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recasting indian women in colonial guyana: gender, labor and caste in the lives of indentured and free laborers

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.

Contents

• Introduction
  • Historical background of colonization and slavery
  • Re-interpreting (his)tory

  • Limitations

• Migration: Caste, class and gender distribution
  • Population of east indians in guiana
  • Caste origins of south asian indentured laborers in guiana
  • Prior occupations of indentured laborers
  • Gender distribution among east indian laborers
  • Women’s status in colonial and present day india: gender, caste and class

• Recruitment of indentured indian women laborers in colonial india
  • Slavery and bonded labor systems
  • Reasons for south asian female indentured labor migration
  • Pressures to use and recruit south asian women
  • Abuse of females in the recruiting system in india
  • Colonial reforms of the recruiting system

• Kalapani: Women at the depot and en-route to caribbean plantations
  • Depot life
  • The social and economic status of female recruits
  • The voyage across the seas - kalapani
  • The deaths of south asians on the Salsette voyage
  • Maharani - a case study

• Indian women's work on the colonial plantations
  • Life on the estate
  • Women’s work and unequal wages on the plantations

• Women and girls as sexual objects: gender and race in the colony
  • Master, servant and slave: exploitation of the female body in the caribbean
  • Internal colonialization: caste and gender oppression in guiana

• Sex-disparity and the sale of indian females during the early indenture period
  • Introduction
  • The early practice of bride price and its consequences
  • Sexual abuse of female children
  • Were east indian women more ‘free’ in the caribbean?
  • European men’s sexual exploitation of indian females and indian resistance movements on the estates
  • Women’s resistance within the family: murder of indian women on colonial plantations
  • Colonial policies to prevent the murders of indian women and girls
  • Women’s resistance and transfers: legislating female sexuality
  • The politics of east indian female oppression

• Indians’ relocation to villages and towns and the status of women
  • The colonial idealization of free east indian women’s work
  • Gendered class divisions: women’s role in the creation of indian prosperity in guiana
  • The triple burdens of female labor in the colony
  • Caste and class stratification: east indians’ prosperity in guiana

• Homogenization of south asian religions and cultures that were oppressive to women
  • Culture, power and domination
  • Religion, caste and culture during early and later indentureship
  • The re-construction of south asian religions and castes under indentureship in guiana
  • After indentureship: the rise of hindu fundamentalism in guiana
  • Dalit cultures in guyana
  • South indian cultures in guyana
  • Impact of homogenization processes on the status of indian women in the colony
  • Assimilation of south asian women

• The education of indian girls: between colonialism and the indian family

• Women's role within the indian patriarchal family structure
  • Defining the subordination and oppression of females
  • The indian family under colonialism in guyana
  • Indian women’s married life in patriarchal households
  • Dividing women: daughter-in-law and mother-in-law relationships
  • Case Studies

• Women's resistance against colonial and neo-colonial exploitation
  • Women’s resistance on the estates
  • Women’s resistance as part of pre-independence organizations
  • Nelly Sudeen: Feminist and Nationalist
  • Resistance and marginalization within women’s political organizations before and after independence
  • Conclusion

• Endnotes

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