Brief reflections on the 163rd anniversary of Indians arriving in St Vincent

Sunday, June 2, the 163rd arrival of East Indians to St. Vincent was celebrated with a National Cultural and Education Rally at Calder, organised by the Indian Heritage Foundation and the Education Committee of the Calder Watch Association. The actual anniversary date was June 1, which was a Saturday as it was in 1861. Although it is a special day for East Indians it is a Vincentian Day since twenty-three years after Emancipation, they joined those they met here in building our Vincentian society. This was not the original intention for they were under contract with a promise of return to their homeland. That first voyage actually came from Madras, but others that followed were from Calcutta.

Why were they brought here? The reason we were given over the years and taught in school was that they came to provide labour for the estates since the enslaved Africans who were freed in 1838, were not willing to continue working on the estates, resulting in a shortage of labour to continue the cultivation of sugar cane. Moreover, there was also the view that the presence of Immigrants would have stimulated the native labourers to work. It must be stated too, that there were other immigrants who preceded them. From as early as 1839 there were Liberated Africans, who were captured from ships still participating in the Slave Trade and taken to Sierra Leone and St. Helena. The second ship with Indians from Calcutta had even taken on Liberated Africans from St. Helena. Portuguese who came from Madeira in the 1840s, and in the late 1850s ‘Poor Whites’ so labelled, who came from Barbados and took up residence at Dorsetshire Hill and at Mt. Pleasant in Bequia.

The issue of a labour shortage was false. As late as 1872, the Lieutenant Governor Rennie, declared that there were enough Creole labourers to carry out the necessary sugar cultivation. He stated, moreover, that the introduction of immigrants had not stimulated the native labourers to work. The fact is that Vincentian workers were migrating to Trinidad because of higher wages and better working conditions. But even for those who remained, one of them, Goodluck Clarke, accompanied by two other labourers, informed the 1882 Royal Commission that they were willing to work but that since the introduction of Indian immigrants they were unfairly dealt with. The Lieutenant Governors complained that when Indian immigrants were brought to our shores there were often delays before they were taken up by the estates. The planters had hoped to keep the former enslaved still attached to the estates by blocking any other opportunities that might be available. This included refusing to sell land in small lots and having to secure licenses to be involved in other economic activities. They hoped to control labour the way they did under slavery.

The first ship that arrived in 1861 the Travancore brought 260 immigrants, the journey from Madras taking 92 days. It had on board 160 men, 62 women, 34 children under 10 years and 4 infants under 1 year. There were also two births on board. They landed at Edinboro and were housed at the Commissariat Building before being dispersed to 10 estates, the largest number 49, going to Rabacca, 40 to Tourama and 30 at Argyle.

Despite their contractual arrangements with particular regulations, including a promise to assist with their return to India, they suffered many abuses and ill-treatment and often had their wages reduced. Their complaints to the authorities brought no redress and led by workers from Argyle, with some from neighbouring estates, they walked to Kingstown on October 7, 1882 to take their case to the Lieutenant Governor. Some who were considered ring leaders were arrested and charged, among the charges, that of going beyond the two-mile limit.

With a sugar economy experiencing growing difficulties, Indians no longer under contract and those whose contracts were about to expire were told that their services were no longer required. Appeals to the Lt. Governor for employment by non-indentured Indians brought little success despite efforts to get some to go to Trinidad or British Guyana and to get estates moving into arrowroot to take some. The last ship bringing Indian immigrants had arrived on May 22, 1880. Demands grew in the 1880s for assistance with Back passages.

Of a total of 2,472 who had arrived by 1880, 1,050 had decided to return to India. Indians in SVG today are largely the descendants of those who opted to make this country their home. Many have made their contribution to the building of this country. I have mentioned at different times Evans Morgan who was elected as part of the George Charles/Joshua Eight Army of Liberation at the first election in 1951 under Universal Adult Suffrage. I mention here another one, whom Sir Rupert John listed as a Pioneer in Nation Building. He is Henry Crichton whose parents were among those who first arrived in 1861. Following his father’s death, he moved to Chile on land his father had bought while they lived on the Argyle estate. Henry established a home and a shop and began with a donkey cart selling items around the area. After a short stay in Brazil, on his return he began using horse carts to take goods from Georgetown to Kingstown, and with the arrival of motor vehicles started a daily trip to Kingstown providing an excellent service, even taking shopping lists from housewives and bringing back the items they wanted. He had, according to Sir Rupert, invested in an arrowroot factory in the area when the proprietors of the large factory closed their doors to peasant farmers. There are many other areas in which descendants of the Indians who arrived between 1861 and 1880 made their contribution to the development of this country. So, June 1, 1861, is a day not only for East Indians but for all Vincentians.

• Dr Adrian Fraser is a social commentator and historian