recasting indian women in colonial guyana:
gender, labor and caste in the lives of indentured and free laborersi
by m. seenarine
August
26th, 1996
Abstract
Indentured
emigration (1838-1917) had different effects on the population in
guyana, based on an individual’s gender, religion, class, caste,
race, location and age. This paper explores how these effects were
different with relevance to indian women. While the shortage of
indian females during the early indenture period might have resulted
in an improved status for some indian women in guyana, it also led to
various forms of control and servitude. During the later indenture
period, indian women were ‘re-casted’ through the blending of
indian religions and cultures, and the rebuilding of the indian male
family structure, both of which served to divide women and reinforce
male control of females’ labor, sexuality, reproduction and
mobility.
Women’s remain bonded laborers within the indian family after they completed their period of indenture and indentureship was abolished. As indian families relocated away from the plantations to villages and towns, indian men’s control over the labor of females and children contributed to the development of indian prosperity. And at the same time, the domination of men served as a way to limit indian women’s access to property and other economic resources. However, colonial and male authority and oppression were continually being opposed by women as part of individual and collective resistance.
Introduction
Historical
materials relating to ‘indian’ii
women under colonialism in guyanaiii
is extremely rare and inadequate.iv
This problem is complicated by the fact that until recently,
scholarship on the caribbean have focused on a predominantly male
model of a plural societyv
divided by race; gender is considered as a related to race. There are
several limitations in this approach including rigid concepts of race
and gender, and assumptions of ‘cultural persistence’vi
and similarity within ethnic categories. It is true that guyanese
society is divided by race. Nevertheless, gender and cultural
categories need to be viewed not only as part of race, but also in
relation to issues of power and dominance in the region.
The
central argument pursued in this paper is that south asian indentured
emigration had diverse effects on the population in guyana based on
issues of gender, culture, class, caste, race, location and age. This
paper explores how some of these processes occurred with relevance to
women during the indenture period (1838-1917). Indenture means a
contract, and indentured indians signed a contract before they left
india which bound them to accept certain conditions. During their
period of indenture, female laborers were not free.
This
paper disputes the myth that the shortage of indian women on colonial
plantations during the early period of indenture resulted in an
improved status and mobility for the majority of south asian women,
relative to that in india. This myth ignores women’s subjection to
control under various forms of male domination and oppression during
the early period, including violence and abuse. Further, I hope to
demonstrate that the process of male control intensified during the
later indenture period. In both periods, the triple burdens of wage
work, childcare, and housework were excessive for most women who had
to work harder to fashion a new life for themselves and their
families in colonial guyana.
This
paper explores some of the gendered outcomes of being a south asian
migrant laborer in guyana by examining the contributing factors that
made women’s experiences different, in particular what occurred in
relation to labor, culture and caste. Gender refer to the culturally
defined modes of behavior deemed appropriate to the sexes. The paper
is loosely organized according to the history of indentureship, and
divided into four broad areas that contributed to making women’s
experiences different: (1) social and economic factors, (2) culture,
(3) family aspects; and (4) women’s resistance to various
structures of power, authority and control.
To
provide some background, the first section starts with a brief note
regarding colonization and slavery in guyana, followed by a short
discussion on the methods and concepts used in the paper, and an
outline of the paper’s limitations. A breakdown of caste, class and
gender distribution of south asians in guyana comes next, followed by
a brief summary of the position and status of women in colonial and
present day india. This background provides a context for discussion
of issues within the main body of the paper.
Starting
with a discussion on recruitment of indian women to labor colonies,
the causes of indentured indian emigration to asia, africa, and the
caribbean are then explored. A short description of the caste and
class status of female indentured emigrants follow, along with an
exploration of their experiences at the emigration depot and during
their voyage to the caribbean. This is presented as a way of delving
into a major factor of difference among the indentured population,
the shortage of indian women compared to indian men, and its
consequences. Throughout the indenture period, the population of east
indian females was less than half the population of indian men in the
colony.
The
women who emigrated were not passive or ‘docile coolies.’ Some
were actively resisting various forms of domination through
emigration, and most engaged in resistance on the estates. Murders
and transfers of many indian women on the estates was a sign of their
resistance to oppression by south asian men, families and cultures in
the colony. Women also resisted exploitation as cheap laborers, and
being treated as sexual objects, by european men. A claim is made
that women’s sexual exploitation was a contributing factor to
indian resistance movements on the plantations throughout the
indenture period. As a result, during the later period of indenture,
the importation of indian females into the colony was viewed mainly
in terms of them having a stabilizing effect on the predominantly
male labor force.
Continuing
along with social and economic factors, the exploitation of indian
women’s labor by colonial planters and indian men is explored next.
The main argument presented is that women’s labor continued to be
capitalized after they completed their period of indenture, and even
after indentured labor was abolished. As indian families relocated
away from the plantations to villages and towns, indian men’s
control over the labor of females and children contributed to the
development of south asian prosperity. And at the same time, the
domination of men served as a way to limit east indian women’s
ownership of property and other economic resources.
In
the second section of the paper, culture and caste among indian
immigrants during the early and later periods of indenture are
explored. The debate over women’s role in indian class formation in
the previous section is taken up here by an exploration into the
blending, or homogenization, of indian religions and cultures in
guiana. The main point of this analysis is to discover how these
cultural processes were gendered and oppressive to women, especially
lower caste women who formed the majority of female emigrants.
In
the third section of the paper, women’s role within the indian
family structure during the later period of indenture is explored,
including the indian family under colonialism and marriage. In the
fourth section of the paper, women’s resistance within the indian
family structure is discussed. The main argument made here is that
throughout the period of indentureship, indian women fought to
maintain their relative degree of autonomy. The paper concludes with
a brief note on women’s resistance against indentureship and
colonialism.
Historical
background of colonization and slavery
Guyana,
with a territory of 83,000 square miles, is the only english-speaking
country in south america. The three counties of demerara, berbice and
essequibo, have a total population of under one million people,
divided into six major ethnic categories: amerindian, european,
african, creole (mixed), chinese, and indian. The two dominant ethnic
groups, african and indian, combine to form almost ninety percent of
the total population, with indians having a slight numerical
majority.
The
region’s early colonial history was marked by conflicts between
several european powers - spanish, dutch, french and british. An
early trading post was established on the essequibo coast in 1616,
and sugar cultivation was introduced to the colony in 1658. Early
european colonists found the indigenous amerindian population hostile
and unsuitable as plantation laborers.vii
To meet their labor requirements, planters became part of the trade
of enslaved african peoples in the americas.viii
The establishment of the berbice colony in 1621, by the dutch west
india company, saw the first group of africans who were captured and
traded in africa, then imported and enslaved on plantations in
guyana.
By
1803, there were over 40,000 africans who were enslaved and ‘free’
in the colony. The living conditions on the plantations were harsh;
as a result, resistance and rebellion were frequent. Caribbean
feminist researcher, Janet Momsen, points out that that the majority
of enslaved women (including pregnant women) worked in the fields
under harsh conditions and were subject to the same physical
punishment as men.ix
In addition to class oppression and racism, women were also subjected
to both african and white male oppression. As part of estate
punishment, women were stripped naked, whiped, placed into solitary
confinement or had their hands and feet locked to stocks, forced to
wear a collar, and sexually abused by white planters; there were
several reports of white overseers kicking pregnant african women in
the womb.x
African
women resisted colonial racism and enslavement by several means,
including faking illness, refusing to work, verbally abusing owners
and administrators, destroying crops, using poison and ‘obeah’
(witchcraft), suicide, limiting their fertility, leaving the estate
or running away, and by active rebellion. All forms of resistance had
a price, and female rebels who were caught were executed.xi
Nevertheless, most african women resisted their captors every day of
their lives. Women participated in a huge rebellion in guiana in
1763, led by Cuffy, which succeeded in controlling the greater part
of the berbice colony for eleven months, and was only suppressed with
the aid of troop reinforcements brought from holland.xii
In
1814, when the territory was finally ceded to britain, female
insurgency continued. In fact, resistance by enslaved, free and rebel
african women and men was a major contributing factor to the
abolition of slavery, and colonialism, in the caribbean. For example,
guyanese historian Walter Rodney (1981) points out that women were
major participants in resistance movements in the capital,
georgetown, from 1891 to 1905 (:205-8).
With
emancipation of slavery in 1835, planters (not enslaved peoples) were
compensated and compelled to free their african laborers. The british
ruling elite sought to block the movement of africans away from the
plantations and limit their access to resources in order to force
them to depend on the plantation for work and survival. However,
there was popular resistance and reluctance of formerly enslaved
people to continue their relationship with europeans as laborers. The
majority of africans moved away from the plantations. Many african
women moved into towns where they were employed as domestic servants.
Colonists were once again face with the problem of finding labor for
their plantations, as africans were unwilling to work at the
prevailing ‘slave’ wages. In their struggle against the african
peasantry,xiii
and to meet their labor needs, the british tapped into their empire
to create a cheaper, international, bonded labor market, comprised of
poor laborers.
As
a result, bonded laborers were imported: portuguese from maderia and
azores (31,628 between 1835 and 1862), from china (14,000 between
1853 and 1912) and india (238,960 between 1838 and 1917) to the
guyana. From 1838 to 1928, a total of 340,792 indentured laborers
were brought to the guiana. The life of indentured laborers on the
plantations differed very little from that of the enslaved people,
with the important difference that they were free to leave after
their contract expired.
Both
enslaved and indentured women contributed to the development of
european industrial capitalism through their labor. Yet, their common
experiences under the estate system did not lead to sustained class
or gender awareness, nor to the liberation of women. There are
reasons why this is so. For example, Momsen writes that labor on
colonial plantations “bestowed on Caribbean women a degree of
social and economic independence which, in the post-emancipation
period, colonial and neo-colonial agencies such as the church and
education system sought to destroy” (ibid.:1-2). The paper explores
how some of these agencies served to limit indian women’s
independence in particular.
Re-interpreting
(his)tory
In
his study of colonial records, south asian historian, Ranajit Guha,
wrote that peasant insurrections are perceived as “being purely
spontaneous and unpremeditated affairs.”xiv
He continues, “in bourgeois-nationalist historiography it is an
elite consciousness which is read into all peasant movements as their
motive force” (ibid.:38). Guha informs us that the poor or
subaltern class were resisting colonial domination from its very
inception. Their strategies of resistance ranged from formation of
committees to seek redress, to outright rebellion against british
rule. Nevertheless, it was the middle and upper classes who were
credited for these countless acts of resistance, which resulted in
the national independence movements for large regions in south asia.
Keeping
Guha’s observations in mind, all colonial and national records
cited here must be questioned as to the bias and motivations of the
‘historian.’ The colonial motivations include record keeping by
white men primarily for (1) administrative use by other white men in
the colonial government, (2) to justify colonialism through the
demonization of the colonial subject(s) in relation to their
‘civilized masters,’ and (3) to reform the abuses of colonialism
in order to maintain its practice. National records serve similar
purposes.
In
spite of limitations, imperial records are some of the few sources
available which provides us with a sense, (even a false one), of the
history of ‘the de-historicized.’ This paper makes use of the
written accounts of european military bureaucrats cited by present
day historians, in an effort to re-construct the history of east
indian women in guyana. In addition, an attempt is made to critique
and de-construct various colonial and national viewpoints included
here, around issues of gender, caste, labor, and morality.
Categories
such as race, culture, caste and gender, are historically and
conditionally contingent. They are are not fixed, but part of a
historical process in a particular context. Invariably, these
categories operate in conjunction with or respond to issues of power,
access and the control of cultural, social, economic, and
environmental resources. At the same time, constructions of race and
gender are always contested and challenged. This paper explores some
of these obvious and not so obvious processes, by centering on the
experiences of indian indentured female laborers. It goes beyond the
plural versus assimilation debate to explore how common consent is
established and maintained within
ethnic categories and across
constructions of gender.
Limitations
Due
to the vast scope of issues raised here and the limited data
available, some generalizations are used in this paper with the
understanding that there were a diversity of experiences among indian
women during indentureship in guiana, and that these tentative
assumptions will have operated differently along this range of
experience. Even though concepts explored here are useful, given the
wide range of experiences, they have to be tested with specific
studies which focus on how male control, social regulation and
cultural production processes operate in specific circumstances as
well as in the lives of specific individuals.
Although
there is an obligation to explore the specific nature of experiences
and exploitation of east south asian women under indenture, I hope to
demonstrate that they were not passive recipients, but were
constantly resisting multiple forms of oppression in both colonial
india and guiana. The decision by some to leave india was in of
itself a form of resistance. However, information regarding their
resistance within the indian family and community, and against
indentureship and colonialism is most lacking. This essay is severely
limited in this sense. Another serious restriction is that while this
article focus on the role of women within mainstream hindu culture,
there is a lack of data and analysis regarding women’s experiences
as part of south indian, hindu out-caste, muslim and christian
cultures.
The
paper has grown out of my interests, as an activist and academic, to
understand the historical processes which led to the domination and
subordination of women in south asia and the caribbean. It relies
upon south asian women’s experiences as a main data source, and
will serve to inform women on issues affecting them. Although a
member of the dominant male oppressor group, I locate myself within
the critical subjectivities of class, caste and (to a much less
extent) gender oppression and resistance. The representations of some
women’s struggles here by a lower caste/class, guyanese-american,
male researcher is necessarily biased and incomplete; still, it is
hoped that the text serves as a challenge to both author and reader
to continue this discourse in all of its complexities and
contradictions.
This
process of reclaiming female histories and subjectivities is critical
to post-colonial theory and practice. An improvement in status and
survival of women and natural environments (and indeed of life
itself) after twenty-plus centuries of male-domination, increasingly
demands awareness and practice of feminist consciousness; a
‘grounding with our sisters.’ Even though issues discussed here
occurred over one hundred and fifty years ago, they are timely and
relevant to women and men in the caribbean and diaspora. They also
have relevance to developing a wider understanding of the complex
inter-relationships between gender, labor and caste exploitation and
oppression. I have tried to maintain a balance between academic
discourse and accessibility to readers outside of the academy; there
are several repetitions in the hope of providing more clarity.
Caste, class
and gender distribution
Population
of east indians in guiana
Guyana
was the first sugar colony to receive indian indentured laborers in
the caribbean; in all, more than 416,000 indians arrived in the
region between 1838 and 1917.xv
Except for two interruptions, 1838-1845 and 1848-1851, guyana
received indentured immigrants every year (from 1864 to 1891,
approximately 4,000 annually) and more than half of all the indian
indentured workers to the caribbean, 240,00.xvi
The highest annual landings of south asians in guiana was during the
1870s, with the highest ever being 8,334 in 1875-76.xvii
During
the indentureship period, indian laborers were divided into two
categories, indentured and ‘free’ or unindentured workers. By
1880, the unindentured indian resident population was already larger
than the indentured indian population in guyana and comprised about
75 percent of the total indian population in 1905 (Rodney 1981:34).
The 1911 census revealed east indians as the largest ethnic group,
surpassing africans, and the 1921 census indicated that they were 42
percent of the total population in the colony.xviii
The
indians who arrived in the caribbean were not a uniform group. On the
contrary, they represented different regional areas and a diversity
of south asian cultural traditions, customs, religious practices,
languages, art forms, and foods. Early lists of indentured laborers
were compiled in a haphazard manner, and the descriptions given of
age, caste and religion are often unreliable.xix
Still, certain patterns are clear as to who were being recruited for
the colonial labor plantations in the caribbean. Such estimates can
be neither firm nor precise, but they are a great deal firmer and
more precise than the vague generalizations that have been made by
others.
Caste origins
of south asian indentured laborers in guiana
From
1872, when a ranking of emigrants was included in colonial annual
reports, the low caste groups was the single largest group of
emigrants from calcutta. In 1883, one colonial administrator,
Grierson, stated that one-third of the emigrants were ‘of decidedly
low social position’ (Tinker:56). It’s worth pointing out here
that the phrase ‘of decidedly low social position’ is a disguised
reference to the four-fold hindu caste system. Specifically, to the
position of ‘untouchables’ or dalits who were historically
discriminated as outcastes of hindu society, and placed at the very
bottom of the caste system.
The
term dalit, which includes untouchable, tribal and lower caste hindu
groups, simply means oppressed.xx
Dalit is used here to refer to a large percentage of indentured
laborers recruited in colonial india, female and male, who were
considered ‘polluted.’ These emigrants were economically,
culturally, and socially oppressed within ‘mainstream’ indian
society, whether hindu or muslim, for centuries. Some dalit activists
include women as dalits, pointing out that women are considered
‘polluted,’ and are equally oppressed within south asian
societies. While I agree with this definition, for the purposes of
this study, women are considered as a separate category from dalits.
As
an example of the number of dalits being exploited as bonded laborers
during early indentureship, Wood notes that from 1870 to 1885, 41.5
percent of emigrants were from the low castes. Similarly, a dispatch
from the government of india in 1877, noted that the source of
recruitment was “chiefly the laborers, dependent for their support
upon the cultivating classes.”xxi
This last statement is an allusion to dalit bonded laborers, who were
indebted to intermediate and upper caste hindu land owners and money
lenders in colonial and pre-colonial india. Dalits who migrated to
the caribbean include individuals from groups such as pariahs
and pallars
from
south india; doms,
dosadhs,
lohars
(blacksmiths)
and chamars
(tanners)
from uttar pradesh and north india; and nooniahs,
santals,
and kahars
from bihar. In the caribbean, they are refered to as chamars or ‘low
caste.’ In the first two decades of indentured labor emigration,
tribal people, dhangars
or “hill coolies,” from the chota nagpur area of bengal, bihar
and orissa comprised a significant proportion of those emigrating.
During the 1840s and 1850s, two-fifths to one-half of the emigrants
were dhangars, people with a distinct culture (Tinker:49). Bonded
laborers were recruited from other ‘tribal’ and semi-aboriginal
groups in south and north india.
With
the drying up of recruiting among tribal and semi-aboriginal groups,
the poor, landless and lower castes who were already available in the
ports of embarkation - calcutta, madrasxxii
and bombayxxiii
- were then recruited (ibid:51). Competition from french, dutch and
other colonists pushed british recruiting operations further into the
‘interior’ of colonial india. Poor, landless dalits from rural
areas of uttar pradesh, bihar and bengal began to be recruited as
indentured laborers in large numbers. Actually, south asians from all
religions and castes were recruited throughout the indenture period.
In
spite of cultural differences, the bonded laborers who emigrated from
south asia were similar in some ways as well. They were
overwhelmingly from the lower castes, male, poor, uneducated, rural
and drawn from culturally diverse areas of the subcontinent.xxiv
Recognition of their cultural diversity is important, because it
meant that, at first, they did not share a common knowledge,
language, history, culture or philosophy. Despite similarities as
bonded emigrant laborers, the group as a whole was very diverse.
Anthropologist
R. T. Smithxxv
made an analysis of colonial records of immigrants landed in guyana
between 1865 and 1917 and found that 31.1 percent were low caste;
30.1 percent were agricultural castes; 16.4 percent were muslims and
christians; 13.6 percent were high castes; and 8.7 percent were
artisans. It is significant to note here that the percentage of
dalits may be much higher as many emigrants discarded lower caste
origins for intermediate and higher caste ones for various reasons.
For one, they wanted to escape continued caste oppression and start a
new life in guyana as ‘non-polluted’ hindus. In reference to
regional origin, Smith estimated that between 1845 and 1862, 23
percent were from south india and 77 percent from north india
(ibid.).
There
is limited information regarding the age of emigrants, however, it
may be surmised that a large number of indentured laborers were
children, teens and young adults, many of whom may have been bonded
child laborers in india.xxvi
On one ship, the Salsette,
over
one-sixth of the emigrants on board were classified as children, and
many who survived the journey were without parents.xxvii
To cite a related example, one colonial administrator in Mauritius
noted that girls of nine, ten, and twelve had landed as married women
in 1876 (Tinker:203).
Prior
occupations of indentured laborers
A
review of the literature reveals that south asian emigrants had many
different occupations in colonial india. The following is a selected
list of occupational categories, loosely broken down according to
three caste divisions (with the south asian term listed when known).
The first group include non-hindu, dalit employment categories like
palanquin-bearer, drum beater (chamar),
landless laborer (pallan),
sweeper,
washer (dhobi),
beggar, hawker, shoemaker (chamar),
tanner (chamar
or chakkiliyam),
porter
(coolie),
and house servant (dasi).
The
second group consist of low and intermediate hindu caste occupations
such as cultivator (kurmi),
cowherd (ahir);
weaver, barber, shopkeeper, money lender (chettyar),
policemen, potter, and cook. The third group is made up of upper
caste vocations like priest, scribe, schoolmaster, and peon. Female
emigrants were previously employed in various occupations in all
three of the above caste categories. ‘Women’ specific occupations
included dalit categories such as artisan, entertainer, dancer and
temple prostitute (devadasi)
(ibid:51-2).
Gender
distribution among east indian laborers
There
is lack of information regarding the age, class, caste, and numerical
distribution of female emigrants in the carribean. Colonial
investigators, Mac Neill and Lal, calculated in 1915 that one-third
of the indentured women who emigrated to the caribbean were married
women who accompanied their husbands. The remainder were mostly
widows, and women who were separated or abandoned.xxviii
This implies that two-thirds of the women migrated alone. Caribbean
feminist historian, Rhoda Reddock writes, “the majority of indian
women came to the caribbean not as wives or daughters but as
individual women” (1985:81).
The
large numbers of females emigrating alone refer to fact that women
consciously chose to emigrate. This suggests that women from all
castes were actively resisting gender and caste oppression in
colonial india through emigration. It also serves to dispel the myth
that all indian women who emigrated did so as passive and docile
females under the protection of husbands and families (ibid.). While
it is important to recognize women’s resistance in this form,
instances of abuse and exploitation during recruitment also indicate
that many females were compelled to emigrate, regardless of their
choice.
The
disproportion of indian females to indian males in guyana was higher
among indentured indians on the estates than among free indians. The
total female to male ratio went from 11 indian women for every 100
indian men in 1851, to 40 women for every 100 men in 1914. Data for
the following Table I, was gathered from a variety of scant sources.
Like most of the statistics reproduced in this book, these figures
are subject to correction. Yet, they provide some idea of the
imbalance of south asian women to south asian men existing throughout
the indenture period.
