"THE EAST INDIANS IN BRITISH GUIANA." 



FROM THEIR ADVENT TO THUS COLONY, TO THE PRESENT 



TIME. 



A SURVEY OF THE ECONOMIC, EDUCATIONAL, AND 



POLITICAL ASPECTS. 



By J. A. Luckhoo, F.R., Barrister-at-Law. 



The history of the East Indian in British Guiana has not been an 

 unchequered one. 



Like the history of any other race or community it has had its 

 shadows and sunshine, its hopes and despair, its tragedies and comedies. 



Brought to a distant land and subjected to different conditions of 

 living, many of them rudely snatched from ties of home and affection, 

 they have been content to pursue the " even tenor of their ways " undis- 

 turbed by the shock of rival interests or the disputes of party politics. 



By their steady, thrifty and persevering habits, whether plodding in 

 the distant fields of the blossoming sugar cane, wi'h the fierce rays of a 

 tropical sun beating mercilessly upon their half protected bodies, or waist 

 deep in the waters of the rice-fields assisting to build that great industry, 

 or in the quiet shadows of their rude huts cultivating their garden plots, 

 when the day's work was done, these genuine sons of toil have helped in 

 no inconsiderable measure to build up the economic fabric of the colony. 



While there is many a bright chapter to record there is also many a 

 dark page to which we can refer in the course of our short history. 



The system under which our fathers lived and worked, suffered and 

 enjoyed has at last — thanks to the efforts of the great leaders of thought 

 in India — been brought to a well-merited end, and the stigma that had 

 attached itself to the race and lowered its dignity in the eyes of the 

 world has been forever removed. 



The Indentured Labour System. 

 Upon the abolition of slavery throughout the British Empire in the 

 early thirties of last century, some of the tropical colonies, including 

 British Guiana, found their industries paralyzed by a lack of labour, as the 

 emancipated slaves, rejoicing in their new-found freedom, would no longer 

 work for their former owners. Recourse was, therefore, had to the good 

 will of the Indian Government and the indenture system was devised and 

 subsequently came into operation. 



But before this system came into operation a very serious situation 

 was created by the collapse of the labour supply in this colony. 



