INDENTURED WORLD > Indentured System or New Form of Slavery

Although the colonial authorities branded all their indentured recruits as labourers or coolies, they were actually from various castes and were practitioners of traditional occupations. There were Brahmins or priests, weavers, potters, oil makers, leather workers, army men, boatmen, land owners, palanquin bearers, potters, entertainers, artists, musicians and cultivators. The Majority of them were lower caste and agricultural labourers.

They had little knowledge of English, French or Dutch, which placed them at disadvantage. Though the indentured labour contract bound them only for  5 years of continuous service, they had to perform whatever the plantation management demanded.

On the plantations, the division of labour was along  racial lines. The white people occupied supervisory positions. The mixed people  born of African European union occupied the middle position and Africans occupied the third position. When Indians arrived they had to occupy the lowest position in the plantation society.

The most labour intensive jobs were reserved for Indian indentured labourers. Wherever Indian labourers were rebellious the planters made it a point to appoint the most notorious persons of non- Indian origin to control them.

Wage structures and its control by the planters

The indentured system placed power in the hands of the employers. The labour laws allowed the  planters to impose  heavy fines and harsh imprisonments if a labour failed to complete the tasks or if she/ he refused to work . Any worker who absented from work was considered as a deserter, an offensive punishable by a fine or imprisonment. In addition the labourers contract could be extended to any period while he was in jail.

Being physically weaker than Creole, majority of Indians could not complete the weekly task or earn minimum wage and were liable for punishment.

Police could arrest Indians if they were found two miles away from the plantations without a pass signed by the manager. Pass system was used effectively  to prevent the movement of the labourers and their right to complaint to the protector of Immigrants, the only source of redresses available to them.

The situation was so arranged that an Indian worker could only be found either on an estate or in hospital or jail. Labourers who finished their tasks early and went home could arrest and fined. Women, even in the advanced stage of pregnancy were made to work contrary to the rules.

The total control on every aspect of the life of the Indian indentured workers gave the plantation owners the power to keep wages low – even as the price of the sugar rose – and to use the Indian workers for anything at anytime. And the flow of the contract labourers from India continued for 80 years and made the planters as rich and powerful as slave owners.

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