Table
I: Indian Population in British Guiana (1851-1914)xxix
Female:Male Female:Male Female:Male
Ratio Birth Death
Year Male
Female Ratio Total Ratio on Estates Among Free Indians Rate Rate
1851 11:100
1869 33:100
1881 23:1000 32:1000
1890 41:100 54:100
1900 44:100 62:100
1908-12 26:1000 30:1000
1914 53,083 34,799 40:100
Women’s
status in colonial and present day india: gender, caste and class
In
her analysis of the structural framework of women’s subordination
in india, Uma Chakravarti writes, "caste hierarchy and gender
hierarchy are the organizing principles of the brahmanical social
order and are closely interconnected.”xxx
This means that in mainstream hindu society, the status of most
women, regardless of caste, was similar to that of dalits. The author
argues that the establishment of private property (versus communal
ownership of land), and the need to have caste purity, required the
subordination of indian women and strict control over their sexuality
and mobility.
Principles
of caste and gender ranking evolved over a period of time and
involved mechanisms of control like the ideology of pativrata
(wifely fidelity);
complicity
of upper caste women; brahmanical
law and custom
to control deviant women; and the state
itself. As a result, female power became defined as mother of sons,
and relocated to reside in power born out of wifely fidelity and
chastity, not standing on her own feet. Due to the fact that women
internalized these paternal (and maternal) cultural models of
womanhood in the form of hindu mythology, this virtually erased the
need for subjugation as it was much easier for women to comply with
such a structure (ibid.:582).
Other
south asian feminists explore the oppression of women in relation to
the state, hindu ideology, family and kinship, caste and culture,
land and poverty, and labor.xxxi
These studies show how gender, class and caste ideologies influence,
among other things, the sexual division of labor in which male roles
and labor are considered as productive work and so valued, while
female responsibilities and labor are undervalued as unproductive
work. These ideologies also lead to male control over female labor
power, reproduction, sexuality, and mobility as fathers, husbands and
male kin. This domination limits women’s control over property and
other economic resources, which gets translated into male control of
political, religious, social and cultural institutions.
South
asian feminists also document the serious negative outcomes which
results from the devaluation of females within cultures defined by
these caste and gender ideologies. These include female infanticide,
child marriage, domestic violence, assaults, rape, dowry deaths,
widow immolation, and abandonment.xxxii
Another severe repercussion of these ideologies is that access to
and control over land, economic and other resources becomes severely
limited to women, especially dalit women.xxxiii
Apart
from these forms of oppression, in both present day and colonial
india, poor village women will have already experienced many years of
hardship and work by the time they are married and move to another
village, generally at a young age. Tasks like childcare; weeding and
cleaning the fields; collecting firewood and cow dung; cleaning and
sweeping of their home; fetching water; and helping to grind the
course grains for the daily meal, are mostly placed upon the
shoulders of young girls. In addition, they are more likely to suffer
from malnourishment and less likely to receive prompt medical
attention than boys.xxxiv
Dalit
women comprise a major segment of agricultural workers in present day
south asia (and during the colonial period), however, their work is
invisible because it occurs in the unorganized sector of the economy.
This means they do not get social security, leave, medical support,
pensions, etc.xxxv
Rural and urban dalit women are not paid the minimum wage, and
generally find work in times of labor scarcity.xxxvi
Rural
women of poor households work for longer hours than their male
counterparts, when domestic work, other home-based work and labor
outside the home is counted.xxxvii
Many women work with infant children in the fields because there are
rarely any facilities for childcare in the villages. Although women
work for long hours and add to their family income, they are not
perceived as workers by other women, themselves, or men; as a result,
they are devalued, and rewarded and gratified less.xxxviii
This
point here is not only to explore the position and status of indian
women in colonial india and present day india, but to also indicate
some of the factors which may have motivated or ‘pushed’ south
asian women to emigrate to foreign labor colonies. Given the limited
alternatives for both high caste hindu widows and dalit women alike,
many of these women elected to escape a life of destitution and/or
prostitution through emigration. Reddock writes, “women did make a
conscious decision to seek a new life elsewhere... they came as
workers and not dependents” (:79).
Recruitment of
indentured indian women laborers in colonial india
Slavery
and bonded labor systems
Domestic
slavery, bonded labor and other forms of feudal service existed for
millennia in india.xxxix
Laboring families were drawn from outcastes of hindu society to
perform field labor considered polluting to the upper and
intermediate castes, like ploughing the fields. In the
labor-intensive paddy-growing regions, dalit groups like the kamias
in bihar and uttar pradesh., the halis
in gujarat, the adimas
of kerala, and the pannaiyals
of tamil nadu, were principal laborers.xl
South asian historian Dharma Kumar argued that a variety of different
‘servile’ groups provided labor to mirasidars
(private landowners) in early nineteenth-century south india.xli
Men,
women and children from south india were also sold as part of the
eighteenth century slave trade by european colonial powers.xlii
With the british abolition of slavery in 1835, the export of indian
labor overseas (from 1830 to 1920) was viewed by planters and
colonial administrators as a way of maintaining and expanding labor
intensive plantation economies in sri lanka, malaysia, mauritius,
fiji, natal (south africa), kenya, uganda, and the caribbean.xliii
However, as pointed out by early abolitionists, the attitude of
planters toward the welfare of indentured workers remained the same
as during slavery.xliv
Like africans before them, indentured indians were viewed by the
planter class, as one trinidadian historian argued, “as an inferior
human species who would accept conditions of life that other races
would reject.”xlv
Colonial
administrators were continuously pressured by abolition and
nationalist groups to reform and abolish the indenture system,
especially with regards to the status of women emigrant laborers. The
first prohibition against the indian indenture system was in 1839,
due to pressure from british anti-slavery groups. A major objection
raised was the poor status of women due to their small numbers in
guiana (Reddock 1985:79). Nevertheless, administrators continued to
support planters’ interests over those of indentured female
laborers. Historian Tinker writes, “the (colonial) government of
india made little attempt to place the welfare of indians above the
demands of planters. The only issue on which they tried to ensure
reform was that of increasing the proportion of women, especially
married women, among the emigrants; and this was not pressed
forcibly” (:80).
During
the prohibition in 1840, the british secretary of state, Russell,
stated “I should be unwilling to adopt any measure to favor the
transfer of laborers from British India to Guiana... I am not
prepared to encounter the responsibility of a measure which may lead
to a dreadful loss of life on the one hand, or, on the other, to a
new system of slavery.”xlvi
As enlightened as this official viewpoint appears, it’s worth
pointing out here that Russell did not totally oppose any form of an
indentured labor system; he was only opposed to the system in its
present form.
This
is really a reformist way of saying to planters, ‘if you can reduce
deaths during the voyage and overly harsh treatment on the estates,
then we’ll support bonded labor.’ This attitude was typical of
colonial officials during this period, in which slavery still existed
in the usa. In 1844, the ban on indenture was lifted by the
government of india on the condition that 12.5 percent of the
emigrants be female (Reddock 1985:80). The ‘women problem’ was an
important issue in the second prohibition of indentureship (1848 to
1851), and in abolition of the system at the end of the first world
war.
Reasons for
south asian female indentured labor migration
Emigration
of indentured laborers from south asia to the caribbean relied on a
combination of ‘push’ and ‘pull’ factors. Families were
reluctant to leave their
janmabhumi
(motherland) and traditional kinship ties, and south asian men did
not want to take their wives and daughters to unknown lands. Most
women were unwilling to emigrate unless accompanied by their husbands
or close relatives, and there were few unattached women because of
the south asian custom of child betrothal and marriage at puberty.xlvii
Physical and sexual assaults, loss of female honor, bonded servitude
and other perceived threats, further discouraged females from
emigrating. Consequently, colonial emigration agents had great
difficulty in recruiting south asian women and families to work on
foreign colonial estates. Nevertheless, recruiters exported tens of
thousands of women and girls to the caribbean. Most of them came as
individuals and worked for ten years on the sugar plantations.
Push
factors for emigration include the need of south asian women (and
men) to obtain relief from a situation which they no longer find
tolerable (Tinker:118). People were compelled to leave their area of
residence for various reasons, including the following six: (1)
environmental: floods, famine, drought and crop failures; (2)
economic: the lost of land rights and resulting landlessness among
tribals and dalits, the pauperization of small peasants, debt and
poverty; (3) social factors: high population density, overcrowding,
and casteism; (4) psychological: fear, shame, and guilt; (5) gendered
effects: domestic violence, abuse, rape, divorce, and rigid widow
customs among the upper castes; and (6) political: the 1857 mutiny
and turmoil throughout north india.
These
push factors, as well as others, no doubt did lead some women to
consciously choose to emigrate as single women, widows, and to a
lesser extent, as members of families. Upper caste widows and dalit
females comprised a significant proportion of the majority of females
migrating alone, and therefore the majority of women. Their
determination to emigrate was itself a sign of the independent nature
of these women; the decision to migrate alone was a sign of their
strength and courage (Reddock 1985:81).
Nevertheless,
an excessive concern on ‘push’ factors divert attention from the
question of labor recruitment and its coercive elements. For
instance, the pressure of middlemen and brokers whose methods ranged
from sheer deception and debt-bondage, to ‘coolie-catching’ and
rape of ‘potential’ female recruits.xlviii
These violent processes, which created and shaped a bonded labor
market in india and guiana, should be viewed as important ‘pull’
factors in relation to the ‘push’ factors cited above. Emigration
of females was not so much an indicator of resistance and willingness
to undertake overseas labor as it was a sign of vulnerability or
being marginal. As south asian historians, Bates and Carter argues,
“indentured recruitment did not liberate migrants from exploitative
relationships - it merely replaced one mode of appropriation with
another” (ibid.:242).
By
way of illustration, to augment the shortage of indian women and to
act as support and encouragement for other indian women, a small
number of paid sex-workers from calcutta, madras, and other cities
were recruited (:213). These women continued to be sexually exploited
in the caribbean. It needs to be stated at this point that the
british military authorities in india ran a system of licensed
prostitution for both indian and european soldiers. This system
included registration and compulsory medical examination of indian
women, and a sliding tariff according to rank. The 1868 contagious
diseases act regularized these provisions for this
government-sponsored, sex exploitation scheme of primarily dalit
females’ bodies.xlix
The
violence of the indenture system had several outcomes. One was caste
and ethnic division of the labor market, as the overseas export of
laborers began with the recruitment of vulnerable and marginalized
‘tribals’ from chota nagpur. Later, emigration agents recruited
from among poor peasant and landless groups in bihar, eastern uttar
pradesh, and the chauvery valley. As south asian historian Gyan
Prakash writes, “class formation fostered and, in turn, grew out of
ethnicization... (and) was also profoundly gendered” (1992:31).
This meant that class formation in caribbean colonies started in
india, in the recruitment process itself which resulted in the poor
and dalits forming the vast majority of laborers who emigrated. As
bonded servants, they entered almost at the bottom of colonial
society; divided into layers of power and status based on race,
class, skin color, religion, and language.
In
terms of gendered class formation in the labor colonies, the colonial
practice of seeking ‘able-bodied’ workers resulted in the
over-representation of men as women were not considered ‘able-bodied’
(ibid.: 31-32). Additionally, the near-exclusion of upper castes
women from agricultural work in india suggests that the majority of
female agricultural laborers who emigrated were dalit. Gendered
effects of emigration also include sexual and other forms of violent
abuse of female laborers in recruitment, transportation and residence
on the plantations.
These
ethnic and gendered factors led to the formation of a basically male,
laboring class in guyana. Despite this, the emigration of individuals
from more privileged, upper and intermediate-caste hindu groups,
along with colonial policies and labor management, influenced the
formation of class, and resulted in class, caste and ethnic
separation in the colony. Caste and cultural details, which had
gendered effects, will be explored later.
Pressures to
use and recruit south asian women
In
the earliest period of bonded labor emigration, some planters were
eager to get laborers of either sex to work on their plantations. As
an example, tribal women were valued on the assumption that they
would, in the words of one colonial recruiter, be “of the greatest
use upon the plantations, being capable of performing any kind of
work.”l
Still, a majority of men were recruited as most planters were
unwilling to cover the extra cost of importing an equal amount of
women as men.
The
most important pressure on both colonial administrators and planters
to recruit indian women as indentured laborers was the sex-ratio
disparity on the estates (which also existed during slavery). This
issue became an important political argument for south asian
nationalist leaders and western anti-slavery groups. Colonial
administrators and planters were compelled to address this issue, and
their failure to do so became a crucial point in the abolition of
indentureship in 1917.
To
cite an instance, a dispatch to the colonies in 1855 emphasized the
intention of the british government to stop Indian emigration unless
a ‘due proportion’ of women was recruited’ (Tinker:89). The
threat to planters indicate the extent to which officials in the
british colonial government viewed indian women as critical to their
indentured labor scheme. This concern was due to publicity
surrounding abuse of indian women in the colonies, including many
cases of murder; which was blamed on the insufficiency of females,
not on the violence of males.
Another
pressure fro the recruitment of females was that, as the number of
indentured laborers increased in the colonies, the importation of
indian women became viewed as a way of encouraging indian men to sign
up for progressively longer periods of bonded labor (first one year,
then three, then five, and later ten years). Indian women were also
seen as a way of keeping experienced male workers in the colonies
and available for work on the estates, even after their indenture
period had expired. This eliminated planters’ cost for return
passages to india. Women were held, moreover, as part of a desire by
both capital and state, to generate a self-reproducing source of
labor in the colonies. These goals prompted the colonial indian
government to stipulate that a certain number of emigrants be female
(Reddock 1985:79-87).
As
emigration progressed, the specific quotas for indian women varied.
In 1857 the ratio was 35 women to 100 men; in 1860, 50 to 100; and
from 1868-1917, 40 to 100 (Mangru 1987a:211). Nevertheless,
recruiting indian women was a persistent dilemma for emigration
agents at the ports of calcutta and madras. As Reddock notes,
“recruitment took place in a situation of an already existing
unequal sex ratio” (:80). The quota produced sharp criticisms from
some colonists who thought it prohibitive and would necessitate the
enlistment of a "low and immoral" class of women
detrimental to the scheme of settlement they envisioned (Mangru
1987a:212).
The
government and planters wanted the ‘right type of woman’ who
would make good wives and stabilize the indentured labor population.
They were interested in woman as workers, but more in terms of the
labor market they wanted to create in the colony. For instance, a
planter in Trinidad wrote a letter in 1851 to the colonial office in
england stating, “if a cargo entirely of women could be sent over,
I have little doubt that the greater number of the Coolies would
remain here permanently” (ibid.:82). Women recruited thus became
‘supplementary’ workers who were paid less to do ‘women’s
work.’ To further promote this policy, and instead of relying on
quotas, the planters passed a resolution in 1877 calling for the
importation of indian widows, free of indenture. However, this
measure was never adopted by the indian government owing to political
pressure (Mangru 1987a:224-5).
Abuse of
females in the recruiting system in india
It
was more difficult to recruit women from north india to go overseas
than from south india, as more females left from madras and bombay
that from calcutta (Tinker:89). The main areas of recruitment were
the markets, railway stations, festivals, bazaars and temples. In
north india, the hindu holy city of matura was a main area for the
recruitment of females. It is possibly that many of the women
recruited from this location were devadasi,
or dalit females dedicated to brahmin temples as dancers/prostitutes
(ibid.:123).
The
district magistrate of malabar reported that women and girls were
frequently used to induce other females to emigrate or as a decoy to
lure men to the depot (ibid.:128-9). Colonial agents paid extra for
women recruits and forced detention and kidnapping practices were
regularly used to obtain female laborers. Rural families were often
promised by recruiters that their daughters of marriageable age “will
have excellent offers from their well-to-do countrymen” in the
foreign colonies (Mangru 1987a:67).
An
indian newspaper, the Pioneer
of India,
described in 1871 the attempted kidnapping of Ratunya, a young woman
who was accosted by a government recruiter, offered employment and
forcibly detained in Allahabad. Ratunya and ten other women were only
released through the intervention of two missionaries
(Tinker:126-127). Six months later, Mussamut Amirtee and her eight
year old son were offered employment and forcibly detained in
Mirzapur, as were Subhagia Koerin and Munbasia Koerin.li
Detention for several days in a recruiter’s house normally resulted
in loss of caste, female virtue and friendship for many women. And,
as the Royal
Gazette
noted in 1865, this led to living a life of “ridicule, contempt,
disdain and family renunciation” (ibid:105), thereby compelling
many women to resist by seeking anonymity through emigration.
Colonial
reforms of the recruiting system
Increasing
reports of missing wives and daughters influenced indian provincial
governments to apply different measures to prevent the illegal
practices of recruiters. After a married woman from Azamgarh was
seduced and taken to Jaunpur for registration in 1879, some local
magistrates began to refuse registration of women for emigration who
were resident in other districts, and insisted on local police
inquiry even for women resident in the district. It is important to
summarize here that even though women were being abused by the
system, single women’s statements were not accepted as adequate
regarding the circumstances of their recruitment.
Local
inquiries made recruitment even more difficult and cost became a
major reason for the reluctance of planters to import women and
children. This was particularly so during the later stages of
emigration when the recruiters in india were demanding three to five
english pounds for each man, and almost double that for each woman,
six english pounds, 13 shillings.lii
In an effort to facilitate emigration and appease colonial planters,
the government of india declared in 1879 that a police inquiry into
the background of female emigrants was not compulsory in every case.
Nonetheless,
efforts were made to place more stringent controls on the type of
women being recruited. Single women who were obviously pregnant,
known prostitutes, or ‘coarse, low-caste females’ were
disqualified (Reddock 1985:80). It is crucial to consider that the
last two groups of women referred to here were primarily dalit
females. Regardless of the ban on dalit females, due to the shortage
of female recruits in general, these controls could not always be
maintained by colonial recruiters (ibid.). The emigration agent of
madras, Doorly, protested against nationalists’ pressure and
bureaucratic measures for enlisting a ‘better type’ of woman. As
indenture came to an end in 1917, he argued basically for continued
dalit female migration, stating
genuine field laborers such as the planters require can be obtained only from the lowest castes... In my view the class of women recruited during the recent years is not an undesirable class for the men who accompany them and who are drawn from the same social stratum as themselves (ibid.:82.)
Despite
various measures to recruit women laborers, mostly individual males
emigrated, and this had repercussions in caribbean colonies, as well
as on women and families in india. One colonial administrator, major
Pitcher, writes, “I found... wives who knew that their husbands had
emigrated but (in some cases 18 years) had vainly waited for news,
and knew not whether the emigrant was alive or died.”liii
This account seem to reflect the position of most wives and families
of migrant indentured laborers in south asia, abandoned by husbands,
fathers and sons, with little or no compensation.
Indian women
at the depot and en-route to caribbean plantations
Depot
life
Prospective
migrating laborers were subjected to prolonged confinement and a
medical examination for venereal and other diseases at the demerara
depot in calcutta. However, in order to prevent the scaring away of
potential female recruits, women received a superficial examination
by nurses, with the result that many were passed fit when they
actually had venereal and other diseases (Tinker:138). Cholera,
typhoid, and dysentery were a constant feature of depot and shipboard
existence.
Local
police inquiries into the abuses of female conscription meant longer
waiting periods in the depot and higher maintenance costs, which made
investment in female laborers less profitable and less in demand
among planters. It also led to a prevalence of “depot marriages”
or sagay
to
avoid police investigations of single women emigrating (:140).
Historian Ramnarine found that 421 marriages took place on board
ships in 1892, among the 4,000 adults who traveled to guiana during
the year.liv
This
means that close to a quarter of all adults who traveled together to
guiana in 1892 got married during the voyage. In other cases, women,
who were from one group in which they may have known people or formed
attachments during their wait at the depot, would be forcibly
separated and arbitrarily moved to another to augment emigration
quotas on another ship. In addition,
The social and
economic status of female recruits
A
large number of female recruits were abandoned wives or widows.
Colonial administrators like Lyall, Pitcher and Grierson, stated
“many of the women enter the depot in a garment of filthy rags,”
and others arrived “in a state bordering on nudity” (Tinker:130).
The incidents of abuse in recruitment against females were among a
much larger number of incidents that went unreported. These serve to
show that many female indentured emigrants faced severe oppressions
in india by virtue of their gender, class, and caste status.
As
another example, the colonial protector of emigrants stated in 1879,
that indian women who regularly boarded emigrant vessels comprised
principally of “young widow and married and single women who have
already gone astray, and are therefore not only most anxious to avoid
their homes and conceal their antecedents, but were also at the same
time the least likely to be received back into families” (Mangru
1987a:213). Colonial agents ‘recognized’ the low position of
‘women in trouble’ and child widows in india, and presented the
argument that “women might benefit more than men by emigration.”lv
It’s
worth pointing out here that this ‘progressive’ rhetoric masks
the following: (1) the stereotyping of all female indentured laborers
as immoral; (2) a denial of colonial responsibility in abusing indian
females during the recruitment process; and (3) a justification for
targeting the most exploited of south asian women, those who have few
options besides paid sex work, to be recruited as bonded laborers.
The voyage
across the seas - kalapani
One
emigration agent whose job it was to look after the welfare of
indentured indians, Crosby, noted that the lack of separate female
bathrooms on ships made women vulnerable to sexual assaults from both
indian men and the ship’s male crew.lvi
In addition, holding single women in a separate, isolated area of the
ship proved convenient for their abuse. In fact, the entire ‘coolie
ship’ was an unsafe place for single females, as well as married
women, as they were frequent targets of sexual attacks. In one
incident, the surgeon and third mate on board the Ailsa
in 1876 was accused of assaulting three indian women
(Tinker:150-151).
Due
to the threat of violence in simply trying to take a bath, indian
women found it difficult to stay healthy and clean during the long
journey of ‘the middle passage.’ Crosby cited a report of the
surgeon of the vessel Himalaya
which deplored the condition of women, with "their hair is so
dirty and matted, that it induces them to be constantly scratching."
Crosby suggest this was due to the women’s lack of combs and
mirrors.lvii
It
is critical to note that Crosby failed to make the connection between
women’s poor hygiene and safety in using the bathroom. In addition
to a lack of grooming items, women might have chosen to remain
unclean instead of risk the chance of being raped while cleaning.
This may have also been a part of women’s strategy to deter rape by
trying to appear ‘unattractive.’ These issues of safety and
cleanliness may have led to further cases of diseases and deaths of
females on ships.
Many
women and children grew sick and died in the depot and en-route to
the colonies from cholera, typhoid, dysentery, measles, and venereal
diseases. There was heavy mortality on ships during the long three to
four months of travel to the caribbean. To illustrate, on the
Salsette,
which sailed from calcutta in 1858, close to a third (120 out of 324
indians) died while en-route to trinidad.lviii
Women, children (infants especially), and the old (i.e., the most
vulnerable), were the overwhelming majority of those who died while
crossing the sea.
