Created by Citation bot
Last edited August 21, 2024
>Citation bot
Alter: pages. Formatted dashes. | Use this bot. Report bugs. | Suggested by Abductive | Category:"Related ethnic groups" needing confirmation | #UCB_Category 1569/3978
 
minor fixed structure for clarity and improved wording
 
(One intermediate revision by one other user not shown)
Line 1: Line 1:
{{Infobox ethnic group
#REDIRECT [[Indo-Caribbean people]]
| group            = Indo-Caribbeans
{{Rcat shell|
| flag            = {{flagicon|India}} {{flagicon|CARICOM}}
{{R from move}}
| region1          = {{flagcountry|Trinidad and Tobago}}
| pop1            = 470,376<br/>{{small|(a plurality of the population)}}
| ref1            = <ref name="guardian.co.tt">{{cite web|url=https://guardian.co.tt/sites/default/files/story/2011_DemographicReport.pdf|title=TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO 2011 POPULATION AND HOUSING CENSUS DEMOGRAPHIC REPORT|website=Guardian.co.tt|access-date=2 August 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171019211618/https://guardian.co.tt/sites/default/files/story/2011_DemographicReport.pdf|archive-date=19 October 2017|url-status=dead}}</ref>
| region2          = {{flagcountry|Guyana}}
| pop2            = 297,493<br/>{{small|(a plurality of the population)}}
| ref2            = <ref>https://ia601508.us.archive.org/22/items/final-2012-census-compendium-2/Final_2012_Census_Compendium2.pdf</ref>
| region3          = {{flagcountry|United States}}
| pop3            = 232,817<br/>{{small|([[Indo-Caribbean Americans]])}}
| ref3            = <ref name="scribd.com">{{cite web|url=https://www.scribd.com/doc/7099691/IndoCaribbean-Times-December-2007|title=Indo-Caribbean Times December 2007 - Kidnapping - Venezuela|website=Scribd|access-date=17 August 2018}}</ref>
| region4          = {{flagcountry|Suriname}}
| pop4            = 161,000<br/>{{small|(a plurality of the population)}}
| region5          = {{flagcountry|Jamaica}}
| pop5            = 200,000
| region6          = {{flagcountry|Martinique|local}}
| pop6            = 37,530
| region7          = {{flagcountry|Guadeloupe|local}}
| pop7            = 36,011
| region8          = {{flagcountry|French Guiana|local}}
| pop8            = 12,000
| region9          = {{flagcountry|Belize}}
| pop9            = 7,600
| region10        = {{flagcountry|Saint Vincent and the Grenadines}}
| pop10            = 5,900
| region11        = {{flagcountry|Saint Lucia}}
| pop11            = 5,200
| region12        = {{flagcountry|Puerto Rico}}
| pop12            = 4,100
| region13        = {{flagcountry|Barbados}}
| pop13            = 4,000
| region14        = {{flagcountry|Grenada}}
| pop14            = 3,900
| region15        = {{flagcountry|Saint Kitts and Nevis}}
| pop15            = 1,500
| region16        = {{flagcountry|British Virgin Islands|local}}
| pop16            = 1,100
| langs            = '''Colonial Languages''': {{hlist|
[[Caribbean English|English]] ([[Guyanese Creole|Guyanese English]]|[[Jamaican English]]|[[Trinidadian English]]|[[Sranan Tongo]])|[[Dutch language|Dutch]] ([[Surinamese Dutch]])|[[French language|French]] ([[Antillean Creole|Antillean French]])|[[Portuguese language|Portuguese]] ([[Papiamento]])
}} '''Indian Languages''': {{hlist|[[Caribbean Hindustani]]|[[Hinglish]]|[[Tamil language|Tamil]]}}
