INDIAN ARRIVAL IN T&T – SOME VITAL FACTS

ON the occasion of the anniversary of the arrival of the first batch of Indian indentured labourers in Trinidad and Tobago on May 30, 1845, here are some pertinent facts:

·       * A total of 147,592 Indian indentured labourers arrived from 1845 to 1917. The first ship, Fatel Razack, brought 225 immigrants after sailing 14,000 miles over 103 days. The eldest immigrant, Ruchparr, was 40, and the youngest was a four-year-old girl name Faizan. Five died on the voyage.

·       * Before Indian immigrants were introduced, there were brief experiments in recruiting former slaves, in addition to bringing in workers from neighbouring Caribbean islands and from Sierra Leone, the United States, France, Germany, Portugal, and China. For various reasons, that system did not work.

·      *  Records pertaining to the immigrants were kept in a total of 17 registries, which had such information as the name of the ship, arrival date, full names of the passengers, parents’ names, gender, age, caste, the names of estates to which they were assigned. Most of the adult immigrants were between the ages of 20 and 30. There was also a record of passengers who died on the journey.

·       * Immigrants came largely from the North-Western, Oudah, Bihar, and Bengal provinces of north India, with some also being recruited from Madras.

·       * About 85 per cent of the immigrants were Hindus and 14 per cent Muslims.

·      *  From 1866 to 1917, immigrants landed on a total of 28 ships and were processed and quarantined over 10 days at Nelson Island, one of five islands off Trinidad’s north-western tip. The first ship to anchor at Nelson Island was Humber, which brought 473 workers, of whom 329 were men, 84 women, 32 boys and 14 girls.

·       * Labourers worked on such estates as Brechin Castle, San Juan, Esperanza, Maraval, El Salvador, La Repoublica, Santa Maria, San Antonio, El Dorado, La Vega, and Tortuga.

·       * Immigrants were officially required to work nine hours a day, but many were forced to work much longer periods in duties classified as “time.” There was also “task” work, in which labourers were assigned specific jobs. Workers experienced exploitation.

·      *  Immigrants were prosecuted as vagrants and imprisoned for up to seven days if found out of their estates without a “Ticket of Leave” pass. If an immigrant was absent from the estate for three days and more, he or she was considered to have deserted the job and could be jailed for up to two months. Independent analysts and historians have termed indentureship a new form of slavery, with the immigrants living in squalor and with poor hygienic conditions.

·       * Indian indentureship ended on March 12, 1917, when the British colonial rulers in India proclaimed the Defence of India Act, which stipulated that the vessels be put to use in World War One.  The last ship with immigrants, S.S. Ganges, which arrived on April 22, 1917, brought 421 labourers.

·       * A total of 29,448 immigrants returned to India at the end of their five-year service contracts. Departures took place from Nelson Island until 1939. Some returnees from Guyana and Suriname also left from Nelson Island.

·       In 1945, there was a major centenary celebration at Skinner Park, San Fernando and in 1995 there was an even larger function at the same venue in commemoration of the 150^th anniversary.

·      *  Indian Arrival Day was proclaimed a public holiday in Trinidad and Tobago in 1994.