From the Diaspora…GAIUTRA BAHADUR “COOLIE WOMAN” A TRUE ACCOUNT OF SEX, RAPE, INFIDELITY, EXPLOITATION AND BRUTALIZATION OF THE INDENTURED “COOLIE WOMAN”

Jan 19, 2014 News

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By Ralph Seeram
It’s 2am and I am up reading. No book ever had me up at 2am to read, especially since only three hours earlier I laid the book down to have a good night’s rest. But I could not sleep, Gaiutra Bahadur “Coolie Woman” does that to you.
It’s a gripping, compelling true historical account of the horrors the indentured Indian women experienced, the results of which are still being experienced today — the slaughter of Indo Guyanese women by their lovers who use the weapon of choice, the cutlass.
Ms. Bahadur’s book will force Indo Guyanese whether in Guyana or in the Diaspora to revisit their past, their history, as she has rewritten history with historical accuracy, and not that which was handed down to us by the British. Her 60 pages of notes/bibliography/research are testimony to her accuracy.
It started when she embarked on a journey to trace the roots of her great grandmother, Sujaria, who arrived in Guyana as an Indentured laborer back in 1903 on the vessel, ‘The Clyde’. In theory that is what the author had in mind, in reality her journey will take her back to 1838 when the first ships, The Hesperus and The Whitby, left India with their human cargo of Indentured servants, regarded more as semi slaves as it will turn out to be.
Her journey will not only find the truth of her great grandmother Sujaria, she would on the way unearth the truth about the horrors indentured laborers experienced, truth which lay hidden in archives of England, Scotland, India, New York and Guyana as well as various family collections. It would take Ms Bahadur a few years, poring over hundreds of documents in archives and libraries in those countries to reveal the truth she was looking for.
The author’s search for truth will take her back to 1837 when the British planters were looking for replacement workers for the freed slaves. The system for recruitment of the first batch of indentured laborers pretty much set the template for the next 80 years.
Nothing changed significantly during those years to reduce their hardships, whether in the recruitment, the journey to their new homeland or the subhuman treatment they endured at the hands of their exploiters in their new environment.
The first ship, The Hesperus, set sail with 170 emigrants, only seven of whom were women. The ratio of women to men, even though increased a little, on later voyages, was to set the seed for disaster throughout indentureship, leading to strikes, riots and the slaughter of indentured men by Colonial Police.
Women were a scarce commodity for the recruiters, especially when laws mandated a ratio of women to men which in any case was still less than fifty percent. The reader will learn that the women recruits came from every caste, from different social strata, from prostitutes, abused women, wives who became outcasts and forced to leave their husbands, some willingly thinking a better life awaited them; some tricked into believing they were going somewhere else.
This left the author wondering which category her great grandmother fell into. There would be countless more questions.
The immigrants were herded at a departure point called Garden Reach, a name that seemed familiar to me and which I will explain later. It was there, that all social barriers broke down where “turned them all into an indistinguishable, degraded mass of plantation laborers without caste or family”. This “reverse alchemy began at Garden Reach as the emigrants ate and slept side by side, violating the taboo and rules that so far governed their lives”.
The writer documents stories of voyages where the women were raped, forced to submit their bodies in exchange for food, in some cases by the very people who were supposed to protect them, the ship Doctor. For some women the humiliation drove them to suicide, by jumping overboard.
If the women thought that their sexual exploitation was over when they arrived in the colony, they were mistaken. It was just the beginning as the writer details how they had to share different “husbands” because of low ratio of women to men.
This got even more complicated as the white overseers also competed for the women. In most cases the women would be forced into bed with their white masters. The problem was there was a scarcity of white women, and she documents why. This sexual exploitation of the women caused serious resentment among the indentured men leading to violence strikes and in some cases fatal shootings by the colonial police.
While there were laws in theory to protect indentured laborers, the readers will find out how justice was dispensed to the poor souls. Ms Bahadur explains the reasons for the high suicide rate among the indentured workers.
Fast forward to today. The author cites incidents of Indo Guyanese hacking their women with the weapon of choice, the cutlass, and shows how this has a direct connection dating back to the indentured system.
The writer, who was born in Cumberland Village in Canje Berbice, but left for the U S at an early age, also researched her hometown and the nearby Rose Hall Estate. Her research will document the history of those places and in the process discover the ancestry of a friend of mine, David Fraser, of Number 19 Village Courentyne. Yes David; you are indeed of Scottish heritage.
She will comment on present day socio economic conditions in Guyana as these relate to women, and even though she did not name names, she took a “swipe” at a personal friend of mine, a lawyer who after some legal problem in Canada returned to Guyana to set up practice. I could not see the relevance but that’s the writer’s prerogative.
There was another reason why I was so fascinated with the excellent work of Ms Bahadur who was born a few miles from where I lived then in Guyana. At times, I thought she was telling the story of my grandmother who came on the SS Sutlej in 1908.
I examined her Immigration pass, and there it was, the dreaded departure point, 61 Garden Reach, where the Indentured men and women were herded like cattle awaiting their trip.
I called my mother who is approaching 90 and asked her if my grandmother ever mentioned her boat trip to Guyana. She replied, “Not a word”. I told her to read “Coolie Woman” to get the answer. She will have the opportunity as my sister has a signed copy by Ms Bahadur.
Gaiutra Bahadur went to trace the roots of her great grandmother Sujaria, but what she did in the process was create a path where all Indo Guyanese and those in the wider Diaspora can go back into their past, to learn the dark secrets their forefathers overcame to preserve future generations.
“Coolie Woman” is not only compulsory reading for those of Indian decent, but a must read for Guyanese historians, and should definitely serve as a history text book in high schools as well as the University of Guyana.
Ralph Seeram can be reach at Email: [email protected]

 

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