Imagine that you are a SM serving in the british Caribbean in the second half of the 1800’s.

write a
letter to your chief justice in Britain explaining the factors which contributed to the large scale
importation of Indian labour into the Caribbean, and some of the difficulties faced by these
immigrants up to 1876 ** your answer should explain at least THREE of the factors responsible for
the importation of Indian immigrants and THREE difficulties they faced (2011)

Dear Chief Justice,

As you know, I have been stationed in Trinidad for the past 30 years overseeing the system of Indian
indentureship. Im sure you are well aware of the massive influx of Indian indentured labourers,which
has rapidly become the most significant source of labour in not only my my island, but in other
colonies such as Jamaica.This mass importation has been occurring due to many factors ranging
from the availability of Indentured Indian workers and the lack of hindrances against their importation
to the planters’ inherent need for an increased labour force after emancipation in 1838 .However,their
experiences,I am afraid, have been challenging as they seem to consistently face a host of difficulties
in which I have been regularly dealing with including being frequently forced to serve beyond the legal
limit when working indoors to the refusal by the planters to pay wages.

PARAGRAPH ONE
TOPIC SENTENCE: Firstly,due to the fact that India is a crown colony,it would be easy to
access labour with little hindrances from both Indians themselves as well as our shared
Mother country.
-Labourers would be willing to leave their country for Caribbean colonies:
To escape economic distress, especially during times of famine.
With hopes of earning higher wages or escape debts
-It would not be going into uncharted land or encroaching onto other countries’ land
-Planter’s influence is strong and so the idea would be met with little pushback
I.E Availability

PARAGRAPH TWO
TOPIC SENTENCE:Furthermore,another factor that I believe plays a role in this mass
importation is the fact that planters want to restore their control over their labourers.
-Since emancipation and the establishment of peasant villages labour is not guaranteed
-They no longer have any control over the freed Africans and cannot force them to work
for them for as long as planters want.
-They need a new labour force as well as contract workers to restore their control in
terms of doing what they want like overworking or refusing to pay wages.
-They wanted to get back their traditional control over the labour force, limit free people's
mobility and set their own terms of work and wages-planters

PARAGRAPH THREE
TOPIC SENTENCE:Additionally,I believe that planters’ inherent need for an increased
labour force also played its role in this surge of importation
- Provide immigrant labour to work land in the colonies where there was unused land.
This would serve to correct the unfavourable balance between population and land.
 - By doing so it would keep the sugar economy as is but also give way to the
possibility of an increase in output
-Immigration was considered important in areas such as trinidad and suriname Where the
areas to be cultivated we're beyond the capacity of the available labor Supply in the
windward Islands when metayage have failed to achieve its worthy objectives and in places
where the movement of free people had created an absolute scarcity of Labourers

PARAGRAPH FOUR
TOPIC SENTENCE: As a result of this, Indian indentured labourers have come to face a
host of difficulties including being frequently forced to serve beyond their legal limit.
-The legal limit was 10 hours indoors
-In crop time, men and women would work up to 15 hours a day.
-on top of this labour contracts were based on a schedule of task work established in
1834.It was originally designed for African workers and was taking on the Indians who were
neither as powerful nor as durable
-This meant that they were forced to work over their required hours on labour contracts
in which they were not built for

PARAGRAPH FIVE
TOPIC SENTENCE:Moreover,many planters continue to exercise their control by refusing to
pay the set wages earned by indentured labourers.
-All wages had to be paid in cash, not kind, and employers could not make any
deductions. The law stated that if employers did not pay on time they would be fined. Yet this
occurred frequently and they did not get fined.
-Indians under contract were supposed to be guaranteed the same wages paid as
creole workers but did not see it often.
-Not something new as this was a recurring problem with the apprenticeship system
-Rigorous laws against this were rarely enforced

PARAGRAPH SIX
TOPIC SENTENCE:Lastly,employers continue to neglect the immigrants medical care and
fail to provide them with adequate housing
-By doing so this caused them to come down with illnesses frequently
-Immigration officials tried to make sure that the welfare of immigrants were looked after,
but employers often harassed them and they could not perform their job duties
-This lead to a high rate of illness and death which would thereby reduce the labour force