South Africa presents an altogether different story of Indian migration. To begin with, Indians did not go there just to open shops like the Gujarati in East Africa. A majority of them went there on contract for 3-5 years as indentured laborer.
They also did not belong to a single linguistic or ethnic group. They were recruited from particular districts of Eastern UP, Bihar and sprawling backyards of the old Madras Presidency.
These districts were catchment areas of labour to be shipped on 3 to 5 years contract to work in sugar plantations in such far of places as Fiji, Mauritius, South Africa and British Guyana in the Caribbean Sea.
This gave a tri-continental dimension to Indian emigration at different British-held colonies from one end of the oceans to another. A truly majestic concept that had thrilled the imagination of many Nationalist historians.
Politicians also referred to this theme when it suited them. Thundered Ram Manohar Lohia, a Socialist leader, 'wherever an Indian goes abroad, there goes a part of India with him.'
Nothing new really; every German, or French or Chinese must have felt the same way, and if an Indian too felt so, it was not a rare phenomenon (perhaps even now when a student in a foreign University opens a bottle of pickle, s/he feels home-sick; but in the nationalist period, even pickle symbolised something more than a juicy mouth watering condiment.)
But this identification between India and those who left its shores went through several permutations - a feature we would like to return to at some future point.
Suffice it here to point out that the expansion of Indians does not owe its origins to the educated and wealthy classes, but to those whom Tagore described as 'poor, dumb and ignorant (ayi sab mlan, mook, murha mukhe) and they were not free men, they were slaves but known in the days of modern imperialism as 'Indentured Labour'.
Contract labour in the colonies began from 1805 till 1910, when it was officially stopped.
During a century or more, around 500, 000 poorest were shipped to work on sugar plantations in South Africa, Mauritius, Trinidad, Surinam and Guyana. The largest number hailed from specified districts of Bihar and the Presidency of Madras, which also included Kerala. Around 75 % belonged to inferior ranking caste groups and the rest were Muslims and Christians.
.
In the Pacific region, largest number of Indians (40,000) was being inducted into sugar plantation; a smaller number went to Malay and smaller islands for rubber and mining industries
At first, there were very few women. But their numbers steadily grew as facilities were made to accommodate more women passengers. At what point the sex ratio came closer to equal balance is difficult to say (at least I am unable to reckon) but again in some colonies women passengers from India were allowed to stay - or men who could marry and take their brides back from India, the ratio must have fluctuated over a period.
For the East African Gujarati the job of importing ride from India posed no problem at all. Both Hindu and Muslim (mainly Bohra and Ismaili) families kept strong family ties with Indians of their own community by marriage, regular visits and select religious occasions.
The situation was very different in the Caribbean. A Trinidad visitor once told me 'For us India lives in pictures and dreams.'
Yet, for a Fijian lady India was not all charming. 'There is dirt, utter confusion everywhere, I do not wonder why our ancestors left this country.' I felt like reminding her that they were forced to leave because they had no alternative.'
More Features Headlines