The deaths of
south asians on the Salsette voyage
The
captain of the Salsette, Swinton, noted that infants “were dying
for want of milk” and that orphaned children died shortly after the
death of mothers, “from want.” (ibid:5-6). Children’s survival
during the voyage at sea was directly linked to the health and
survival of their mothers; as the captain noted, “they appear to
die in families” (:9). Being an orphan frequently meant abandonment
and death. Female children especially were not properly taken care of
by surviving fathers, and one father supposedly murdered his five
year old daughter (ibid.).
The
captain’s wife, Mrs. Swinton, who took care of the sick during the
dreadful voyage, wrote about a ‘lack of morality’ among the women
and men on board. She noted how “the parents of girls will sell
their children for a few rupees” (:15). Her account suggests that
the practice of pedophila and sexual exploitation of female children
was prevalent on board these vessels. Under such circumstances, and
given their limited options, this may explain why numerous mothers
chosed to abandon infant or young daughters and why several females
refused to eat “against all persuasion” (:5-10).
On
this voyage, one woman attempted to jump overboard, and another young
woman fell down a hatch, injured her spine and later died. Many of
the women who grew sick were ashamed and afraid to inform the male
doctors of their illness, until shortly before they died (:13-14).
Women were particularly fearful and vulnerable on this long voyage to
an unknown destination, in among a group of passengers and crew
consisting mostly of men. Mrs. Swinton wrote of the general
confusion, “out of the 324 Coolies who came on board, I do not
believe five, at most, either knew where they are going, or what is
to be their occupation” (:12). This statement, if true, suggests
that almost all the indians were tricked into migrating. Depression
over entrapment into such a fate was compounded by the sense of lost
and bearing as they drew further away from their homeland. These and
other psychological and physical factors contributed to ill health.
The
emigrants were not accustomed to the foods and medicines used on
board, and their own foods and medicinal herbs were not provided.
Mrs. Swinton noted that many women needed preserved milk and often
craved chicken from her. She stated, “and, I believe, had they been
given such things, many lives would have been saved” (:13) Many
children and adults died of simple causes, like dysentery caused by
unclean and spoiled foods, and drinking water drawn from the polluted
hoogly river. The lack of warm clothes to survive the damp nights and
cold parts of the journey; and lack of space and simple medical
facilities on board, also led to illness and death.
Given
the high mortality rate, there was some concern for the welfare of
‘the coolies’ during the voyage across the seas. Yet, this
colonial anxiety was in terms of the economic loss mortality
represented to colonial agents, especially the owners of shipping
companies who were paid for the number of laborers landed alive, not
transported (:4;15). Females who survived the horrors of recruitment
and life in the emigration depots of calcutta and madras, and the
journey at sea, arrived into a situation in which indian women were
highly sought after by indian men and their european masters on
account of the shortage of european and indian women in the
caribbean.
Maharani - a
case study
Kumar
Noor Mahabir, in The
Still Cry: Personal Accounts of East Indians in Trinidad and Tobago
During Indentureship (1845-1917),lix
recounts the experiences of a young indentured indian widow,
Maharani, during the later stage of indentureship. Maharani describes
her reasons for leaving her family in india, her recruitment as an
indentured emigrant laborer, and her journey to the caribbean as
follows :
I married. Me husband dead. Me breda an dem take it. Milk boiling; dem go want de milk to eat an ah cat coming to drink an ah hit im an-de milk fall down. I say dem go beat me because I getting too much lix, I say dem go beat me. Well I run. I no tell nobody I leaving only me modder-in-law. Ole modder-in-law. Me husband breda an dem eating an I left de house. E have a one-foot fellar an e sit down well and I gone to drink water an e tell me to come. Well I gone, e tell me not to jharay jatta (waste time). E cyar me an dey gi me food an ting to eat. People putting barti kara (bound or indenture). Only I gone I see plenty people dey. E say "cheenee chala, cheenee chalay (sift sugar), going tappu (Island). Tappu may sara bara anna (make 25 cents).
I cayn know depot name, Calcutta may jahaj ank hoi par (me come in to ship). Everybody dey jahaj barti bhail (ship recruiting place) cyar e an put e jahaj (ship). When e coming ship everybody gone inside an dem people watching an telling me not to go, not to go. Everybody watching in window like me an all watching. All ah dem people an all watching. Jahaj dey far, dem saying, "not to go," dey shaking hand so, "not to go." E done gone, everybody dey inside dey. Everybody. Nobody cayn come out from dey again, like saamundar moolook may k arra Ganga, Jamuna (like an island in the middle of the river Ganga, Jamuna) e parr (going)." Five gyul come without nobody. A go, kaa nam (why name) Mohannia, a go kaa nam Mahadayia, a go kaa nam Lakhaia, an I forget. We come Chinap (Trinidad). Me no vomit but plenty a dem vomit. Because me no eating all kinda ting I no vomit. In Jahaj dey gi we rice, dahl. Me no eating fish an meat an ting. Maharaj kajat (high caste), I no eating all kind a ting (:79-81).
Indentured
indian women’s labor migration to colonial guiana: 1838 - 1917
Indian women's
work on the colonial plantations
Life
on the estate
Information
on women’s status during slavery and the early indenture period in
the caribbean is much less available than data from the last twenty
years of indenture.lx
Reports from this later period reflect changes which had already been
made after various commissions were appointed. One cannot generalize
from the records of this period to fill gaps in the earlier period as
women’s experiences changed over time.
Plantation
employment in general meant work on sugar estates. During the usual
ten year period of indentureship, the majority of women worked in the
fields under harsh conditions and were subject to the same punishment
as men. An indentured laborer could not leave her assigned employer.
She could not demand higher wages or live off the plantation. She
could not refuse the work assigned to her. There was ruthless
enforcement of harsh discipline and, if a laborer infringed her
contract even trivially, she could be prosecuted as a criminal and
sentenced to jail (Reddock 1985:85).
By
1854, the indenture system was firmly established in the caribbean.
Aspects of the indentured contract were modified from time to time,
but the basic elements remain unchanged until 1917, that is, a long
contract with one employer, maintained by sanctions of criminal law.
The degree of work on the estates varied with the seasons. During the
productive season, work lasted up to 15 hours a day, and women,
children and men were all involved. Children over ten years of age
were considered adults and their labor was utilize as such by the
planter class (83).
There
were high rates of sickness and death on the estates due to poor
sanitation, contaminated drinking water, overcrowding, unsuitable
diet, disease like hookworm, epidemics, and so on. Interestingly, the
birth rate among indentured women was significantly less compared to
that of free women off the plantations. Low birth rate suggests, in
addition to suffering from poor health, some women were deliberately
regulating their bodies as a form of resistance on the estates. As
another sign of female resistance, throughout indenture, some women
choose to leave their ‘depot husbands’ for men who had lived
longer in the colony and could offer them a better standard of living
(ibid.).
Indentured
laborers were housed in barrack ranges formerly occupied by enslaved
africans on the estates. Some indians in guyana refer to this
experience with negative connotations. As a digression, this could be
related to the fact that people of african origin were regarded by
upper caste south asians as dalits in colonial indialxi
and guiana. Caste hindus, in an attempt to deny their ‘polluted’
status of living among dalits and non-hindus, generally deny the
close associations between indentureship and slavery (and between
indians and africans). It is common for individuals from both ethnic
categories deny common experiences of exploitation under british (and
ethnic) rule. These individuals, for various reasons, refuse to be
compared either with freed ‘slaves’ or with bounded ‘coolies.’
Such attitudes create and maintain divisions among the guyanese
working class (women and men).
Women’s work
and unequal wages on the plantations
Statistics
indicate that in 1861, african and indian women comprised close to
half of the guianese workforce, 46 percent. At this time, free and
indentured women comprised the majority of agricultural laborers,
almost 70 percent, and 18 percent of domestic servants.lxii
Women’s participation in the workforce was slightly reduced to 43
percent by the end of indenture, in 1921. However, their work in
agriculture was dramatically reduced, as they now comprised less than
40 percent of agriculture workers, while their employment as
domestics increased to 37 percent (ibid.).
During
their ten years of contract labor on the sugar estate, women and
children were exploited as agricultural workers by the colonial
planter class as well as by indian men. In 1872 a daily minimum wage
was fixed for indian indentured laborers, 25 cents for males over
sixteen years, and 18 cents for females over twelve years. Women
customarily were not paid the minimum wage and earned between 48
cents and 60 cents a week (Rodney 1981:41). In addition to wages,
indian women were provided with a few items of work clothes and
dresses. Interestingly, the sari
or
indian dress was not popular among women in guyana.
One
report indicated that women laborers normally earned about one-half
to two-thirds of the wages of male laborers.lxiii
As Reddock (1985) writes, “wage differentials in most instances
served their traditional purpose of making the indian woman dependent
on men in spite of the fact that they were full time workers”
(:83). In 1893, surgeon-major Comins found that on some estates,
planters carried forward ‘an ever accumulating debt’ for rations
supplied to women during pregnancy. This resulted in them earning no
wages for months or years (ibid.).
It
is crucial to consider that below poverty wages which women and
children earned was hardly enough for their survival. Similar to
women during slavery, a vast majority of indentured women’s
plantation work had to supplemented with subsistence agriculture by
to meet basic needs of food, clothes and shelter. After their
indenture period was over, the vast majority of women continued to
work on sugar plantations (and rice fields).lxiv
Discrimination
against female indentured laborers, furthermore, existed in the
gendered nature of work itself as planters defined certain
agricultural tasks as ‘women’s work,’ and assigned women to
weeding gangs and other low-paying jobs. The ideology of women’s
work as ‘unproductive labor’ facilitated their exploitation as
low cost laborers, at half the expense of male laborers. Women were
given less pay even when they performed the same field tasks as men.
Subsequently, few (if any) indian woman held higher positions on the
estate, e.g., job of driver, in charge of labor gangs.
Three
ex-indentured, east indian women in trinidad described their work
experience on the estates during the later indenture period as
follows:
In the cultivation, you will find women dominated the gangs. They were out early in the fields performing hazardous duties like dropping lime and phosphate of ammonia, planting foods on the estates, that is vegetable crops and ground provisions, heading [sic] manures, cutlassing, weeding, cutting cane, loading them on carts and most of the time carrying the cane on their heads.lxv
Women and girls as sexual objects: gender and race in the colony
Master,
servant and slave: exploitation of the female body in the caribbean
As
women’s labor became defined in relation to social and cultural
definitions of sexual difference, their bodies were at the same time
interpreted in connection with male desire and sexuality. Similar to
enslaved african females, sexual exploitation of south asian women's
and girls’ bodies in caribbean colonies was prevalent. This had
consequences for colonized males as well. While it is clear that
indian men were responsible for the exploitation of indian females in
several ways, it is also true that indian men were a part of the
exploited group. Additionally, south asian men found themselves in
direct and unequal competition with european men to gain the favor of
new arrivals of south asian female laborers. This placed them in a
contradictory position in regards to indian women, other indian men
and european men.
Indian
male laborers on caribbean colonial plantations were part of the
overlapping discourses of race and sex which began under slavery, and
on which african american feminist bell hooks notes, “rape as both
right and rite of the white male dominating group was a cultural
norm.”lxvi
During indentureship, indian men were made aware of their domination
and powerlessness as over and over again the indian women they would
have had the right to possess, control, assert power over, dominate,
and have sexual relations - were sexually possessed and controlled by
the dominating victorious white male group. This symbolic impotence
of south asian men, was accompanied by a loss of honor of indian
women. The scarcity of south asian women, and competition among
indian men, further contributed to the reinforcement of men’s
domination over women, and frequently led to violent assaults on
indian women.
The
bodies of all women in the colony were controlled in different ways,
in the interest of dividing and preserving the identities of various
ethnic collectvities. For instance, european women were not allowed
to have sex with men of other groups as a way of safeguarding the
dominant identity of the white group; european men had no similar
constraint. A comparable situation existed for higher caste south
asian women. Similarily, muslim men did not condone their women
marrying out of the faith, although no such obstructions exist for
men since islam is transmitted though the male line.
Many
indian men adopted the european male’s racist attitude towards
african and amerindian women in the colony. They were interested in
these women as sexual partners, not as wives. To cite an instance,
governor Longden wrote in 1876 about the "repugnance or at least
indifference which indian asian men had shown to creole (african
guyanese and/or mixed) women" (Mangru 1987a:216). As a
justification, Mangru and others point out that indian men risked
loss of caste and social chastisement from fellow immigrants by
marrying women of another race and culture (:216-7). Although this
viewpoint hints at south asians’ racism, it essentially ignores
this and related issues around sexual exploitation.
Moreover,
this explanation discounts the sexual exploitation of african and
amerindian females by indian (and african) men; women who served as
employees, laborers, and domestic servants, or as prostitutes and/or
mistress for these men. The children of these multi-racial unions
were generally degraded and stigmatized. For example, a child of an
indian and african was called a doogla
(bastard) and was considered as an outcaste or dalit within
mainstream indian society in the colony.
Internal
colonialization: caste and gender oppression in guiana
In
a sense, the bodies of east indian females were penetrated and
colonized by european and indian males, and their position was one of
multiple oppressions of gender, ethnicity, caste and class.lxvii
The experiences of women were quite different from those of an indian
male, whose labor and mind were enslaved by the europeans.lxviii
By the end of the indenture period, a process of class divisions and
internal colonization was already becoming formalized among the south
asian population, in respect to indian women and dalits.
This
gendered process started in the early days of indenture. A case in
point, some lower caste women and girls were married and/or forced
into unions, by their fathers, with several men, especially those
from more privileged class and caste backgrounds. As caribbean
writer, Lloyd Braithwaite, notes, “the decision as to whether a
girl should ‘trade caste for class’ was frequently a difficult
problem to decide.”lxix
These
lucrative arrangements led to physical and psychological abuses of
women and girls, and had negative influence on lower caste men as
well. Generally, poor dalit men felt liable to have their wife taken
away by a superior indian in terms of caste and class (Tinker:202).
Dalit men were made to feel deeply insecure as regards to indian
women’s sexuality, reproduction and labor. This gendered caste
oppression also had detrimental effects on the families, religious
expressions, cultures, and languages of dalits in guiana (more on
this later).
The
shortage of women did lead to a weakening and modification of caste
consciousness by facilitating inter-caste marriages. However, those
indians who were the most economically successful have been the very
ones who were able to marry within their caste/class. Additionally,
it was not always the case that dalit females were accepted by upper
caste men. If they were, these women had to hide their dalit origins.
Furthermore, upper caste south asian men marrying a woman from a
lower caste in the colony had to face more severe caste restrictions
upon returning to india.
One
investigator of the time, Comins, found in 1893: “Thousands of men
have been for years past living with women who are not the same caste
with the result that their children would in India be looked on as
outcastes” (Reddock 1985:86). Comins related one case of
abandonment in which “an immigrant (living with)... a woman of
another caste brought her back from the colony (british guiana) and
as far as the Howrah railway station (calcutta) where he told her and
his child to sit while he got tickets, and heartlessly deserted her”
(Tinker: 174-5).
Sex-disparity
and the sale of indian females during the early indenture period
With
the scarcity of south asian women in the caribbean colonies, child
marriages became the norm and girl children were exploited by some
parents who extracted the "best price obtainable" for their
young daughters’ hand in marriage. Kingsley wrote of the indians in
trinidad, “the girls are practically sold by their fathers while
yet children” (ibid:203). Mrs. Swinton also noted this practice on
the plantations she visited (:14).
In
September 1869, the Royal
Gazette
reported the prevalence of a system whereby parents sold their young
daughters to men old enough to be their fathers or grandfathers. One
father, Bindharrry disposed of his three daughters at "excellent
prices" and returned to India with more than 1,000 english
pounds besides a quantity of jewelry (Mangru 1987a:226). This
increase in the ‘marketability’ of the indian girl child did not
really lead to an improvement in the position of females. In many
cases it led to increased forms of sexual and economic exploitation.
For, as noted earlier, “child marriage from as early as ten years
became the rule” (Reddock 1985:85).
The early
practice of bride price and its consequences
Tinker
wrote of the prevalence of bride price in most all the indentured
colonies (:203). He noted that a small number of men returned to the
colony with two or three wives, and sold or transferred them to other
men shortly after arriving (ibid.). The lack of registering marriages
among east indians meant that an indian girl sold into marriage did
not have the security of legal status and could be re-sold
subsequently to another purchaser prepared to offer a more attractive
‘bride price.’ The trade in east indian girls, the high cost of
bride price, and the absence of love and affection in marriages,
tended to result in separations, and sometimes murder.
To
cite an instance, in 1886, Goirapa was married "coolie fashion"
to Yadakana but did not yet live with her. He then murdered her to
prevent a re-sale planned by her family (Mangru 1987a:226). As
another example, the Royal
Gazette
in 1854 reported that Tellock, "a miserable looking object"
who brought a young girl from her parents and murdered her because
she allegedly refused to live with him (ibid.).
In
another instance, the sheriff of demerara, Henry Kirke, noted in 1887
the story of Seecharan, a comparatively wealthy indian of 50, who
married an 11 year old girl, Etwarea, and in return agreed to give
her parents a cow and calf, $50 in cash and to make a will leaving
his substantial property to his wife and expected children. Initially
the marriage seemed successful but on reaching sixteen, she allegedly
"began to lend a willing ear to the blandishments of several
young men." Brooding over his wife's suspected infidelity,
Seecharan stayed away from work, sharpened his cutlass and completely
severed Etwarea'a right arm. She died two days later and Seecharan
was convicted and subsequently hanged.lxx
Sexual abuse
of female children
As
in the case of enslaved females on the estates during slavery, male
overseers were highly desirous of the bodies of young south asian
females. Girls who refused european sexual advances were oftentimes
punished in other ways. Perhaps, in recognizing this fact, parents
were more willing to comply with the masters’ lust for their
daughters and avoid punishment for themselves and family members.
This complicity with abuse of female children is evident in the
practice referred to as ‘bear
am bettie, bear am,’
In
this custom, fathers took young daughters as ‘virgins’ to the
houses of european overseers and managers, and waited outside while
the girls were raped and sexually abused, for a fee.lxxi
The
sale and exploitation of east indian girls during early periods of
indenture was carried to extremes in some cases. According to Haynes
Smith in 1887, indian parents would "laboriously enlarge the
private parts of a young girl child by mechanical means until she is
ready for the aged purchaser."lxxii
Sensational as this isolated plantocratic account may be, it serves
to remind us of the kinds of physical and sexual abuse many young
girls were forced to endure during the indenture period.
Were east
indian women more ‘free’ in the caribbean?
The
scarcity of south asian women and high ratio of single women to
married women during early periods of indenture no doubt changed the
nature of the subordination of indian women to indian men. In
addition, the prevalence of female exploitation meant that families
willingly, or were compelled to, compromise their positions regarding
chastity. Polyandry was practiced in some cases during the early
immigration period. This tendency unsettled the traditional
submissive role of south asian women as more women began to adopt
roles which gave them greater freedom in the immigrant community.
In
1870, governor Scott commented on the independent nature of some
domestic relations among the indentured population:
It is not uncommon for a woman of this class to leave the man with whom she has cohabited for another, and then for a third, perhaps for a fourth, and sometimes to return to the one of those she had previously deserted; and this she does in most cases with impunity (Mangru 1987a:227).
What
is apparent from Scott’s comment is that many indian women, for the
first time in their lives, got a chance to exercise a degree of
control over their social and sexual lives which they never had
before (Reddock 1985:84).
Nonetheless,
female independence was always challenged by indian men through
violence. The independence of south asian women was viewed as a
source of shame by many indian men. The collusion between the
interests of indian men, the state and capital; the many incidents of
violence against women; the lack of registration of marriages, etc.,
were part of an attempt to possess and control indian women’s
sexuality in a situation which denied them few other sources of
power. In this manner, women were compelled to give up their relative
freedom, and kept in this position (ibid.).
These
factors also serve to place indian women firmly under the control of
men with the reconstruction of indian patriarchal family structure.
Purdah,
or the seclusion of women in south asian cultures, was common in
guiana as female honor was highly prized. Certain aspects of purdah
were still observed by indian women in some middle and upper class
families throughout the indentureship period.lxxiii
Nevertheless, a struggle took place as women did not readily and
effortlessly comply with the collusion of male and state interests.
The use of transfers; cases of domestic violence; incidents of indian
resistance; laws against ‘harboring an immigrant’s wife’ and
court cases resulting from breaches against these laws, are all
evidence of this struggle (Reddock ibid.).
The
prevalence of domestic violence and the exploitative aspects of
polyandry in the form of child abuse, paid sex work, rape, physical
abuse and so on, need to get factored into arguments made for women’s
‘freedom’ during this period. To cite an instance, some men
accepted payment from ‘lodgers’ in their rooms, which came with
an indian woman who was required to cook and be sexually available to
indian male customers (Tinker:204). These kinds of sexual
arrangements frequently led to quarrels, violence and murders of
indian men and women.
Another
argument against the so called “freedom” of indian women on the
estates is that although only a small percentage of south asian women
who emigrated were sex workers, indian women on the estates were
regarded as immoral, and as such, “all were liable to become
victims in a system which regarded them so casually” (ibid:205).
This image of the ‘loose’ indian female allowed both european and
south asian males to violate females’ bodies with impunity to
community and legal sanctions against infringement of ‘virtuous’
women.
East
indian females’ improved status, if any, during the early indenture
period in guyana was short lived. One reason was that, as more south
asian women became available for marriages to south asian men, their
value as a sexual object to men and as an economic commodity to
families, decreased. Another, is that the control of indian men over
indian women became more established in the colony.
European men’s
sexual exploitation of indian females and indian resistance movements
on the estates
A
visitor to trinidad noted the case of a european estate manager who
had seven indian women, “being with child, all by him.”lxxiv
The royal commission of 1871 in guiana, whose members were
sympathetic to planters, stated: “It is not uncommon for overseers,
and even managers, to form temporary connections with Coolie women,
and in every case with the worst possible consequences to the good
order and harmony of the estate.” It is meaningful to notice here
that the exploitation of indian women is viewed here mainly in terms
of its effects upon production, and not really on the women or
families involved. Tinker commented “this subject is carefully
ignored in almost all contemporary documents, but sometimes events
dragged the question into the open” (ibid.).
