Indo-Grenadians

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Indo-Grenadians
Total population
12,000
Regions with significant populations
St. George’s
Languages
English, Grenadian Creole English, Grenadian Creole French, Hindustani
Religion
Hinduism, Roman Catholicism, Protestantism, Islam
Related ethnic groups
Non-resident Indian and Person of Indian Origin, Indo-Caribbeans, Desi

Indo-Grenadians or Grenadians, who trace their roots to India, form the largest minority group in Grenada. This term is not generally recognized by Grenadians or indeed Caribbeans. They usually refer to themselves simply as Grenadian or possibly Caribbean. This group was first introduced during the second half of the 19th century when Grenada experimented with indentured labour. By the second half of the 20th century Indians were so integrated into Grenada’s society that a distinct Indian cultural identity was generally invisible. In addition, Indians were involved in every aspect of Grenadian life. Currently there are over 12,000 Grenadians of Indian and mixed-Indian descent (11% of the total population).

Contents

History

Historian S. N. Yadav described the history of Indo-Grenadians as "essentially the history of a relatively powerless ethnic group submitting without any organised resistance to an environment unfavourable to it in almost every sense". [1] Historian Raymond D. Viechweg wrote in 2007, "the beginning of the trade in Indian indentures ... meant the continuous intermixing, or creolizing, of cultures that would eventually place the Grenadian Indian in a position of cultural vulnerability. When Indians arrived in Grenada in 1857, they found themselves in a position subordinate to a dominant Anglo-African creolization. In Grenada, Indians have functioned within and alongside the dominant Afro-Grenadian cultural formation for 150 years now." [2] Following the abolition of slavery in 1833 [3] and the full emancipation of African slaves in Grenada in 1838, plantation owners in the region sought to find alternate sources of labour. Grenadian planters initially made unsuccessful attempts to replace African slave labour with indentured workers from Africa, Malta and Portugal. [4]

Planters in the West Indies began using indentured workers from British India as labour on their plantations. Learning of the success of the approach, planters in Grenada also sought to hire Indian indentured workers. British Grenada legalised immigration in 1856 to facilitate the arrival indentured migrant workers. The first ship carrying indentured workers from India, the Maidstone, departed from Calcutta on 27 January 1857 with 375 Indians on board. It arrived at Irwin’s Bay in St. Patrick Parish, Grenada on 1 May 1857. Eighty-six Indians died during the voyage. [1] Most of the workers on the Maidstone were distributed to plantation estates in St. Patrick and St. Mark parishes, as well as other parishes. None were sent to plantations in St. John parish. [5] The Fulwood brought 362 live Indian workers to Grenada in 1858 and the Jalawar brought 249 workers the following year. Between 1857 and 1878, ships transported a total of 3,033 Indians to Grenada, excluding those who died during the voyage. The last ship carrying 175 indentured Indian labourers arrived on the island some time between 1881 and 1885. [1] In total, nearly 3,206 Indians were brought to Grenada, excluding those who died during the voyage. Only about 15% of them returned to India, while the rest remained in the country even after their indenture period ended in 1890. These Indians are the origin of the Indo-Grenadian community. [4] [6]

The 100th anniversary of the first arrival of Indians in Grenada was commemorated in 1957. This was the first ever commemoration of the day in Grenada. The next commemoration would occur more than five decades later in 2009. [7] [6] The International Conference on The Indian Diaspora in Grenada and the Wider Caribbean was held from 29 April to 1 May 2009 to commemorate the event, as well as to discuss Indo-Caribbean history. The conference was by the Indo-Caribbean Cultural Centre Co. Ltd, the Indian Cultural Organisation (Grenada) Inc., and the Indo-Grenadian Heritage Foundation (IHF) with support from Belmont Estate Group of Companies, and the High Commission of India in Trinidad and Tobago. It was officially inaugurated by Prime Minister Keith Mitchell. [8] [9] [10] [11] [12]

On 29 April 2009, the Government of Grenada declared that 1 May would officially be designated as Indian Arrival Day and observed annually alongside the existing Labour Day. The date was already a public holiday in Grenada, on account of Labour Day. The Government also announced that Boucherie Road, the road leading to the site of the arrival of the Maidstone, would be officially renamed Maidstone Road to honour the arrival of Indians in Grenada. [13] The renaming was officially carried out in a ceremony at 10:30 AM at La Fortune Junction, St. Patrick on 2 May 2009. Governor General Sir Carlyle Glean unveiled a granite plaque commemorating the arrival of the first Indians in Grenada. The plaque bears the inscription, "On 1st May 1857, in this bay the sailing vessel “Maidstone” anchored and landed 287 passengers having left India three months earlier, with 304 passengers. Between the years 1857 and 1890 other ships anchored in this and other bays bringing a total of 3,200 persons from India to work as agricultural indenture labourers in Grenada. This monument is dedicated to those who became the genesis of the Indo-Grenadian population of our nation". [14]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Indian Arrival Day</span> Holiday

Indian Arrival Day is a holiday celebrated on various days in the nations of the Caribbean, Fiji, South Africa and Mauritius, commemorating the arrival of people from the Indian subcontinent to their respective nations as indentured labours brought by European colonial authorities and their agents. In Guyana, Mauritius, Fiji and Trinidad and Tobago, where it started, it is an official public holiday.

