TRIBAL CULTURES AND CARIBBEANS ISLANDS : INDIAN CONNECTIONS

GARIBS OF INDIA MIGRATED TO CARIBBIEN ISLANDS

N.Nandhivarman

It is said that in his third voyage Christopher Columbus found Trinidad island  in 1498. But archaeological excavations in 29 places of Eastern Caribbean prove of earlier settlements of human beings dating back even to 7000 years ago. These tribal’s who lived there belong to stone age. Later their culture was classified as Hacienda Grende culture [250 BC to 300 A.D] ,Cuevas culture [400to 600 A.D]. Prosperity culture [ 1 to 300 A.D] Coral Bay Lang ford culture [ 350-550 A.D]. These settlers were from the river banks of Orino river that flows in Latin American country, Venezuela. They drove away the Ortorvid tribes and developed agriculture. Those who think that Columbus found a no man’s continent are mistaken in their belief. Tribal cultures prevailed and were well nourished much before Europeans set their foot in Trinidad and Tobago. The name Caribbean is derived from the Caribb tribes, whose pictures reveal sacred ash like mark in the forehead of the tribal women. Really a puzzle on how come traces of a  Saivite practice existed among those tribes, is matter for research.

178 years ago, British rulers of India trained their eyes on the teeming millions of India for manpower. Abolition of slavery resulted in shortage of labour to work in their sugarcane plantations. The father of British Prime Minister William Gladstone, Mr. John Gladstone on 4^th January 1836 wrote a letter to a company based in Calcutta  that he needed 100 labour on 5 to 7 year contract to work in his sugarcane plantations of Guyana. This company had a proven track record of earlier having sent slaves to Mauritius. On 5^th May 1838 in two ships Whitby and Hesperes 396 slaves including 22 women sailed to Guyana from Calcutta.  John Scroble who belonged to British Ant-Slavery Society wrote that these hill tribes were not taken voluntarily but were forcibly abducted and smuggled out of India.

They took the hill coolies of Chota Nagpur areas as bonded labour. Another ship carrying such coolies left Calcutta in February 1838 and reached Guyana on May 5^th of 1868 with 420 hill coolies including 50 women and 10 children. Many perished to diseases during the voyage and those who escaped disease and death on reaching the islands under a five year contract had to die unable to bear the stress and strain of their working conditions. The work conditions were designed in such a way that the workers were perpetually in debt to their employers. An Indian coolie was fined 24 dollars which was equivalent to six months wages , if he absented from work for more than 7 days . Suresh Kumar Pillai, a Keralite social scientist researched, wrote, shot, produced and directed the three part 50 minute documentary series titled Jahaji Bhai , a documentary with Urdu title. Title means brothers of the ship. The protagonists are not sailors in the same boat but slaves spirited away in the same vessel. Jahaji Bhai was shot in Guyana and Trinidad and produced by Trikkan Image Systems .It was telecast in televisions of Caribbean islands and India in 2003.

Suresh Kumar Pillai holds a post graduate diploma in mass communications in addition to fifteen years of journalistic experience.  His another documentary on migration of an Indian family in 19^th century from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh to Caribbean titled Once More Removed for HBO documentaries USA is of special importance.

Through these documentaries he had depicted how migrant Indians to Caribbean’s lost their roots and culture. Negroes liberated from slavery climbed up in the social ladder, whereas Indian migrants  went to fill up the vacuum at the lowest strata of society. Most of them took to alcohol and for few women polyandry became the order of the day. Africans joined Europeans to suppress the brown race from India. Indian coolies were never allowed to practice their religious faiths or to speak their native tongues in the plantations. Quoting from various sources Suresh Kumar Pillai highlighted the plight of Indian immigrant labour including every day of their life in islands. An unknown chapter  of the struggle waged by Roar Guyana Movement and its leader Ravi Deb were recorded in the documentary Jahaji Bhai. It includes an interview of 108 year old man who recollects his fellow travellers of the slave ship which took him to the islands.

The temple in sea, built by Sadhu Sivadas symbolises the struggle for religious freedom waged by a Bihari in Trinidad. Born in January 1 of 1903 , Sivadas while he was only 4 years old went along with his parents in ship named S.S.Mutla to Trinidad. His parents and the boy worked as slaves in the Waterloo farm. When Sivadas grew he ran a grocery shop there and was saintly in his sermons to people. He bought a small piece of land closer to Waterloo Bay from a compant in 1947 and built Lord Shiva temple. The company which sold the land to Sivadas ordered him to demolish the temple. He refused and was sentenced to 14 day imprisonment and 400 dollars fine on claim that he grabbed the land. While he was in prison temple was demolished in 1952 and land records burnt. “ You can destroy the temple but I will build in sea vowed Sivadas Single handed carrying bricks and cement in his bicycle within 500 meters to sea Sivadas started constructing Siva Mandir. Sometimes others too helped him. But mostly he alone accomplished the task like a Hanuman. This temple is a monument for Indian struggle to religious faith. After this victory nearly 300 Hindu temples came up in Trinidad and Tobago. In 1971 Sivadas passed away and grateful people erected his statue in 1995.

Members of British Parliament voiced protests against Indians being taken as slaves to Caribbean islands from British India to work in plantations . British India halted its slave ships. In that place French India stepped in to supply new slaves. So on this hidden history Suresh Kumar Pillai shot another documentary titled Songs of Malabaris. The Songs of Malabaris “ was shot for Nederland based OHM Media Network and was telecast on Nederland National Television Channel in June 2004. All South Indians were referred as Malabaris in those days. French recruited between 1854 to 1920 around 50,000 coolies from Pondicherry, Karaikal, Mahe, Yenam , Chandranagore, French enclaves in India. They were taken to Guadeloupe and Martinique to work as plantation labour. The Indian labour in French colonies had to face stiff opposition from Africans, because Indians were ready to work for paltry pittance, which was not acceptable to Africans, who eyed Indians with enmity.  Thus Indians occupied the lowest position in the French Caribbean society  and were derogatively called as Coolie Malabaris or even as Chappa Coolies. In French colonies Indians had to be French in every sense, forgetting their native language and gods. But in Dutch colony of Surinam or British colony of Trinidad and Guyana , Indians enjoyed some degree of religious and linguistic freedom.  The documentary Songs of Malabaris gives us glimpses of the history of migration of Indians mostly Tamils from French India to French West Indies and their struggle to retain their language and culture against the French policy of assimilation.

The habitations of people of Indian origin are spread across many island nations, such as Trinidad and Tobago , Jamaica, Grenada. Barbados, and Saint .Vincent, Saint .Lucia, and in South American countries like Guyana and Surinam.

Indian Government headed by Narendra Modi, must assemble all these islands and nations where Indians went as migrants and evolve schemes for cultural revival and religious renaissance apart from building strong economic partnership with these nation states. Even in our neighbourhood to Srilanka Indian labour mostly Tamils went as plantation labour. While Caribbean countries assimilated Indians, India signed Srimavo-Sastri pact to take back our labour, nowhere in world such agreement was signed. It created a cursed category of stateless people. European settlers everywhere became citizens, Indian settlers were branded as stateless, due to the failure of our diplomacy. A healing touch towards our kinsmen who went to toil in plantations is need of the hour. Only Poet Bharathiar recorded the agonies of our women in sugar cane plantations.

Tamilnadu Government must initiate steps to start Tamil schools, colleges and institutions to reawaken the forgotten linguistic affinity these migrants from Tamilnadu and Pondicherry had once upon a time and deprived by cruel hands of colonialism.