'''Languages spoken by more recent immigrants''': {{hlist|[[Hindustani language|Standard Hindustani]] ([[Hindi]]–[[Urdu]])|[[Sindhi language|Sindhi]]|[[Gujarati language|Gujarati]]|[[Punjabi language|Punjabi]]|[[Bengali language|Bengali]]|[[Kutchi language|Kutchi]]|[[Tamil language|Tamil]]|[[Telugu language|Telugu]]|[[Kannada]]|[[Malayalam]]|[[Languages of South Asia|Other South Asian languages]]}}
| rels            = '''Majority''': {{hlist|[[Hinduism]]}} '''Significant Minority''': {{hlist|[[Christianity]]|[[Islam]]}} '''Other Minority''': {{hlist|[[Sikhism]]|[[Jainism]]|[[Buddhism]]|[[Zoroastrianism]]|[[Baháʼí Faith|Baháʼí]]|Others}}
| related          = {{hlist|[[Indian people]]|[[Non-resident Indian and person of Indian origin|Indian diaspora]]|[[Indo-Caribbean Americans]]|[[British Indo-Caribbean people]]|[[Indian Americans]]|[[Indo-Canadians]]|[[Indians in the Netherlands]]|[[British Indians]]|[[Indian South Africans]]|[[Indo-Fijians]]|[[Mauritians of Indian origin|Indo-Mauritians]]}}
| total1_ref      =
| ref6            = <ref>{{cite web|title=Martinique Population 2020|url=http://worldpopulationreview.com/countries/martinique-population/ |website=World Population Review|publisher=World Population Review|access-date=16 May 2020}}</ref>
| ref7            = <ref>{{cite web|title=Guadeloupe Population 2020|url=http://worldpopulationreview.com/countries/guadeloupe-population/ |website=World Population Review|publisher=World Population Review|access-date=16 May 2020}}</ref>
}}
}}
'''Indo-Caribbeans''' (or '''Indian-Caribbeans''') are [[Non-resident Indian and person of Indian origin|Indian people]] in the [[Caribbean]] who are descendants of the [[Girmityas|jahaji]] [[Indian indenture system|Indian indentured workers]] brought by the [[United Kingdom|British]], [[Netherlands|Dutch]] and [[France|French]] during colonial times from the mid-19th century to the early 20th century. A minority are descendants of Indians or other South Asians who immigrated as shopkeepers or businesspeople.
Most Indo-Caribbean people live in the [[English language|English]]-speaking Caribbean nations, the Dutch-speaking [[Suriname]] and the French overseas departments of [[Guadeloupe]], [[Martinique]] and [[French Guiana]], with smaller numbers in other Caribbean countries and, following further migration, in [[North America]] and [[Europe]].
Indo-Caribbeans may also be referred to as '''East Indian''', as opposed to [[West Indian]]s (inhabitants of the [[West Indies]]).
==Sub-groups==
'''Bold''' highlights major Indo-Caribbean subgroups<br/>
'''Caribbean Islands'''
* [[Indians in Barbados]]
* [[Indians in the Dominican Republic]]
* [[Indo-Grenadians]]
* [[Indo-Guadeloupeans]]
* [[Indo-Haitians]]
* [[Indo-Jamaicans]]
* [[Indo-Martiniquais]]
* [[Indians in Saint Kitts and Nevis]]
* [[Indo-Saint Lucian]]
* '''[[Indo-Trinidadian and Tobagonian]]'''
* [[Indians in the United States Virgin Islands]]
* [[Indo-Vincentian]]
'''Mainland Caribbean'''
* [[Asian Indians in Belize]]
* '''[[Indo-Guyanese]]'''
* '''[[Indo-Surinamese]]'''
* [[Indians in French Guiana]]
'''Primary Indo-Caribbean Diaspora'''
* [[Indo-Caribbean Americans]]
*[[Indo-Canadians#Indians from the Caribbean|Indo-Caribbean Canadians]]
* [[British Indo-Caribbean people]]
*[[Indians in the Netherlands]]
'''Secondary/Migrant Workers Indo-Caribbean Diaspora'''
* [[Indians in Argentina]]
* [[Indians in Venezuela]]
* [[Indians in Panama]]
* [[Indian immigration to Brazil]]
* Indians in Colombia
'''Mixed Ethnicities of Partial Indo-Caribbean origin'''
* [[Anglo-Indian]] (mixed Indian and British)
* [[Asian Latin Americans]] (mixed Indian and Hispanic/Latino)
