D. Parsuram Maharaj
An executive member
of the Sanatan Dharma Maha Sabha.
There are many today who are qucik to tell the Indian
community to “Go back to India”.
These statements are said without the thought of
the Indian contribution to the development of Trinidad.
There are many who still confuse a national identiy
with ethnicity and religious origins. To these one
cannot be an Indian or Hindu and be called a Trinidadian.
Thus these people ask where have all the Trinidadians
gone ? To these persons a brief refersher, in this
month of Indian Arrival, on the contributions of the
Indians to Trinidad’s economic survival which
made Trinidad’s economy different from that of
the other Caribbean islands.
The Indian made his appearance in Trinidad, and indeed
in the Caribbean, after the abolition of slavery in
1834. Presbyterian minister John Morton commented
“ The emancipated slave either would not work
or diverted their energies to their own gardens.
For want of workmen the sugar interests came to the
brink of disaster”. Every effort was accordingly
made to get labourers from all possible quarters.
In 1834, a number of immigrants were brought from
Fayal and Maderia, but work in the cane field did
not suit the Portugese..... The West Indian body in
writing to Lord Stanley, October 19th, 1843, urged
him to assent to Indian Immigration ‘as a regular
supply of labourers was absolutely necessary’.
November 06th 1843 replied that he was trying to get
negroes ‘from Canada, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick’
but did not agree to immigration from India, and closed
the correspondence.
On November 29th 1843, Lord Stanley recognizing the
critical state of affairs in the West Indies, suggests
to the Governor-General of India that the order restricting
East Indians from emigrating except to Mauritius should
be canceled. This opened the way for East Indian immigration
to the West Indies.
Terms were reached between the Home, the Indian,
and the Trinidad Governments, and the first ship the
Fatal Razack with 214 East Indians immigrants arrived
on May 30th 1845.” [ Ironically the first Indian
immigrant recorded was a man called Barath which meant
India.] Morton further commented that “a new
era soon dawned .....Planters, immigrants, and Governments
worked hopefully together. Large numbers of East Indians
were introduced and the Island began to flourish.
Ten years later Governor Keateon wrote Sir Edward
Bulwar Lytton ‘the Island is mainly indebted
to Indian Immigration for its progress’. [John
Morton in Trinidad 1916].
W.G. Sewell, in “The Ordeal of Free Labour in
the British West Indies” [1861] wrote of Trinidad
Indian immigrants after his visit in 1859 : “Not
only has the island been saved from impending ruin,
but a prospect of future prosperity opened to her
such as British island in these seas ever before enjoyed
under any system, slave or free.”
From the years 1838-1845 when the “Hesperus”
sailed into British Guiana and the “Fatel Razack”
to Trinidad receptively, under a free and disorganized
scheme of immigration up to 1917, when the “SS
Ganges” and “SS Mutlah” delivered the
last batch, hundreds of voyages were made. For Trinidad
between 1845-1917 ships made 319 voyages bringing
147,592 registered Indians to Trinidad’s sugar,
cocoa, and coconut estates. While the first ship to
Trinidad carried just 225 persons with the journey
lasting just under five months, in later years the
number of immigrants per ship would increase. Later
voyages were shorter as EMS and Rhone in 1898 lasted
only 113 and 93 days respectively. The number of people
arriving was as small as 134 on the Emma of 29th May,
1847 to as large as 847 on the Mutlah of 29th August,
1909.
The route from India went around the Cape of Good
Hope and then to the West Indies. The voyage was long
and involved several climatic changes. The mortality
rate during the
long and perilous journey was so high that the Government
of India suspended immigration in 1848. Although the
second phase began in 1848, it again had to be suspended
until 1851. The system of immigration was eventually
dismantled by the Indian Government under the Defense
of India Act 1917.
G.K. Gokhale, Pundit Madhan M. Malaviya, and M.K.
Gandhi were the leading statesmen who moved the resolution
in the Indian Leglisative Assembly in 1916, demanding
the abolition of the emigration system. Lord Hardinagi,
Viceroy of India, accepted the resolution and got
the support of the secretary of state. Emigration
was viewed as derogatory to India’s self respect
as a nation and undesirable in the estimate of enlightened
public opinion.
The 147,592 Indians that came to Trinidad most chose
to make this new land their home. As a result of this
decision the descendants of the Indian immigrants
now constitute over 42% of the population of Trinidad.
The other major ethnic group in Trinidad are the descendants
of African slaves who constitutes 41% of the total
population. The mixed [Indian, Black, White, Chinese,
etc. inter-marriages] population is 16% while other
ethnic groups [whites, Chinese, Syrians, etc.] comprise
2% of the population. The Indian population comprises
of Hindus 30%, Muslims 5%, and Christians 15%.
Hindus [the majority Sanatanists] are viewed as more
Indian as they have proudly identified as Indian in
the past. The Sanatan Dharama Maha Sabha of Trinidad
and Tobago Inc. [1952] has defended the Hindu position
and as such has been branded as racist by those uncomforable
with an assertive Indian presence in Trinidad. The
roots of the Maha Sabha extend deep into the history
of Trinidad and can be traced to as early as 1881
only a mere thirty-six years [36] after the Fatel
Rozack arrived.
