Aadishesh/ncerts · Datasets at Hugging Face

text stringlengths 1 900
Similar stories can be told about the impact of Western conquest on
other parts of the nineteenth-century world.
2.4 Indentured Labour Migration from India
The example of indentured labour migration from India also
illustrates the two-sided nature of the nineteenth-century world.
It was a world of faster economic growth as well as great misery,
higher incomes for some and poverty for others, technologicaladvances in some areas and new forms of coercion in others.
In the nineteenth century, hundreds of thousands of Indian and
Chinese labourers went to work on plantations, in mines, and inroad and railway construction projects around the world. In India,
indentured labourers were hired under contracts which promised
return travel to India after they had worked five years on theiremployer’s plantation.
Most Indian indentured workers came from the present-day regions
of eastern Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, central India and the dry districtsof Tamil Nadu. In the mid-nineteenth century these regions
experienced many changes – cottage industries declined, land rents
rose, lands were cleared for mines and plantations. All this affectedthe lives of the poor: they failed to pay their rents, became deeply
indebted and were forced to migrate in search of work.New words
Indentured labour – A bonded labourer under
contract to work for an employer for a specific
amount of time, to pay off his passage to anew country or homeIndia and the Contemporary World
88Discuss the importance of language and
popular traditions in the creation of national
identity.The main destinations of Indian indentured
migrants were the Caribbean islands (mainly
Trinidad, Guyana and Surinam), Mauritius and Fiji.
Closer home, Tamil migrants went to Ceylon andMalaya. Indentured workers were also recruitedfor tea plantations in Assam.
Recruitment was done by agents engaged by
employers and paid a small commission. Many
migrants agreed to take up work hoping to escape
poverty or oppression in their home villages.Agents also tempted the prospective migrantsby providing false information about finaldestinations, modes of travel, the nature of thework, and living and working conditions. Often
migrants were not even told that they were to embark on a long
sea voyage. Sometimes agents even forcibly abducted lesswilling migrants.
Nineteenth-century indenture has been described as a ‘new system
of slavery’. On arrival at the plantations, labourers found conditionsto be different from what they had imagined. Living and working
conditions were harsh, and there were few legal rights.
But workers discovered their own ways of surviving. Many of them
escaped into the wilds, though if caught they faced severe punishment.Others developed new forms of individual and collective self-expression, blending different cultural forms, old and new. InTrinidad the annual Muharram procession was transformed into a
riotous carnival called ‘Hosay’ (for Imam Hussain) in which workers
of all races and religions joined. Similarly, the protest religion ofRastafarianism (made famous by the Jamaican reggae star BobMarley) is also said to reflect social and cultural links with Indianmigrants to the Caribbean. ‘Chutney music’, popular in Trinidadand Guyana, is another creative contemporary expression of the
post-indenture experience. These forms of cultural fusion are part
of the making of the global world, where things from differentplaces get mixed, lose their original characteristics and becomesomething entirely new.
Most indentured workers stayed on after their contracts ended, or
returned to their new homes after a short spell in India. Consequently,
there are large communities of people of Indian descent in these
countries. Have you heard of the Nobel Prize-winning writer
Fig. 14 — Indian indentured labourers in a cocoa plantation in
Trinidad, early nineteenth century.
Discuss
Fig. 15 — Indentured laboureres photographed
for identification.
For the employers, the numbers and not thenames mattered.
89
The Making of a Global WorldV.S. Naipaul? Some of you may have followed the exploits of West
Indies cricketers Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Ramnaresh Sarwan.
If you have wondered why their names sound vaguely Indian, the
answer is that they are descended from indentured labour migrants
from India.
From the 1900s India’s nationalist leaders began opposing the system
of indentured labour migration as abusive and cruel. It was abolished
in 1921. Yet for a number of decades afterwards, descendants of
Indian indentured workers, often thought of as ‘coolies’, remained
an uneasy minority in the Caribbean islands. Some of Naipaul’s
early novels capture their sense of loss and alienation.
2.5 Indian Entrepreneurs Abroad
Growing food and other crops for the world market requiredcapital. Large plantations could borrow it from banks and markets.
But what about the humble peasant?
Enter the Indian banker. Do you know of the Shikaripuri shroffs
and Nattukottai Chettiars? They were amongst the many groups
of bankers and traders who financed export agriculture in Centraland Southeast Asia, using either their own funds or those borrowed
from European banks. They had a sophisticated system to transfer
money over large distances, and even developed indigenous forms
of corporate organisation.
Indian traders and moneylenders also followed European colonisers
into Africa. Hyderabadi Sindhi traders, however, ventured beyond
European colonies. From the 1860s they established flourishingemporia at busy ports worldwide, selling local and imported curios
to tourists whose numbers were beginning to swell, thanks to the
development of safe and comfortable passenger vessels.
2.6 Indian Trade, Colonialism and the Global System
Historically, fine cottons produced in India were exported to Europe.With industrialisation, British cotton manufacture began to expand,
and industrialists pressurised the government to restrict cotton
imports and protect local industries. Tariffs were imposed on cloth
imports into Britain. Consequently, the inflow of fine Indian cotton
began to decline.
From the early nineteenth century, British manufacturers also began
to seek overseas markets for their cloth. Excluded from the BritishFig. 16 — A contract form of an indentured
labourer.
The testimony of an indentured labourer
Extract from the testimony of Ram Narain
Tewary, an indentured labourer who spent tenyears on Demerara in the early twentieth century.
‘… in spite of my best efforts, I could not properly
do the works that were allotted to me ... In afew days I got my hands bruised all over and Icould not go to work for a week for which I wasprosecuted and sent to jail for 14 days. ... newemigrants find the tasks allotted to themextremely heavy and cannot complete them ina day. ... Deductions are also made from wagesif the work is considered to have been doneunsatisfactorily. Many people cannot thereforeearn their full wages and are punished in variousways. In fact, the labourers have to spend theirperiod of indenture in great trouble …’
Source: Department of Commerce and Industry,
Emigration Branch. 1916
SourceSource AIndia and the Contemporary World
90market by tariff barriers, Indian textiles now faced stiff competition
in other international markets. If we look at the figures of exports
from India, we see a steady decline of the share of cotton textiles:
from some 30 per cent around 1800 to 15 per cent by 1815. By the
1870s this proportion had dropped to below 3 per cent.
What, then, did India export? The figures again tell a dramatic
story. While exports of manufactures declined rapidly, export of

