This article by Dr Chanderbali was first published by Stabroek News on May 5, 2006, under the caption ‘Indian indenture: Some reasons for immigrants repatriating and settling.’
By David Chanderbali
The Indian immigrants in British Guiana who had completed their first contract and had also fulfilled the five-year “industrial residence” requirement were entitled by law to free repatriation to India. The advantage of the free return passage was not taken by a majority of immigrants in the colonies more distant from their homeland. Between1842 and 1870, for instance, an average of 76 per cent of the immigrants in Mauritius, British Guiana, Trinidad, and Jamaica decided to settle in their respective colonies. By comparison, for the same years, of those who had sought employment in Ceylon, Burma,