Seduction
and violent sexual assaults of south asian women and girls by
european managers and overseers led to militant resistance among the
indian laborers several times. In one case, the sexual relations
between the deputy manager at plantation Non Pareil and an indian
woman, Jamni, was the principal cause of the indian resistance there
in October 1896. In their resistance, five indians were shot dead by
the police, including the woman's husband Jungli, and 59 others
seriously wounded. Significantly, little or no disciplinary action
was taken against the police or deputy manager (Ramnarine 1987:125).
As
another example of resistance on this issue, Bechu, a bengali man who
arrived in plantation Enmore in 1894 and who was one of the first
indian activists in guyana, wrote his first letter to the press and
included substantial allegations of the “immoral” exploitation of
indian females by overseers (Rodney 1981:155-6). In fact the
stereotype of the passive coolie worker is shattered when on
considers that between 1874 and 1895, 65,084 indentured immigrants,
women and men, were convicted of breaches of the labor contract
(ibid.).
Women’s
resistance within the family: murder of indian women on colonial
plantations
Throughout
indenture, south asian females were highly valued and jealously
guarded by indian men. At the same time, many women during this
period were constantly resisting oppressive structures within south
asian culture and the indian family, and domination by south asian
men. The alarming incidences of murder of indian women in caribbean
colonies is one sign of this resistance. Among the women killed in
guyana were Anundai, Baumee, Goirapa and Saukalia, for allegedly
deserting their husbands (Mangru 1987a:211-230).
These
horrendous acts of violence agains south asian women were due to
several factors including the colonial domination of south asian men,
women’s resistance to indian male domination, to the actions of
particular men as well as to male violence in general, and finally,
to the fixed sexual categories and values determined within indian
cultures. The frequent murders prompted intense criticisms in India,
and since it provoked questioning of the entire immigration system,
the colonial powers instituted various measures to deal with these
killings.
Immigration
agent-general reports of guyana showed 23 murders of Indian women by
their husbands in the period 1859-1864, 11 between 1865-1870, 13
between 1873-1875, 36 between 1884-1895, and 17 between 1901-1907
(ibid:217). There were also 35 cases of cutting and wounding of
indian wives with the hoe and cutlass between 1886-1890. Reverend
Robert Duff in, British
Guiana (1886)
drew attention to the frequency and cruel barbarity of these acts of
violence against indian women (ibid.).
Colonial
policies to prevent the murders of indian women and girls
In
December 1863, death by hanging was officially proclaimed for this
crime. In addition, ordinance 4 of 1864, article 125, instructed
estate managers to notify the district magistrate promptly when a
wife deserted her husband for another man. The officer was
correspondingly empowered to remove either the husband or the wife to
a distant plantation, subject to the governor's approval
(ibid.:219-20).
It’s
worth pointing out here that these striking policies reflect the
prevailing racist and sexist attitudes of colonial officials, and
represent a continuation of slave-like conditions for south asian
women. These measures were aimed, in part, at protecting the
‘chastity of indian women’ in response to nationalists’
pressure in india. However, instead of focusing on violence against
women in general, these gendered regulations concentrated on limiting
the sexuality of indian women; the victims thereby became defined as
‘the problem.’ As a consequence, female sexuality was a serious
concern for colonial officials and became subject to forceful laws of
the state.
Such
restrictive policies limited a woman’s choice of a partner, which
now became dependent on colonial approval. This curbed, for instance,
indian women’s freedom to live with other (perhaps less abusive)
men. Further, these laws represented a double standard by failing to
address equally the issue of indian male sexuality, and for excluding
the sexuality of european males altogether. This combination of
gendered laws and domestic violence led to “the curtailment of the
social and economic autonomy which numerous women had sought to
achieve in the new society” (Reddock 1985:79).
The
royal commission of 1871 attributed the killing of indian females to
the "constitutional jealousy of Orientals exaggerated... by the
great inequalities of the sexes"
and expressed little faith in transfers (Mangru 1987a:221; my
emphasis). It is significant to point out that this quote by the
commission is revealing in several ways: (1) as a rare official
admission of the oppression of women, (2) as a slight of hand
recognition of the domination and oppression of indian females by
indian males, and (3) for ignoring european male exploitation of
indian females as a contributing factor to male jealousy.
Commission
members, whose sympathies lay with the planters, advocated flogging
as a punishment for men, instead of transfers. The commission
recommended for women, the "disgrace" of having their heads
completely shaved (ibid.). It’s worth pointing out here that a
strict christian disposition towards the extramarital affairs of
women was sought to be reproduced in the colony, similar to europe
and america. Despite criticism of transfers, colonial secretary
Kimberley's response in 1882 was terse: "I cannot sanction
either flogging or shaving" (:222) Kimberley’s reaction was
perhaps a recognition among the british upper class that such actions
would present more fuel for abolitionists. Consequently, colonial
authorities were compelled to utilize transfers with increasing
frequency; Table II below shows this trend.
Table
II: Transfer of Indians from Plantationslxxv
Year Number
of Transfers
1863-1868 17
out of threats
1869-1870 88
out of threats
1881-1890 34%
"wife cases"
1889-1905 29%
"wife cases"
Women’s resistance and transfers: legislating female sexuality
There
were several problems with transfers of indian men and women to
different estates, as Crosby indicated in his complaint to the royal
commission, "I have been much distressed to be obliged to
separate people who have been living together ten or twelve years,
and have had children" (ibid.). Ironically, Crosby continued to
use transfers and separate families. Although Crosby tried to improve
the condition of the indian laborers under his charge, he remain
committed to supporting the very system which provided the grounds
for these brutal acts of violence against indian women. As a social
reformer, he only wanted to amend the abuses in the indenture system,
not dismantle it. As such, he remained part of the british power
structure and profited from its trade in coolies.
Crosby
was convinced in 1875 that the shortage of women was “the great
exciting cause of the lamentable quarrels and wife murders” (:217).
It is noteworthy that this latter comment, (echoed by Scott, Longden
and other colonial administrators), is typical of a ‘blame the
victim’ attitude. This perspective served several purposes: (1) to
absolve colonial officials and their policies from all culpability in
these deaths, by (2) attributing the cause to the behavior of
‘uncivil’ indian men and ‘immoral’ indian women.
In
a further denial of accountability, Scott and other colonial agents
were quick to point out that wife murders in india did not differ
significantly from guyanese statistics (:218). This is like saying,
‘murder of women is an indian cultural phenomenon, and colonial
administrators could do little about it.’ This position was
contradictory due to the fact that ‘improving’ the status of
indian women was used as a justification for colonial rule in india.
Murders
of south asian women on estates in colonial guyana was a complicated
issue linked to issues around women’s sexual freedom and
resistance, east indian male domination and oppression of women,
sexual exploitation by indian and european men, colonial policie of
marriage, transfers, and so on. One guyanese male, Mohamed Baksh,
noted in Argosy
(30 June 1906), "I know many of the atrocities for which East
Indians are convicted, sent to prison and hanged would be prevented
were the law but to recognize the validity of marriages according to
the law and custom of East Indians." Some of the issues related
to marriage will be discussed later.
The politics
of east indian female oppression
To
their credit, Bechu as well as many other south asian men at the
time, were strongly opposed to the sexual abuse of south asian women
and girls by european men. Interestingly, these same indian men were
less vocal on issues related to the sexual exploitation of indian
females by indian males, granted that these issues were often taboo,
more hidden and less racially charged. Still, it is not surprising
as, throughout the period of indentureship and colonialism, the
domination and control of women by men was still prevalent among
indians in caribbean societies.
Wife
murders, rape and sexual abuse of indian girls and women were common
occurrences on estates, in indian nuclear and extended families,
among south asian kinship groups and village communities.
Nonetheless, it was in the interest of indian men to ignore these
issues and point their fingers at the ‘morality’ and ‘infidelity’
of indian women, rather than blame themselves for these acts of
violence. Ironically, perhaps the most effective public issue used in
the campaign against indentureship and colonial rule in india, was
the appeal made by male south asian nationalists against ‘the
slavery of indian men and the prostitution of indian women.’
It
is important to point out that this common complaint of abuses was
coached in gendered terms. For indentured men, the principal issue
was that of their labor being exploited under harsh working
conditions. In contrast, indentured women (whose labor were being
exploited under similar conditions) were not defined as workers, but
essentially, as moral beings. It was their virtue and decency that
were being exploited and so there was an implied ‘need’ to
control their sexuality.
Men
like Dwarkanath Tagore, M. K. Gandhi, C. F. Andrews, pandit Malaviya,
S. Sastri, B. N. Basu, and D. E. Wacha, lxxvi
attacked the indenture system on behalf of the perceived threat to
indian women’s ‘virtue and morality’ in other colonies to which
indians had emigrated (which were far away from south asian, male
systems of control). The nationalist campaign made use of this
problem to galvanize women’s support for their cause in india. The
issue was raised through women’s organizations associated with the
male dominated movement. Meetings were held throughout india, mainly
among middle and upper class/caste women, who passed various
resolution for abolition of the system (Reddock 1985:86).
There
were many impassioned speeches made on behalf of indian women’s
status in caribbean plantations. In 1917, owing to huge public
objection against indentureship in india, the system was abolished.
So great was the public agitation that even the proposal for a system
of assisted emigration had to be shelved (ibid.). Notwithstanding
these efforts, nationalists’ concern for the welfare of indian
women in the caribbean declined sharply after the abolition of
indenture, inasmuch as the issue no longer had political value in
india.
Indians’
relocation to villages and towns and the status of women
The
colonial idealization of free east indian women’s work
From
about 1870, east indian villages began to form around the estates.
Planters regularly granted small plots of land to ex-indentured
workers as a way of maintaining access to their labor. By the end of
the century, free south asians had formed ethnically exclusive
villages all over the coastal region, clustered around various
estates. After their period of indentureship, many east indian women
continued working on the estates, in addition to working in rice
fields and family gardens. These women extended their working day
into the night in order to help their families survive and improve
their social and economic status. Yet, they seldom controlled or
owned property.
Throughout
indenture, it was in the interest of indian men, colonial bureaucrats
and planters to create a stable, self-reproducing labor market in
guiana. However, this ‘historic conflation of interests’ depended
upon the importation of indian females, and planters were at first
reluctant to cover the additional cost of attracting and transporting
women into the country (ibid.:79). The planter class, in general,
felt that the importation of indian females was an unnecessary
burden, but they had to bow to pressure from colonial administrators.
Acting
governor Young, who considered the indenture system a ‘blessing’
with its ‘one blot’ being the shortage of women, tried to
convince planters to undertake the extra cost of importing more
females during his tenure (Tinker:266). In one instance, he
commented,
It is a gratifying sight in this Colony to witness the numerous instances of industry and thrift to be found amongst the free Coolie women, and to observe their intelligence in the management of the little property they and their Husbands may have acquired. In many cases their Husbands seem to leave all business details to their Wives, and the Wives seem well worthy of the trust. It is the women in most cases who are to be seen paying in money to the Savings bank, or making lodgments of money for remittance to India (Mangru 1987a:224).
In
interpreting this text, one can observe clearly the colonial imaging
and representation of indentured women and men. It should be kept in
mind that Young is addressing indenture’s critics by trying to show
them how ‘better off’ the lives of some free indian women were,
according to his accounts. One notices that enthusiasm for this
argument leads him to claim that wives are primarily in control of
decisions regarding the indian family’s productive, economic, and
social resources. Needless to say, Young contradicts himself on this
claim several times.
For
example, in observing the negative influence of south asian men on
the status of south asian women, Young advocated positive action to
improve the "moral status of the coolie woman" (ibid.:224).
This comment on the low status of women contradicts his earlier
position that they were generally in control of the family’s
resources. In this case, Young was arguing that only by recognizing
the positive traits of character of south asian women and initiating
measures to develop them, that “civilization and morality” could
be substantially improved among the indian population. Despite this
progressive rhetoric, Young and other colonial officials were
conveying a particular image of indian women which contributed to a
general view of them either as contented bonded laborer, child-mother
or exotic seductress.
Young
displays his contradictory position again in a letter justifying the
importation of indian females to guyana in 1889. He reasoned that,
although indian women were not physically capable of strenuous
plantation exertion (he knew quite well that they worked equal to
men, for less pay), they were industrious; and that by “devoting
herself to domestic duties an indian woman could exercise a
civilizing and humanizing influence on those around her” (ibid.:
224-5). It is crucial to realize here that this attitude towards
women masks a devaluation of their labor and justifies systemic
discrimination in employment, wages, services, and representation
within the colonial system. This capitalist sexual division of labor
which defined women as ‘housewives’ and men as ‘workers’ was
connected with the divisive social structure of upper caste, south
asian culture which included the seclusion of women. Yet, the vast
majority of women, especially dalit women, were not housewives then
(or now).
Gendered class
divisions: women’s role in the creation of indian prosperity in
guiana
There
is an increasing rethinking of class formation in historical and
sociological writing, such as in the area of class as a gendered
formation.lxxvii
Although gendered class formation among indians in guyana has not
been documented, given the lack of property ownership among indian
women, the factual basis for this argument is painfully clear. This
process was historically contingent upon a number of individual,
communal and societal factors.
As
part of a social, legal and historical process of excluding women
from control of economic and other resources, it was not until 1904
that separate property rights were conferred to women (Peake. 1993.
ibid.:fn 9). As a community process, women became the means where
wealth was exchanged and kept within the south asian ethnic group as
a whole during and after indenture.lxxviii
Class formation also resulted from in the sale of girls, bride price,
and so on, as discussed earlier. Women also facilitated the
maintenance of individual males’ caste identity, and were
responsible for reproducing the group in the colony.
Some
aspects of indian women’ status and living conditions did improve
off the estates. During the early part of indenture, women were able
to exercise some degree of autonomy over their sexuality and
mobility. At this time, some women actively pursued a more ‘well-off’
companion to live with, from south asian and other ethnic
backgrounds. Women also benefited somewhat as part of a process of
class formation among south asians.
For
one, they facilitated reproduction and exploitation of family labor
to occur among already privilege males. Some women ‘benefited’
from this process of upward economic mobility of indian families,
e.g., in being withdrawn from field labor as a sign of higher status.
However, this process of class formation and division was not always
a comfortable situation for women. To illustrate, Comins found in
1893, that some indian shopkeepers landholders, and so on, had more
than one wife (Reddock. 1985:84).
Apart
from improved class status for women, indian prosperity became
closely related to women's servitude and abuse within the indian
family structure. Their bondage within the family was made easy by
the gendered ideologies and structures within south asian religions
and cultures, and the colonial administration. Within the family,
while women actively participated in agricultural tasks, they were
economically exploited, and verbally and physically abused by men,
based on deep-seated assumptions about women’s inferiority and
infantility. Restrictions on women’s labor, mobility and sexuality
outside the home and family, were ways of signifying higher caste and
social status. Thus women became crucial elements in class division.
The
sexual division of labor resulted in indian women and girls having
more work and less power over finances within the indian family
structure. By the same token, this division of labor, and women's
inferiority within the south asian family structure, had several
advantages for south asian men such as less responsibilities and more
access to family resources as a result of control over women's
earnings.
Another
example of class as a gendered formation is the fact that, with the
end of indenture, indian women experienced a sharp decline in wage
employment and independent earnings. Women’s economic position
became further dependent on that of males as a result. Even as late
as the 1947 voter registration, the last year in which the franchise
to vote was limited by property and income qualifications, east
indian women comprised only six percent of all indian voters and less
than ten percent of all female voters.lxxix
Their small percentage among indian voters is indicative of women’s
inferior economic status within the indian family.
Indeed,
it was on the backs and labor of indian women that indian men
obtained labor, economic and other resources and power, and on which
indian prosperity was built. Until recently, east indian women
benefited little from this process of class division among south
asian and other ethnic groups in the colony. To continually applaud
the prospertiy of some indians, as is commonplace among both men and
women within the community, is to give continued sanction to the
exploitation of indian women and children.
Women’s
and children’s labor in south asian households varied according to
caste, class, location, age, and so on.lxxx
However, the oppression of south asian women - regardless of
religion, caste and class - was similar in many ways as well. One
similarity among women in hindu, muslim, and christian families, was
the powerful influence of religion on the family, and on women's
economic and social status in turn (more on this later).
The triple
burdens of female labor in the colony
In
contrast to the positive image Young and others presented of the
contended free woman, many poor, under-paid women and children found
themselves employed for long hours, doing arduous and often
undignified tasks, in order to try and build the subsistence earnings
of their family. Further, as the subjugation of indian women by men
became reinforced under extended or joint families during the later
period of indenture, women’s earnings usually came under control of
the dominant patriarch in the family. As a result, women’s power in
decision-making over family finances and on issues outside of the
household became more limited.
During
and after their period of indenture, women had to endure multiple
burdens on their time, labor, and resources. The sexual division of
labor meant that alongside field labor, they were also the ones in
the family with primary responsibility for domestic production and
reproduction. This means cooking, fetching water and firewood,
cleaning and washing, as well as childcare, and health care of the
family, were all primarily the responsibilities of girls and women.
Many girls joined the weeding gang at the age of ten and were
indentured as soon as the law allowed.
Most
poor indian women worked very hard all of their lives on the
plantations as paid labor, and as unpaid labor on their husband's
land and well as on their own family's land.lxxxi
Some women did achieve a measure of independence, however, this came
at the price of being overworked. Indentured and free indian women's
work and responsibilities were more demanding in many ways than men’s
work. It was only during the 1890s that there was increased awareness
of the adverse conditions under which indian women worked, including
field labor performed in advanced stages of pregnancy (Rodney
1981:157).
Caste and
class stratification: east indians’ prosperity in guiana
The
vast majority of enslaved and indentured populations in guyana were
exploited by the planter class during colonialism. Interestingly,
south asian merchants were also involved in recruiting and shipping
indentured laborers to the caribbean from bombay, india. As part of
existing class divisions in guyana, the vast majority of people from
amerindian, african, creole, chinese, portuguese, and indian groups
remained poor all their lives. This is not to say that a
‘middle-class’ did not develop within and among these various
ethnic groups. However, the achievements of a small number of
families should not be viewed as representative of an entire ethnic
group.
By
the 1950s, along with a slight numerical majority, people of south
asian origin surpassed the portuguese group to become the second most
dominate group (next to europeans) in the professions, business, and
agriculture.lxxxii
As previously discussed, the social mobility of indians was due in
part to the exploitation of the labor of females and children within
the family structure, the sale of girls, bride price, and so on,
which occurred throughout indenture. Indian women played a major role
in rice cultivation, retail trades, and so on.
The
process of south asian class formation began as soon as free,
ex-indentured immigrants started moving away from the sugar
plantations in significant numbers in the 1870s. During this period,
there were comments that some individuals were acquiring wealth. In
1879, the governor noted the upward mobility of "shirtless
Coolies," who were becoming land owners, landlords, small
proprietors, and storekeepers. South asian historian, J. C. Jha,
wrote that the thrift of the indians was well-known; they would live
a very simple life, take a frugal meal of dal
and rice or
roti,
save as much as they could and buy ornaments for their women and land
to cultivate. Many started their own groceries, particularly indian
drivers (1994:103-8).
A
trinidad newspaper referring to ‘free’ east indians
noted
in 1903, “they knew the value of money and land; they were thrifty,
unlike the people of African origin.” It’s worth pointing out
here that this attitude reveals another colonial excuse for the
bonded labor system, that is, through praise of the struggle for
survival of free laborers. This struggle was viewed as knowing ‘the
value of money and land.’ Given ‘slave’ wages and being taken
advantage of as part of the colonial economy, indians had no other
alternative but to be ‘thrifty.’
It
is also interesting to observe how free indians were compared to free
africans, who choose not to woek on the plantations at ‘slave
wages.’ The colonial representation of africans as ‘lazy’ and
‘ungrateful’ for refusing the ‘largess’ of european planters,
was part of the strategy used to dominate both groups. This included
the imaging of bonded laborers as ‘model’ coolies in contrast to
rebellious africans. Even though the material conditions for the vast
majority of freed africans and indians varied little, this policy of
divide and rule created stereotypes among both groups that served to
maintain the colonial system fifty years after abolition of
indenture.
By
1911, an indian owned a plantation and employed indian indentured
laborers in surinam. In guyana, the value of landed property owned by
the free indians in 1911-12 was $972,761. Additionally, they owned
13,384 head of cattle, and 3,022 head of sheep and goats. Wherever
the indians established themselves, they grew rice and sugar cane
(ibid:104). Money lending was another activity that made many indians
rich, abeit at the expense of others as interests were as high as ten
percent per month.
lxxxiii
It needs to be stated that there was a wide variation in south asian
prosperity during this time. Also, many families from the small,
south asian middle and upper class group, were recent upper caste
emigrants who came as investors to the colony, after the abolition of
indenture.
Most
writers tend to ignore caste and gender issues in their analysis of
the indian working class during indentureship and colonialism in
guyana. However, as Rodney points out, a breakdown of data according
to caste indicates a much higher than normal proportion of upper and
middle caste brahmins
and kshattriyas
(chatris)
among land buyers before 1900, demonstrating that the land buyers
were a privilege minority in more ways than one. He concluded that
length of stay, high caste status and the job of driver each
separately provided advantages which were transformed into class
mobility (Rodney 1981:112).
Rodney’s
insight here is critical to the purposes of this paper. His analysis
suggests that not only was class formation caste-related, but that
there was a re-emergence of caste associated employment within the
villages and settlements in guyana. For instance, Jha notes that
intermediate and higher caste individuals became landowners and money
lenders, while dalits were once again reduced to working as
agricultural laborers, domestic servants, gardeners, porters,
watchmen, and ‘scavengers’ (1974:11).
Even
though upper and intermediate caste hindus experienced a drop in
status and social mobility working as indentured laborers on the
estates, nevertheless, their prestige relative to the dalits, was not
significantly reduced (ibid.). One anthropologist, Morton Klass,
noted of his fieldwork in trinidad during the late 1950s, “the
primary determinant of status among rural Hindus is caste membership.
Education, occupation, and wealth are also important, but they all
tend to cluster along with high-caste membership... in the rural
village, leadership, wealth and high-caste membership go hand in
hand.”lxxxiv
As occupation was the main basis for social status, this resulted in
a re-building of a caste/occupational hierarchy among the free east
indian population.
As
a further example of caste-related class formation, an older indian
woman recently told me a story of the existence of a group of dalits
from the bangi
caste in guyana in the 1970s whose caste-associated occupation was
cleaning out other people’s latrines or out-houses. She said that
property owners in towns, due to lack of space to construct another
toilet, would hire the services of this group of men, (who
specialized in this occupation), to dig a hole and empty the contents
of the filled toilet into it, thereby extending the life of
out-houses.
