| Regions with significant populations | |
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| Caribbean (notably in Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, Suriname, Jamaica, Saint Lucia, Guadeloupe, and Martinique) Diaspora in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, and the Netherlands | |
| Languages | |
| English, French, Dutch, Sranan Tongo, Papiamento, Caribbean Hindustani, Creole languages | |
| Religion | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Afro-Caribbeans, Indo-Caribbeans |
Dougla people (plural Douglas) are Caribbean people who are of mixed African and South Asian descent. The word Dougla (also Dugla or Dogla) is used throughout the Dutch and English-speaking Caribbean. Afro-Indo people may also be another term used to describe them.
The word Dougla originated from dogala (दोगला), which is a Caribbean Hindustani word that literally means "two-necks" and may mean "many", "much" or "a mix". [1] Its etymological roots are cognate with the Hindi "do" meaning "two" and "gala", which means "throat". Within the West Indies context, the word is used only for one type of mixed race people: Afro-Indians. [2]
The 2012 Guyana census identified 29.25% of the population as Afro-Guyanese, 39.83% as Indo-Guyanese, and 19.88% as "mixed," recognized as mostly representing the offspring of the former two groups. [3]
In the French West Indies (Guadeloupe, Martinique), the few Afro-Indian people used to be referred to as Batazendyen or Chapé-Kouli, while in Haiti they were called Marabou.
There are sporadic records of Indo-Euro interracial relationships, both consensual and nonconsensual, before any ethnic mixing of the African and Indian variety. [4]
Other Indo-based types of mixed heritage (Indo-Chinese (Chindians), Indo-Latino/Hispanic (Tegli), Indo-English (Anglo-Indians), Indo-Portuguese (Luso-Indians), Indo-Irish (Irish Indians), Indo-Scottish (Scottish-Indians), Indo-Dutch, Indo-Arabs and Indo-Amerindian) tended to identify as one of the older, unmixed ethnic strains on the island: Afro, Indo, Amerindian or Euro or passing as one of them. [5]
In 1961, the calypsonian musician Mighty Dougla (born Cletus Ali) described the predicament of Douglas: [6]
If they sending Indians to India,
And Africans back to Africa,
Well, somebody please just tell me,
Where they sending poor me,
I am neither one nor the other,
Six of one, half dozen of the other,
So if they sending all these people back home for true,
They got to split me in two— Split Me in Two
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