P. Capildeo July 2003.
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RECRUITERS AND MIGRATION
In Trinidad*, a British Caribbean island colony half way around the world,
sugar plantations faced a crippling labour shortage following emancipation of
African slaves in the island in 1838. Attempts to use Portuguese and Chinese
labourers as successors failed. And so the planters of Trinidad like other
planters in the British West Indies sought the recruitment of Indian labourers
to satisfy the cravings of the British sweet tooth. They sought the transfer
of Indian labour from one part of the British Empire to another. There is a
substantial amount of literature* on the reasons for Indian migration to Trinidad.
So the author will not examine it in great detail; suffice it to say that Indians
began migrating to Trinidad in 1845 under contracts of indentureship.
Such contracts provided for the indentured labourer to work for a minimum
period of years on an estate. In return he was to be remunerated, provided
with accommodation and given health care. The contracts were signed in India,
and for the period of indenture the labourer was bound to work on the
plantation assigned to him: an indentured labourer was not a free man.
Labourers migrated from two major depots in India: Calcutta and Madras.
Trinidad employed an Emigration Agent in Calcutta - and in 1885 O.W.
Warner was the agent, possibly the person in charge when Kapil left the
depot in Calcutta. The Emigration Agent was in charge of recruitment. He
had to explain to the immigrants the nature of their life in the West Indies
and provide passage for them if eligible*.
The recruitment process started in Trinidad where the planters would make
requests for recruitment of labourers. The Immigration Committee of the
Trinidad Legislative Council would agree on a number of immigrants needed
for the plantations. The Governor would forward the request to the Colonial
Office in London*.
Recruitment occurred six to eight weeks before departure of the immigrant ship
- for Trinidad departures were from September/October to March and
recruitment commenced in August*. Agents commissioned licensed sub - agents
who in turn hired licensed recruiters to canvas people from different districts.
Kapil was duly recruited by one of these recruiters on the 7th August, before
the autumn voyages to the West Indies.
Legislation was enacted in 1864 to prevent such recruiters being paid by
commission. This was to prevent the mischief of recruiters resorting to
underhand methods to recruit labourers, but malpractice still persisted in
spite of the enactment.The recruiter was obliged to explain the terms of the
contract, but this appears to rarely have been done. Instead the recruits were
often enticed by promises of light labour and easy wealth; inveigled by
reassurances that they could preserve the religion and traditions of their
Indian way of life. The recruiter shrewdly drew graphic comparisons between
these fabled paradises of the Indies and an India burdened by burgeoning
overpopulation, starvation and disease. He is portrayed in the history books
as a sweet tongued story teller cunningly preying on the weaknesses of minds
besieged by hunger, debt, famine - the more intelligent ones acutely aware of
the limitations of caste and village life.
Laws governing recruitment proliferated owing to the efforts of the paternal Indian
government and welfare groups, watchful ayahs * over these children of the Ganges
plain. Sadly, their effect was minimal. As usually occurs with ineffective legislation
- it was not obeyed and it seems rarely to have been enforced. Recruiters were
often accused of dishonesty, fraud and misconduct and procuring emigrants by
intoxication or coercion. Some recruiters used duress, threatening to take away
the recruit's personal possessions*. Some even resorted to kidnapping,
a famous incident of which occurred in Allahabad in 1871. An official of the
Indian Government in 1910 stated: " the recruiters are the worst kind of men
they could possibly have (sic). They are generally very low class men.... they
are paid by results...". Indeed violations against recruiting laws continued
unabated until the end of indentureship in 1917.
In 1916 Pearson and Andrews reported that only if a recruit was intelligent were
the conditions of indenture revealed and that: " the work was made out to be
very light indeed, and the most glowing prospects were offered. Nothing is
said about the penal laws, or the hard conditions of compulsory labour.*"
Weller* indicates of the immigrants that "many... had only the vaguest idea
of the future to which they were binding themselves; certainly very few could
have had any conception of the location of Trinidad or the kind of life they
would find there". The Sanderson Commission in 1910 found that not even
25% of the recruits could distinguish between the different colonies or had
any concept of what working and living there would be like*. Recruiters
often recruited in bazaars and city centres where villagers were sufficiently
susceptible once severed from the ties of the village and the influence of
villagers who thought the recruiter only told lies*. It was in Benares that Kapil
was recruited, far away from his village, and completely on his own. One can
only speculate what tales the recruiter told him or whether he knew where he
was going, but it is very likely he had little idea of the harsh working lifestyle
that lay ahead.
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P. Capildeo July 2003.
The author asserts the right of copyright. It is a term of viewing this website
that the navigator will not reproduce in any manner or form information
contained within. By navigating this website the navigator is
deemed to have consented to this term.
Reproduction of the verbal or pictorial content of this website from any source
without permission from the author
infringes copyright law and will be prosecuted.
_________________________________________________________________________________
*13 Called Chinitat by the Indians.
*14 See Tinker above; Ramesar, Survivors of Another Crossing;
East Indians in the Caribbean; John La Guerre From Calcutta to Caroni.
*15 Weller, The East Indian Indenture in Trinidad, page 2.
*16 Ramesar above, page 9.
*17 Ibid
*18 Ayah means nanny in Hindi.
*19 Mangru in Across the Dark Waters Ethnicity and Indian Identity in the
Caribbean, page 164.
*20 Weller, The East Indian Indenture in Trinidad, page 7.
*21 Ibid page 1.
*22 Mangru in Across the Dark Waters Ethnicity and Indian Identity in
the Caribbean page 164.
*23 Ramesar, page 12.