In
their study of trinidad, the Niehoffs (1974) found “a considerable
number of successful Indians on the Island are Brahmans and it is
probable that the respectful regard they enjoy among Hindus had been
helpful to them” (:91). These two researchers also noted a close
connection between class and caste. supporting the argument for
re-construction of upper caste dominance among south asians in
caribbean colonies. Interestingly, the Niehoffs do not go beyond the
suggestion that caste-related, class division in trinidad was due to
‘respectful regard’ among hindus of higher caste groups. The
subjugation on dalits and women implied in brahmanic domination, is
curiously ignored. Another link between class and caste, the cultural
aspects of power and domination, are explored next.
Homogenization
of south asian religions and cultures that were oppressive to women
Culture,
power and domination
The religious,
cultural, and ideological values surrounding social relations are as
real as power relations themselves, which include the culture of
domination and the domination of the cultural realm. In this sense,
the culture of domination includes economic, social, ideological, and
other processes
that
patterns relationships, labor, identity, and so on. Some of these
economic and ideological issues were discussed in the previous
section. The domination of the cultural realm relates to practices
and
forms of their normalization and contestation (Prakash 1992:36). This
part of the paper explores both the ideological processes and
practices in the normalization or homogenization, of south asian
religions and cultures in guyana, and their contestation. It is only
a preliminary inquiry into, as Marisol de la Cadena writes, “(how)
popular notions of ethnicity form part of the historical process of
ethnic identity formation and change.”lxxxv
In
regards to previous writings on this subject, the Niehoffs’ study
(1960) attempted to demonstrate that ‘indian’ cultural practices
was rapidly changing in trinidad and that caste was no longer an
important aspect. The two authors maintained, “inter-caste marriage
is common, the commensal and touch taboos have been mostly abandoned,
ritual supports have little significance any longer, and occupation
as defined by caste is almost defunct” (:186).These statements, no
doubt, have some truth; however, they are based on a too rigid
definition of caste and cultural practices as derived from the indian
sub-continent.
Concerning
the indian family structure, Rhoda Reddock similarly argues, , “on
a whole most of the five main factors governing Hindu marriage -
endogamy, exogamy, prohibited kin, virgin marriage and hypergamy were
broken down virtually irreparably” (:86). This author correctly
points out that the shortage of indian women during the early
indenture period in the caribbean meant that there was essential
changes in south asian cultural practices. Nevertheless, this
perspective do not fully acknowedge ideological processes, that is,
the re-construction of south asian cultures which took place during
the later indenture period. Further, these authors do not understand
the deeply embedded nature of south asian cultures, including the
caste system. Many of cultural norms and customs continue to be
acknowledged, even among dalits, muslims and christians.
This
section of the paper argues that fundamental elements of south asian
culture, including caste, culture, and marriage, did (and still)
exist in guyana, abeit in a changed form. These were re-constituted
during the later indenture period, encouraged by the state, religious
and political groups and accompanied by a re-creation of the
traditional indian family structure. This perspective takes into
account the complex relationships that exists between these south
asian cultures and the ongoing exploitation of caste and gender, the
rise of new elites, and the emergence of party and racist politics in
the twentieth century.
Religion,
caste and culture during early and later indentureship
In
the early days of indenture, the indians had few leaders or local
organizations like the village council or gram
panchayat in
india.
There existed a very diverse form of hinduism, including
vaishnavites,
shaivites,
and madrases;
and leadership patterns followed this same eclectic form. Most
emigrants retained a sense of case origins from india, and as they
moved off the estates, caste communities were sometimes recreated in
villages.
Among
the first and second generation of indentured immigrants, there were
religious and community leaders who went from village to village for
the expressed purpose of arranging marriages between children of the
same religion, branches of hinduism, and caste groups. Additionally,
south asian cultural rites like naming ceremonies, tattoos marks on
the hands and feet of females (gondana),
caste marks on foreheads (teeka),and
body piercing, helped to maintain case identities in the third
generation and beyond.
Elements
of brahmanic casteism and oppression of women existed during the
early period of indenture in the caribbean. One colonial
administrator, Gamble, noted in trinidad in 1866, “there are some
of the brahmin caste among them and it is revolting to see the way a
woman, for instance, will drop down, touch the foot of this holy
Brahmin, and then kiss the hand that has been in contact with the
priests’ foot.”lxxxvi
We are not informed of the woman’s caste in this commentary, but it
is quite likely that she was a dalit. Interestingly, what is
revolting to Gamble is the woman’s reverence of a brahmin, however
he may not have realized that, as a woman and possibly a dalit, she
may not have had much choice in the matter.lxxxvii
Despite
the different patterns of leadership and worship during the early
period, Jha writes that by “the second half of the nineteenth
century, the higher caste hindus, and among the muslims the maulavis,
took up the leadership” of the indian village communities (Jha
1994:104-5). However, the domination of brahmins and maulavis was
never complete, and was contested by women, dalits and other groups
like the madrases, arya samajis, siewnarinees and so on.
The
re-construction of south asian religions and castes under
indentureship in guiana
In
guyana, only two small hindu temples were observed by a royal
commission in the 1860s, but by the 1890s, at least thirty-three
temples and twenty-nine mosques were found by Comins (Tinker:210).
Quite soon, brahmin families became the hereditary guardians of many
of the shrines (ibid.), thereby re-establishing the higher caste
ritual status of the upper caste. Brahmin males were therefore able
to re-emerged from the indentured experience with all of their
previous prestige and status intact and many were able to resume
their role as spiritual and intellectual leadership of the majority
of hindus. This allowed brahmins to reassert their monopoly on
ritualistic functions around childbirth, marriage and death among the
majority of south asians in the colony.lxxxviii
By
the early 20th century, hindu temples were commonplace in most
estates and villages, constructed often with help and encouragement
by the otherwise strict and repressive estate management. Caribbean
historian, Robert Moore, suggests the management took such steps
purposefully to keep the indian labor force socio-culturally isolated
from the rest of the colonial population, and therefore more easily
manipulated.lxxxix
Interestingly,
south asian anthropologist, Chandra Jayawardena, suggests that this
proliferation of temple-building activity in guyana indicates the
first trends toward religious homogenization.xc
Homogenization is taken to mean a process of shaping and blending
dissimilar religious and cultural ideas and practices into one
dominant form. In guyana, homogenization occurred partly through the
domination of spiritual practices by, and according to, north
indian, upper caste
religious values, norms and traditions (whether hinduism or islam).
The
process of cultural blending was a mechanism for power used by
privileged groups to culturally dominate others as part of south
asian ethnic identity formation. Power was secured through categories
of status and ranking which facilitated the ascendance upper caste,
north indian groups and cultural practices. The positions of women
and dalits were enmeshed in an economy of symbolic and material
practices that, in a sense, reproduced their dominated existence in
india. This include their subjugation within the domain of indian
culture, for example, in religious beliefs and practices, ritual
ranking, the oppression of women, and so on. Caste and gender ranking
promoted the exploitation of women and dalit labor by both colonial
and upper caste cultures of domination; their labor was drafted as
free and undervalued, (i.e., underpaid) on and off the estates.
Dutch
sociologist, Steven Vertovec, indicates that this domination of the
cultural realm may have occurred because caste identities in many
cases remained among south asian immigrants and some of their
descendants, even though no caste system ever arose to control or
influence personal or group interactions.xci
The author claims that a process of "brahmanization"
occurred, whereby throughout the hindu community a corpus of
brahmanic ritual directed toward sanskritic gods, became a
characteristic process marking caribbean hinduism.
To
illustrate, Vertovec notes the prevalence of readings from the
ramayana
of
Tulsidas, the frequent performance of formal puja
(offering made to sanskritic gods), samskaras
(rites of passage), kathas
(recitals of sacred text), and bhagwats
or
yagnas
(week
long ritual reading of sacred texts) (ibid.). Jha further supports
this claim when he observes that several features of caribbean hindu
practices of puja and hawan
are identical to north indian practices.xcii
Jha further notes that the most popular hindu festivals were the
north indian Divali
festival of lights and phagwa
spring festival (celebrated even though there is no ‘spring’ as
such in the caribbean) (1974: 8).
However,
there were significant differences in hindu ritual and worship in
guyana from that in india. From a mainstream hindu perspective, the
timing of religious rituals, such as weddings, were not as strict as
in india; elaborate rituals prescribed by the hindu canon were not
usually done; rituals at homes were more common in the caribbean than
in many parts of india; most of the rituals were dominated by the
priest, rather than having more involvement from devotees; and the
‘polluting’ habit of eating meat was practiced by most hindus of
all castes.xciii
Moreover, there was a general absence of mother goddess worship, and
there were few female deities besides
Sita of
the ramayana.
After
indentureship: the rise of hindu fundamentalism in guiana
For
many years, the organizational development of “brahmanized”
hinduism in the caribbean was modest, but by the 1920s and 1930s, a
rapid acceleration occurred. This expansion occurred in parallel to
the development of an indian middle class leadership in the early
1920s, which again suggests a close connection between caste and
social class formation and divisions. The development of labor
organization among sugar workers during this same period, further
links exploitation of dalit and lower class workers by more
caste/class privileged organizers.
During
this period, advocates of brahmanic hinduism, or “sanatanist,”
had several violent clashes with the missionary workers of reformist
organizations like the arya
samaj
(which started as a reform movement against castism and brahmanism in
north india in 1875), the kabir
panth and
the siewnarinee,
a
south indian reform movement. Consolidating their power in 1927, the
brahmins in colonial guyana established a pundits’ council to act
as sole authority, along with the sanatan dharma maha sabha, of all
hindus in the colony.
Both
of these upper caste/class religious organizations gained prominence,
achieved important gains during the 1930s and 1940s, and became major
political forces during the 1950s and 1960s. These organizations
started schools, held meetings in temples, published books,
participated in large-scale religious celebrations, and sponsored
religious and cultural festivals. Anthropologists R. T. Smith (1962)
writes,
This form of Hinduism (promoted by Maha Sabha) has gradually replaced all the lower-caste cults and special practices which used to exist among the immigrants, and it claims the affiliation of practically all the temples in the country. With its sister organization, the Pundits’ Council, it may be said to control orthodox Hinduism (or the nearest Guianese equivalent to it) in British Guiana, and has come to constitute a “church” in the technical sense (:123-4).
The result of these
cultural processes and practices were manifold. One was that, given
the wide range of religious practices that existed in india and
guyana, homogenization had a negative influence on diversity in favor
of more singular notions of religious belief and expression. This
meant a majority of dalit groups were "pressured" into a
process of sanscritization, or adopting higher caste definitions of
religion and culture. They also resulted in marginalizing south
indian cultures, and the oppression of women, as cultural practices
were dominated by men.
To
a certain extent, upper caste, north indian domination was aided by
colonial divisive policies which contributed to increasing the
differences between south asians belonging to hinduism and islam in
colonial indian and guyana. This led to a further homogenization of
hindu and muslim groups along fluid caste boundaries, but more rigid
religious lines, with negative consequences for both groups.
Hindu-muslim intermarriages were not encouraged, for instance, with
negative consequences for both men and women. A discussion of these
issues, however, are beyond the scope of this paper
Dalit cultures
in guyana
Given
the large numbers of dalit females and males who emigrated from
colonial india to guiana, aspects of dalit culture were quite
prevalent during the early indenture period. Animal sacrifices at the
level of religious life, and the use of meat and alcohol at the level
of food culture, were practiced. However, many aspects of dalit
culture were forced to go underground, like blood sacrifices which
met with colonial and brahmanic disapproval. Further, dalit food,
art, dance, music and religious practices got incorporated into more
widely accepted forms.
As
expressed earlier, caste is not only about religion and culture, but
fundamentally about power. As social mobility became articulated
through caste groups, dalits were once again discriminated against
within the south asian community. Dalit peoples, cultures,
ideologies, and practices were suppressed by both the south asian
upper castes and colonial ruling groups. The term ‘chamar’ was
used as an insult among east indians, and is still in use. During
indentureship, dalits have experienced problems in trying to enter
orthodox hindu temples, as in india. This may have them to resort to
other forms of religious ideologies and practices outside of the
conventional hindu fold, e.g., kali worship, christianity and islam.
In spite of all this, many continued to be treated as outcastes by
members of the hindu upper caste group.
Considered
‘polluting’ to caste hindus, dalits formed residential clusters
at the end of villages, similar to india. For example, the Niehoffs
reported the existence of a village inhabited exclusively by the dom
people, outside of the town of Debe. They also noted that one end of
another area, Penal, “the section where most Negroes are found, has
a heavy concentration of low-caste Hindus, many of whom raise pigs”
(1974:93). It is significant to note here that the close residential
location between dalits and africans represents their similar social,
cultural, economic and power location in regards to mainstream hindu
village society, that is, the margins.
With
respect to dance and other art forms, jhumar
was one of the few forms of tribal folk song-dances to survive
briefly in the caribbean, as other dalit art forms like the nagara
got incorporated into more general folk categories and were no longer
performed in an ‘authentic’ manner.xciv
The classical traditions of north india predominated in music and
dance, in the form of
tan sangeet music,
rajdhar dance,
etc., (ibid.) thus maintaining and reinforcing upper caste indian
identities which entailed the perpetuation of privilege with the
close association of caste with class. These processes were gendered
as can be gauged through the early practice of particular forms of
folk arts and theater in guyana, in which women sang or played an
instrument, but were not allowed to dance (ibid.). And, as many
priests became accomplished musicians-singers, upper castes ideology
and practices came to dominate these various artistic expressions as
well.
As
a result of caste and state oppression, a process of sanskritization
and westernizationxcv
occurred among the dalits. Sanskritization means basically giving up
practices and sources of pollution that form an integral part of the
dalit lifestyle, for the more respectable practices of the upper
castes. It enabled dalits who had acquired wealth or political power
to shed their low ritual status and be included among the high
castes. However, as M. N. Srinivas points out, these were only
positional changes, not structural ones (ibid.:99).
With
westernization, some dalit families converted to christianity and
others tried to provide their children with western education.
Christians, muslims, dalits and other south asian groups generally
claim that casteism does not exist anymore. Many hindus have
forgotten to which caste they belong. Caste may even be a matter of
little concern for the majority of intermediate caste hindus.
Nevertheless, one cannot say that the ideological process and
practice of casteism no longer exist. It endures in many areas, such
as the following: the oppression of dalit cultures; in the continued
close connection between class and caste privileges; in respect for
brahmins and maulavis, who are ‘aware’ of their caste; and in the
fact that non-brahmins priest are rare (and women rarer still) within
mainstream hinduism.
South indian
cultures in guyana
Over
a fifth of the indentured emigrants to guiana came from south india
and aspects of south indian culture were quite popular, especially
during the early indenture period. In certain areas of berbice
region, madrase culture and parts of tamil society were reproduced.xcvi
For example, the land use patterns of rice cultivation were similar
to tamil society (ibid.). Temples were established by south indian
women and men devoted to
shaktism.
There were south indian reform groups like the siewnarinees, and more
traditional groups who worshipped the supreme mother goddess mariamma
in the form of kali.xcvii
South
indian cultural process and practices in guiana were also influenced
by casteism as individuals from upper caste groups also emigrated
from south india.
Still,
the south indian madrase group had a unique form of expression in
which any of kali’s devotees were allowed to participate,
regardless of caste or creed (ibid.). This suggests that kali
ceremonies may have included many dalits from south and north india.
Jha notes that only chamars sacrificed goats to kali (1974:22).
During the ceremonies, devotees performed mariemmen nargums
(poem
stories) accompanied by music in the karnatak
style of south india (Singh 1994:226-7).
Another
example of south indian cultural practice, the charak-puja
or hook-swinging festival of madras, bengal and bombay, was widely
observed during the early part of indenture, around 1853, until it
was banned (Mangru 1987a:170). Later in the 1880s, the south indian
fire walking ceremony became so popular that regulations were issued
to curb the processions.xcviii
However, as Guyanese dancer and historian, Gora Singh, writes,
“(madrase) represents an organic fusion of tribal, folk and
classical idioms brought together in praise of Mariemmen, an artistic
expression of a
people kept out of the general East Indian fold”
(ibid.:227; my emphasis).
There
exists a void in the history of dalit and south indian cultures in
guyana, and there is a need for further study on the status of women
in these cultures in guiana. In short, south indian and dalit
cultural practices and beliefs were separated from and ranked lower
than north indian, hindu brahmanic ideology. Their goddesses and gods
were classified as low and outcaste. Their existence as a kali ‘cult’
includes aspects of their domination, but most importantly shows that
brahmanic domination was never complete and was always being
contested in guiana. Women played a major part in these cultural
resistance movements.
There
were several christian religious groups among south asians; however,
these developments - as those of madrase, south indian or ‘dravidian’
cultures - were counter to the prevailing trend of homogenization
along north indian hindu (and muslim) conceptions of religion, during
the later indenture period. The similarity among these various
religious practices relates to the creation of a national, south
asian ethnic identity in guyana. However, they also relate
specifically to gender oppression, which occurred in different ways
within each form of religious practice and institution.
For
example, while south indian women initially taught men in guyana how
to perform the kali
mai puja,
the role of female leadership gradually diminished as male priests,
marlo
pujaris,
and disciples took over all important aspects of the ceremonies.xcix
South asian women and girls were denied positions of leadership in
temples, mosques and churches, and their participation was limited to
that of devotees rather that religious leaders. Integral to the
blending of south asian religions and cultures in guyana, as in
india, were issues of ethnicity and gender. Another outcome of the
process of domination of the cultural sphere was that they
facilitated upper caste/class men’s control over indian religious,
political, economic, social and community institutions.
This
is not to say that there were no positive effects of homogenization
processes and practices among the vast majority of east indians.
There are numerous (mostly male) accounts on the important issue of
“positive” contributions of east indians culture, politicians,
capital, and so on, in the caribbean and guyana. Far from attempting
to cover these various arguments here, this paper offers a more
critical gender, labor and caste perspective on these issues.
Impact of
homogenization processes on the status of indian women in the colony
As
an essential component of ethnic identity, women were initially
regarded as the main preservers of south asian cultural practices,
and so they did achieve some status. Yet, it is equally true that
both ideological and material aspects of south asian cultures
legitimate the subordination of indian females. The separate but
related processes of the re-construction of religion and culture,
homogenization, and the creation of a national indian identity in the
colony, had far reaching outcomes which impacted negatively upon
women.
Religious
and cultural blending, and domination of th cultural realm, resulted
in particular male, upper caste ideas of what the indian family
should look like, and re-constituted the role of women within the
family structure. This had further negative consequences for women's
labor, sexuality, reproduction, and marriage. With the reconstitution
of the system of indian male domination of the family, and of upper
caste, male ideologies of wifely fidelity, female modesty, dowry,
widowhood, and so on, were used to redefine and limit almost all
indian women's access to, and control over, time, space and resources
within and outside of the family.
During
early and later indentureship, east indian women were expected to
cover their heads with a scarf (orhni)
in the presence of in-laws, elders, during pujas, readings, etc., as
a form of seclusion and purdah. Moreover, the relatively better
status and position of women in south indian cultures and among the
lower castes were now inverted to the more restricting norms of north
indian, upper caste cultures. Between the laboring classes, castes,
and tribes from among whom a majority of migrants came, bride price
and not dowry was the norm (Reddock 1985:85). Divorce and widow
re-marriage were allowed and customarily practiced by dalit women.
Further,
the lessening of casteism and the limited gains in status made by
east indian women during early period of indenture were reversed and
redefined according to homogenized religious, cultural and social
norms by the end of indenture. For instance, during the later period,
Jha commented that the marriage between a high caste girl and a low
caste boy (pratiloma)
was not approved (1974:12). Castesim existed even in the offspring of
mixed-caste marriages; in general, hindus consider a child as
belonging to the caste of the parent of the highest caste.
As
a result, Jayawardena observed that many indian women were torn
between the contrary pull of indian values, and the impossibility of
rejecting them completely, while remaining at the same time a member
of the indian group.c
The author acknowledge the fact that roles for south asian women, and
contestation of these roles, were part of an ethnic identity females
inherited; yet, these roles occurred within specific social contexts
of power and domination, based on gender (class and caste)
inequalities. In rebelling against these male defined roles (such as
marrying outside the ethnic group), a woman risked the wrath of her
entire ethnic community.
It
can be argued that during the later indenture period, a small number
of conforming hindu, muslim and christian women who had access to
upper and middle class/caste privileges, benefited from these
particular constructions of religion and culture. Women likely to
benefit from access to cultural and political power were those
involved with important temples and mosques, and women’s
organizations. These include the hindu religious society (of dharam
sala), american aryan league, islamic association, ‘susamachar’
young men’s society, methodist east indian mission, anglican east
indian mission, and the canadian east indian mission, in addition to
other religious and cultural organizations and regional debating
societies.
One
group of upper class/caste hindu women, including Nalini Singh and
Alice B. Singh,
ci
were active from 1929 to 1947 in the british guiana Dramatic Society
(BGDS). This was an offshoot of the british guiana east indian
association (BGEIA), which was “the only authorized body to make
capable representation in the interest of Indians in the colony.”cii
The BGEIA was a major influence on the homogenization process and
served to create an indian power structure or hierarchy through the
promotion of ‘traditional’ north indian culture, performing
artists, political leaders and business elite in its newsletter the
Indian
Opinion.ciii
BGEIA also had a cricket club and indian literary society.
As
custodians of north indian cultural art forms, some female singers
and dancers gained momentary fame and improved status, and so had
profound influence upon south asian cultures in guyana. The list of
east indian female artists include Subhagia Devi Persaud, the
daughter of a priest and merchant from calcutta who was well versed
in the north indian benares style of music (and who died in
childbirth at age 36 in 1908); her daughter, pianist-vocalist Nellie
Gangadai Persaud; her grand-daughter Gracie Devi, and her
daughter-in-law, Champa Devi, dancers who emerged in the 1930s. Pita
Pyari, a singer-dancer, emerged in early 1940s (Singh 1994:228-9).
Regardless
of the freedoms these women enjoyed, they were also subjected to
limitations relating to gender ideology and domination by south asian
men. It is significant to note that none of the BGDS women were
“politically” active. However, the struggle for control over
culture is a political one. Further, the sexual exploitation of
indian women artisans and devadasis
(temple dancers/prostitutes) in india by upper caste/class indian
males was reproduced in the caribbean in the form of sexual
exploitation of indian female artists, dancers and singers. The
popular image of many south asian female artists went through similar
changes during their lifecycle, including that of ‘cutified’
child performer, teen temptress, sexually deviant woman, and redeemed
mother (of sons). Sexual exploitation and notoriety of some indian
females also served as a basis of division among all south asian
women, who became defined according to their sexually activities as
“immoral” versus “moral.”
