On May 5th 1838, the very year of final slave emancipation in the British West Indies, a small batch of 396 Indian immigrants popularly known as the ‘Gladstone Coolies’ landed in British Guiana (Guyana) from Calcutta. This was the beginning of the indenture system which was to continue for over three-quarters of a century and whose essential features were very reminiscent of slavery. Within a decade Indian immigration was largely responsible for changing the fortunes of the sugar industry, the mainstay of the economy, from the predicted ‘ruin’ to prosperity.
Having been recruited and registered, the emigrant was taken to the depot where he immediately began the process of ‘seasoning’ for the long, monotonous voyage to the West Indies. At embarkation certain precautions were taken to ensure health and safety en route. Social intercourse between crew and emigrant women as well as the carrying of firearms or inflammable material was strictly prohibited. Besides the officers and crew, each emigrant vessel was provided with compounders, interpreters and topazes. The compounders dispensed medicine and often acted as interpreters; the topazes or sweepers ensured that the deck and water closets were kept clean.
On arrival in British Guiana the indentured worker quickly came under the regularity and discipline of the plantation system. The plantation under slavery has been described as an economic unit producing agricultural commodities for export. It employed a relatively large body of unskilled labour and had a rigidly stratified social structure based on occupational status and divided along race and colour lines. Decision- making was centralised, orders emanating from the master were issued to the slaves through the driver (headman). With emancipation the social structure was somewhat adjusted but the basic feature of plantation society remained similar to that of slavery. In fact, many of the characteristics survived well into the twentieth century.
From the 1860s to the abolition of indenture in 1917, Indians comprised the hulk of the immigrant work force. They were indentured for five years but were required to serve for ten before being entitled to a free return passage to India.
Between 1838 and 1917, almost 240,000 East Indian indentured workers were brought to British Guiana. The indentured workers had the right to be repatriated at the end of their contracts, but as of 1890, most of the East Indian indentured workers had chosen to settle in British Guiana.
Although the great majority of the East Indian immigrant workers were from northern India, there were variations among them in caste and religion but on the colonial plantations they were housed together and placed in work gangs without consideration of caste.
The process of assimilation has made the culture of the modern Indo-Guyanese more homogeneous than that of their caste-conscious immigrant ancestors.