**[[Asian Hispanic and Latino Americans]] (mixed Indian and Hispanic/Latino in the U.S.)
* [[Chindians|Chindian]] (mixed Indian and Chinese)
* [[Dougla people|Dougla]] (mixed Indian and African)
* [[Eurasian (mixed ancestry)|Eurasian]] (mixed Indian and European)
* [[Luso-Indian]] (mixed Indian and Portuguese)
* Tegli (mixed Indian and Hispanic/Latino)
==Migration history==
[[File:East Indian Coolies in Trinidad - Project Gutenberg eText 16035.jpg|left|thumb|Indo-Caribbeans in the 19th century celebrating the [[Culture of India|Indian culture]] in West Indies through dance and music.]]
From 1838 to 1917, over half a million Indians from the former [[British Raj]] or [[British India]] and [[Colonial India]], were taken to thirteen mainland and island nations in the [[Caribbean]] as [[indentured worker]]s to address the demand for sugar cane plantation labour following the [[Abolitionism in the United Kingdom|abolition of slavery]].
===Sugarcane plantations in the 19th century===
[[File:Tropenmuseum Royal Tropical Institute Objectnumber 3581-33h Ingekleurde litho voorstellende de oo.jpg|thumb|left|A 19th-century lithograph by Theodore Bray showing workers harvesting sugarcane on a Caribbean plantation; on the right is the European overseer.]]
Much like [[cotton]], [[sugarcane]] plantations motivated large-scale near-enslavement and forced migrations in the 19th and early 20th century.<ref name=britain1>{{cite web|title=Forced Labour|year=2010|publisher=The National Archives, Government of the United Kingdom|url=http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/pathways/blackhistory/india/forced.htm}}</ref>
Following the passage of the [[Slavery Abolition Act 1833|1833 Slavery Abolition Act]], many formerly enslaved people left their enslavers. This created an economic chaos for European planters in the Caribbean and Indian Ocean. The hard work in hot, humid farms required a regular, docile and low-waged labour force, which led to the creation of the [[Indian indenture system]]. Poor economic conditions in India led to many Indians to look for sources of work. In this system, Indians were taken to British, French and Dutch colonies around the world, including in the Caribbean, to work on [[cash crop]] plantations.<ref>{{cite book|title=New System of Slavery|author=Hugh Tinker|year=1993|isbn=978-1-870518-18-5|publisher=Hansib Publishing, London}}</ref><ref name=britain1>{{cite web|title=Forced Labour|year=2010|publisher=The National Archives, Government of the United Kingdom|url=http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/pathways/blackhistory/india/forced.htm}}</ref>
The first ships carrying indentured labourers for sugarcane plantations left India in 1838 for the Caribbean region. In fact, the first two shiploads of Indians arrived in [[British Guiana]] (modern-day [[Guyana]]) on May 5, 1838, on board the Whitby and Hesperus.
These ships had sailed from Calcutta. In the early decades of the sugarcane-driven migrations, the working conditions for the indentured Indian workers were abysmal, due in large part to the lack of care among the planters.. They were confined to their estates and paid a pitiful salary. Any breach of contract brought automatic criminal penalties and imprisonment. Many of these were brought away from their homelands deceptively. Many from inland regions over a thousand kilometers from seaports were promised jobs, were not told the work they were being hired for, or that they would leave their homeland and communities. They were hustled aboard the waiting ships, unprepared for the long and arduous four-month sea journey. Charles Anderson, a special magistrate investigating these sugarcane plantations, wrote to the [[Secretary of State for the Colonies|Colonial Secretary]] declaring that with few exceptions, the indentured labourers are treated with great and unjust severity; European planters enforced work in sugarcane farms so harshly, that the decaying remains of immigrants were frequently discovered in sugarcane fields. If indentured labourers protested and refused to work, they were not paid or fed by the planters.<ref name=britain1>{{cite web|title=Forced Labour|year=2010|publisher=The National Archives, Government of the United Kingdom|url=http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/pathways/blackhistory/india/forced.htm}}</ref>
The sugarcane plantation-driven migrations led to ethnically significant presence of Indians in Caribbean.<ref>{{cite book|title=A Question of Labour: Indentured Immigration Into Trinidad & British Guiana, 1875-1917|author=K Laurence|publisher=St Martin's Press|year=1994|isbn=978-0-312-12172-3}}</ref> In some islands and countries, these Indo-Caribbean migrants now constitute a significant proportion of the population. Sugarcane plantations and citizens of Indian origin continue to thrive in countries such as [[Guyana]], formerly, [[British Guiana]], [[Jamaica]], [[Trinidad and Tobago]], [[Martinique]], [[French Guiana]], [[Guadeloupe]], [[Grenada]], [[St. Lucia]], [[Saint Vincent (island)|St. Vincent]], [[St. Kitts]], [[St. Croix]], [[Suriname]] and [[Nevis]].<ref name=britain1>{{cite web|title=Forced Labour|year=2010|publisher=The National Archives, Government of the United Kingdom|url=http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/pathways/blackhistory/india/forced.htm}}</ref><ref name=sl1>{{cite web|title=St. Lucia's Indian Arrival Day|year=2009|publisher=Caribbean Repeating Islands|url=http://repeatingislands.com/2009/05/07/st-lucia’s-indian-arrival-day/}}</ref> By some estimates, over 2.5 million people in the Caribbean are of Indian origin. Many have ethnically blended with migrants from other parts of the world, creating a unique syncretic culture.{{citation needed|date=May 2018}}
