Work and family

As Rambishoon gradually settled into the routine of plantation life, he graduated into one of the cane-cutting gangs after four months of “seasoning”. “Cane-cutting”, as the harvesting of the ripe stalks of sugarcane is called, is considered the most onerous task on sugar plantations. The burning of the ripe cane fields before cutting was not introduced until the 20th century, so “cutting cane” involved hacking through bushes of various heights, cutting off the green tops to be placed between rows and cutting off the stalk about a foot above the ground while negotiating snakes and rats. The method was described as “cut and drop”, since the now bare stalks were dropped in heaps to be later tied into bundles and fetched by another gang to the punts on the cross canals.
The daily task for which Rambishoon would be paid one shilling was fixed at each instance by the Overseer, depending on the density of cane and difficulty of manoeuvrability, and was measured in rods of cane in an opening that the latter deemed a healthy man could reap. Even though Rambishoon was only 5’2”, he was wiry and strong. After 1891, when an ordinance was passed that deemed the task could either be “day work” or “task work”, if the worker completed his task before the mandatory seven hours, he could go home early, which Rambishoon always did.
Around this time, Rambishoon also had a relationship with a girl from De Willem that produced a child he named after his eldest brother, Rambharose, in the tradition of his family. The girl was, however, married to an individual from Plantation Tuschen who her parents favoured.
Because of the imbalance in the number of women on the plantations due to the difficulty in recruiting them in India, this was not an unusual circumstance, and not many eyebrows were raised on the plantations. The elite classes in India, who would later agitate for the abolition of indentureship, would bewail the fall in Indian women›s «chastity» with the lesser restrictions on sexual liaisons on the plantation. My Nana knew Rambharose was his (half) brother and told me about him.
In 1895, Rambishun did get married to a girl by the name of Sanichari from neighbouring Plantation Zeeburg, where the logies were within hailing distance from the De Willem logies. Sanichari, my Nana’s mother, was “local born”, as emphasised by my grandparents. Her mother Rookoo had arrived as a three-year-old on February 2, 1860 on the ship Kirkham, along with her Bengali father Doorga, who was indentured at Plantation Zeeburg. She married Kullian, a fellow Bengali of the bagdhi caste, who had arrived at the age of sixteen on the ship Canning on January 14, 1867. He had been indentured to Plantation De Kendren, some three miles west of Pln Zeeburg, but after his five years of indentureship, he accepted the princely sum of $50 to reindenture, which he did to Plantation De Willem on January 19, 1872, just before the bounty was removed a year later. He was 21, and Rookoo was 15 when they got married.
Sanichari, their daughter, was born on Saturday, June 21, 1873 – hence her name, which means ‘Saturday’ in Hindi. She would have been 22 to Rambishun’s 26 when they got married. Starting early at the age of six in the creole gang, she spread manure on the roots of the sugarcane and then artificial fertilisers when they were introduced in the late 1880s. She also had a relationship in her teens when she moved to the weeding gang with a man named “Banka”, who was from the village of that name in Eastern Bihar. Interestingly, they had a son born around the same time as Rambishun’s son Rambharose in 1893. He was also called “Banka” and would be raised by Rambishun as his son. Sanichari would have three sons with Rambishun, who were born respectively in 1896 (Ramlagan, my Nana), 1898 (Ramnath), and 1905 (Ramlochan). This made Rambishoon very happy, as sons were prized even more than land to Kurmis.
There was a deep, dark secret in the family about my great-grandmother Sanichari that, as an inquisitive child, I would pick up in bits and pieces, which put together revealed that during her informal marriage with Banka, Sanichari had been the mistress of a Scottish overseer, and this might have led to her parting from Banka. Such relationships were, unfortunately, quite common on the plantation.