What We Inherit
Indian Ocean indentured labour and my family history
Asha Trivedy
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The history I have inherited from my family is one of the reasons why I am proud to be British. I am proud to be a child of such an incredible history of migration and globalisation, which has undoubtedly shaped our country today. For many BAME youth I think it can be hard to come to terms with the violence of the British Empire and how our own history can fit into this. But to me, pride in our history is what unites us a people of colour in Britain – our families helped to build this country. We all inherit something fascinating from our ancestors who were so strong and resilient, and we have so much to be thankful for.
Last semester, one of my classes taught us about Indian Ocean indentured labour system whereby, throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth century, around three million people from Africa, East and South Asia were moved across the world. They were sent to various territories in order to feed the growing demand for indentured labour in British and French colonies. My eyes were opened to my own family history that I have inherited and why I am here today, a half white and half Kenyan-Gujarati citizen of Britain. The connections between my ancestors and my life today, living and studying in Edinburgh feel so far apart, yet are so similar to the stories that other BAME youth have inherited of parents and grandparents who risked their lives to travel across the world for new opportunities. This I believe, deserves a space in the British history books.
The Slavery Abolition Act (1833) which banned the use of slave labour in British colonies fundamentally changed the way labour moved around the world. Colonial leaders still needed people to work on plantations and for the building of infrastructure to make sure that their colonies would be as profitable as possible, and so a system of indentured labour was established. The British government would contract workers for three to five years to travel across the ocean to work for a small fee and then either return or stay in their new ‘home’.
For some, this system was a fair one. The British had exploited some areas of the Indian sub-continent to such an extent that going abroad would in some cases provide better opportunities for workers than staying at home. However, for some workers, this was a new kind of slavery, and many were tricked into signing up for contracts that they did not agree to. The conditions on ships were abysmal and many died on route. Some workers were paid so little and treated with such violence and disrespect, having been torn away from their homes and families, that they were stuck in this system of British sponsored semi-slavery; and so, experiences varied widely and for this reason historians have had difficulty understanding the Indian Ocean indentured labour system.
I have recently discovered more about how this system directly affected my family’s history. My great-great-grandfather was the first to move to East Africa as a labourer, moving from Gujarat to Tanzania in the late nineteenth century to work on a project that thousands of Indians were known to have worked on – the building of the Uganda Railway by the British East Africa Company. I know little about what exactly their role was, but thousands of ‘coolies’ (workers) were hired by the British East India Company to work on this project to aid the British consolidation of power in East Africa. They hoped to secure their rule over the rich Great Lakes region by building the line from Mombasa all the way to the shores of Lake Victoria.
Many of these Indian workers were to stay behind in East Africa, like my ancestors, and establish their own businesses, or be employed to operate the railways as middle managers, as was the case with my great grandfather. These labourers sometimes even had the opportunity to acquire land. The result of these widespread migrations was whole new hybrid cultures, which formed in the wake of the growth of globalisation in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. This has been an enormous contributing factor to the Indian diaspora today.
My father grew up in Kenya, the youngest of six, and was born to Gujarati Indian parents who arrived there in the 1930s to join some of my grandfather’s parents who worked on the railways. My grandmother, Hansa, was married at just twelve years old and moved from her small village in the state of Gujarat to this foreign country, where she knew nobody and did not speak the language; the boat journey took her and my grandfather around a month. Being so young when she became a mother, she grew up alongside her children, and my dad was largely brought up by his older sisters. In the 1960s following the independence of Kenya, Indians living there were given a choice: return to India, stay in Kenya or move to Britain. In 1968, when my dad was 9 years old, his family migrated to London. This is just one of many stories about the Indian diaspora which came about due to the colonial endeavours of the British Empire.
Today, India has one of the largest diasporic groups in the world. Is this something to be looked back on as unjust and a result of the exploitative period of the British Empire? Or something to be celebrated? My answer is both. My grandmother’s story, my family’s arrival in Britain, and what they have achieved since, inspires me and gives me hope for future generations. I am proud to be a part of such an incredible history of migration and globalisation. I am still learning about what really happened to my family and their experiences of indentured labour and the British colonial system - and we must fight to have these fascinating stories heard and recognised as a part of our country's’ past. Stories like this can unite us as people of colour in Britain, and allow us to remember, always, what we inherit.
If you would like to learn more about the Indian indentured labour system, the University of Edinburgh and University of Leeds have a website called ‘Becoming Coolies’ which gives loads of fascinating information and primary sources on the Coolie system. Check it out at http://www.coolitude.shca.ed.ac.uk/resources.