyana that is spread out in North America, UK, and Jamaica. My interest in ancestry led to my inquiring about them. They were an accomplished couple, a rare example of success among indentureds.
My par aja was Ghurbatore (one name as was normal for many Indians) and par aji was Amru Rai. They were from different villages of about 150 KM apart. He was from Kusmi Village of sub-district Nundgunj of district Ghazipur in the state of Uttar Pradesh (UP). And she was from Siarha Village in Raunapur in district Azamgarh of UP. They must have met at Port Kolkata where they were housed in a holding station for some three weeks after they were recruited (kidnapped or deceived into making the journey for quick riches of gold). They departed in August 1891, arriving three months later; the couple was bounded to Plantation Port Mourant, the largest sugar estate in Guiana.

The Emigration or ship Pass Ghurbatore says his father Abilakh and he also had a sister Atwaria in India. Amru left her father Dukhi behind. There is no record of other family members left behind other than what was told orally to their children born in Guiana and then handed down to grandchildren and other generations. I tried to learn about other siblings from tracing their roots in their respective villages in UP. I visited the villages several times and interacted with dwellers including some thought to be ancestral relatives.
In Port Mourant, Amru and Ghurbatore were housed in a small cottage at Boundyard, so named because that is where the indentured laborers were kept to carry out bounded slave-like labour. (Each ethnic group lived in a separate community to prevent ethnic solidarity. Port Mourant also had a Portuguese Quarter and a “N Yard”, pejoratively labelled by the colonial plantation owners. There was also a “Coolie Yard”. Notice that the Portuguese indentured area was not referred to as a yard whereas “coolie” and “negro” had a yard appendage). Ghurbatore and Amru lived in a lojie or “kutiya” or “kutilla”, just a few minutes’ walk from where my mother’s (Gladys) maternal grandparents (Amar Singh and Bhuri Singh of Rajput stock from Bharatpur, Rajasthan) were bounded in 1903; Bhuri was elegant, tall, and very fair looking. The indentured were given a few cents for their daily task, almost twelve hours a day and six days a week. Their children were also required to work in the estates for two cents a day. The family saved their measly earnings while using some to upgrade their dilapidated lojie that once housed slaves. After they completed their indenture, they were forced out of the lojie. My great grandparents settled down rather than returning to India. A return trip was stated in the contract. It is not known whether they remained voluntarily or if they were refused the return trip to India. The plantation owners wanted the indentured slaves to stay on to continue their almost free labour on the estates. Thus, a variety of measures were undertaken to coerce them to stay. They were supposed to be given the return passage of $50 as an incentive to remain on the estate. But there is no record if they were given the money. Clauses in the contract were not always enforced by the colonial authority, and the labourers were routinely cheated of their paltry earnings. The indentured were badly ill-treated and exploited. Some of them were promised a small plot of land in exchange for the return passage. Not all of them received land. At any rate, they received useless marsh or forested land; some also bought forested and marsh land. They cleared the land to make it cultivable. Immigrants built a kutiya or a small house on the land grant or purchased land after clearing and draining it. The former slaves had moved on to an urban plot or cleared estates they bought. The kutiya of the indentured may be a far distance from the farm land as was the case of my ancestors in Ankerville. The farmland and the cattle grazing savannah that my aja and her sons established were about fifteen miles in the backdam away from home.
After completing their indenture (not sure for five or ten years), Ghurbatore and Amru built a kutilla (one bedroom with a living room connected to the kitchen for their family just across the Sideline from where they were bounded in Boundyard. The kutiya was just a few minutes’ walk from the Jagans (who came from Uttar Pradesh, India). After they finished their indenture (5 or 10 years), the labourers were settled in Free Yard, so named because they satisfactorily completed the servitude contract after which they were given a certificate of completion. Free Yard was cleared of forests in the late 1800s and labourers were assigned plots there. When it was filled, Ankerville was cleared of the forests in the early 1900s and lots were parcelled to the indentured. (Later, Haswell, Babu Jahan, Trainline, Miss Phoebe, Tain, Clifton, Jones, Portuguese Quarter, and other sub sections of Port Mourant were cleared of bush and marsh and drained. Plots were assigned to those who completed their contract or later employed at the estate after the termination of indentureship in 1920. Portuguese Quarter, established for freed indentured Portuguese, was also extended for settlement of indentured Indians who had completed their bonded labour).
Par aja and par aji had five children – (teen) or three betas or sons and two (or do) betis or daughters. Naurangya (mother of the well-known Muneshwer, Georgetown businessman) was the older beti (daughter) followed by Sancharee (mother of well-known business folks Lilmatee Hilton of Rose Hall and Hindu Ramjee of Tain, among others). The betas were Mahadeo, my aja or paternal grandfather, followed by Rajaram and Mahase. Mahadeo was well known as Barkha Bhai (eldest brother) among the siblings and was so respectably referred to by family and neighbours. He was also called “Scorpion” or “Scapion” because he was tough combating and dangerous animals. Muneshwer was the oldest grandchild of Ghurbatore and Amru, bringing much joy to the family and as such was showered with lots of gifts including cash to establish a business. Muneshwer was fondly called Bhaiya by cousins and neighbours. Sancharee died in 1946 from surgery for appendicitis. Naurangya had a natural death in 1961 and was buried in Georgetown.
Ghurbatore and Amru laboured very hard on the estate and used their savings to acquire a lot of land and cattle. (As my aja related, his parents “tied their belly to save for their children and grandchildren”). Typical indentureds, they didn’t “bilaway their earnings”.
The land they purchased or leased from the crown was thickly forested. The state was glad to lease it because free Indian labour would make it cultivable. Ghurbatore and Amru, like other indentured labourers from India, had to clear the land of the jungle to make it cultivable for rice and kitchen crops. They also had to clear the land where they had built their kutilla. Up to the 1970s, the area around the kutilla of Ghurbatore and Amru had large towering tamarind trees and thick bushes with needles (plimpas).

To Be Continued in Monday, January 4, 2021 edition