Assimilation
of south asian women
Concerning
the assimilation of south asians in caribbean societies, Klass
observes, “although it is customary for East Indians to deny the
importance of caste in their social structure, it is very much
present, and the values underlying the Indian caste system may well
affect present East Indian attitudes toward assimilation”
(1973:296). It is worth pointing out here that Klass not only
recognizes the importance of caste in caribbean societies, but the
coupling of casteism and racism within dominant south asian cultural
and religious ideologies.
Even
among the most ‘assimilated’ of urbanized christian families, the
domination and subordination of girls and women continued to be
reinforced by larger indian cultural norms operating in day-to-day
personal interactions, and at the regional and national levels. Even
though the material markers of ‘indianness’ like sari
(dress), dhoti
(pant), chappal
(sandal),
and
burka (veil),
faded in the colony, new signs of ethnic ‘otherness’ were created
among the indians, including subtle shades of skin color, hair
texture and use of language.
While
a process of assimilation or ‘creolization’ occurred among
indians in guiana in terms of language, dress, food habits, and
social customs, nevertheless, there remained an internal status
system among east indians based on notions of caste, class, religion
and gender. Even in the process of acculturation, asian women
remained at the bottom of ethnic and colonial power structures, based
on use of ‘western’ language, dress, lifestyle, etc. Women,
considered to be the custodians of cultural particularisms by virtue
of being less assimilated, were in turn defined as most ‘indian.’
This ‘backwardness’ justified further discrimination in women’s
access to ‘the west’ in travel to the towns and city, as a form
of purdah.
East
indian men regularly controlled indian females’ access to
non-indian or western ideas and institutions through limiting their
mobility. For example, women’s access to resources like colonial
administrations, schools, social services, political organizations,
employment in government offices and private businesses, etc., were
negotiated through indian men. Access by females and members of the
lower class/caste was further limited by upper class/caste indian men
who came to dominate these various institutions. In addition, (or as
a result of) this discrimination against women, south indians and
dalits, resulted in them becoming stigmatized in turn as the most
‘indian’ or ‘backward’ in an ethnic and gender power
structure which legitimated their subordinate status, and at the same
time, reproduced and reinforced the existing colonial order.civ
The
revival of north indian, upper caste religious traditions among south
asians, along with the blending of cultures, and issues of
inter-ethnic competition for access and control of resources,
contributed to the creation of an indian national cultural identity
in guiana, india, and elsewhere. Although the conservative brahmanic
movement was opposed to the more radical arya samaj group, they both
share the same disursive space; a space outlined by a nationalist
discourse and reproduced by men and women alike. Changing the terms
of this discourse, as women, dalit and south indian cultures
attempted to do, exacts a heavy price: alienation from the shared
meanings which constitute a language of identity, affiliation and
loyalty; and, violence and killing of women (and dalits) who
transgressed communal norms.
Many
dalit and south asian women and men who had exhibited cultural pride
at an earlier stage, discarded their identities and recemeted their
alliance with traditional caste elites during the later indenture
period. Many dalit and caste hindu women who were initially resisting
cultural and male oppression in india and on the estates, retreated
into traditional practices off the plantations since they felt
vulnerable and exposed. Indeed, throughout the history of guyana, all
women became boundary markers between different ethnic and religious
collectivities competing for power and access to environmental,
economic, political, cultural and other resources.
With
the emergence of electoral politics in the 20th century, caste,
religion and regional feelings, Jha writes, “were exploited in the
same way as india” (1974:15).This process intensified as the
colonial period came to an end. The discourse around caste, religion
and regional origins became submerged as ethnicity and racial
difference assumed increasing importance among south asian
collectivities.
In
the vacuum left by colonial power, a few upper caste/class indian
(and african) men exploited race and cultural issues as part of a
process of national, ethnic identity formation in guyana; they were
thereby able to obtain power through ethnic and religious support by
a vast majority of the population.cv
The ideology and practices of african and indian national identity
movements in the colony, in conjunction with the creation of a male
political and economic elite, in the colonial and post-colonial
period had lasting negative influences on race relations in the
country. Competition among ethnic elites in the post-colonial context
also depend upon the continued oppression and exploitation of a vast
majority of women and working class men, and of amerindian peoples
and their land.
The education
of indian girls: between colonialism and the indian family
During
slavery, schools were for white children only as the children of
enslaved africans were never given an education. A dutch school was
built in Essequibo as early as 1685 for white children. With the
abolition of slavery in 1835, christian indoctrination of african
children in schools were used as part of a strategy to maintain white
minority rule.cvi
The ‘negro education act’ was implemented in 1834 as part of this
policy.
By
1876, compulsory education laws were introduced and over seventy-five
percent of the curriculum was based on the bible.cvii
Part of the colonial strategy for maintaining ethnic divisions was
the isolation of the indentured and free indians from the rest of
colonial society. The children of south asians were exempted from
compulsory education laws which applied to all other ethnic groups.
As
late as 1904, the swettenham circular specifically exempted indian
children from the compulsory education ordinance (1876) during the
first ten years of their parents’ residence in the colony, and
recommended that no pressure should be placed on south asian parents
who wanted to keep their daughters in seclusion.
cviii
This circular was obviously gendered, but there were also issues of
child labor and economic exploitation which were connected to this
sexist and racist educational policy of the planter class. It was not
until 1933, when the circular was withdrawn, that indian girls were
encouraged to attend public schools in significant numbers.
Education
for girls was viewed as unnecessary by south asian parents for
several reasons, including economic, social, cultural, and religious.
From an economic point of view, education of a son was valued over
education for daughters because sons usually remain in the paternal
home while daughters leave for marriage. Therefore education for
daughters was seen as a economic loss since any additional income she
may earn as a result of her education will go to the immediate
benefit of another family, while sons’ income would supposedly
remain within the family.
At
a social and family level, the education of girls represented a
threat to the power and control of european and south asian men. As
such, males colluded to keep indian women uneducated and more
dependent on them. From a cultural and economic perspective, one
excuse was that girls were more ‘needed’ in the home for domestic
production like cooking, cleaning, washing, childcare, etc. Of
course, these issues varied according to class, caste, location and
so on; however, these generalizations remain true for the most part.
Repeated visits to guyana by social reformers and political figures
from india finally encouraged and convinced south asian families to
allow their daughters to attend school. Still, parents resisted
sending girls to school as they grew older for reasons related to
marriage, fear of sexual harassment, childcare and so on.
Additionally,
the oppression of south asian girls’ and educational deprivation
continued within schools themselves. In a multi-ethnic,
coeducational, public school environment, with mostly christian male
teachers, indian girls were alienated around issues of religion,
language, culture and gender. The introduction of needlework and home
economics into the curriculum further served to reinforce the sexual
division of labor and maintain gender differences, thereby keeping
women out of the formal economy as clerks, administrators, and so on.
The majority of girls (and boys) were also denied access to knowledge
of their own history in these western schools.
Nevertheless,
access to educational opportunities did provide some girls with new
options during the late period of indenture and schooling began to
have a much more positive influence in the lives of many women after
the mid-1930s. Despite these changes, educated women’s access to
formal employment and equal status were severely limited by colonial
and post-colonial policies. Women’s empowerment was also restricted
by the gendered ideology of various cultures, and the continued
domination of men in the family and society.
Women's role
within the indian patriarchal family structure
Defining
the subordination and oppression of females
The
ideologies, systems and institutions of female oppression have a long
history in south asia, as elsewhere. Men’s domination over women
started in the family and extended kinship group. Patriarchy, or the
establishment and practice of male dominance over women and children,
is a historic process formed by men and women, with the patriarchal
family serving as a basic unit of organization. Family and kinship
patriarchy is separate from, although related to, larger ideologies
and institutions of female oppression like religion, culture, and the
state. These larger, gendered processes and practices are referred to
here as specific social, cultural and political institutional forms
of domination and oppression of women.
In
her study on the origins of female oppression, american feminist,
Gerda Lerner argues, “the enslavement of women, combining both
racism and sexism, preceded the formation of classes and class
oppression. Class differences were, at their very beginnings,
expressed and constituted in terms of patriarchal relations. Class is
not a separate construct from gender; rather class is expressed in
genderic terms.”cix
As
part of the historical process in the development of a patriarchal
system, roles and behavior deemed appropriate to the sexes are
expressed in values, customs, laws, social roles, and metaphors which
then become part of the construction of culture and society. Lerner
argues that the sexuality of women, consisting of their sexual and
reproductive capacities and services, became commodified by the
family and society as bride price, the private property of men, in
paid sex work, and so on (ibid.:213-14). This paper argues similarly
that class formation and division among east indians in guyana were
constituted and expressed in gendered terms.
The
family or kinship group lies at the center of south asian
socio-cultural integration in south asia and the caribbean, and is
probably the most patriarchal.cx
A patriarch is considered the head of the household and, within the
family, he controls productive resources, labor force, and
reproductive capacities based on notions of superiority and
inferiority and legitimized by differences in gender and generation.
According to Gerda Lerner, the system of patriarchy can function only
with the cooperation of women. Lerner writes,
this cooperation is secured through a variety of means: gender indoctrination; educational deprivation; the denial to women of knowledge of their history; the dividing of women, one from the other, by defining “respectability” and “deviance” according to women’s sexual activities; by restraints and outright coercion; by discrimination in access to economic resources and political power; and by awarding class privileges to conforming women... a form of patriarchy best described as paternalistic dominance (:217).
Women have always shared the class privileges of men of their class as long as they were under “the protection” of a man. For women, other than those of the lower classes, the “reciprocal agreement” went like this: in exchange for your sexual, economic, political, and intellectual subordination to men you may share the power of men of your class to exploit men and women of the lower class (:218).
Lerner’s
statements here are very instructive for the purposes of this paper.
She points out not only the cultural dimensions of female oppression,
but the gender and class inter-connection as well. We can assume that
the class dynamics she writes about would be similar for lower caste
or dalit women. Interpreting the “reciprocal agreement” in the
context of colonial guyana would require further analysis of how
upper caste/class indian women were continually renegotiating their
bargaining power at the expense of dalit and other women (and men).
For example, in the employment of domestic servants and so on.
Men
were also disadvantaged by indian patriarchy and female
subordination. For example, as fathers, brothers and sons of
dominated females, in being pushed into stereotypes and denied
genuine choices in sexuality and behavior; in domination by other men
in regards to marriage; employment, etc., However, the experiences of
these men can in no way be compared to, or equated with, the
subordination of women, simply because there is no equality or
symmetry between male and female experience.
The indian
family under colonialism in guyana
All
through the period of indentureship, colonial authorities
consistently refused to grant hindus and muslims the same marriage
rights as christians. Under the ‘heathen marriage ordinance’ 10
of 1860, before a marriage was contracted the parties were required
to sign a declaration that no impediment exists against the proposed
union either by previous or existing marriage, blood relation or
parental dissent. Tthe district magistrate then gave each party a
certificate to produce to the immigration agent-general in the
capital, georgetown, who then validated the marriage and issued a
marriage registration certificate for a two dollars fee (Mangru
1987a:213).
The
consolidated ordinance 15 of 1891 made provisions for the marriage of
east indians by a magistrate, christian minister, hindu priest or
muslim moulvi thereby rendering it unnecessary for the contracting
parties to travel to georgetown. The priest was merely required to
sign and witness the date of marriage, but within seven days the
certificate had to be delivered to the immigration agent-general
under heavy penalty. When all such technicalities were fulfilled the
marriage was registered and a certificate issued (ibid.).
While
difficulties in registration did exists, this does not in itself
explain why so few of the immigrants' customary marriages were
registered. Between 1860 and 1871 an average of 12 marriages were
registered annually under the 1860 ordinance and 7 between 1904 and
1914 (ibid.). Consequently, most south asian marriages were
considered invalid by colonial law and society, which meant that the
majority of children were registered as born out of wedlock and
therefore illegitimate. A similar situation existed among the african
population as well. As such, there were considerable difficulties
over succession to intestate properties.
One
reason why several marriages went unregistered was because one or
both of the contracting parties were below the prescribed legal age
limit, 12 years for girls and 15 for boys (ibid:214). The raising of
the minimum age for girls to 14 years in 1888 (Tinker:203-4) may have
served as a further disincentive for parents. Another reason for the
lack of registration of marriages among south asians was that the
situation allowed fathers to sell and re-sell daughters several times
without penalty. For instance, Sarah Morton wrote of a case in 1916,
in which a father sold a daughter nine times for money and goods. On
each occasion of her ‘marriage,’ he refused to deliver her
(Reddock 1985:85).
The
institution of marriage within the patriarchal family
Under
the pressures of class exploitation, racism, and sexual abuse, both
african and east indian families in guyana were maintained largely
through the struggles of women. However, this area remains one of the
most neglected in carribean studies. Women not only resisted multiple
forms of colonial exploitation, but they were actively involved in
creating and maintaining families and cultural practices in an
environment hostile to their family, independent group formations and
customs. In spite of this, women generally remained oppressed within
the very family structures and cultures they helped to create in the
colony, which were reinforced by religious beliefs, economic
functions, and patriarchy. In the case of south asians, the
‘stability’ of the family unit was also reinforced by traditional
marriage forms and the re-construction of gendered cultures.
Among
south asian families, gender indoctrination occurred at an early age
and it was customary to have child marriage rites for both sexes.
Early marriage was also an effective means of patriarchal domination
to keep children in the rice fields. Indian men settled in different
villages arranged for the first unions of their children during early
adolescence and celebrate these marriages by traditional hindu or
muslim rites. Customarily, jahagis
or
shipmates would maintain ties through arranged marriages of children.
The
practice of using south asian females’ bodies as an exchange or an
economic value, meant that marriage became a way by which indian
families build alliances, accumulate land, labor and other resources
through bride price and dowry. After an east indian girl leaves her
native village to join a husband in his father's community, she
continued to be exploited as a daughter-in-law under the in-laws’
patriarchal household. And, as almost all traditional marriages were
invalid under british colonial law, women’s ownership of property
and other economic resources in her husband’s family became
severely limited.
During
the early indenture period, unmarried daughters were rare. As the
sex-ratio equalized, there were occurrences of south asian females
‘deciding’ to remain unmarried. These women occupied the lowest
position within the family hierarchy; many were cast aside by their
families and further marginalized in their communities. Frequently,
they end up as under-paid, sexually exploited, domestic servants for
the rest of their lives.
Indian women’s
married life in patriarchal households
Marriage
in patriarchal south asian households meant that women and girls were
expected to conform to ideologies of wifely fidelity and chastity, as
part of their religion and culture. Many women internalized these
ideologies in their worship and devotion to god and family. These
cultural definitions of female identity made it easier for them to be
complacent with the sexual division of labor, and with their
husband’s control over their labor, reproduction, sexuality,
mobility, and so on. Women’s power as wives and mothers was related
to their conformity to these ideologies, especially those governing
female sexuality.
In
this sense, unindentured women who left bonded servitude on the
plantations remained bonded within the family structure as wives,
daughters and mothers. They could not leave their employer (father
and husband), or leave the estate (male’s house), or demand ‘wages
for their work,’ or refuse the work assigned to them. As female
status and mobility became circumscribed and expressed through
household production, many women worked very hard cleaning, washing,
gardening, and maintaining the family’s property. Not allowed to
leave, beautifying the house/estate and family became a source of
immense pride for middle class indian women.
Many
young boys and girls disliked their early arranged unions, and there
were many cases of separation. Still, early marriages generally had
more negative consequences for young girls than boys. As females
became less scarce, boys found it easier to re-marry than girls who
were labeled as "divorcee." According to cultural
anthropologists, M. G. Smith, between one-fifth and one-quarter of
early arranged marriages among east indians dissolved, usually not
long after their celebration and before children were born to the
couple.cxi
Following this the girl almost always resumed cohabitation with
another partner, generally after returning to her parental home.
Nonetheless, the stigma placed on east indian girls and women from
broken unions within the community acted in such a way that many
women were compelled to seek partners outside of the ethnic group, in
the sense that this may not have been their first choice.
There
were many instances of extra-residential mating among south asian
men. Children with two or more women from south asian and other
ethnic backgrounds was common among indian men. Alcoholism and
economic exploitation was also a serious problem. Comins (1893:17)
reported, there were two hundred and five liquor shops opened by
south asians in trinidad in 1890. Polygamy, alcoholism, domestic
violence and other forms of oppression within the indian patriarchal
household meant that females were persistently abused throughout a
major part of their lives, both in their paternal home and in their
husband's home. Married women who resisted their husbands’ abuses
by returning to the paternal home were often beaten by their father
and told to return to their spouse. Given the limited set of options
women had, Crowley (1973) notes that the suicide rate among indian
women was high in contrast to that of african marriages (:284).
Decisions
over childbirth and family size in south asian patriarchal families
were related to many factors: social, economic, cultural,
environmental, and so on. In terms of social factors, many east
indian girls and women during indenture had limited control over
their own bodies and decisions about reproduction, because men viewed
their fertility as a way to make up for families left behind in
india. There were several economic factors related to decisions
concerning family size including the value of children’s labor,
male inheritance, and so on. As a result, many east indian girls were
impregnated at a very young age, leading to miscarriages and deaths
of teen mothers and their firstborn. Besides, these processes
resulted in frequent pregnancies for many indian women into the late
stages of their reproductive cycle.
The
control and abuse of females within the patriarchal family continued
in many cases after a husbands’ death. In upper caste hindu custom,
widows are not encouraged to remarry, and with the blending of
brahamanical religious norms, this meant that the majority of south
asian women from all castes were expected to observe upper caste
notions related to sati,
so that they had to live the rest of their lives as if in mourning.
Accordingly, widows were customarily treated as a bad omen or bad
luck by men, and women to a lesser extent.
Also,
due to the prevalence of male promiscuity, widows, and other “single”
east indian women were often viewed as potential threats by other
women, especially married women. Widows, moreover, experienced
discrimination in inheritance of property and other economic
resources, where they were disinherited in favor of older sons. And
because women usually lived longer than men, this meant that many old
indian women ended their lives in impoverishment, living with
previously dis-inherited daughters.
Dividing
women: daughter-in-law and mother-in-law relationships
The
south asian family was characterized by several patterns of dominance
and subjugation. The "indianness" of the east indian family
was specifically characterized by male power and control, and
dominance of mother-in-law over daughter-in-law.cxii
Within the structure of patriarchal authority, there was a strong
sub-system of domestic controls by women, especially the control of
mature women over their daughters-in-law, who was symbolized as
property owned. The sexuality of female in-laws was viewed as an
object of spiritual degradation to the family, and was therefore,
carefully guarded. The mother-in-law demanded the bride's time and
energy while her husband demanded her for intercourse.
The
hierarchical distribution of power within the structure of
patriarchal dominance was related to class, caste, and socio-economic
issues as well. Even in upper caste and class marriages, a woman was
not permitted to participate actively in an independent role, to have
her own career and live her own life. Rather, she was seen as an
extension of her husband, and as such, her own status was closely
related to, and could never be independent of, his own prestige and
power, with few exceptions.
Patriarchy and
women's resistance within the east indian family after indenture
East
indian women and girls were constantly renegotiating their bargaining
power and resisting forms of patriarchal oppression within the family
and culture, as individuals and groups. Women’s day-to-day
resistance was based on an awareness of their own power within
individual family relations and collectively derived from traditional
roles. Some women and girls choose, while others were compelled, to
outrightly defy patriarchal and cultural regulation of women’s
labor, reproduction, religion, sexuality, and mobility. Other women,
through cooperation and compliance, turned these very limitations
into a source of power. Many women defined their own goals and
pursued knowledge in all areas.
This
section of the paper explores some of these issues by drawing on the
article, "Structures of Experience: Gender, Ethnicity and Class
in the Lives of Two Indian Women," by caribbean feminist,
Patricia Mohammed (1993).cxiii
This author points out that indian patriarchal control is not only
exerted by the father, clearly, but is rather a system of values
entrenched in the indian family itself. In her interviews with two
trinidadian women, Mrs. Droapatie Naipaul, mother of V.S. and Shiva
Naipaul and Mrs. Dassie Parsan, she finds that gender and ethnicity
were closely interlinked during the earlier part of both women's
lives. Patricia Mohammed writes,
a strictly demarcated gender role was rendered in both these women's lives, which consisted of the responsibility of a girl child to parents; the obligations to both parents and husband; the duties expected of a woman and wife; and the role of mother. The imagery of gender - that is the expectations, responsibilities and so on of men and women - is firmly rooted in the ethnic consciousness of the women of this group. It was a consciousness that both women shared despite caste differences"(ibid:230).
It
is worth pointing out here the author’s recognition of caste
differences among the two women. Still, Patricia Mohammed argues that
both women were subjected to a similar ‘imagery of gender’ which
is ‘rooted’ in ‘ethnic consciousness’ among south asian
women. Nevertheless, this ethnic consciousness should not be confused
with, or equated to, a common caste, class or gender consciousness
among indian women. As previously argued, as part of a “reciprocal
agreement” with men, upper caste women exploited dalit and lower
class women.
With
regards to the connection between gender ideology and ethnic
consciousness, Mrs. Naipaul is quoted as saying, "my sisters all
felt the same way about their duty as wife and mother. It was an
honor to me." In contrast to Mrs. Naipaul’s comment on
cooperation and compliance with these gender roles, Mrs. Parsan
expressed a view on female abuse and resistance, saying, "Long
ago, no matter what you meet with your husband you have to put up
with it. Even though you go to your parents they will take you and
bring you back" (ibid.).
The
author argues that in the case of east indian women, gender was
unmistakably defined by ethnicity. She notes that the scarcity of
women in the earlier phase of indentureship led to their increased
importance since they were necessary for reconstituting south asian
communities in the caribbean. East indian women were viewed as
embodying certain values, primarily because of their role in
reproduction, but also because gender relations inherited from india
were built on the primacy of the male role to that of the female in
matters of religion, marriage and a sexual division of labor. The
life stories of both women reveal an effort to retain the harmony of
the group's concern, and alternatives being unthinkable at the time,
women colluded equally with men in reinforcing a particular gender
and ethnic identity as observed by this group (:231).