Similar stories can be told about the impact of Western conquest on

other parts of the nineteenth-century world.

2.4 Indentured Labour Migration from India

The example of indentured labour migration from India also

illustrates the two-sided nature of the nineteenth-century world.

It was a world of faster economic growth as well as great misery,

higher incomes for some and poverty for others, technologicaladvances in some areas and new forms of coercion in others.

In the nineteenth century, hundreds of thousands of Indian and

Chinese labourers went to work on plantations, in mines, and inroad and railway construction projects around the world. In India,

indentured labourers were hired under contracts which promised

return travel to India after they had worked five years on theiremployer’s plantation.

Most Indian indentured workers came from the present-day regions

of eastern Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, central India and the dry districtsof Tamil Nadu. In the mid-nineteenth century these regions

experienced many changes – cottage industries declined, land rents

rose, lands were cleared for mines and plantations. All this affectedthe lives of the poor: they failed to pay their rents, became deeply

indebted and were forced to migrate in search of work.New words

Indentured labour – A bonded labourer under

contract to work for an employer for a specific

amount of time, to pay off his passage to anew country or homeIndia and the Contemporary World

88Discuss the importance of language and

popular traditions in the creation of national

identity.The main destinations of Indian indentured

migrants were the Caribbean islands (mainly

Trinidad, Guyana and Surinam), Mauritius and Fiji.

Closer home, Tamil migrants went to Ceylon andMalaya. Indentured workers were also recruitedfor tea plantations in Assam.

Recruitment was done by agents engaged by

employers and paid a small commission. Many

migrants agreed to take up work hoping to escape

poverty or oppression in their home villages.Agents also tempted the prospective migrantsby providing false information about finaldestinations, modes of travel, the nature of thework, and living and working conditions. Often

migrants were not even told that they were to embark on a long

sea voyage. Sometimes agents even forcibly abducted lesswilling migrants.

Nineteenth-century indenture has been described as a ‘new system

of slavery’. On arrival at the plantations, labourers found conditionsto be different from what they had imagined. Living and working

conditions were harsh, and there were few legal rights.

