Should Indians in the Diaspora demand reparation for indentureship?

INVITATION TO 103^rd ZOOM PUBLIC MEETING

By Staff Reporter

The Indian indenture system was a scheme of bonded servitude in which more than one million Indians were transported to labour in European colonies, as a substitute for slave labor, following the abolition of slavery in the early 19th century. The system was used in the British Empire from 1833, in the French colonies from 1848, and in the Dutch Empire from 1863. British Indian indentureship lasted until the 1920s. It resulted in the development of a large Indian diaspora in the Caribbean, East and South Africa, Réunion, Seychelles, Mauritius and Fiji.

Indentured labourers were recruited to work on sugar, cotton and tea plantations, and on rail construction projects. They were contracted with false promises and misinformation. Some of them were kidnapped, “enslaved” and compelled to work on the plantations where they suffered all kinds of human rights violations, abuse and exploitation. Should there be reparations to the descendants of Indian indentureds for crimes committed against their forebears who were duped into leaving India, underpaid and cheated for their labour, jailed, beaten and robbed of the land that they were promised?

Indentureship is one of the subjects included at the Centre for Reparation Research (CRR) at The University of the West Indies (UWI). The CRR’s mission is threefold: (1) to promote research on the legacies of colonialism, native genocide, enslavement and indentureship in the Caribbean, and how to bring justice and positive transformation to these legacies; (2) to promote education at The UWI and across Caribbean school systems on the legacies of colonialism, enslavement and native genocide and the need for justice and repair; and (3) to promote advocacy for reparatory justice by building a capacity for consultancy to CARICOM, Caribbean states, the UN and other relevant institutions, public-awareness raising, and supporting activism for reparatory and decolonial justice from grassroots to governments.

Please join us THIS SUNDAY for a joint CRR (UWI), ICC & AGI ZOOM Public Meeting, May 22, 2022 at (1.00 p.m. Belize), (3.00 p.m. New York/Eastern time), (3.00 p.m. Trinidad/Atlantic time), (3.00 p.m. Guyana), (4.00 p.m. Suriname), (8.00 p.m. England), (9.00 p.m. South Africa), (Mon 12.10 a.m. India, ND), (Mon 7.00 a.m. Fiji).