As
an example of the influence of identity issues and male control, even
though Mrs. Naipaul's father died when she was 13, her mother, and
possibly brothers and elders, ensured the same control over her life;
they determined the level of education she should receive, and when
and whom she should marry. Interestingly, when her husband died and
she was forced to provide for her family, she chose to work and
support them, rather than remarry. It is worth pointing out here that
Mrs. Naipaul’s decision to work indicates her desire for economic
idependence from men; however it also suggests that she was
conforming to cultural and religious prohibitions against upper caste
hindu widows’ remarriage. Although Mrs. Parsan's father did not
provide for his family, his authority was dominant in decisions over
her marriage, and so on (ibid.).
The
author concludes that each woman is the product of her ethnicity,
class and assigned gender role. Nonetheless, she points out that they
defy our expectations of them as stereotypes of a specific ethnic
group, class and gender. They took pride in carrying out what they
saw as their responsibility, yet they have not been passive actors in
all of this. At times they made a virtue of necessity, at others they
determined their own goals. In these interviews, the two women
demonstrate that none of these categories are static; in real life,
they are constantly being negotiated and re-negotiated (ibid.:233).
Women's
resistance against colonial and neo-colonial exploitation
Women’s
resistance on the estates
Both
enslaved and indentured women consistently resisted the ‘passive’
roles defined for them by both colonial and colonialized males.
Women’s resistance as indentured laborers on the plantations
included faking illness, refusing to work, verbally abusing owners
and administrators, destroying crops, using poison and witchcraft,
suicide, limiting their fertility, leaving the estate or running
away, and active rebellion.
Concerning
east indian women's resistance during indentureship, Rodney (1981)
writes that the sources are almost silent on this crucial issue, but
women certainly must have had specific grievances that would have
called forth protest (:157). The spirit of south asian labor
resistance was both generalized and ongoing throughout the indenture
and colonial period. Resistance repeatedly originated from within the
ranks of the outwardly placid indian women whom management, as well
as male workers, apparently expected to remain isolated from social
decision making. From time to time, indian labor resistance on the
estates would start in the weeding gang, which was essentially the
women's sphere.
In
one resistance at plantation Friends in berbice in 1903, a key role
was played by the veteran indentured woman worker, Salamea. At a
hearing after the disturbance, one driver testified: "I know a
bound coolie woman named Salamea. She has been on the estate for
three years. I heard that she told her shipmates on the Thursday to
go fight. She was at Friends before and she went to Calcutta and
returned to Friends. Salamea, I hear, urge the coolies who had
assembled to fight” (ibid.). It is significant to emphasize here
that Salamea, and others like her, challenges the myth of the
‘passive’ indian woman. The scant details about this woman
activist reveals an early political leader who utilized her community
networks to organize a resistance movement, spoke out against her
oppressors, and advocated violent struggle.
In
a earlier incident at Devonshire Castle plantation in essequibo, east
indians were being forced to work twenty hours without additional
pay. Their resistance in 1872 led to a confrontation with the police
in which five indians were killed. Magistrate Loughran noted the
incidents that led to the confrontation, and women’s role in the
resistance as follows:
During the interval about 50 women came to the front of the rioters and screamed and cursed in a most diabolical manner. One woman in particular, apparently their leader, went through the most extraordinary gesticulations I ever beheld. Knowing that legally women are rioters, and rioters of the very worst description from my own knowledge, I sent the interpreter to request women to retire and leave the fray to men; their reply was a coolie curse which is too horrible for translation. They said they would kill us or they would die with their husbands (Mangru 1987b:178).
These
accounts of women’s activities are very different from those of
other colonial officials like Young. This last account, in
particular, reveals that in situations in which women did not serve
as the actual leaders of indentured indian resistance, they
nevertheless played a very active role as supporters. As part of
their resistance, the women also had leaders. Their methods of
resistance included verbal abuse, damage of property, and threats to
kill their oppressors, or die in the attempt next to their husbands.
In this sense, the resistance of women were no different from that of
men.
Both
women’s and men’s resistance on the plantations became major
factors in the decision to end the indenture system. The resistance
of the majority of colonialized peoples in the colony further led to
the ending of colonial rule. At the end of the colonial period,
indian women were still loosing their lives in the nationalist
cause.cxiv
These women include Kowsilla of Leonora, who was 44 years old when
she died in 1964 leaving four children ranging in age from five to 15
years. She was at the front of a women’s picket line on bridge at
the plantation, which was charged by a tractor. Kowsilla died on the
spot and fourteen other women suffered severe back injuries; two
women were permanently disabled.
However,
women’s resistance against slavery and indentureship, and their
sacrifices in the nationalist struggle against colonialism, were
never related to feminist goals. As a result, women resistance have
not brought about in their liberation from the state or patriarchy.
Nationalist aspirations for popular sovereignty did result in an
extension of citizenship rights and voting privileges, clearly
benefiting women. Nevertheless, women’s and girls’ exploitation
in the colony, and their history of resistance to colonial rule, were
largely ignored in post-colonial political discourse. As a
consequence, women’s political, social and economic status have not
change much since independence in 1966.
Whereas
in the 1860s, women comprised nearly half the workforce, one hundred
years later, by 1960 this figure was reduced to less than a quarter,
or 23 percent.cxv
It is significant to note that this reduction occurred in the
colonial context. Similarly, women’s work as paid agricultural
workers decreased from around 70 percent in 1861, to 25 percent in
1960. After independence, female participation as laborers in a state
economy dominated by african males was reduced to 19 percent in the
1970s and 80s. Their participation as agriculture wage laborers was
reduced further to 10 percent.
Women’s
resistance as part of pre-independence organizations
Many
african and east indian women lost their lives in resisting slavery,
indenture and colonialism, however, even when women take leading
roles in fighting for their rights as workers, men usually came to
occupy the senior positions in labor organizations. Women’s
placement within the ‘domestic’ or ‘private’ sphere, was
responsible in part for their marginalization. Further, women’s
networks, church groups, employment and service organizations were
also regulated to a private or non-public space, and were therefore
considered nonessential. One example of a marginal south asian group
was the balak
sahaita mandalee
organization, formed in 1936 with Alice B. Singh as president, which
held garden parties for charitable causes for needy children.
Caste
and class bias in early east indian organizations in guyana have been
commented upon as catering “only for the upper social circle of the
community concerned,” due to “the aloofness of members of the
race from one another.”cxvi
Klass (1973) noted of south asian politicians, “an examination of
the caste affiliations of Hindu members, of whatever party, of the
Trinidad Legislative Council reveals that almost all are of the two
highest castes, Brahman and Kshatriya” (:293).
As
a result of class, caste and gender descrimination, the majority of
south asian women were excluded from, and marginalized within,
indian-based political organizations. This is not to say that there
were no examples of female, south asian political leaders in these
organizations. For example, one early leglislator, Ester Day was very
active in the BGEIA and other indian-based political organizations.
However, her presence was a token one, and her position did not
translate into improved status for the majority of indian women. The
same can be said of Roma Persaud and Ruby Samlall Singh of the Sugar
Producers Association (SPA). The cases of Nelly Sudeen and the WPO
are two further examples of the oppression of women within the
political sphere.
Nelly Sudeen:
Feminist and Nationalist
An
important nationalist leader, Nelly Sudeen was one of the early
co-founders of the Man Power Citizens Association (MPCA), the largest
union representing indian sugar workers in guyana at that time. Ms.
Sudeen, who was most active during the late 1930s to early 40s, came
from a very poor family, was never married and had no children,
according to a contemporary journalist.cxvii
As a political leader and eloquent speaker at several meetings all
over the country, she spoke out against indian men sending their
women folk to work in the fields. Nelly Sudeen felt there was enough
land around the home for gardening, etc. She said, “you can’t
bear children and do hard labor too. What kind of child will you
bring, if you do bring it?” Nelly Sudeen also spoke against child
labor gangs on the plantations consisting of creole (born in Guyana)
indian children 10 to 12 years old.
She
argued with parents, “so much rice and cow milk you have. You
cannot claim you don’t have food to feed the children, so why send
them to work?” (ibid.). She emphasized that girl children should be
prepared to learn. Ms. Sudeen herself faced several obstacles for
being indian, a woman, and single, in the political contexts at the
time. Nevertheless, she gained the respect of many south asian men
and women who admired her courage at a time when many were hesitant
to openly confront and challenge the colonial planters.
Nelly
was used in the construction of a national east indian identity and
an indian political struggle which emphasized the liberation of
indian men, not women. Ms. Sudeen and many other east indian women
who did not support upper caste/class, patriarchal and racial
constructions of indian political discourse, were purged from indian
political, religious, cultural, and even women’s organizations.
After uncovering missing funds in MPCA’s accounts, Ms. Sudeen was
chased out of the office by its corrupt, indian male leadership. She
retired around 1944 and never re-entered politics, and so faded from
the public’s view. The MPCA subsequently served as an ally to the
planter class and lost the support of indian workers.
Resistance and
marginalization within women’s political organizations before and
after independence
Marginalization
of amerindian, african and indian women also occurred in the few
women’s organizations which existed before, during and after the
nationalist struggle. The first set of women’s organizations
established in guyana were social welfare organizations headed by
european and colored (eurpean-african) women, usually the wives of
colonial officials. One example of this kind of organization was the
children protection society started in 1890. Other examples include
the infant welfare and maternity league (1900s) and child welfare
movement established in 1914 by the wife of the governor, the
gentlewomen’s relief association, the girl guide movement (1924),
and the working women’s guild started by the wife of a colonial
official in 1931 (Peake 1993:111).
One
of the most important nationalist group, the Women’s Political and
Economic Organization (WPEO), was formed in 1946 by two women, one
african and one white (ibid.:116). In many respects, the situation in
these women’s political organization remained the same as with the
earlier social service women’s organizations. WPEO leadership
included african women, but the representation of amerindian and
indian women was small, as in its successor, the Women’s
Progressive Organization (WPO) formed in 1953 by a white woman. After
an ethnic-leadership split in 1955, the WPO began to target east
indian women peasant women, sugar workers, and housewives to become
members (not leaders) in the predominantly indian male, People
Progressive Party ( PPP). Once within the WPO, indian women were
marginalized if they became too popular and powerful, for example,
Edith Persaud, the former secretary of the organization, who left
politics in frustration over the leadership issue.cxviii
Although
women participated actively in the nationalist project for
independence, they became at the same time, hostages to this project.
While western colonizers used the ‘plight’ of colonialized women
to justify their rule, nationalist leaders used the condition of
women as a clear sign of their ‘backwardness.’ Both strategies
end up justifying the superiority of the colonizer.cxix
Once again, women were reduced to mere objects at the service of a
political discourse conducted by and for men. While they were invited
to participate more fully in collective life, their bodies were used
to reaffirm ethnic boundaries. According to post-colonial feminist
critic, Deniz Kandiyoti, “culturally acceptable feminine conduct
also exerted pressure on women to articulate their gender interests
within the terms of reference set by nationalists discourse”
(ibid:380).
After
independence in 1966, the predominantly african leaders of the
People’s National Congress (PNC) party was able to maintain
dictatorial powers for twenty-eight years, partly through the effort
of women’s organizations and groups affiliated to the party. The
pre-independence formation of the Women’s Auxiliary group in 1964;
its successor, the Women’s Revolutionary Socialist Movement (WRSM)
started in 1976; along with other women’s organizations, were
integral parts of neo-colonial politics, characterized by a
centralization of power within a male elite group (Peake 1993).
Although women were granted certain rights as individual citizens by
the regime, these laws were imperfectly enforced (if at all).
Granted
that there are other issues of national debt and out-migration which
influences the economy. Nevertheles, the social and economic position
of the vast majority of women remain oppressed at the end of the 20th
century. Guyana is the second poorest country in the hemisphere (next
to hati) with over 70 percent of the population living under the
poverty line. The infant mortality rate of 30 per 1000 live births is
the lowest in the english-speaking caribbean (ibid.).
Women’s
representation at higher levels of economic decision-making remains
low, as is their representation in parliament, regional and national
assemblies, and the legal system as judges, magistrates, etc. As
Momsen (1993) writes, “patriarchal attitudes in society make it
difficult for women to achieve managerial positions or seek jobs
outside the accepted stereotypes. This situation is little affected
by differences in ethnicity or nationality between employers and
workers” (ibid.:248).
With
the end of african PNC rule, women remain subjugated under the
political and economic control of the predominantly indian PPP, who
gained power in 1992 largely through ethnic support. The party
affiliated WPO have kept decision-making firmly within the control of
a small group of PPP women, many of whom are married to PPP members.
Like the WRSM under the PNC regime, the goals of the WPO are
subordinate to the PPP party and its social and economic priorities
are defined by men.
To
some extent, these two dominant women’s political organizations
further served to divide women across racial lines, and at the same
time have acted to impede the development of feminist issues in both
majority and minority groups. Similar to it predecessor, the WRSM,
the WPO is not a feminist organization, and while it engages in
‘political’ education, its leaders largely ignore issues of
racism, casteism, sexism and patriarchy.
Female
representation on the PPP executive committee is minimal; the same
with government posts. The activities of the reformist WPO, like many
of the pre-independence social welfare groups, suggests a white,
middle class bias. A quasi-marxist framework is used to politically
mobilize women voters, in fundraising and election campaigns.
Although the WPO may press for more support and resources for women,
it have not challenge the policies of the party, even when women are
negatively influenced, as in the case of mining and the pollution of
rivers and drinking water. Additionally, the political mechanism for
questioning the influence of state development policies on women is
not utilized by the WPO, and the responsibility falls on other groups
like the Working People’s Alliance (WPA) and Red Thread. The WPO
only encourages women to participate in the development process when
this happens to suit the interests of the government, and women’s
needs are invariably secondary.
Conclusion
Indentured
and free women’s experiences were different in terms of gender,
labor, caste. Variation also existed in women’s resistance against
these multiple forms of oppression. In terms of gender, difference
consist of colonial policies and practices for recruitment and
transportation to colonial plantations. The sex-ratio disparity in
emigration had further gendered consequences. Variation of
experiences also existed in the sexual division of labor on and off
the estates, unequal wages, and women’s triple burden.
Caste
differences existed in recruitment, class formation, blending of
cultures, the subordination of dalit women, in the position of caste
hindu widows, and so on. The nature of women’s active resistance,
suggested by the cases of wife murders and transfers, and within
indian resistance movements and the family, were also distinct from
male resistance. Regulated to the cultural and household spheres,
women’s resistance frequently took the form of compliance and
cooperation with these various forms of domination.
For
both high caste hindu widows and dalit women, emigration was a active
form of resistance to oppresive cultures. However, many females were
tricked or compelled to migrate. Some improvemt in status did occur
in terms of gender status within the family, culture and society.
However, these structures were also dominated by men throughout the
colonial and post-colonial period.
The
most ‘improved’ condition occurred among caste hindu widows in
india who migrated remarried within the same caste and class in
guyana; however they remained oppressed within the indian family.
These same caste hindu women were among the most oppressed later on
as widow remarriage once again became difficult. For dalit women, the
most ‘improved’ condition occurred among those who were able to
leave their untouchable status behind in india or through marriage in
guyana; however they also remained oppressed within indian culture
and the indian family. As caste and class associations became
reinforced, dalit females became among the most disadvantaged in
terms of culture, economics and society.
After
colonialism, the homogenization of an indian national identity in
guyana continued, even though the upper caste brahmanization
processes began to unravel and their support among the east indian
masses waned during the 1970s and 1980s. Nevertheless, some form of
brahmanic hinduism remain as a vital aspect in the lives of many
indian women and men, especially of the older generation. The
homogenization of south asian cultures and the creation of an indian
national identity continue to use religion and culture as major
components, however issues around ethnicity and nationality have
become far more important factors.
In
the post-colonial context, south asian women’s subordination is
maintained by the controlling, interlocking ideologies and devices of
the state, indian national identity and the patriarchal family.
Discrimination by the neo-colonialist state occurs through limited
access to educational and economic resources, the sexual division of
labor, limited access to white collar and higher level employment,
unequal wages, etc.; and in denial of political representation. The
state obtains the cooperation of south asian women through their
support of an indian national identity, thereby maintaining the
control and suppression of indian women’s and girls’ labor;
reproduction, in limited access to health care, housing, goods and
services. Women’s sexuality are also influenced, for example, in
dating and marriage to males from other ethnic groups, mobility, etc.
The
ideology of indian national identity also serve to reinforce indian
patriarchy and the oppression of east india women’s and girls’
labor, sexuality, reproduction, mobility and access to property and
access to economic resources within the patriarchal family. This
ideology also have very negative consequences for the majority of
guyanese women’s status, ethnic and social relations, and so on.
However, east indian women are actively resisting the state;
ideologies of religion, culture and indian identity; and patriarchy.
The current protests and struggles by poor, rural women of all races
to protect their environmental resources against the pollution and
exploitation of multinationals and the state, is just one of
countless examples of women’s agency and resistance.
i
Thanks
to my nanis,
ajies
and mais
of guyana and india; my wonderful parents and family; and friend and
companion, sushila patil. Thanks also to karna singh, a friend and
scholar; and professors basdeo mangru and arnold itwaru for
suggesting improvements. Finally, thanks to Florence McCarthy of
columbia university, for being an invaluable advisor and mentor.
An
early draft of this Paper was presented at the conference on
indo-caribbean women at borough of manhattan community college, city
university of new york, on december 15, 1995.
ii
The terms ‘indian,’ and ‘east indian’ are used
interchangeably with ‘south asian’ in this paper with the
understanding that these reductionist terms refer to a wide variety
of culturally specific religious belief and customs which indentured
laborers were brought to the caribbean. These terms also refer to
their descendants in the caribbean and diaspora. Limited
capitalization in this text is used as a way of deconstructing
nationalism and institutional authority.
iii
The terms ‘british guiana,’ ‘guiana’ and ‘guyana’ are
used synonymously in this paper to refer to lands presently and
formerly occupied by indigenous amerindians. Three separate colonies
(counties) of Essequibo, Demerara and Berbice were colonized and
united in 1831 to form the colony of British Guiana, popularly known
among east indians as Demerara. The colony gained indepedence in
June 1966 when the amerindian name, Guyana
(land of many rivers) was adopted.
iv
This paper places a heavy reliance on relatively few sources;
nonetheless, it goes beyond articles and books cited. Factual basis
for arguments are based on data collected by south asian and
caribbean historians (Tinker, Jha, Prakash, Mangru and Rodney) and
anthropologists (Klass, Smith, Jayawardena and Vertovec). South
asian feminist-sociologists (Oberoi, Das, and Chakravarti) and
caribbean feminist-historians and sociologists (Reddock, Peake,
Mohammed and Mahabir) provide the theoretical basis for arguments.
However, intrepretation of the data and theories, and general
arguments made, are my own.
v
M.G. Smith argued that guyanese society is a plural one, made up of
distinct cultural groups, each with its own “integrated entity
with its own culture.” 1965. The
Plural Society in the British West Indies.
Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. Other anthropologists
pointed out the existence of cultural similarities and the
creolization among different ethnic groups in guyanese society. See
R. T. Smith. 1962. British
Guiana.
London: Oxford University Press; and Chandra Jayawardena. 1963.
Conflict
and Solidarity in a Guianese Plantation.
London: Athlone Press. However, the extent to which integration
occured is related to colonial and neo-colonial policies of divide
and rule, and resultant ethnic stratification of guyanese society.
vi
Morton Klass. 1961. East
Indians in Trinidad: A Study of Cultural Persistence.
New York: Columbia University Press. For an opposite perspective see
Arthur and Juanita Niehoff. 1960. East
Indians in the West Indies.
Milwaukee, WI: Milwaukee Public Museum. For other early discussions
on these issues see Barton Schwartz., ed., 1967. Caste
in Overseas Communities.
San Francisco: Chandler Publishing; and John LeGuerre., ed. 1974.
Calcutta
to Caroni.
Port-of Spain: Longman Caribbean.
vii
Andrew Sanders. 1987. The
Powerless People: An Analysis of the Amerindians of the Corentyne
River.
London: Macmillan.
viii
For an economic analysis of enslaved african peoples in guiana see
Walter Rodney. 1974. How
Europe Underdeveloped Africa.
DC: Howard University Press; and Walter Rodney. 1981. A
History of The Guyanese Working People.
Baltimore, MD: John Hopkins University Press. For a recent
anthropological study on african guyanese, see Brackette F.
Williams. 1991. Stains
On My Name, War In My Veins: Guyana and Politics of Cultural
Survival.
Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
ix
Janet H. Momsen. 1986. “Gender Roles in Caribbean Small-scale
Agriculture,” paper presented at the Conference on Gender Issues
in Farming Systems. FL: Research and Extension. University of
Florida, Gainesville. Feburary.
x
Barbara Bush. 1990.
Slave Women in Caribbean Society: 1650-1838.
London: James Currey. p. 45
xi
Lucille M. Mair. 1974., quoted in Janet H. Momsen., ed. 1993. Women
and Change in the Caribbean: A Pan-Caribbean Perspective. London:
James Currey. p. 1.; and Bush, ibid. For more detailed discussion on
enslaved african women in the caribbean see Lucille M. Mair. 1975.
The
Rebel Woman in the British West Indies During Slavery.
Kingston; and L. Mair. 1987. Women
Field Workers in Jamaica during Slavery.
Mona, Jamaica: Dept. of History, University of the West Indies. See
also Marietta Morrissey. 1989. Slave
Women in the New World.
Lawrence: University Press of Kansas; and Hilary Beckles. 1988.
Afro-Caribbean
Women and Resistance to Slavery in Barbados.
London: Karnak House.
xii
Chaitram Singh. 1988. Guyana:
Politics in a Plantation Society.
NY: Praeger.
xiii
Clive Y. Thomas. 1984. Plantations,
Peasants, and State: A Study of the Mode of Sugar Production in
Guyana.
CA: Center for Afro-American Studies, University of California, Los
Angeles.
xiv
Guha, Ranajit. 1983. “The Prose of Counter-Insurgency” in Guha,
ed., Subaltern
Studies II: Writings on South Asian History and Society.
Delhi: Oxford University Press. p. 1. See also R. Guha. 1983.
Elementary
Aspects of Peasant Insurgency in Colonial India.
Delhi: Oxford University Press.
xv
J. C. Jha. 1994. “East Indian Culture in the West Indies,” in
Mahin Gosine, ed., 1994. The
East Indian Odyssey: Dilemmas of a Migrant People.