But workers discovered their own ways of surviving. Many of them

escaped into the wilds, though if caught they faced severe punishment.Others developed new forms of individual and collective self-expression, blending different cultural forms, old and new. InTrinidad the annual Muharram procession was transformed into a

riotous carnival called ‘Hosay’ (for Imam Hussain) in which workers

of all races and religions joined. Similarly, the protest religion ofRastafarianism (made famous by the Jamaican reggae star BobMarley) is also said to reflect social and cultural links with Indianmigrants to the Caribbean. ‘Chutney music’, popular in Trinidadand Guyana, is another creative contemporary expression of the

post-indenture experience. These forms of cultural fusion are part

of the making of the global world, where things from differentplaces get mixed, lose their original characteristics and becomesomething entirely new.

Most indentured workers stayed on after their contracts ended, or

returned to their new homes after a short spell in India. Consequently,

there are large communities of people of Indian descent in these

countries. Have you heard of the Nobel Prize-winning writer

Fig. 14 — Indian indentured labourers in a cocoa plantation in

Trinidad, early nineteenth century.

Discuss

Fig. 15 — Indentured laboureres photographed

for identification.

For the employers, the numbers and not thenames mattered.

89

The Making of a Global WorldV.S. Naipaul? Some of you may have followed the exploits of West

Indies cricketers Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Ramnaresh Sarwan.

If you have wondered why their names sound vaguely Indian, the

answer is that they are descended from indentured labour migrants

from India.

From the 1900s India’s nationalist leaders began opposing the system

of indentured labour migration as abusive and cruel. It was abolished

in 1921. Yet for a number of decades afterwards, descendants of

Indian indentured workers, often thought of as ‘coolies’, remained

an uneasy minority in the Caribbean islands. Some of Naipaul’s

early novels capture their sense of loss and alienation.

2.5 Indian Entrepreneurs Abroad

Growing food and other crops for the world market requiredcapital. Large plantations could borrow it from banks and markets.

But what about the humble peasant?

Enter the Indian banker. Do you know of the Shikaripuri shroffs

and Nattukottai Chettiars? They were amongst the many groups

of bankers and traders who financed export agriculture in Centraland Southeast Asia, using either their own funds or those borrowed

from European banks. They had a sophisticated system to transfer

money over large distances, and even developed indigenous forms

of corporate organisation.

Indian traders and moneylenders also followed European colonisers

into Africa. Hyderabadi Sindhi traders, however, ventured beyond

European colonies. From the 1860s they established flourishingemporia at busy ports worldwide, selling local and imported curios

to tourists whose numbers were beginning to swell, thanks to the

development of safe and comfortable passenger vessels.

2.6 Indian Trade, Colonialism and the Global System

Historically, fine cottons produced in India were exported to Europe.With industrialisation, British cotton manufacture began to expand,

and industrialists pressurised the government to restrict cotton

imports and protect local industries. Tariffs were imposed on cloth

imports into Britain. Consequently, the inflow of fine Indian cotton

began to decline.

From the early nineteenth century, British manufacturers also began

to seek overseas markets for their cloth. Excluded from the BritishFig. 16 — A contract form of an indentured

labourer.

The testimony of an indentured labourer

Extract from the testimony of Ram Narain

Tewary, an indentured labourer who spent tenyears on Demerara in the early twentieth century.

‘… in spite of my best efforts, I could not properly

do the works that were allotted to me ... In afew days I got my hands bruised all over and Icould not go to work for a week for which I wasprosecuted and sent to jail for 14 days. ... newemigrants find the tasks allotted to themextremely heavy and cannot complete them ina day. ... Deductions are also made from wagesif the work is considered to have been doneunsatisfactorily. Many people cannot thereforeearn their full wages and are punished in variousways. In fact, the labourers have to spend theirperiod of indenture in great trouble …’

Source: Department of Commerce and Industry,

Emigration Branch. 1916

SourceSource AIndia and the Contemporary World

90market by tariff barriers, Indian textiles now faced stiff competition

in other international markets. If we look at the figures of exports

from India, we see a steady decline of the share of cotton textiles:

from some 30 per cent around 1800 to 15 per cent by 1815. By the

1870s this proportion had dropped to below 3 per cent.

What, then, did India export? The figures again tell a dramatic

story. While exports of manufactures declined rapidly, export of