Comparing Indian and African experiences

May 14, 2009 Letters

Dear Editor,
I refer to Vishnu Bisram letter “The Indian and African experience has been similar” published in SN, May 11, 2009.
Bisram and others have in the past compared the life of an immigrant who volunteered for a five-year indentureship to the life of someone who was born in slavery and died in slavery.
To reveal the absurdity of this claim one needs to compare what it means to be an immigrant and what it means to be a slave. Bisram could understand this, as he is an immigrant who was enticed to the Land of Opportunity.

Although many were enticed and lied to about the conditions to expect, Portuguese, Indian and Chinese immigrants agreed to come to Guyana to improve their financial conditions over those available in their home countries.
To get their visa, free trip, and pay, they had to agree to work for five years. After the five years, they were free to stay or leave. They brought the money they had in the old country with them. The Indians were given return passages.

The Portuguese and Chinese were not given return passages. About one half of the Indians made use of the free return passage and returned to India after their five year contract, and some even signed up and returned to Guyana for another five-year of indentureship (see, Henry Kirke, Twenty-five years in British Guiana, 1898). The remaining Indians apparently didn’t think that it was that bad, took payment in lieu of the return passage, and renewed their contract for five more years of indentureship.

After slavery was abolished, labour laws were passed to prevent the ill treatment of workers on the plantations. However, several plantation owners who were accustomed to beating their slaves continued to ignore the laws and were prosecuted. As the Portuguese immigrated to Guyana before the Indians, this treatment was probably more severe on the Portuguese than on the Indians.

The poor health of the Indian immigrants is addressed in several nineteenth century publications available on the internet (See, Edward Jenkins, The coolie, his rights and wrongs, 1871). The Indians were frail compared to the Africans because they were mostly vegetarians.
As a result many became sick from the hard work and most large plantations were forced to create their own hospitals.

There is no need to enumerate experiences of the slaves whose parents came to Guyana in chains with no money. Just think about how you can treat a slave who is yours for life and there is no law against killing or maiming him. You can geld (alter) him if you want him as a pet for your daughter. You can perform perversion and gross indecency with him. You can cut off his foot if he has freedom on his mind.

You can whip, hang or boil him based on the severity of his transgression. You can fatten him and sell him to make a profit. If he becomes old, not marketable and too expensive to feed, you can euthanize him; as the old Guyana folksong describes. “Massa, meh nah dead yet! – Carry am go lang, money deh fuh buy mo.”

As we observe Indian Arrival Day let us celebrate the Indians’ remarkable contribution (culture, industriousness, etc) to the nation and the region. However, it is absurd to compare the experience of the Indian immigrant in his voluntary five-year indentureship during the 90 years of Indian immigration to the experience of the African in his full lifetime of slavery during more than 200 years as chattel.
Kingsley Harrop

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Comparing Indian and African experiences

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