Culture Matters

Music was seen as na vidya sangeet para; there is no knowledge greater than that of music.

- Mungal Patasar

HOW WELL do we understand the

yatra. or journey. of East Indians? This week, as we marked their arrival in TT, there were the usual congratulatory advertisements and interviews with prominent East Indians.

How important was cultural resistance to their survival during the period of indentureship? Today, as TT finds itself at the centre of a debate on migration and the assimilation of new cultures into our society, are there lessons to be learned from the period 1845-1917?

Researchers have used words such as "hostile" and "oppressiv"e to describe the environment in which indentured Indians lived. On the plantations, they were forced to live in cramped, inhospitable conditions. Accommodations were typically barracks, long wooden structures with thin partitions for families. They had limited privacy, running water or proper amenities.

Across the empire, diseases such as dysentery, yellow fever and malaria were regularly reported.

Over the years, the entire scheme appears to have been disorganised, with the rules constantly changing based on the demands of the planters or the irregularities of the international economic system. For instance, indentureship was meant to be temporary, for a period of five years, after which the planters were required to pay the return passage. When it became clear that fewer Indians than anticipated were deciding to stay, inducements such as land were offered.

The rules about the return passage kept changing as well, with the length of time they were required to stay being extended, in addition to being asked to pay a contribution to the return passage.

Worse, their movements were restricted, as passes were required to leave the estate; those who had completed their period of indenture also needed an exemption paper.

Instead of encouraging families to migrate or at least manage the gender balance, emphasis was placed on single men because it was felt they would be more suitable to plantation rigours. Dr Rhoda Reddock noted that in 1845, out of the 225 arrivals, just 21 were women. The male-to-female ratio would change over the years, but decisions were generally driven by profits or the fluctuating global sugar market.

Such imbalances placed considerable pressures on family relations, it exposed indentured workers to ridicule, and led to the creation of stereotypes which impacted their social status.

The wider society also did not understand the cultural traditions of this new group of people. Hindus and Muslims came, but Hindus were larger in number. The Port of Spain Gazette is said to have carried a story accusing Hindus (or "Hindoos," as they spelled it) of anti-social behaviour such as 'theft, falsehood, deceit, conjugal infidelity, treachery, ingratitude' and on and on.

Although desertion and strikes were a main form of resistance to the harsh realities of indentureship, cultural resistance was perhaps even stronger.

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