Impact of Indian Immigrants on the Caribbean

ECONOMIC

The Indian immigrants helped the sugar production survive for as long as it
did especially in Trinidad and British Guiana. Had it not been for the Indians it
would have collapsed earlier. They continued to provide labour which the exslaves generally shied away from as well as provide labour which the other
immigrants namely, African, Madeiran , Chinese, and European failed to do.
Additionally, many Indians re-indentured themselves after their contract
ended in light of the governments promise to pay return passages only after
the immigrants lived for at least 10 years in the colony. This was deliberate as
the government could not afford free return passages to India and also to
keep a steady supply of labour for the estates. Also those Indians who gave
up repatriation and took up free land offered instead in Trinidad and Guiana
eventually became cane farmers. The effect of all of this was an increase in
sugar production. Consequently in Trinidad for example the amount of sugar
exported increased from 13,103 tons in 1841 to 40, 000 tons in 1871 to
93,506 tons in 1871. In British Guiana, by the end of the 19 th century, sugar
production was 250% greater than its pre-emancipation level.
They helped to keep wages for estate labour low at the expense of ex-slaves
but on the other hand this helped the sugar estate owners deal with the
economic downturn in the sugar industry.
The growth of the rice industry in Trinidad and Guyana was due to the East
Indians. By the 1890s rice growing in Guyana had reached significant
proportions and by 1903 and estimated 23, 853 acres of rice were under
cultivation for the domestic use as well as for export.
The introduction into the West Indies of age-old traditional Indian skill in
irrigation first in connection with rice growing and then the sugar industry is
attributed to the Indians.
Once the East Indians acquired land they established a settled Indian
peasantry. They cultivated rice, maize, peas, ground provisions, plantains,
breadfruit, oranges, mangoes, tomatoes, cucumbers. Maize which was
formally an imported food was actually exported from Trinidad to neighboring
Venezuela.
The Indians also played a significant role in diversifying the economy by
contributing significantly to the cultivation of export crops such as cocoa and
coconuts. Between the 1840s and 1870s Trinidad production of cocoa had
more than doubled to an average of 8.4 million pounds a year.
The employment of immigrants in manual field work opened up a wider range
of employment of resident blacks as artisans, factory workers and policemen.

Social

 The importation of immigrants especially the Indians stimulated the

expansion of social services especially medical facilties which were applied
first to the immigrants and then extended to the population at large.The
increase in poplation led to a larger and more efficient police force.
The entry of Indian immigrants into the Caribbean further added to the
emergence of a plural society where the races mixed but did not combine.
The latter is because the Indians had generally remained segregated from the
population on estates as indentured servants and even after indenture they
set up distinctive communities with their own culture. The difference in
culture and the fact that they were viewed by the blacks as persons
responsible for the depression in wages would have further kept them apart
from other groups such as the blacks.
Despite the segregation some Indians later on did take on partners of other
races and produced mixed race children such as douglas and chinidouglas.
The Indians brought with them their religion and feasts associated with them.
They brought for example Hinduism and Islam about 85% of them were
Hindus and 15% Muslims. The Hindus continued to celebate Indidian feasts
such a Holi and Diwali(festival of lights or Indian Christmas). The Muslims
celebrated Hose or Hosein/Hussay and Eid. Some of the backs joined in the
Hindu festival of Hose adding their own drumming.
The Indians brought their languages to the Caribbean. They brought Hindi
and Urdu dialects.
They brought their architecture such as Hindu temples and Islamic mosques
as well as their jhandis which are small coloured triangular flags on bamboo
poles placed outside Indian styled houses.
They brought their cuisine for example the roti, doubles, aloo pie sada roti,
polhourie, chutney,buss up shut etc.
They also brought their idea of the close knit family structure and the
extended family which though weak in the beginning of indentureship reemerged when free Indian villages were established.
They brought their music and musical instruments and dance which later
impacted on the art forms already in existence in the Caribbean