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ABSTRACT 
A SOCIAL HISTORY OF INDENTURED INDIAN IMMIGRATION 
TO BRITISH GUIANA AND TRINIDAD, 1854-1884 
Elizabeth R. Rabe 
Between 1854 and 1884, over 190,000 Indian immigrants came to the British 
colonics of British Guiana and Trinidad as indentured servants to work in the 
booming sugar industry. Colonial authorities and plantation owners replaced black 
slavery with a new system of coercive, unfree labor. Indian immigrants signed labor 
contracts that bound them to work on plantations for five to ten years in conditions 
that reminded contemporary observers of slavery. Indians suffered and died during 
their passage from India and in the canefields of British Guiana and Trinidad. This 
study explores the recruitment, voyage, and life and labor of these indentured Indians. 
Although Indians led hard lives in the British colonies, they contested their 
servitude in numerous, small ways. Indian laborers stole food, feigned illness to 
avoid work, rioted, and conducted labor strikes. Indians further challenged their 
degradation by developing a rich community life. Drawing on their Hindu and 
Muslim beliefs, Indians built temples and mosques, celebrated religious festivals, and 
launched cooperative economic ventures. Indentured servants recreated and adapted 
traditional Indian village life to the West Indies. 
This study of Indian immigration and indentured servitude is informed by 
research in published primary and secondary sources and archival research in the 
British National Archives (London), the India Office Library (London), the National 
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Archives of Trinidad and Tobago (Port-of-Spain), and the University of the West 
Indies Archives (St. Augustine). 
Keywords: Elizabeth R. Rabe, British Guiana, Guyana, Trinidad, Indentured Labor, 
Indian Immigration, East Indians, Hindu, Muslim