Indentured Labour and the Indian and Chinese Diasporas

When the British Empire abolished slavery in 1834, plantation owners looked for new workers, and a system of indentured labour moved Asians across the world. Under indenture, workers signed contracts, often for five years, in return for passage, wages and sometimes a promised trip home. More than a million Indians went to Mauritius, Trinidad, British Guiana, Fiji, Natal and elsewhere between 1834 and 1917, while Chinese labourers went to Cuba, Peru and the Caribbean.

Conditions were often harsh, contracts were misunderstood or enforced with penalties, and critics at the time called it a new system of slavery, though legally it differed. Many workers stayed, building lasting communities: Indo-Caribbean Diwali celebrations, chutney music and Hindu temples in Trinidad, and Indo-Fijian culture all grew from indenture. The system ended largely because of campaigns in India against its abuses.