Last week I laid down the foundation upon which Indian indenture changed from cyclical to settlement. This policy and process inadvertently led to Indians owning land in British Guiana. I would like to reiterate that Indians did not arrive in British Guiana with the intention of staying and eventually owning land. Nor did they, during and after settlement, stand up in the colonial courts arguing for land. Actually, many abandoned the land they received because of its poor quality. What is certain is that Indians were not altogether innocent in the inducement land policy programme; because many had not owned land before arriving in British Guiana, and the prospect of owning land in a foreign country and forfeiting their return passage was not a federal case to them. I would like to say, however, that in my reading and research so far, I have not come across any information that Indian land settlement schemes overlapped in Amerindian or African areas of land ownership, and vice versa.
The pivotal question here is: Out of the 239,000 or so Indians who served indenture from 1838 to 1917, how many of them received land? We can immediately rule out the 75,000 that served indenture and returned to India, which leaves us with 165,000 that stayed in British Guiana. Now, this is where many are confused. 239,000 served indenture, but that does not mean that at any given time the Indian population was 239,000 in British Guiana. That is the total figure that served indenture for about 80 years. Similarly, the 165,000 that stayed in British Guiana was over the period of about 80 years. The indenture system was cyclical, meaning that there were those arriving and leaving; with the latter being so lower in numbers that, by 1900, the Indian population was about 100,000; and when indenture was abolished in 1920, the Indian population was about 120,000. To remind readers, the exchanging of return passages for land grants in British Guiana began in 1880, stalled in 1882, revived in 1897, and ceased in 1903; which means that Indians were given land in seven sporadic years. Two clarifications are warranted immediately. First, the uneven time distribution of land reveals the difficulty in having Indian settle on land offered mainly because it was bad and barren, coupled with Indian inexperience of owning and utilizing land effectively, at least initially; and second, the poor administrative distribution of land made it difficult to grant land to thousands of Indians. Besides, the mere idea of granting land was not to compete with the sugar industry. Put differently, there were restrictions.
Indians did receive land, but an analysis of the status of Indians is needed with regard to land ownership. At any time during indenture, there were those who were not interested in land ownership, but wanted to return home, sometimes paying their own passage. There were those who were still under indenture, and therefore did not earn and save enough to own land, or did not finish their terms of indenture to qualify to own land. There were those who accepted land, but abandoned it. There were those who were eager to exchange their return passage (until 1903) for land. There were those who bought land on their own initiative. My point here is that landownership was not as straight-forward as some continue to think and peddle in Guyana.
To add to the complexity of the situation, some Indians chose to remain in the bound yard because they were afraid to go on their own, even with the option of owning land. They were trapped in the marginal section of plantation dependency. Conversely, some Indians bought, leased or rented land from the colonial government, and were re-selling, re-leasing and re-renting them to other Indians, revealing a sort of internal petty capitalism with regard to Indian land ownership.
Drawing upon various studies, including that of Keith Laurence, Walton Look Lai and myself, up to 1882, some 49 residential lots and 69 cultivation lots were granted to Indians in British Guiana. Between 1897 and 1903, the period when more details are available, 2,711 Indians received allotments: 1,206 on Helena, 574 on Whim, 755 on Bush Lot, and 176 on Maria’s Pleasure settlements. The allotments were about 5 to 10 acres, which means that between 1882 and 1903, about 28,229 acres of land were given to Indians. What has also to be taken into consideration is that, in the process of receiving land, Indians gave up an estimated 5,550 of their return passage.
The figure of 28,229 acres of land can be misleading. Guyana is 83,000 square miles. Moreover, not all the lands granted to Indians were used, and actually some land was abandoned because it was infertile and lacked adequate drainage. For this reason, the amount of land granted was reduced from 10 to 5 acres, so that the new owners could manage them. Also, out of an Indian population of 90,000 during the period when land was granted, only 2,711 of them received land, which is about 0.0003012 percent. What seems to be the contention is that Indians were given land, but Africans — who were in British Guiana before Indians arrived — received nothing. This is an issue that deserves a separate column. ([email protected])
