The National Archives: Indian Indenture Project

Listening to the music at the beginning of the presentation, made me feel very emotional ?, it reminded me so much of my childhood.

It was really interesting doing the quiz and learning about how many people were shipped all over the world as Indurered Labourers, when and the reasons for this and the conditions they lived in. Listening to Vidya, her personal story about identity and belonging, I could really relate to this.

I was born in Guyana and lived there until I came to the UK in 1973. My mother came over in 1966, to train as a nurse, followed by 3 uncles, one cousin, all to train as nurses. As well as other relatives. Both my grandfather and grandmother worked on the sugar plantation, she as most of the women weeded the fields, clearing it for new crops. It was backbreaking work and I remembered how tired and exhausted she was when she came home ?. As children, she used to always ask us to massage her by walking on her legs, backs and shoulders.

The Indians, Blacks as other races lived in their own communities, no mixing, separate schools etc. The English lived in a gated compound with security ? guards. There was a lot of fear and prejudices about each other, as the races never met before, coming from different cultures, religion etc, I wonder how they came by the information about each other.

We were only taught about British history and some of my family were converted to Christianity and we had both Indian and English names. It's only when I came to the UK, I learnt my ancestor came from Indian, which I found out by myself as nothing was taught in school. I remembered feeling I don't know where I belong or what's my identity? Indian, Guyanese, Caribbean, British. As I have lived here longer, I feel more British but have embraced it all, as it has given me a rich cultural heritage.

Years later, I always wonder why the British didn't employ the ex-slaves but rather shipped people halfway around the world. I can guess it's because the slaves revolted and the Indians were subservient. The fact the enslaves were left with no means of earning a living to feed and look after themselves caused a lot of tension between the races and still is today, as the Indians were allowed to progress, given land to build houses, if they stayed and didn't go back to India. The Blacks were called lazy and criminalised, which is the story all over the world, after they worked for free, brutalised, abused and controlled by aggression and violence. As a child I was brought up with this saying:
If you are White, you are alright.
If you are Brown, hang around.
If you are Black, get back.

The native people never even got mentioned and were treated the worst.
The British were and still are very good at divide and rule.

On a very person level, I have an early childhood memory of the word "Coolie" being used in St Kitts/Nevis, which continued in conversations in the African-Caribbean community as I grew up in Leeds. It was talked about in the context of hair texture and length. I had often wondered what Coolie meant and, until the event today, had not known that it is a Tamil word. I am about to be the grandmother of a child whose parentage will include Punjabi and my interest in Indian Indentureship is further progressing and taking on added urgency.

Vidya's family history has many resonances, not least the interest in intergenerational trauma and epigenetics. I welcome especially, the focus on women - herstory and filling in some gaps of knowledge about these experiences, the details of which I find so important to give a fuller picture of what happened during Indian indentureship.

The National Archive presentation by Iqbal Singh and Mike Mahoney I found essential in filling in the gaps with facts, links and references. Especially as they relate to British imperialism, colonialism and racism's effects on the real lives of real people. So many parallels, similarities and variations with slavery. So much to uncover and relate to and explore.

Thank you BAATN for putting on this event and I hope this conversation continues to help open up the centuries of abuses and resistance and reveal the humanities of the Indentured and the Enslaved.