Dr Basdeo Mangru’s work on Indian migration to British Guiana has been republished by Hansib as part of its 175th anniversary series commemorating Indian arrival in the Caribbean.
Entitled Benevolent Neutrality: Indian Government Policy and Labour Migration to British Guiana 1854-1884, the work is based on largely unpublished sources, and provides an in-depth account of living and working conditions under the indentureship system. In addition, it analyses the factors which induced people to leave their homes in India to labour in the sugar fields of distant shores, and the policies formulated to protect them and how these were obstructed.
Mangru also includes a study of Indian women migrants, beginning with their recruitment, and continuing with their sexual exploitation on the estates and their militancy during times of unrest, among other things.
