Camphor on the Dark Waters

The Peppa Pot Podcast

Did you know that between 1834 and 1917, more than one million Coolies were taken across the Kala Pani, or Dark Waters, to the plantations of Malaya, Mauritius, Fiji, Trinidad, British Guiana, Jamaica, and British Honduras?

In “Coolie Woman: the Odyssey of Indenture,” Gaiutra Bahadur describes how the British and other Colonial Powers transformed generations of skilled Indians into an “indistinguishable mass of plantation laborers.” Part of that transformation took part during the journey from India to the Caribbean which, for many, was unimaginably excruciating. In fact, poor ventilation, outbreaks of disease, and a lack of food was common aboard the ships used to transport Indentured Indians.

When they reached their destination, they were met with a hostile and unfamiliar environment and forced to work long hours for low wages. But despite all odds, they persevered and laid a foundation that future generations would build on.

Learn more about the strength, resilience, and legacy of the Indo-Caribbean community in Episode 2 of The Peppa Pot Podcast: Camphor on the Dark Waters.

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Credits

Beats and Music by Noyz

Research by Ryan N. Ramdin

Creative Direction by Sara-Sati Ramprashad

Produced by WESTINDIECO

Resources

Bahadur, G. “Coolie Woman: the Odyssey of Indenture” (The University of Chicago Press: 2014).

Balachandran, G. (2011) “Making Coolies, (Un)making Workers: ‘Globalizing’ Labour in the Late-19th and Early-20th Centuries,” Journal of Historical Sociology, 24(3).

Beaumont, J. (1871) The New Slavery: An Account of the Indian and Chinese Immigrants in British Guiana, W. (Ridgway, London).

Breman, J. & Daniel, E.V. (1992) “Conclusion: The Making of a coolie,” Journal of Peasant Studies, 19 (3-4).

Deolall, I. (2018 July 19) An unquiet wait, Stabroek News, available from: https://www.stabroeknews.com/2018/07/19/features/first-person-singular/an-unquiet-wait/

Dookhan, I. (1975) ‘The Gladstone Experiment: The Experience of the First East Indians in British Guiana’, Symposium on East Indians in the Caribbean, University of the West Indies, St Augustine, Trinidad.

Isba, A. (2003) Trouble with Helen: The Gladstone Family Crisis, 1846-1848. History, 88(2).

Johnson, A. (8 Jan. 1977) “Guyanese man beaten, kicked at subway station in week’s 3rd race attack,” The Globe and Mail.

Johnson, A. (1977 March 24) “Unhappy with Canada, subway beating victim hangs himself,” The Globe and Mail.

Joshua Bryant (1824) “Account of insurrection of the negro slaves in the colony of Demerara.”

Kamath, M. V. (1977 April 10) “Paki-bashing on the rise in Canada,” The Times of India.

Kumar, M. (2013) “Malaria and Mortality Among Indentured Indians: A Study of Housing, Sanitation and Health in British Guiana (1900-1939)” in Proceedings of the Indian History Congress, Vol. 74, pp. 746-757.

Mehta, B., Diasporic (Dis)locations: Indo-Caribbean Women Writers Negotiate the Kala Pani. (Jamaica: UWI Press, 2004).

Mishra, S. (2022) “Violence, Resilience and the ‘Coolie’ Identity: Life and Survival on Ships to the Caribbean, 1834–1917,” The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, 50(2), 241–263.

Misrahi-Barak, J. (2017) “Indentureship, Caste and the Crossing of the Kala Pani” Studies in Humanities and Social Sciences, 14(2).

Roopnarine, L. (2012) “A Comparative Analysis of Two Failed Indenture Experiences in Post-Emancipation Caribbean: British Guiana (1838-1843) and Danish St. Croix (1863-1868),” Iberoamericana. Nordic Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Studies. 62(1-2).

Roopnarine, L. (2010) “The Indian Sea Voyage between India and the Caribbean during the Second Half of the Nineteenth Century” The Journal of Caribbean History, 44(1).

Roopnarine, L. (2009) “The Repatriation, Readjustment, and Second-term Migration of Ex-Indentured Indian Labourers from British Guiana and Trinidad to India, 1838-1955,” New West Indian Guide/Nieuwe West-Indische Gids, 83 (1-2).

Sheridan, R. B. “The conditions of the slaves on the sugar plantations of Sir John Gladstone in the colony of Demerara, 1812-49.”

The Globe and Mail, (1977 Feb. 18) “Man pleads guilty to assault on immigrant in subway station,” The Globe and Mail.