Indo-Caribbeans or Indian-Caribbeans are people in the Caribbean who are descendants of the Jahaji indentured laborers from India and the wider subcontinent, who were brought by the British, Dutch, and French during the colonial era from the mid-19th century to the early 20th century. A minority of them are descendants from people who immigrated as entrepreneurs, businesspeople, merchants, engineers, doctors, religious leaders and other professional occupations beginning in the mid-20th century.

Indo-Guyanese or Indian-Guyanese, are Guyanese nationals of Indian origin who trace their ancestry to India and the wider subcontinent. They are the descendants of indentured servants and settlers who migrated from India beginning in 1838, and continuing during the British Raj.

Indo-Caribbean Americans or Indian-Caribbean Americans, are Americans who trace their ancestry ultimately to India, though whose recent ancestors lived in the Caribbean, where they migrated beginning in 1838 as indentured laborers. There are large populations of Indo-Trinidadian and Tobagonians and Indo-Guyanese along with a smaller population of Indo-Surinamese, Indo-Jamaicans and other Indo-Caribbeans in the United States, especially in the New York metropolitan area and Florida. The Washington metropolitan area, Texas, and Minnesota also have small numbers of Indo-Guyanese and Indo-Trinidadians. Indo-Caribbean Americans are a subgroup of Caribbean Americans as well as Indian Americans, which are a subgroup of South Asian Americans, which itself is a subgroup of Asian Americans.

Grenada's French colonists brought their culture, as did the African slaves they brought across the Atlantic for agricultural work. Indians have also influenced the island culture in more recent years.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mauritians</span> Citizens or residents of Mauritius

Mauritians are nationals or natives of the Republic of Mauritius and their descendants. Mauritius is a multi-ethnic society, with notable groups of people of South Asian, Sub-Saharan African, European, and Chinese descent, as well as those of a mixed background from any combination of the aforementioned ethnic groups.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aapravasi Ghat</span> Building complex in Port Louis, on the Indian Ocean island of Mauritius

The Immigration Depot is a building complex located in Port Louis on the Indian Ocean island of Mauritius, the first British colony to receive indentured, or contracted, labour workforce from many countries. From 1849 to 1923, half a million Indian indentured labourers passed through the Immigration Depot, to be transported to plantations throughout the British Empire. The large-scale migration of the labourers left an indelible mark on the societies of many former British colonies, with Indians constituting a substantial proportion of their national populations. In Mauritius alone, 68 percent of the current total population is of Indian ancestry. The Immigration Depot has thus become an important reference point in the history and cultural identity of Mauritius.

Indo-Surinamese, Indian-Surinamese or Hindustani Surinamese are nationals of Suriname. Their ancestors were indentured workers from British Raj brought by the Dutch and the British to the (then) Dutch colony of Suriname during the mid-19th to the early 20th century. Per the 2012 Census of Suriname, 148,443 citizens of Suriname are of Indo-Surinamese origin, constituting 27.4% of the total population, making them the largest ethnic group in Suriname on an individual level.

The Indian indenture system was a system of indentured servitude, by which more than 1.6 million workers from British India were transported to labour in European colonies, as a substitute for slave labor, following the abolition of the trade in the early 19th century. The system expanded after the abolition of slavery in the British Empire in 1833, in the French colonies in 1848, and in the Dutch Empire in 1863. British Indian indentureship lasted till the 1920s. This resulted in the development of a large South Asian diaspora in the Caribbean, Natal, East Africa, Réunion, Mauritius, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Myanmar, and Fiji, as well as the growth of Indo-Caribbean, Indo-African, Indo-Mauritian, Indo-Fijian, Indo-Malaysian, and Indo-Singaporean populations.

Indo-Jamaicans are the descendants of people who came from the Indian subcontinent to Jamaica. Indians form the third largest ethnic group in Jamaica after Africans and Multiracials.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Indo-Guadeloupeans</span>

Indo-Guadeloupeans are mostly descended from indentured workers who came mostly from South India in the late 19th century. There are currently about 35,617 people of Indian origin living in Guadeloupe, making it home to one of the largest South Indian populations in the Caribbean.

Indo-Belizeans, also known as East Indian Belizeans, are citizens of Belize of Indian ancestry. The community made up 3.9% of the population of Belize in 2010. They are part of the wider Indo-Caribbean community, which itself is a part of the global Indian diaspora.

Indo-Martiniquais are an ethnic group of Martinique, compromising over 10% of the population of the island. The Indo-Martiniquais are descendants of indentured labourers of the nineteenth century from India of primarily Tamil and Telugu descent as well as other Indian peoples. They are primarily most concentrated in the northern communes of Martinique, where the main plantations were located. The Indo-Martiniquais speak Martinique Creole, a French-based creole that most residents of Martinique speak along with French.

Indo-Vincentians are an ethnic group in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines who are mainly descendants of indentured laborers who came in the late 19th century to the early 20th century and entrepreneurs who began immigrating in the mid-20th century from the Indian subcontinent. There are about 5,900 people of Indian origin living in the country.

