Caribbean Issues in the Indian Diaspora ed. by Kumar Mahabir (review)

An Indo-Trinidadian scholar of West Indian topics and the diasporic phenomenon, Kumar Mahabir, has collected a manifold of provocative essays in his most recent book, Caribbean Issues in the Indian Diaspora. Said papers resulted from the proceedings of the conferences held at St. Augustine Campus of the University of the West Indies in Trinidad in 2011. The book is very aptly divided into four sections and adequately subtitled according to their converging themes: Emotions in Migration, Assimilation, Plurality of Identities and Social Adaptations and Reproduction. A total of fifteen essays comprise the bulk of the book.

Each essay attempts to fill the gaps of historical value and thus provide answers to what remained unaccounted for regarding the East Indian diasporic movement. Maurits S. Hassankham’s contribution addresses the emotional state of the migrants and those who remained in the motherland. It is common knowledge by now that Indians who migrated did so temporarily to earn sufficient funds in the foreign countries to send back home, but it was generally their heart’s desire to return to India. However, the majority rarely managed to do so. Quite the contrary, many died before they could amass sufficient money to defray the cost of the ticket back home. What is fresh about Hassankham’s “Kahe Gaile Bides—Why Did You Go Overseas? An Introduction in Emotional Aspects of Migration History: A Diaspora Perspective” is the emotional state of those left behind and the migrant himself. The author addresses several questions: Why did they leave without their loved ones’ knowledge? Was their decision to leave based on deception? Were they in fact misled or forced to leave? Testimonial accounts provide the answers to some of these queries. The first informant, Totaram Sanadhya, an educated Brahmin, arrived to Fiji in 1893 as an indentured servant. He claimed to have been deceived by a recruiter. Following the conversation with this stranger, he soon found himself agreeing to migrate against his will. It was a spur-of-the- moment occurrence that deprived him of bidding farewell to relatives. Fortunately, this informant returned back to India after 21 years abroad. Informant 2, Rahman Khan, a school teacher in India, was likewise deceived into joining two recruiters. Although Khan admits consent to work aboard, he nonetheless, claims to have been tricked into believing he would earn 12 annas a day. He too was quickly placed on a train destined to Suriname before he could collect his thoughts.

Although primary data tends to be of invaluable worth, Hassankham’s advises against accepting these sources as absolute truths. One ignores the motivations these two informants might have had when they wrote their accounts. In fact, Sanadhya contradicts himself when he confesses that his sole objection to migrate was the destination to Fiji. According to Hassankham, many migrants who expressed a desire to leave the foreign countries resolved to stay of their own accord. To express the feelings of those relatives left behind, the author relies on letters and lyrics of folksongs that express their sentiments. In Khan’s case, the correspondence he received from his estranged relatives express chagrin and melancholia. Khan’s father informs him of their impecunious state and begs him to return to India. The tone of Khan’s father’s last letter expresses his hopelessness and discouragement of never seeing his son again. Another very moving letter was authored by a woman who was left behind with her child. She pleads with her husband to save her and her child from starvation.

The lamentations of the dispirited hearts seeped through their songs, poems and stories and exposed their state of mind. These sorrowful songs reveal their loneliness, feelings of abandonment and yearning for the return of loved ones. Some songs speak about the ruthless treatment migrants suffered as indentured servants, while others disclose the deception of arkátis¹ and identify hunger as being the chief motivation for leaving India.

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