Dear Editor,
The nation recently celebrated Indian arrival. There is much to celebrate about the Indians’ remarkable contribution (culture, industriousness, etc) to the nation and the region. But one should not forget that Indians and Africans had a similar experience and a common history. Their recruitment, the journey, and the conditions on the colonies bore many similarities to those experienced by our African brethren.
It has been amply documented by scholars that the purpose for which Indians and Africans were brought to the Caribbean and the wretched conditions under which they lived were very much the same. The nefarious means under which they were brought to the colonies and the harsh, inhumane lifestyle were reprehensible. As such, the two major races should appreciate each other’s history and learn to respect each other and live in harmony.
Both groups of labourers were severely ill treated from the time of recruitment all through the periods of enslavement (indenturedship) and liberation. The poor, helpless Africans and Indians were kidnapped, sold into slavery or duped into coming to the colonies for the sole purpose of “serving King Sugar” as Shawn Mangru put it in a letter in SN some time ago. The Africans, like the Indians, were severely mistreated and brutalized. They were denied their humanity. They were kidnapped and forced aboard the ships to make the lengthy journey to work for free (Indians were given a measly allowance) on the plantations. Many Indians were kidnapped and or lured into making the journey. They were deceived and misled into signing up for the contracted servitude being told of the golden opportunities to emigrate just beyond the horizon.
The journey aboard the ship for both groups of labourers was unbearable with little room for movement. The slaves were bound aboard and the emigrants were kept in holding rooms with very little breathing space and no fresh air. The food they were given was not even fit for human consumption. Water and food were rationed and naturally many became sick on board and died. Disease was rampant and several Indians, becoming homesick, committed suicide by jumping overboard. The situation was so bad that several Indians (as much as 20%) died during each journey. The situation for the Africans was similar.
When the emigrants arrived in the colony, they were in bad shape. Shawn Mangru in a letter in SN quoted from a British Foreign and Anti- Slavery Society publication of February 1840, that described a sick house at Bellvue: “In one room where there were raised boards for the accommodation of seven persons only, eleven were confined – four of them lying on the floor. The squalid wretchedness of their appearance, their emaciated forms, and their intense sufferings from disease and sores, were enough to make hearts bleed. In the second room were found a worse class of patients – out of five confined there, two were dead, and one was not expected to survive. Their bones appeared ready to protrude through their skins.”
According to Mangru in his SN letter, one of the commissioners said he never observed or imagined “such unalleviated wretchedness, such hopeless misery, such bodily suffering and affliction” adding that “the Coolies were not merely suffering from sores, they had mortified ulcers. They were rotting on their bones and their toes were dropping off.” The commissioner wrote that at Bellvue, “twenty have died from disease contracted in the colony, and twenty-nine are now in a wretched state from ulcers, many of whom will probably die. Should they survive they will be rendered unfit to service themselves. These people are in great misery and from what cause it may have sprung, the effects are so appalling that humanity calls loudly for the interference of the Executive.”
Moved out of the sick houses, the emigrants were also brutalized and oppressed on the estates. They could not move around for fear of being whipped or denied their measly wages. On the estates, poor sanitation, lack of proper toilet facilities, unsuitable diet, overcrowding, bad water, endemic diseases (malaria and parasite-caused diseases such as hookworm, anemia, ground itch), and other health problems combined to make the population continuously sick. These were the same conditions the slaves experienced. Their story of the Indians and Africans is shocking. The two people have withstood enormous pains and difficulties from their colonial masters and have built a society for us to enjoy. It is unfortunate they are involved in a competition for political power. The two races should reach out to one another and strive to live in peace with mutual respect.
Yours faithfully,
Vishnu Bisram