NY: Windsor Press. p. 103.
xvi
Jha, ibid; and Tyran Ramnarine. 1987. “Over a Hundred Years of
East Indian Disturbances on the Sugar Estates of Guyana, 1869-1978:
A Historical Overview,” in Dabydeen and Samaroo, eds.,
India in the Caribbean.
London: Hansib Pub. Ltd. p. 119.
xvii
Hugh Tinker. 1993. A
New System of Slavery: The Export of Indian Labour overseas
1830-1920, 2nd edition.
London: Hansib Publishing Ltd. p. 263., (hereafter quoted in text).
xviii
Ramnarine, ibid:119; and Sahadeo Debiprashad and Dowlat Ram Budhram.
1987. “Participation of East Indians in the Transformation of
Guyanese Society 1966-1979,” in Dabydeen and Samaroo, ibid.:147.
xix
Discussion of caste in the caribbean controversial and arguments
vary dramatically over time. For example, during the period of
indenture, planters complained about the majority of recruits being
‘unfit lowly coolies.’ After independence, caribbean scholars
and leaders tend to deny lower caste family orgins, and by
extension, the dalit origins of caribbean indians.
xx
On the dalit movement in india, see D. R. Nagaraj. 1993. The
Flaming Feet: A Study of the Dalit Movement.
Bangalore: South Forum Press; Eleanor Zelliot. 1992. From
Untouchable to Dalit: Essays on the Ambedkar Movement.
New Delhi: Manohar; and Trilok Nath. 1987. Politics
of the Depressed Classes.Delhi:
Deputy Publications.
xxi
J. C. Jha. 1974. “The Indian Heritage in Trinidad,” in John La
Guere, ed. Calcutta
to Caroni: The East Indians of Trinidad. London:
Longman Caribbean Limited.
xxii
After 1860, the numbers of madrases sent to demerara was smaller.
This was in part due to ‘a prejudice against coolies from South
India in the Caribbean.” Tinker ibid.:55.
xxiii
Emigration from bombay under the indenture system ceased in 1865.
Tinker ibid.: footnote 23; p. 391.
xxiv
Daniel J. Crowley. 1973. “Cultural Assimilation in a Multicultural
Society,” in Lambros Comitas and David Lowenthal, eds., Slaves,
Free Men, Citizens: West Indian Perspectives.
NY: Anchor/Doubleday. p. 279.
xxv
R. T. Smith. 1959. “Some Social Characteristics of Indian
Immigrants in British Guiana,” Population
Studies,
vol 13, no. 1, July, p. 39.
xxvi
Tinker notes that the average age of the fiji emigrants was young:
42 percent of the males and 45 percent of the females were under 20
years old, and almost all the remainder were under 30 years old.
Ibid.:59.
xxvii
Captain and Mrs.Swinton. 1859. Journal
of a Voyage with Coolie Emigrants from Calcutta to Trinidad.
London: Alfred W. Bennett, pg. 3., reprinted in Ron Ramdin. 1994.
The
Other Middle Passage: Journal of A Voyage from Calcutta to Trinidad,
1858.
London: Hansib Publications Ltd. p. 3.
xxviii
James Mac Neill and Chimman Lal. 1915. Report
to the Government of India on the Conditions of Indian Immigrants in
Four British Colonies and Suriname. Part 1. Trinidad and British
Guiana.
London: HMSO, Cmd, 7744. Quoted in Rhoda Reddock. 1985. “Freedom
Denied: Indian Women and Indentureship in Trinidad and Tobago,
1845-1917,” Economic
and Political Weekly, vol.
20, no. 43, p. WS-81.
xxix
Poynting,
Jeremy. 1987. “East Indian Women in the Caribbean: Experience and
Voice,” in Dabydeen and Samaroo, ibid.:232.; Brinsley Samaroo.
1987. “Two Abolitions: African Slavery and East Indian
Indentureship,” in Dabydeen and Samaroo, ibid.:29; and Mangru,
1987a. Ibid: footnote 69.
xxx
Uma Chakravati. 1993. “Conceptualizing Brahmanical Patriarchy in
Early India: Gender, Caste, Class and State,” in Economic
and Political Weekly (EPW),
April 3rd, :579.
xxxi
Bina Agarwal. 1988. Patriarchy and the ‘Modernizing’ State,”
in B. Agarwal, ed., Structures
of Partiarchy. London:
Zed Books; Vanaja Dhruvarajan. 1989. Hindu
Women and the Power of Ideology.
New Delhi: Vistaar Publications; Patricia Uberoi. ed., 1993. Family,
Kinship and Marriage in India.
Delhi: Oxford University Press; Kumkum Sangari and Sudesh Vaid.
eds., 1989. Recasting
Women: Essays in Colonial History.
New Delhi: Kali for Women; Bina Agarwal. 1986. "Women, Poverty
and Agricultural Growth in India", The
Journal of Peasant Studies,
Vol. 13, no. 4, July.; and Kumkum Sangari. 1993. “The ‘Amenities
of Domestic Life:’ Questions on Labour,”
Social Scientists,
vol. 244-46, pp. 3-46.
xxxii
Sakuntala Narasimhan. 1989. Born
Unfree: A Selection of Articles on Practices and Policies Affecting
Women in India.
Bangalore: Samanvitha, NMKRV First Grade College for Women; and
Veena Poonacha. ed., 1991. Understanding
Violence.
Readings
on Women Studies Series No. 3, RCWS.
Bombay: SNDT Women's University.
xxxiii
P. G. Jogdand. ed., 1995. Dalit
Women: Issues and Perspectives.
New Delhi: Gyan Publishing House; B. P. Chaurasia. ed., 1992.
Women's
Status in India: Policies and Programmes.
Allahabad: Chugh Publications; and Gabriele Dietrich. 1992. "Dalit
Movements and Women's Movement" in Reflection
on the Women's Movement in India.
New Delhi: Horizons India Books.
xxxiv
Amartya Sen and Sunil Sengupta. 1983. "Malnutrition of Rural
Children and the Sex Bias,"
Economic and Political Weekly,
Annual Number, May; and RCWS. 1991. A
Lesser Child: Girl Child in India - Readings on Women Studies
Series, No. 7. Bombay:
SNDT Women's University, Research Centre For Women's Studies (RCWS).
xxxv
Manisha Gupte and Anita Borkar. 1987.
Women's Work, Fertility and Access to Health Care: A Socio-Economic
Study of Two Villages in Pune District.
Bombay: Foundation Research in Community Health.
xxxvi
Based on author’s fieldwork (1994-95) in karnataka, india.
xxxvii
Devaki Jain, and Malini Chand. 1982. "Report on a
Time-Allocation Study - Its Methodological Implications," Paper
Presented at a Technical Seminar on Women's Work and Employment.
Institute of Social Studies Trust, April 9 11.
xxxviii
Pramod S. Bhatnagar. 1988. "The Gender Gap in World Economy,"
in Yojana,
vol. 32:6, p. 8-9, 32.
xxxix
See Uma Chakravarti. 1985. “Of Dasas and Karmakaras: Servile Labor
in Ancient India,” in Utsa Patnaik and Manjari Dingwaney, eds.
Chains
of Servitude: Bondage and Slavery in India.
Madras: Sangam Books. P. 35-75; K. Sardamoni. 1980. Emergence
of a Slave Caste - Pulaiyas of Kerala.
Delhi: People’s Publishing House; and Sudipto Mundle. 1979.
Backwardness
and Bondage: Agrarian Relations in a South Bihar District.
New Delhi: Indian Institute of Public Administration.
xl
Colonial definitions of these outcaste groups went from ‘unfree’
(ideological) to ‘bonded laborers’ (economic) as a justification
for the ‘positive’ changes attributed to british rule. See Gyan
Prakash, ed. 1992. The
World of the Rural Laborer in Colonial India.
Delhi: Oxford University Press. p. 15-19. On the ideology of
servitude among caste hindus and dalits, see Jan Breman. 1974.
Patronage
and Exploitation: Emerging Agarian Relations in South Gujarat;
J. Breman. 1990.Taming
the Coolie Beast.
Delhi: Oxford University Press;
and
Robert Deliege. 1992. “Replication and Consensus: Untouchability,
Caste and Ideology in India,” in Man
(new series), vol. 27, p. 155-173. Deliege argues that while dalits
may refer to caste ideology to explain the inferiority of the castes
below them,
they do not accept their own position within the caste system.
xli
Dharma Kumar. 1992. “Caste and Landlessness in South India,” in
Prakash, ibid.:75-106; and Dharma Kumar. 1965. Land
and Caste in South India.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
xlii
Indians were taken as slaves to dutch colonies (sri lanka), french
colonies (mauritius and reunion), to malaya, etc. See Tinker :44-45.
xliii
Tinker, ibid.; Prabhu P. Mohapatra. 1985. “Coolies and Colliers: A
Study of the Agarian Context of Labour Migration from Chota Nagpur,
1880-1920” in Studies
in History
(new series), vol. 1, no. 2, p. 247-303; Lalita Chakravarty. 1978.
“Emergence of an Industrial Labor Force in a Dual Economy-British
India, 1880-1920,” Indian
Economic and Social History Review,
vol 15, no. 3, p. 249-323; and Panchannan Saha. 1962. Emigration
of Indian Labour (1834-1900). Delhi:
People’s Pub. House.
xliv
For example, Scoble of the anti-slavery society describe
indentureship in 1839 as “a slave trade in a more appalling form,”
quoted in Basdeo Mangru. 1993. “The Campaign For Abolition of
Indenture in India, 1908-1918,” in Mangru,
Indenture and Abolition: Sacrifice and Survival on the Guyanese
Plantations.
Toronto: TSAR.
xlv
Kelvin Singh. 1974. “East Indians and the Larger Society,” in
John La Guerre, ed., ibid.:45.
xlvi
Tinker :frontispiece.
xlvii
Basdeo Mangru. 1987a. "The Sex Ratio Disparity and its
Consequences Under the Indenture in British Guiana," in
Dabydeen and Samaroo, ibid.:212.
xlviii
Crispin Bates and Marina Carter. 1992. “Tribal Migration in Indian
and Beyond,” in Prakash, ibid.:205-47.
xlix
Joanna Liddle and Rama Joshi. 1985. “Gender and Imperialism in
British India.” Economic
and Political Weekly, vol.
20, no. 43., pp. WS 72-78.
l
Mr. Caird, Mauritius Emigration Agent at Calcutta, quoted in C.
Bates and M. Carter, ibid.: 236.
li
Basdeo Mangru. 1987b. Benevolent
Neutrality: Indian Government Policy and Labour Migration to British
Guiana 1854-1884.
London: Hansib Publications Limited. p. 102-105.
lii
A. H. Hill. 1919. “Emigration from India,” Timehri,
vol. VI, pp. 45-48.
liii
Pitcher’s Report
on System of Recruiting Laborers to the Colonies - 1882,
quoted in Tinker :121.
liv
Tyran Ramnarine. 1980. “Indian Women and the Struggle to Create
Stable Marital Relations on the Sugar Estates of Guiana during the
Period of Indenture, 1839-1917.” Paper presented to the 12th
Conference on Caribbean Historians, UWI, St. Augustine, March-April.
pp. 3-4.
lv
Lyall quoted in Tinker : 267.
lvi
Report of Crosby on the ship Howrah,
13 Feb.1869, quoted in Basdeo Mangru. 1993. Indenture
and Abolition: Sacrifice and Survival on the Guyanese Sugar
Plantations.
Toronto: TSAR Publications. :26.
lvii
Report of Crosby on the ship Himalaya,
2
April, 1869, quoted in Mangru, ibid.
lviii
Swinton, ibid.
lix
Kumar Noor Mahabir. 1985. The
Still Cry: Personal Accounts of East Indians in Trinidad and Tabago
During Indentureship (1845-1917).
Ithaca, NY: Calaloux Publications.
lx
For related studies of south asian women’s status during indenture
in other colonies see Brij Lal. 1985. “Kunti’s Cry: Indentured
Women on Fiji Plantations,” in Indian
Economic, Social and Historical Review,
vol. 22, no. 1, ibid.; and P. C. Emmer, 1985. “The Great Escape:
The Migration of Female Indentured Servants from British India to
Suriname, 1873-1916”in David Richardson, ed., Abolition
and its Aftermath: The Historical Context 1790-1916.
London.
lxi
For example, the african people, Siddhis,
of uttara kannada district (karnataka, india) are considered dalits.
lxii
Momsen, ibid.:233.; and Linda Peake. 1993. “The Development and
Role of Women’s Political Organizations in Guyana,” in Momsen.
ibid.:121.
lxiii
Mac Neil and Lal. 1910:20. Quoted in Reddock. 1985:ws-83.
lxiv
Ross Sheils. 1969; and H. H. Clarke. 1892. Quoted in Reddock, ibid.
lxv
Indra S. Harry. 1993. “Women in Agriculture in Trinidad: An
Overview,” in Momsen, ibid.:207.
lxvi
bell hooks. 1990. Yearning:
Race, Gender, and Cultural Politics.
Boston, MA: South End Press.
lxvii
Third world writers’ emphasis on the colonialized subject (=
middle class males) neglect equally important issues like
neo-colonialism and the internal colonalization of the poor, women,
children, indigenous peoples, forests and wildlife in the south.
lxviii
Despite political ‘credentials’ as anti-imperialists, the indian
(and african) bourgeoisie and bureaucracy have nevertheless
succumbed to western cultural hegemony and racism against indigenous
people, the amerindians.
lxix
Lloyd Braithwaite. 1973. “Stratification in Trinidad,” in
Lambros Comitas and David Lowenthal, eds., Slaves,
Free Men, Citizens: West Indian Perspectives.
NY: Anchor/Doubleday. p. 224. The author argues that social
stratification in trinidad was based on certain caste-like qualities
like skin-color.
lxx
Henry Kirke, Twenty
Five Years in British Guiana, quoted
in Mangru 1987a: ibid.
lxxi
Guyanese-canadian sociologist/writer Arnold Itwaru. Personal
interview conducted in toronto, june 1996.
lxxii
Report to british colonial office, quoted in Mangru 1987a: 225.
lxxiii
For more discussion on women and marriage, see Ramnarine 1980,
ibid.; and “Autobiography of Alice B. Singh” an unpublished
manuscript completed around 1961, part of the Special Collections of
the library of the University of Guyana.
lxxiv
Kevin Singh, ibid.:45.
lxxv
Mangru 1987a: 222.
lxxvi
Basdeo Mangru, “The Campaign For Abolition of Indenture in India,
1908-1918,” in Mangru, 1993:98-122; and Tinker :349-351.
lxxvii
Joan Wallach Scott. 1988. Gender
and Politics of History. NY:
Columbia Unversity Press.
lxxviii
A related study on gender and class among the jewish community of
the antilles was conducted by Eva Abraham-Van der Mark. 1993.
“Marriage and Concubinage among the Sephardic Merchant Elite of
Curacao,” in Momsen, ibid.: 38-49. Gender and class among the
chinese in guyana and jamaica was briefly addressed by Orlando
Patterson in his 1975 study, “Content and Choice in Ethnic
Allegiance: A Theoretical Framework and Caribbean Case Study,” in
Nathan Glazer and Daniel Moynihan, eds., Ethnicity:
Theory and Experiences.
Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 305-49.
lxxix
It was not until 1953 that all women got the right to vote. Dwarka
Nath. 1970.
History of Indians in British Guiana.
London, p. 245-247.
lxxx
For more discussion on east indian women in agriculture, see S.
Odie-Ali. 1986. “Women in Agriculture: The Case of Agriculture,”
in Social
and Economic Studies,
vol. 35, no. 2, pp. 241-90; and Noor Kumar Mahabir. 1995. "The
Last Female Field Gang: East Indian Women Agricultural Laborers in
Trinidad," in Gosine, Malik and Mahabir, eds., The
Legacy of Indian Indenture: 150 Years of East Indians in Trinidad.
NY: Windsor Press. For an analysis of women’s labor in the
informal economy in guyana, see G. Dann. 1985. The
Role of Women in the Underground Economy in Guyana.
Ann Arbor, Michigan: University of Michigan, mimeograph; and Y.
Holder. 1988. Women
Traders in Guyana. Consultancy Report.
Santiago: Economic Commission for Latin America and the
Caribbean/Caribbean Development and Cooperation Committee.
lxxxi
Poynting, ibid.: 235
lxxxii
Percy C Hintzen. 1989. The
Cost of Regime Survival: Racial Mobilization, Elite Domination and
the Control of the State in Guyana and Trinidad.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
lxxxiii
Bridget Brereton. 1974. “The Experience of Indentueship:
1845-1917,” in Le Guerre, ibid.:33.
lxxxiv
Morton Klass. 1973. “East and West Indian: Cultural Complexity in
Trinidad,” in Lambros Comitas and David Lowenthal, eds., Slaves,
Free Men, Citizens: West Indian Perspectives.
NY: Anchor/Doubleday. p. 293.
lxxxv
Marisol de la Cadena. 1995. “Women are More Indian: Ethnicity and
Gender in a Community near Cuzo,” in Brooke Lavson and Olivia
Harris, eds., Ethnicity,
Markets and Migration in the Andes: At the Crossroads of History and
Antrhopology.
Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
lxxxvi
Niehoff. ibid.:90.
lxxxvii
In some parts of pre-colonial india, dalits were forced to lie on
the ground whenever brahmins passed by, so that their shadow would
not fall on the passing brahmins. For more discussion on these
issues see footnote 21.
lxxxviii
Kevin Singh, ibid.:49.
lxxxix
Robert James Moore. 1970. East
Indians and Negroes in British Guiana. 1838-1880.
Unpublished Ph. D. Thesis, University of Sussex. p. 369-70.
xc
Chandra Jayawardena. 1966. “Religious Belief and Social Change:
Aspects of the Development of Hinduism in British Guiana,”
Contemporary
Studies on Society and History,
vol. 8, p. 227.
xci
Steven Vertovec. 1994. “‘Official’ and ‘Popular’ Hinduism
in Diaspora: Historical and Contemporary Trends in Suriname,
Trinidad and Guyana,” Contributions
to Indian Sociology,
vol. 28, no. 1., p. 135.
xcii
In Shamoon Mohammed. 1994. “Some Aspects of East Indian
Contribution to West Indian Society: Indentureship and Beyond,” in
Gosine, ibid.:50.
xciii
R. P. Upadhyaya. 1994. “Changes in Rituals of Hinduism in the
Caribbean,” in Gosine, ibid.:250.
xciv
Gora Singh. 1994. “The Forgotten Indian: The Performing Arts and
East Indian Artists of Guyana: Tradition, Creativity and
Development,” in Gosine, ibid.:226.
xcv
M. N. Srinivas. 1966. Social
Change in Modern India.
Berkeley: University of California Press.
xcvi
Arnold Itwaru, ibid. Professor Itwaru argues ‘brahmanic hinduism
was only one of a range of religious practices among east indians
which included madrases, siewnarines, christians, and muslims.” He
later explained, “my father was a siewnarine who spent his entire
life fighting arya samajis and sanatanists in berbice.”
xcvii
Karna Singh and George Stephanies, “The Feast and Festivities of
Mother Kali.” (Forthcoming publication).
xcviii
Jha quoted in Shamoon Mohammed, ibid.:49.
xcix
Male drummers lead the dance performance, and young boys carry the
two karagams,
or sacred vessels of the two Mothers, in the kali ceremony performed
by the Virasammi family of berbice. Karna Singh in personal
interview, January, 1996.
c
In Bindimattie Mahabir. 1994. "The Changing Role of the East
Indian Woman in Trinidad: The Family Perspective," in Gosine,
ibid.:20-27.
ci
The Singh family, and others, were former sikhs who became part of
mainstream hindu society in the absence of sikh cultural practices
in guyana.
cii
David Dharry. 1938. “Where are Our Nation’s Youths?” in The
Indian Opinion, vol.
11, no. 12, p. 408.
ciii
For example, the BGDS was one of the first organizations that
allowed the hindu dentist, Jagan, (now president of guyana) to
express his political views in the late 1940s. See Baytoram
Ramharack, 1994. “Entrepreneures and Managers in Plural Societies:
Indian and Afician Political Elites in the Caribbean,” in Gosine,
ibid.:83.
civ
At the very bottom of this order were (are) the amerindians, and
specifically amerindian women. For an analysis of women’s status
among present day indigenous peoples in the Andes, see Marisol de la
Cadena. 1995. Ibid.
cv
This process continues. For example, during a recent trip to canada,
the indian president of guyana public speeches were prefaced by
religious recitals by a muslim iman and brahmin priest. This appeal
to religious identity among diaspora indians not only alienates the
majority christian population, but violates stated principles of a
secular government.
cvi
M. K. Bacchus. 1980. Education
for Development or Underdevelopment? Guyana’s Educational System
and its Implications for the Third World.
Ontario, Canada: Wilfrid Laurier University Press.
cvii
Gordon, Shirely. 1963. A
Century of West Indian Education - A Source Book.
London: Longmans.
cviii
Bacchus, ibid.:79; and Poynting, ibid.:235.
cix
Gerda Lerner. 1986.
The Creation of Patriarchy.
NY: Oxford University Press. p. 213.
cx
Kamla Bhasin. 1993. What
is Patriarchy?
New Delhi: Kali for Women; Uma Chakravarti. 1993. ibid.
cxi
M. G. Smith. 1966. "A Survey of West Indian Family Studies,"
in Edith Clarke,
My Mother Who Fathered Me: A Study of the Family in Three Selected
Communities in Jamaica, 2nd edition.
London: George Allen and Unwin.
cxii
M. Angrosino. 1973. “Sexual Politics in the East Indian Family,”
cf Mahabir, ibid.:21.
cxiii
In Kevin Yelvington, ed., Trinidad
Ethnicity.
London: The Macmillian Press. pp. 208-232.
cxiv
For the case of Trinidad and Tobago, see Rhoda Reddock. 1994. Women,
Labour and Politics in Trinidad and Tobago.
London: Zed Books.
cxv
Momsen. 1993. Ibid.:233; Peake. 1993. ibid.:121.
cxvi
Dharry. ibid.; and Joseph Ruhomon. 1938. “Centenary Notes and
Comments,” The
Indian Opinion,
ibid.:404.
cxvii
Personal recollection of Harry Singh in new york, december 1995.
cxviii
Interview with Gora Singh, 1996.
cxix
Deniz
Kandiyoti. 1994. “Identity and Its Discontents: Women and the
Nation,” in Patrick Williams and Laura Chrisman, eds., Colonial
Discourse and Post-Colonial Theory.
NY: Columbia University Press. p. 378.