The Coolies from India - Indian Indentured Labor

I recently read the Sea of Poppies by Amitav Ghosh.While the book is primarily about the little known  but extremely important role which India played during the Opium war between Britain and China, it is  the role which Britain played in dispersing the Indian diaspora thousand of miles from their home land which got my interest. Interestingly enough last week's Economist also  had a cover story of  the Diaspora which focuses primarily on the overseas Chinese and Indian  but viewed from an economic aspect

When slavery was abolished in 1833 ,  the British were faced with a dilemma as to how to staff their various plantations ,( whether these were sugarcane plantations in South East Asia or the  Caribbean or Mauritius or Fiji or in places such " British Guiana " in South America or work in tea and rubber plantation in Sri Lanka and Malaysia ) and various projects such are railroads across the world. By this time Britain had already colonized India.However they were not to first to start the process of indenture. That " honor" goes to the French who in 1830 took indentured laborers from Pondicherry and Karikal to the French Indian Ocean Island of Reunion.

 Theoretically the indenture was for a limited period after which they were supposed to be shipped back to India, but  in a lot of cases that never happened. They were given some small amounts to forfeit the passage back or in places such as Trinidad allocated land . By 1870 almost 1.2 million Indians were shipped abroad. Their transportation conditions were marginally better than the slaves, although  they were not shackled.

Where they appeared to have differed from the African slaves in the United States was that the Africans were from different regions and from different tribes. Once they reached their destinations they were dispersed and subsumed into and adopted a sub-culture of their own but which was aligned to the Christianity. There were of course areas such as Louisiana,Haiti, Brazil, where they retained some of their native culture particularly in terms of voodooism.

With regards to the  Indian indentured laborers or coolies as they were referred to,  it appeared that people were sent in batches from a particular province. These included a  provincial mix and hence retained their own caste, religion and culture. This again was intertwined with the cultures of the people they interacted with. However what was interesting that even after  many decades and in some cases generations later, their social norms , their language all seemed to be  in a time wrap. Their  home land India had changed and moved on, but their vision  and memories were that of what  their forefathers had left behind.

We are all familiar with  slavery and how the Africans  were shipped to the Americas and the Caribbean and the trials and tribulations they suffered.The discrimination which they have faced in the United States and which some of them feel they still face even though the President is black. There have been numerous books written, along with television shows and movies produced about the difficulties they had to go through.

On the other hand  there appears to be very little literature in the common domain about the discrimination suffered by the Indian indentured laborers.Apart from some academic papers and historical records in the Archives in India and perhaps the respective countries, there has been  very  little written about the suffering and discrimination these " coolies "  suffered The only thing I have read about the life styles of the descendants of  these people are the books written by V S Naipaul  such as A House for Mr. Biswas, The Mystic Masseur and so on and by his brother Shiva Naipaul. These were in a humorous tone rather than about the hardships suffered by their parents and grandparents.Yet they persevered and built a life for them selves and prospered in spite of being minorities and being treated as second class citizens.

It is interesting that the Indian academics and historians have not focused on this aspect of "Indian history" . I for one would be fascinated to read about the history of these migrants. Hopefully one of these days......

New York - Random Observations

Recession - What  recession ?

Just came back from a two week trip to the United States. New York City is obviously not part of America. We keep reading about the recession and the unemployment but we did not see any sign of that in the Big Apple.

Everywhere we went there were crowds. The stores were all chock a block full with  people not just looking but buying. Restaurants were packed  with people waiting to get into the more trendy places. Retailers such as Uniqlo of Japan are opening up large flag ship stores. Madison Avenue is seeing a revival of trendy stores. The Apple Store near Central Park was packed and this was during a week day.

The streets crowds on Fifth Avenue reminded me of the sidewalks of Hong Kong during lunch hours. The museums  were full. Granted a large number appeared to be tourists - even though it was not the season.

I am told that the property prices did not go through a big correction during the financial crises. Some of the seedier parts of New York such as the Bowery are now going upmarket with some new apartments selling in the tens of millions. Based on my limited knowledge I had always viewed the Upper East or West Side as the place to stay and would have expected them to be the more expensive places, but for smaller places, prices appeared to be much higher in the areas between mid-town and downtown  as it is popular among the younger generation.

If this is New York during recession I wonder what it would be like during boom times ?

Just Like Us

This time when we reached JFK we saw a mad scramble for the immigration counters. The lines were huge . As is always the case we ended up in the slowest moving queue. It took us almost an hour to pass through the counter. This was something we are used to when we return to Delhi, but by contrast this time we sailed through the immigration in less than 10 minutes. What a change.

Of the taxis and limousines we took during our visit almost ninety five per cent of the drivers were from Punjabi's ( Indian or Pakistanis )  or from the sub-continent.  Much against my nature , I surprised my family by actually making an attempt to chat with a Punjabi driver  who has been there since the mid-eighties . He said his elder brother was a lawyer by training and a retired bureaucrat and had now migrated from India  to Canada. Upon being told that my daughter was a lawyer, he wanted some advice as to how his brother could come the New York and start a immigration practice.

The Americans like the Indians ( certainly the North Indians) love to eat and snack throughout the day. While in the past we had our traditional sweets and snacks, we now add  in  pizza's , burgers and and other eatables. Our  obesity levels will soon be matching those in the United States.

The aggressiveness of the New Yorker is well known.We have definitely overtaken them. When we have a traffic altercation it is not unusual for one of the parties to whip out a pistol, shoot the other party and flee the scene.

Just a week or so before our arrival in New York the East Coast of the United States had a unexpected snow storm. Some parts of New York  and adjoining states had black outs lasting over a week. Increasingly houses in the suburbs are now installing generators to avoid black outs which apparently are becoming common. Sounds familiar ? 

New York vs London

This is the first time I have spent this much time in New York. I have been to London more often  and always regarded is as my favorite city . In a lot of ways they are very similar. Both of them are their country's and global financial centers. Over the last century and a half  both the cities have benefited from  wealthy patrons who have donated to build up their cultural institutions particularly their art galleries, their museums, their cultural performance centers. Both of them offer a rich variety of global cultural events - art, plays, dance and music performances . They are both the favorite cities for the global rich, and aspiring young global professional whether they are  Indians, Chinese,  Russians,  Middle Eastern,  Africans or South Americans. London however  is more expensive than New York in every way.

In my personal opinion, where they differ is that in that in London the various ethnic communities appear to comfortable in their own skin  and retain their own national identity. Walking  down Oxford street you see Africans in their bright colorful national dresses, the Arabs in their robes, an occasional Sikh bhai ji  in his flowing beard and kurta pajama. They are all equally at home and no body gives them a second look . I did not see too much of that in New York. Here  everyone gets Americanized. They all want to appear to fit in, to wear the same stylish clothes and for those who have been there long enough adopt a veneer of New York aggressiveness in their mannerism.

If it was not for the long flight I could consider switching my loyalties to New York especially since my daughter is there.