Though production was centered in the Caribbean, sugarcane production played a significant role in pre-World War II global politics and population movements. France, for example, negotiated with Britain leading to Act XLVI of 1860, whereby large numbers of [[India]]n indentured labourers were brought for sugarcane plantation work in [[French colonial empire|French colonies]] in the Caribbean region.<ref>{{cite web|title=Indian indentured labourers|publisher=The National Archives, Government of the United Kingdom|year=2010|url=http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/records/research-guides/indian-indentured-labour.htm}}</ref> The Caribbean colonies of the Netherlands too benefitted from the indentured laborers from India.
=== Arrival of Indian Women in the Caribbean ===
The ratio of female to male Indians coming to the Caribbean was for many years extremely low, 3:100 in 1938. The Indian government and the Colonial Office set up a quota system that dictated how many Indian women came to the Caribbean. In 1870, the quota called for 40 Indian women for every 100 Indian men, a quota that often was not met. In total, only 25% of all Indians who emigrated to the Caribbean were women. There were several reasons for fewer Indian women than men emigrating.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|last=Roopnarine|first=Lomarsh|title=Indo-Caribbean Indenture: Resistance And Accommodation, 1838-1920|publisher=University of the West Indies Press|year=2007|isbn=978-976-640-185-6|location=Canada|pages=91–96}}</ref>
It was more expensive for agents to recruit Indian women than men, because not many Indian women wanted to leave India. It was more socially acceptable in India for men to emigrate and seek work. Women were not encouraged to do the same. Another factor dissuading Indian women from going to the Caribbean was the invasive medical examination administered upon arrival, which involved inspection of genitals. Many women did not want to have to undergo this examination and many men would not have wanted this to happen to their wives.<ref name=":0" />
Additionally, the colonial powers present in the Caribbean were not initially interested in convincing Indian women to immigrate. Colonialists saw indentureship as a temporary replacement for the labor that had previously been done by enslaved African people. Their goal was to use Indian men for labor. They did not want Indian people to start families in the Caribbean, which would establish Indian culture and people as a lasting presence in the Caribbean, undermining the power of the indenture system to control all aspects of the laborer's lives and force them into subjugation.<ref name=":0" />
In the late 1800s, there was a change in policy. The late 1880s saw competition in the sugar industry from European beet sugar, and the colonial government knew that having a settled, immobile group of Indian people to exploit for labor would be highly profitable and advantageous in the competition to dominate the sugar industry. Encouraging Indian people to stay in the Caribbean also cut the costs required to bring Indian people back to India. As indentureships ended, the Indian men who had come to work as indentured laborers were given small parcels of land to encourage settlement. Another method of encouraging settlement was to encourage more Indian women to immigrate, since permanent settlement was no longer being discouraged by the colonial powers.<ref name=":0" />
Indian women who were recruited and immigrated to the Caribbean were for the most part married women joining their husbands, single women, women who had been widowed, women trying to escape poverty, and women prostitutes from the cities of Calcutta and Chennai, then called Madras. Under the indenture system, married Indian women were excused from work on the plantations and planters were required to give them medical care and rations. However, the colonial government did not recognize Hindu or Muslim marriages until the 1940s, so many married women were categorized as single and did not receive the few privileges given to married women. Married women who did not have to work in the fields took care of children and expenses. Women who worked were paid less than men.<ref name=":0" />
===Post World War II trends===
[[File:Tropenmuseum Royal Tropical Institute Objectnumber 20007183 De woning van de werktuigkundige op d.jpg|thumb|Indian indentured laborers worked for decades for meagre wages in sugar cane plantations of the Dutch East Indies. This image from Tropenmuseum Royal Tropical Institute shows two Indo-Caribbean people walking towards the house of a Dutch engineer in a Caribbean sugar cane plantation.]]
