Why I Will Never Celebrate Indian Arrival Day

Why I Will Never Celebrate Indian Arrival Day

Indentured labor in the Caribbean marked the beginning of disease, dependencies, prejudices, and ills that continue to plague Indo-Caribbean communities

By Rajiv Mohabir
June 2, 2016 | British colonization, Caribbean, Guyana, Indian Arrival Day, forced migration, indentured labor
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Each year on May 5 Guyana celebrates “Indian Arrival Day,” commemorating the arrival of Indian indentured laborers to the Caribbean. On May 5, 1838, the S.S. Hesperus and the S.S. Whitby arrived along the shores of Berbice and Demerara in Guyana. Together they carried 396 Indians, referred to as “coolies,” from Chota Nagpur, then Bihar, 300 miles from Kolkata. Since slavery had recently ended and African-descended people had been emancipated in the British colonies in 1833, the British were in need of cheap labor. They looked to India, the jewel in the Empire’s crown—a jewel that became a sugar crystal.

The first Indian arrivals to the Caribbean were part of the Gladstone experiment: a continuation of forced migration from the Indian subcontinent to see if Indians would be an adequate and strong enough replacement for Africans and African-descended slaves. The British had already been practicing indenture in the Indian Ocean in their colonies in Réunion and Mauritius. Each coolie was bound by a renewable contract to serve on the British sugar plantations for a period of five years. Lured away from their homes by the promise of riches, their passage across the sea at the hands of the British was brutal, followed by the degrading dehumanization that occurred on the plantations. Even though they were “paid” a wage, it was seldom enough to buy any kind of freedom from the plantation economy, except for rum that dulled the pain of its hellish conditions.
[url=http://aaww.org/indian-arrival-day/]READ IT ALL HERE

well is how yuh observe the day.  who say celebrate.  observe it for wat it was..truthfully.  t

dat helps to put reality, then as now, and through the years into right its perspective..helps see what a good future can be...how to make a good future right here...rather there in the west indies

179 years ago and this chap talking shyte !

The best thing that ever happened to Indos 

He skunt wouldda been begging alms in Bombay or Madras, today !

or live like a slumgdog

Listen to he Braying :  >

" This familial haunting, this legacy leads me to ask myself and my community,

why should we celebrate the beginnings of our oppression in the Caribbean

while we still feel the effects of violent colonization ? "

Writer is Rajiv Mohabir ....check out de fat cat !

I thought was a dude in a Dhoti with red dot on forehead ~

Not a ghetto styling clean shaven head.... with ear ring !  ::LOL::

so no one stopping him from going back to the ganges

When I came to Canada was learning the subway and bus routes

I asked a matured, sophisticated looking white man for some directions.

He looked at me and said "Hit the road and fock off"

From that day onward, I never asked a white man, anything !

and I will never ....

[quote author=ketchim link=topic=109916.msg738374#msg738374 date=1496331623]
When I came to Canada was learning the subway and bus routes

I asked a matured, sophisticated looking white man for some directions.

He looked at me and said "Hit the road and fock off"

From that day onward, I never asked a white man, anything !

and I will never ....
[/quote]

what I discovered is that deh did not know anyway..and true..deh wud not tell you even if they did.  white man living next to Bloor. and he doh know if you ask him..literally doh know. I simply used to get lost and work my way through and presto in knew the city in 3 months.

and when I got a car even more.  it wud not be bragging to say that I know now like from Peterborough all the way to Niagara up to Barrie like the back of my hand..with no help from the man

[quote author=The Captain link=topic=109916.msg738371#msg738371 date=1496330887]
so no one stopping him from going back to the ganges
[/quote]

he might take a trip but check his pocket....his ticket will always be return ::LOL:: ::LOL:: ::LOL:: ::LOL::