Syllabus

GS 1: Significant events, issues, and personalities during the middle of the eighteenth century (1750s) until the present.

Context: 

Trinidad and Tobago islands celebrated the 180^th Indian Arrival Day on 30th May, marking 180 years since the arrival of the first Indian immigrants to the Caribbean nation.

Arrival of Indians in Trinidad and Tobago

• On February 23, 1845, the Fatel Razack set sail from Calcutta with the first group of Indian indentured labourers, arriving in Trinidad's Gulf of Paria on May 30, 1845, after a five-month voyage.
• The ship carried 225 people, mostly young men and a few women from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, and Bengal.
• Also called girmitiyas (indentured labourers from India contracted to work on plantations), usually came to work on sugarcane and cocoa plantations after the abolition of African slavery.

Indentured Labour Migration

• Over 1.44 lakh Indians arrived in Trinidad and Tobago between 1845 and 1917.
• A total of 228 ships arrived between 1866 and 1917.
• These migrants were contracted for five to ten years, with a promise of free return passage.
• Permanent Settlement: Around 75% chose to stay, building lives in the New World colony.
• Over 500,000 Indians were sent to the Caribbean as indentured labourers.
• Many stayed post-contract, especially in Guyana, Trinidad, and Suriname.

Indian Arrival Day

• Records provided by the National Archives of Trinidad and Tobago show that of the 225 who landed on its shores on May 30, 1845, about 85% were Hindus, 14% Muslims and the rest either Christians or from other communities, with Bhojpuri being the common tongue.
• Indian Arrival Day, a public holiday in Trinidad and Tobago, was first named in 1979. 
• It was declared a public holiday in 1994 by Prime Minister Patrick Manning (the fourth prime minister of Trinidad and Tobago)

Resilience and Community Building

Post-Contract Life:

• Most who stayed received or bought land.
• Built communities with temples, mosques, and schools to preserve their heritage.

Legacy:

• Indo-Trinidadians are now the largest ethnic group.
• The President (Christine Kangaloo) and Prime Minister (Kamla Persad-Bissessar) are of Indian descent.
• In 2025, President Kangaloo received the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman.

End of Indenture System

In the late 1800s, Mahatma Gandhi initiated protests against the discrimination faced by free, professional Indians in South Africa. 

• This protest expanded to include Indian indentured labourers and the cause was taken up by nationalists in India. It spread to Fiji and Mauritius later.

Recruitment of Indian labourers stopped on March 12, 1917, due to World War I.

The system was never resumed after the war.

Nelson Island became a port of departure for returnees till 1939.

UPSC Mains Practice Question 

Q. Examine the socio-cultural and political legacy of Indian indentured labourers system.