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Monday, July 7, 2025

An indentured labourer's daughter remembers

by

Sascha Wilson
1866 days ago
20200529

At age 107, Sajo Jha­groo, daugh­ter of an in­den­tured labour­er, still has vivid mem­o­ries of her child­hood and the sto­ries her fa­ther told her about his life in the bar­racks.

The moth­er of nine, grand­moth­er of 42 and great grand­moth­er of 51, chuck­led and even cried at times as she re­flect­ed on her long life.

She us­es a wheel­chair and her body is not as strong as it was just four years ago when she lived on her own and was very in­de­pen­dent. Al­though now frail and un­able to get around on her own, she is still the back­bone of the fam­i­ly, ac­cord­ing to her daugh­ter In­dra Mo­hess.

In an in­ter­view at her Pe­nal Rock Road home, Jha­groo re­flect­ed on the life of her fa­ther, Chunu, an in­den­tured labour­er who was just 16-years-old when he was tricked in­to com­ing to Trinidad with promis­es of rich­es.

“My fa­ther said that he was mar­ried in In­dia. He had a daugh­ter and his wife was preg­nant and some la­dy fool him and tell him, ‘Look they work­ing for plen­ty mon­ey in Trinidad. They have to sift sug­ar and they work­ing for plen­ty, plen­ty mon­ey’.”

Jha­groo left In­dia with his sis­ter. Their fa­ther tried to stop them but by the time he got to the ship they had al­ready board­ed. When they got to Trinidad his sis­ter was tak­en to a dif­fer­ent es­tate and he nev­er saw her again.

Chunu was tak­en to the bar­racks at La For­tune, La Ro­maine. When he went to the es­tate the next morn­ing there were oth­er in­den­tured labour­ers al­ready work­ing in the fields.

She said, “Every­body hand them a hoe. When they hold that hoe and they watch that cane, he say they start to cry, they throw down them­self on the ground and cry like their moth­er dead.”

Jha­groo said when she asked her fa­ther why the labour­ers cried, he told her, “We re­gret what we do.”

When Chunu’s five years of in­den­ture­ship end­ed he had no mon­ey to re­turn to In­dia, so he set­tled in Mo­tel Trace, Fyz­abad where he had sev­en chil­dren with Jha­groo’s moth­er.

They cul­ti­vat­ed crops and Chunu sold milk and fish. He died at age 100.

Sajo was just 13 when her mar­riage to Jha­groo Har­ri­dath was arranged. They sep­a­rat­ed when their chil­dren were still very young and, as a sin­gle par­ent, she worked hard, plant­i­ng la­goon rice, cul­ti­vat­ing food crops and sell­ing milk to earn a liv­ing. How­ev­er, she made sure that her chil­dren al­ways had food to eat and got an ed­u­ca­tion.

She cred­its her long life to a healthy di­et. Her favourite meal is dhal, rice and bha­gi.

A de­vout Hin­du, in her younger years Jha­groo sang and played the drums at wed­dings and oth­er fes­tive events.

She said some of the best times in her life were in the old days when peo­ple al­ways had food to eat and there was love in com­mu­ni­ties.


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