Indo–Saint Lucians or Indian–Saint Lucians, are Saint Lucians whose ancestry lies within the country of India, primarily from Bhojpur and Awadh regions that are in the modern-day Indian states of Bihar, Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh in Northern India. In 1859, the British began transporting indentured workers from British India to work on plantation estates in Saint Lucia, which had become a British colony in 1814. The first ship carrying 318 indentured workers from India, the Palmyra, arrived in Saint Lucia on 6 May 1859, and the last ship carrying Indian indentured workers, the Volga, arrived on 10 December 1893.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Grenada–India relations</span> Bilateral relations

Grenada–India relations refers to the international relations that exist between Grenada and India. The High Commission of India in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago is concurrently accredited to Grenada. Grenada has no diplomatic mission in India.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">India–Saint Lucia relations</span> Bilateral relations

India–Saint Lucia relations refers to the international relations that exist between India and Saint Lucia. The Embassy of India in Paramaribo, Suriname is concurrently accredited to Saint Lucia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">India–Saint Vincent and the Grenadines relations</span> Bilateral relations

India–Saint Vincent and the Grenadines relations refers to the international relations that exist between India and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. The Embassy of India in Paramaribo, Suriname is concurrently accredited to Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.

The Indian community in Saint Kitts and Nevis is made up of Indo-Kittitians, Indo-Nevisians, non-resident Indians and persons of Indian origin. Indo-Kittitians and Indo-Nevisians are nationals of Saint Kitts and Nevis whose ancestry lies within the country of India. The community originated from the Indian indentured workers brought to Saint Kitts and Nevis by the British in 1861 and 1874 respectively. By 1884, most of the community had emigrated to Caribbean nations with larger Indian populations such as Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana and Suriname.

The Indian community in the United States Virgin Islands is made up of Indo-Caribbeans, Indian Americans and other persons of Indian origin. The first Indians in the United States Virgin Islands (USVI) arrived in the Danish colony of Saint Croix in June 1863 as indentured workers. However, the nearly all 325 Indians who came to Saint Croix left the island by the 1870s. Nearly two-thirds returned to India, while the others emigrated to Trinidad and Tobago. Some settled in that country, while others returned to India from Trinidad.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Yadav, S. N. (2005). Journey of Overseas Indians: Labour to Investor. Global Vision Publishing House. pp. 269–300. ISBN   9788182200838 . Retrieved 18 April 2017.
  2. ↑ Viechweg, Raymond D. (June 2007). "Abolition, Indentureship and Creoleness: Reflections on the Indo-Grenadian Predicament" (PDF). Big Drum Nation. Retrieved 18 April 2017.
  3. ↑ Felix, Martin P. (1 May 2006). "History of the Grenada Labor Movement". www.bigdrumnation.org. Retrieved 18 April 2017.
  4. 1 2 Sookram, Ron. "Immigrants to Citizens: the Indian Community in Grenada, 1857 to the Present" (PDF). Brunel University London. Archived from the original (PDF) on 29 November 2020. Retrieved 18 April 2017.
  5. ↑ "BDM Interview with Wilbur Adams" (PDF). Big Drum Nation. May 2010. Archived from the original (PDF) on 3 July 2021. Retrieved 18 April 2017.
  6. 1 2 Bell, S. A. (2012). Out of Evil, Cometh Good. Lulu.com. ISBN   9781105697616 . Retrieved 18 April 2017.
  7. ↑ Singh, Shubha (3 June 2015). "Indians in Grenada celebrate Indian Arrival Day". The Indian Diaspora. Retrieved 18 April 2017.
  8. ↑ "PRIME MINISTER MITCHELL TO OPEN INDIAN DIASPORA CONFERENCE IN GRENADA". The New Today Newspaper Grenada. 14 April 2016. Retrieved 18 April 2017.
  9. ↑ Palli, Francesca. "The Indian Diaspora in Grenada and the wider Caribbean". Potomitan (in Swiss French). Retrieved 18 April 2017.
  10. ↑ Ramoutar, Paras. "Now Indian Diaspora conference in Grenada". The Indian Diaspora. Retrieved 18 April 2017.
  11. ↑ Desk, NewsGram (5 April 2016). "Indian Diaspora Conference to be inaugurated by Prime Minister of Grenada". NewsGram. Archived from the original on 25 February 2021. Retrieved 18 April 2017.
  12. ↑ Editor, eTN Managing (5 April 2016). "Prime Minister Mitchell to open Indian Diaspora Conference in Grenada - eTurboNews (eTN)". eTurboNews (eTN). Retrieved 18 April 2017.{{cite web}}: |last1= has generic name (help)
  13. ↑ "L'ARRIVEE INDIENNE COMMEMOREE A GRENADE ET SAINTE-LUCIE". Montray Kréyol (in French). 25 May 2009. Retrieved 18 April 2017.
  14. ↑ Ferguson, Michael (1 May 2010). "Indian Arrival Day Celebrations". belmontestate.net. Archived from the original on 30 November 2020. Retrieved 18 April 2017.

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