Ravi Dev may be underestimating the value of the return passage

Oct 02, 2017 Letters

Dear Editor,
I refer to Ravi Dev letter Kaieteur News on September 20, 2017 entitled “We need to become more conversant with our history.” In his letter, he said ‘Mr Williams’ citations debunk the claim by some that Indian immigrants were ‘pampered’ by the planters and ‘given’ free land. The minuscule acreage acquired by them via this route was in EXCHANGE for the cost of a passage back to India they were owed through the terms of their indentureship. As I demonstrated, the value of the land for the exchange was on the average half of what the passage would have cost.’
Excuse the derogatory term but the following is an exact quotation of the records of the day: “Of the Coolie residents whose time had expired in 1850 and 1851, the greater part eagerly agreed to remain in the country for five, or three years longer, on receiving bounties of fifty and thirty dollars each, while many of those who returned to India declared their intention of coming back again to Demerara.” Demerara after fifteen years of freedom” T. Bosworth 1853, pages 56-57. At ten cents a day, thirty dollars was more than the wages for a year of work.
In an earlier letter in Kaieteur News on September 20, 2017 entitled “Can the Indian Guyanese speak for justice?” he said ‘Of the 163,964 Indian immigrants that remained in Guyana a mere 2,653 (1.6%) exchanged their return passage worth $60/each for land worth an average of $30.45 each.’
Thirty dollars of land was large enough to grow rice as noticed in the following quotation: “Some notice should be paid to the considerable exhibit of rice by the free East Indian immigrants, recently and very wisely placed at Huis t’Dieren, where they received a grant of land in lieu of their passage back to India due to them at the expiration of their of indenture.” Timerhi Journal, Vol. 1, 1882, page 108. The amount of land needed for rice growing is more than ‘miniscule acreage.’
Kingsley Williams

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