The majority of the Indians living in the [[Anglophone Caribbean|English-speaking Caribbean]] came from eastern [[Uttar Pradesh]] and western [[Bihar]] which are mostly [[Hindi languages|Hindi-speakers]], while those brought to [[Guadeloupe]] and [[Martinique]] were largely from [[Andhra Pradesh]] and [[Tamil Nadu]]. About twenty percent (20%) of the indentured were [[Tamils]] and [[Telugus]] particularly in [[Trinidad and Tobago]], and [[Guyana]].
A minority emigrated from other parts of [[South Asia]], including present-day [[Pakistan]] and [[Bangladesh]].
Indo-Caribbeans comprise the largest ethnic group in Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago, and [[Suriname]].
They are the second largest group in [[Jamaica]], Grenada, [[Saint Vincent and the Grenadines]], [[Saint Lucia]], [[Martinique]] and [[Guadeloupe]].
There are also small communities in [[Anguilla]], [[Antigua and Barbuda]], [[The Bahamas]], [[Barbados]], [[Belize]], [[French Guiana]], [[Panama]], [[Dominican Republic]], [[Puerto Rico]] and the [[Netherlands Antilles]]. Small groups also exist in Haiti, where they are sometimes mistakenly referred to as "mulattos".
===Contemporary migration===
Modern-day immigrants from India (mostly [[Sindhi people|Sindhi]] merchants) are to be found on [[Saint Martin (France)|Saint-Martin]] / [[Sint Maarten]], [[Saint Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands|St. Thomas]], [[Curaçao]] and other islands with duty-free commercial capabilities, where they are active in business. Other Indo-Caribbean people descend from later migrants, including Indian doctors, [[Gujarati people|Gujarati]] businessmen and migrants from [[Kenya]] and [[Uganda]].
===Diaspora===
Indo-Caribbeans have migrated to the [[United States]], [[Canada]], the [[Netherlands]], [[France]], the [[United Kingdom]], [[Ireland]], and to other parts of the [[Caribbean]] and [[Latin America]]
==Culture==
[[File:Divalinagar.jpg|thumb|left|upright=0.63|Many Caribbean islands celebrate traditional Indian festivals, such as [[Diwali]], as shown in this [[Divali Nagar]] decorations from Trinidad and Tobago.]]
[[File:Waterloo Temple, Trinidad.jpg|thumb|[[Temple in the Sea]]]]
[[File:TnT Hanuman Statue 1.jpg|thumb|150px|The 26-meter [[Hanuman]] murti in [[Carapichaima]], a noted centre of Hindu and Indo-Trinidadian culture; it is the largest statue of Hanuman outside of [[India]]]]
[[File:Central Vaidik Mandir, Georgetown, Guyana..jpg|thumb|Central Vaidic Mandir in Georgetown, Guyana]]
[[File:Moschee-Keizerstraat-Suriname.jpg|thumb|left|[[Mosque Keizerstraat]]]]
{{See also|Hinduism in the West Indies|List of Hindu temples in Trinidad and Tobago|Indo-Caribbean music}}
The indentured Indians and their descendants have actively contributed to the evolution of their adopted lands in spite of many difficulties.
