THE TRAGIC STORY OF GUYANA’S ‘GIRMITIYA’ LABOURERS

Located approximately 14,477 kilometers from New Delhi in the South American continent, Georgetown is the capital of the Cooperative Republic of Guyana. Its indigenous inhabitants are the Arawak and Carib tribes, whose history dates back thousands of years. Since the Spanish explorer Alonso de Ojeda first sighted the Guyanese coast in 1499, the region has been the subject of constant conflict between the French, Dutch, and British colonial powers. In 1814, the British established control over the region. On May 26, 1966, British Guiana was liberated from the yoke of the British Crown and became an independent republic.

PC: www.girmit.org

Today, the population of people of Indian origin (Indo-Guyanese) in Guyana is approximately 3,30,000 to 3,50,000, representing approximately 40% of the population. These Indians include Hindus, Muslims, and South Indians, who celebrate their respective festivals, such as Holi, Diwali, Eid, and Bakrid, with great enthusiasm.

On October 12, 1968, Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi landed at Georgetown's International Airport, Atkinson Field (now Cheddi Jagan International Airport), where she was welcomed by Guyanese Prime Minister Forbes Burnham. Exactly 56 years later, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Guyana on November 20-21, 2024. This time, he was welcomed by Guyanese President Irfaan Ali. Thousands of Guyanese Indians lined the airport and every avenue in the city to welcome both leaders.

So, let's explore, based on historical records, how such a large number of Indian citizens left the banks of the Ganges and reached the banks of the Demerara River, which flows through Georgetown, the capital of Guyana. To abolish the age-old practice of slavery, the British Parliament enacted the 'Slavery Abolition Act 1833' on August 01, 1834. At that time, the ruler of Great Britain was William IV (William Henry), the Governor of India was Lord William Henry Cavendish - Bentinck, and the Governor of British Guiana was Sir James Carmichael Smith.

This ban legally prohibited human trafficking within the British Empire. Due to this, the demand for cheap labour increased in the sugarcane fields and tea plantations of the countries under British rule, such as Mauritius, Fiji, Suriname, Dutch Guiana, Trinidad-Tobago, South Africa - Natal, West Indies and British Guiana etc. To fulfill this, the British started taking labourers from Bihar, Eastern Uttar Pradesh and many other areas of India across the sea for five years on the basis of an agreement which the illiterate labourers called 'Girmit'. These labourers were called 'Girmitiya', 'Jahaazi' or 'Jahajin'.

On September 10, 1834, the ship 'Atlas' carrying the first batch of about 36 labourers left Calcutta (now Kolkata) and reached the Port Louis port of Mauritius (now Aapravasi Ghat) on November 02, 1834 and then in the next four years the number of Indian labourers reaching Mauritius increased to more than 25 thousand.

PC: www.girmit.org

According to an account on the blog of Melissa D. Gulsaran Ramnauth, Editor-in-Chief of West Indian Diplomacy, John Gladstone, a sugarcane farmer from West Demerara, and others, with the permission of the British government, chartered two ships to transport 414 Indian laborers to Guyana. On January 13, 1838, the ship 'Whitby' departed Calcutta (now Kolkata) with 249 laborers and arrived in Berbice, Guyana, on May 05, 1838. Unfortunately, five people died during the 112-day journey.

Subsequently, on January 29, 1838, the ship 'Hesperus' departed Calcutta with 165 laborers on board. However, by the time the ship arrived in Berbice on May 05, 1838, 13 of them had died. The workers who disembarked from both ships were immediately deployed to the Highbury plantation, and then began a chilling tale of violence, sexual abuse, and inhumane torture. But blessed are those 'Girmitiya' laborers who took their culture with them, and blessed are their descendants who have preserved it to this day.

On December 28th, 1916 at the 32nd session of the All India Congress Committee, held in Lucknow, in the United Provinces of Agra and Awadh (now Uttar Pradesh), from December 26- 31, 1916, Gandhiji introduced a resolution to end the inhumane practice of 'Girmitiya' labor; based on which the British rulers banned the practice on March 31, 1917. However, over the past 79 years, approximately 2,39,000 Indians had gone to Guyana, and unfortunately, they never returned to their homeland.