The Trinidad Ram Lila: Indentured Indian Diaspora Remaking a Caribbean Civilization

Abstract

The Indians in the Caribbean (Trinidad, Guyana, Suriname, Jamaica, Martinique, Guadeloupe, and other islands) represent India’s nineteenth-century "first diaspora." Originating primarily from North India and to a lesser extent from South India, these individuals, often referred to as indentured Indians, jahajees, or girmitiyas, embarked under deceptive colonial labor conditions, akin to a new form of slavery. Many were impoverished and oppressed, their homeland exploited by colonial powers. Although most initially planned to return to India after their contracts, few did, as community ties and familial bonds took root in the Caribbean. Instead of mourning their detachment from their homeland, they reestablished their cultural and communal infrastructure, overlaying their memories of India onto their new environment, effectively solidifying their presence as a permanent diaspora. It wasn't until the 1970s, during Trinidad's oil boom, that significant travel between India and this diaspora began. By then, the community was well-established. Nobel Laureate Derek Walcott highlighted this through his depiction of Ram Lila in Trinidad, using it not to signify a search for a "lost India" but to celebrate a "real presence." He likened this to the repair of a broken jar, where the reconstruction is done with a love that surpasses the original, symbolizing a people creatively mending their history and shaping a new Caribbean civilization.