==Commemoration==
In recent years, attempts to commemorate the Indian presence and contributions have come to fruition:
[[Indian Arrival Day]] is a [[holiday]] celebrated on [[May 30]] in [[Trinidad and Tobago]] each year since the 1990s. It was first celebrated in [[Trinidad and Tobago]] and then other countries with significant [[Indian people]] whose ancestors came as [[Indian indenture system|indentured laborers]]. It commemorates the first arrivals from [[India]] to [[Trinidad and Tobago]], on May 30, 1845, on the ship ''[[Fatel Razack]]''
In 1995, Jamaica started to celebrate the arrival of Indians in Old Harbour Bay, [[St. Catherine Parish]] on May 13.
In 2003, Martinique celebrated the 150th anniversary of Indian arrival. Guadeloupe did the same in 2004. These celebrations were not the fact of just the Indian minority, but the official recognition by the French and local authorities of their integration and their wide-scale contributions in various fields including agriculture,  education, and politics, and to the diversification of the culture of the [[Creole peoples]]. Thus, the noted participation of the whole multi-ethnic population of the two islands were in these events.
St. Lucia and many Caribbean countries have dedicated commemorative days to acknowledge the arrival and important contributions of their Indo-Caribbean populations. St. Lucia celebrates its Indo-Caribbean heritage on May 6. Other dates when India Arrival Day is celebrated in the Caribbean include May 5 (Guyana), May 10 (Jamaica), May 30 (Trinidad and Tobago), June 1 (St. Vincent), and June 5 (Suriname).<ref name=sl1/>
==Indo-Caribbean media - Canada==
There are three Indo-Caribbean newspapers based in Toronto:
*''Indo-Caribbean World'' -  has been in existence for 25 years
*''Caribbean Xpress'' -  has been in existence for five years
*''Indo-Caribbean Times'' -  existed for about two years; ceased publication after the death of one its founding members in April 2010
{{Clear}}
==See also==
{{Portal|Caribbean}}
* [[Hinduism in the West Indies]]
* [[Indian people]]
* [[Indian diaspora]]
* [[Bhojpuri people]]
* [[Awadhi people]]
* [[Tamil diaspora]]
* [[Indo-Caribbean music]]
* [[British Indo-Caribbean people]]
* [[Indo-Caribbean Americans]]
* [[Indians in the Netherlands|Indo-Caribbeans in the Netherlands]]
* [[Anglophone Caribbean]]
* [[Coolitude]]
* [[Bombay (mango)]]
* [[Dhantal]]
* [[Tassa]]
*[[Indian Caribbean Museum of Trinidad and Tobago]]
== References ==
{{Reflist}}<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Gupta|first=Bashabi|date=2011|title=Indian Diaspora in the United States: Brain Drain or Gain?|journal=Diaspora Studies|volume=5|issue=1|pages=139–154|issn=0973-9572}}</ref>
==External links==
{{Commons category|Indian diaspora in the Caribbean}}
* [http://www.indocaribbean.org Indo-Caribbean Alliance, Inc.] - a 501(c)3 non-profit organization providing services and advocacy to New York City's growing Indo-Caribbean community
* [http://www.jahajeesisters.org Jahajee Sisters: Empowering Indo-Caribbean Women] - a movement-building organization, led by Indo-Caribbean women, committed to fighting gender-based violence and advocating for reproductive justice.  Jahajee Sisters fosters solidarity and empowerment through dialogue, arts, leadership development and grassroots organizing.
* [https://www.patreon.com/sail_oar South Asian Indentured Labor - Online Archive of Research and Resources] - an online archive and living syllabus of text-based resources related to Indian indentureship, with country-specific resources related to Indians indentured to the Caribbean and the Indo-Caribbean diaspora
{{NRI-PIO}}
{{Authority control}}
[[Category:Caribbean people of Indian descent| ]]
[[Category:Ethnic groups in the Caribbean]]
[[Category:Indo-Caribbean| ]]

Latest revision as of 23:22, 21 August 2024