At the holding depot were immigrants from all parts of India and they were kept there until enough were assembled to make a full ship load. There were recruiting agencies across North India. Tamil workers mainly departed from Madras. According to Surinamese scholar, Dr. Mohan Gautham, the Indians who came to Guyana and Suriname were neither from a single homogeneous cultural background, nor from a single region or from a single language group or speech locality. Like Surinamese Hindustanis, Indians who came to Guyana spoke mainly Bhojpuri, Magadhi, Bundeli, Chatisgarhi, Pahari, Avadhi, Braj and Khari Boli. "There were also the people who came from the tribal belt of Chota Nagpur, Nepal, Punjab, Rajasthan, Bengal, Assam, Orissa, and even from South India (Andhra Pradesh). They spoke speak their mother tongues and regional languages and even caste dialects (like Kaithi, the script of the Kayastha and business community and Telugu)."Â They also communicated in Bazari Hindi, Hindustani, and Urdu, which were spoken as the trading languages in the cities of North India. According to Gautham, after spending long periods at the holding centre at Garden Reach Depot, a lingua franca emerged, Hindi. Also, it was from this depot that many illiterate Hindustanis became eager to read the Ramayana. It was here that life-time friendships were cemented and many seek tutoring which continued on the sugar plantations when they arrived in the Caribbean. (http://www.saxakali.com/indocarib/sojourner7a.htm).
[quote author=Hema Malini link=topic=69222.msg431452#msg431452 date=1343679604]
Like Surinamese Hindustanis,
[/quote]
bobbice hindustanis speak Dutch as well............. ::rofl::
