History is often distorted, misconstrued to fit the circumstances of the situations for one’s convenience. However, history can never be permanently changed; the truth will always prevail.
Indentureship to the West Indies, which began in 1838, was far from being voluntary; migrants escaping poverty, seeking work, as colonial narratives would have us believe. Evidence now shows that tens of thousands of Indian soldiers who served in European armies were also amongst those who were sent to the colonies, most notably the British East Indian Company and the British army.
Rebellious groups were forcibly deported by the British and transported across many oceans as a form of punishment, as a replacement for slave labour on the Caribbean plantations after Emancipation. There is a substantial amount of proof of suppressed historical facts in relation to Indentured labourers, forced migration and human trafficking under British rule.
The mantra that all indentured labourers voluntarily sought work on plantations due to poverty has been debunked, exposing the realities of colonial oppression and deceit.
Freedom fighters who fought British atrocities were hanged, their villages looted and burned, those who survived were imprisoned. Thousands of fighters were shackled, often along with family members, and forced to replace slave labour in plantation colonies. The British maintained bogus records that the forced deportation was the poor Indian searching for a better life.
Unfortunately, so-called life on the plantation estates was just as oppressive as that of the slaves they replaced. Living in wooden barracks, working 9 to 10 hours daily, harsh disciplinary measures, a pass to travel.
The British exploitation remained the same, be it in India or the colonies. The abolition of slavery saw financial distress, bankruptcy to the wealthy merchants and British Aristocrats. Indian ‘labourers’ needed to fill the vacuum created.
Limited British records of the early 1840s revealed that planters in Trinidad requested 70,000 workers. However, historical figures would indicate more than double that figure did in fact arrive between 1845 and 1917.
The estimated number of indentured labourers sent by the British to Mauritius between 1834 and 1924 was over 450,000 to work on the plantations, following the abolition of slavery.
Contracted indentured labourers did not return to India after their contracts expired. Often, they could not afford the passage home; they had established new lives, families and communities, finding the return long and arduous [Kala Pani], with the possibility of facing social banishment and exclusion in India. Low wages meant little savings. Few had enough money for the return journey to India and incentives for staying in the colonies were offered - cash land and.
Historical facts, in spite of distortions and intentionally withholding information can never be erased. The “indentured labourers” carried with them to their new enclave, not only their religion, customs, traditions and food, but also deeply embedded in their memories, the struggle against the colonial masters, the British.
The first war of Indian independence took place in 1857.
Towns and villages inhabited by indentured labourers were often named after their villages in India. However, it continues to be strongly advocated throughout the decades by historians that villages such as Penal was a settlement used for punishment for freedom fighters of 1857.
Transported from Bengal, they were kept under strict surveillance, vicious punishment was meted out to them for the slightest misdemeanour, and they were considered convicts and rebels.
In the village of Barrackpore, Bengal, an Indian officer in the British army, Mangal Pandey, fired the first shot against the British in 1857. However, it was in Fyzabad, Uttar Pradesh, that the war for independence was focused.
British historians, Marina Carter and Crispin Bates, often described the indentureship trade as “wholesale transportation of every mutineer,” along with family members.
It is noteworthy that whereas there was a society in Britain for the abolition of slavery, headed by William Wilberforce, strongly supported by Thomas Clarkson and Granville Sharp, there was none formed to prevent the atrocities toward Indians after emancipation of slaves.
Slaves were a source of labour for the British plantation owners; however, Indian labourers were seen as both labourers and threats to the British.
India was the “Jewel in the British Crown,” and any risk had to be suppressed at all costs. All Indians had to be treated in a barbarous manner, both in India and on the plantations in the West Indies, South Africa, Kenya, Uganda, Mauritius, Fiji, Malaysia and Sri Lanka.
Slaves did not rebel in their homeland or colonies, threatening the British Empire, but war in India did.
The writer thanks Professor Kamal Kumar for permission to use material from “Indians of the West Indies and Links to 1857.”
