From 1840 to 1917, one million Asians were shipped to the Americas.

This
was in response to scarcity of labour caused by the withdrawal of freed
Africans from plantation labour. Of these one million Asians,
approximately 500,000 of them were East Indians. These East Indians were
brought to the Caribbean under an indentured labour system in which they
had to provide cheap labour in exchange for pay.
- There were several push and pull factors that influenced the arrival of
Indians to the Caribbean.

PUSH FACTORS
- India’s population had significantly risen in the late 18th and early
19th century and as such, there was not enough land to divide among
the younger generations.
- In the 1850’s, India began to experience a great famine that saw an
exorbitant increase in food prices.
- As a result of the famine, wages distributed by the colonial
government were halved.

PULL FACTORS
- The Caribbean seemed attractive with high wages, shelter, medical
care and a chance to find new occupations besides agriculture.
- Indentured labour was only for a minimum of 5 years which allows
them to easily get away from the caste system in India.

East Indian emigration to the Caribbean in the nineteenth and early

twentieth centuries was not merely based on push and pull factors. Rather,
it was caused by a myriad of international and complex factors. The
development and intensification of world capitalism disturbed the
traditional economic and social systems in colonized territories.
Subsequently, East Indians in India were displaced from their homes and
decided to emigrate. Various European governments channeled this
available labor surplus from India to the Caribbean to resolve a so-called
"labor shortage" on the sugar plantations. Moreover, the movement of
thousands of East Indians with such a relative ease was directly related to
imperialism. The Indian government was under the tutelage of the British
government and therefore it was politically weak to enforce measures
against malpractices in the recruitment process.

East Indians were shipped to Guyana (238,000), Trinidad (143,939),

Suriname (43,404), Guadeloupe (42,236), Jamaica (37,027), Martinique
(25,404), French Guiana (8,500).
East Indian indentured laborers were mainly single males who were in the
age group of 20-30 years of age. They were recruited from the Northeast
and Southern regions of India. Of the total amount of emigrants, about
twenty five percent were female. The indenture service bound East Indian
workers for 5 years on a daily fixed wage and they were governed by
the plantation owners. As such, refusal to work or breach of contract were
punishable crimes that resulted in imprisonment.

Colony Number of Indentured Laborers

1844 1870 1917

Guyana 11 888 67 616 238 000

Trinidad and 5 403 40 400 143 939

Tobago

Suriname ** ** 43 404

Jamaica 4 500 15 100 37 027

Guadeloupe ** 14 403 42 236

Martinique ** 7 356 25 404

French Guiana ** 4 447 8 500

** = These countries had not emancipated their African population.