Indian immigrants not indentured—scholar
Posted: Sat May 29, 2010 11:31 pm
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The first set of Indian immigrants who arrived in Trinidad between 1845 and 1847 were not indentured servants. This is the assertion made last night by Dr Dennison Moore who was the feature speaker at the Indian Arrival Day dinner held by the Sanatan Dharma Maha Sabha.
Moore, a Trinidadian who now resides in Canada, said: “Most scholars and writers on Indian arrival here have asserted that the first Indian immigrants were indentured.” He said: “But the authors whom I have consulted, and they are legion, have not amassed a set of historical facts that would support their contention.”
Moore used retired University of the West Indies historian Prof Bridget Brereton definition of indenture: “A contract before they left India which bound them to accept certain terms. For the period that their indenture lasted, they were not free. They could not leave their employer. They could not demand higher wages, live off the estate they were assigned to or refused the work given them to do.” He explained that when the British government abolished slavery in 1838, the African ex-slaves abandoned the estates in Trinidad and British Guiana in droves. Moore said: “Their refusal to work steadily on the estates created a severe shortage of labour which speculators were eager to fill.” He said these “unscrupulous speculators” conned the former slaves in the smaller islands to enter into the “improvident contracts for labour to be performed in Trinidad and British Guiana.”
The first set of Indian immigrants who arrived in Trinidad between 1845 and 1847 were not indentured servants. This is the assertion made last night by Dr Dennison Moore who was the feature speaker at the Indian Arrival Day dinner held by the Sanatan Dharma Maha Sabha.
Moore, a Trinidadian who now resides in Canada, said: “Most scholars and writers on Indian arrival here have asserted that the first Indian immigrants were indentured.” He said: “But the authors whom I have consulted, and they are legion, have not amassed a set of historical facts that would support their contention.”
Moore used retired University of the West Indies historian Prof Bridget Brereton definition of indenture: “A contract before they left India which bound them to accept certain terms. For the period that their indenture lasted, they were not free. They could not leave their employer. They could not demand higher wages, live off the estate they were assigned to or refused the work given them to do.” He explained that when the British government abolished slavery in 1838, the African ex-slaves abandoned the estates in Trinidad and British Guiana in droves. Moore said: “Their refusal to work steadily on the estates created a severe shortage of labour which speculators were eager to fill.” He said these “unscrupulous speculators” conned the former slaves in the smaller islands to enter into the “improvident contracts for labour to be performed in Trinidad and British Guiana.”