Our People
The Indo-Caribbean community is historically marginalized, heavily immigrant, and ethnically isolated. Our people fled poverty and famine in India, beginning in 1838, taken to areas of the Caribbean and South America to work as indentured laborers on sugar plantations after the abolition of slavery. Coerced into a new system of slavery by British colonials and working tirelessly for extremely low wages and long hours, they suffered multiple forms of oppression, yet also triumphed adversities. Some returned back to the Indian sub-continent after their 5-year Indentured contracts expired, while the majority settled in their new homeland and continued on as rice farmers and sugar estate workers. In the 70's and 80's, the Indo-Caribbean people once again migrated to the urban cities of New York, fleeing social, political and economic upheavals in mainly Guyana and Trinidad. Today they have created a thriving community in areas of Queens and the Bronx with an estimated population of 200,000-400,000[1]living in Richmond Hill & Ozone Park, Queens. A report released in 2001 by the U.S. Census Bureau shows that the South Asian population increased by 106% in the U.S. from 1990 to 2000. The population of Asian Indians more than doubled - from 815,447 in 1990 to 1,678,765 in 2000 - ten years later. The Indo-Caribbean population of Guyana, Suriname, Trinidad, Jamaica and other Caribbean Islands represents 20% of US Census Bureau Total South Asian Population.
[1] Statistic taken from a testimony by community leader Gary Gidhari at a Queens Hearing on June 1, 2001 for the Legislative Task Force on Demographic Research and Reapportionment
[1] Statistic taken from a testimony by community leader Gary Gidhari at a Queens Hearing on June 1, 2001 for the Legislative Task Force on Demographic Research and Reapportionment
Indo-Caribbeans in the United States by Karna Singh
After the abolition of African slavery in 1836, Asian Indians were brought to work as indentured laborers on European-owned colonial sugar plantations in Caribbean islands, such as Trinidad and Jamaica, and South American mainland countries, Guyana and Suriname. Their descendants, calleds Indo-Caribbeans, make up the majority populations in Guyana, Suriname and Trinidad. Since the 1960s, in a second wave of migration due to economic and political upheavals, many people fled to the United States, United Kingdom, Netherlands and Canada.
Migration, economic and political turmoil, poverty and exploitation have deeply scarred the Indo-Caribbean experience and ways of life. All things “coolie”, from food to spirituality, were scorned for generations by colonial and neo-colonial establishments; there was no interest or effort to understand the millennia of human experience and wisdom that created East Indian ways of life.
Rich varieties of culture and arts were brought to the New World from India by the indentured laborers. The majority of them came from the Hindi and Bhojpuri language region of northern India, modern Bihar and Uttar Pradesh; a much smaller group were from the Madras Tamil language region of southern India, modern Tamil Nadu. East Indians of Suriname continue to speak Hindi in everyday life, while in Trinidad and Guyana an English Creole vernacular with a strong Indic vocabulary replaced ancestral languages.
While absorbing diverse non-Indian influences in the social and cultural matrix of the region – European, African, popular American – the Indo-Caribbean people continue to cherish and nurture expressions of their ancestral heritage. The end of colonialism, the recession of an aggressive Eurocentricism, and a growing awareness of the global value of the cultural heritage have created a more nourishing environment for Indo-Caribbeans to preserve and share their traditions.
In the United States, Asian Indians from the South American/Caribbean region are called Indo-Caribbeans. Most of them live in the New York metropolitan and Tri-state area, with the highest concentration in the South Queens District (Richmond Hill, Ozone Park/Jamaica) and the Bronx (Grand Concourse/Castlehill districts). More recently, the Indo-Caribbean immigrant community in the U.S. has overcome the initial phase of disruption caused by immigration, and is rejuvenating its cultural and artistic life.
Migration, economic and political turmoil, poverty and exploitation have deeply scarred the Indo-Caribbean experience and ways of life. All things “coolie”, from food to spirituality, were scorned for generations by colonial and neo-colonial establishments; there was no interest or effort to understand the millennia of human experience and wisdom that created East Indian ways of life.
Rich varieties of culture and arts were brought to the New World from India by the indentured laborers. The majority of them came from the Hindi and Bhojpuri language region of northern India, modern Bihar and Uttar Pradesh; a much smaller group were from the Madras Tamil language region of southern India, modern Tamil Nadu. East Indians of Suriname continue to speak Hindi in everyday life, while in Trinidad and Guyana an English Creole vernacular with a strong Indic vocabulary replaced ancestral languages.
While absorbing diverse non-Indian influences in the social and cultural matrix of the region – European, African, popular American – the Indo-Caribbean people continue to cherish and nurture expressions of their ancestral heritage. The end of colonialism, the recession of an aggressive Eurocentricism, and a growing awareness of the global value of the cultural heritage have created a more nourishing environment for Indo-Caribbeans to preserve and share their traditions.
In the United States, Asian Indians from the South American/Caribbean region are called Indo-Caribbeans. Most of them live in the New York metropolitan and Tri-state area, with the highest concentration in the South Queens District (Richmond Hill, Ozone Park/Jamaica) and the Bronx (Grand Concourse/Castlehill districts). More recently, the Indo-Caribbean immigrant community in the U.S. has overcome the initial phase of disruption caused by immigration, and is rejuvenating its cultural and artistic life.
