Why indentured labour was taken by the British from India to other colonies ? Have they been able to preserve their cultural identity over there ?
Approach · directive: “why / have they been able”
What it asks · Explain the causes of indentured emigration (labour demand after slavery ended and push factors in India) and judge how far the migrants and their descendants kept their culture.
It asks 2 things — answer each
- Why: the reasons the British took indentured labour from India to other colonies (plantation demand after slavery, distress in India, the contract system)
- Have they preserved their cultural identity: preservation, blending and erosion, with a judgement
Open with · Between 1834 and 1920 almost half a million indentured Indians reached Mauritius alone, part of a world-wide migration of over two million indentured labourers (UNESCO).
Cover
- Pull: abolition of slavery left plantations short; Britain chose Mauritius in 1834 for its 'great experiment' with 'free' labour.
- Push: eastern UP, Bihar, central India, dry Tamil Nadu districts saw cottage industries decline and rents rise.
- Five-year contracts, deceptive recruiters, harsh plantations: a 'new system of slavery'; ended 1917–20 after nationalist campaigns.
- Preserved: temples, Ramcharitmanas, Diwali and Phagwa; Fiji Hindi and Sarnami.
- Blended: Trinidad's Hosay from Muharram, chutney music in Trinidad and Guyana.
- Eroded: conversion, English and creole, onward migration, ethnic politics in Fiji and Guyana; ties renewed by Pravasi Bharatiya Divas (2003) and OCI.
Close with · Aapravasi Ghat, where UNESCO says the modern indentured diaspora began, is now world heritage; the girmitiyas' descendants carry an identity recognisably Indian yet distinctly their own.
Add value (verified)
- Almost half a million indentured labourers from India arrived at Aapravasi Ghat, Mauritius, between 1834 and 1920.Aapravasi Ghat — UNESCO World Heritage Centre ↗“Between 1834 and 1920, almost half a million indentured labourers arrived from India at Aapravasi Ghat”
- In 1834 Britain chose Mauritius for its 'great experiment' in using 'free' labour to replace slaves.Aapravasi Ghat — UNESCO World Heritage Centre ↗“In 1834, the British Government selected the island of Mauritius to be the first site for what it called ‘the great experiment’ in the use of ‘free’ labour to replace slaves.”
- The system became a world-wide migration of more than two million indentured labourers.Aapravasi Ghat — UNESCO World Heritage Centre ↗“resulting in a world-wide migration of more than two million indentured labourers”
- Aapravasi Ghat is the site where the modern indentured labour diaspora began.Aapravasi Ghat — UNESCO World Heritage Centre ↗“the 1,640 m2 site where the modern indentured labour diaspora began”
Question: UPSC's CS (Main) 2018, GS Paper I — paper ↗. Approach: Minimalist IAS, checked 16 Oct 2026 (how we verify) — UPSC publishes no model answers. ·
Model answer· 314words · Minimalist IAS
Between 1834 and 1920, almost half a million indentured labourers from India landed at Mauritius's Aapravasi Ghat alone, part of a world-wide migration of over two million. Both the colonial need behind it and the culture the migrants carried shape this answer.
Why indentured labour was taken
- Plantation demand: once slavery was abolished in the 1830s, sugar colonies lacked labour; in 1834 Britain chose Mauritius for its 'great experiment' with 'free' labour to replace slaves.
- Distress at home: most recruits came from eastern Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, central India and dry Tamil Nadu districts, where cottage industries declined and land rents rose.
- Contract and deception: contracts promised a better life, but agents misled and even abducted migrants; indenture came to be called a 'new system of slavery'.
- Wide spread: labour went to Mauritius, the Caribbean, Natal and Fiji until the system was abolished in 1921 after nationalist opposition.
Have they preserved their cultural identity?
- Preserved: religion anchored identity through temples, Ramcharitmanas recitation, Diwali and Holi (Phagwa); Hindi-based tongues such as Fiji Hindi and Sarnami survive.
- Blended: plantation life loosened caste and regional divides, and Indian forms fused with local ones into new creole cultures.
| Colony | Cultural marker |
|---|---|
| Trinidad | Muharram procession turned into 'Hosay', joined by all races |
| Trinidad, Guyana | Chutney music of the post-indenture experience |
| Fiji, Suriname | Fiji Hindi and Sarnami |
- Eroded: conversion, English and creole replacing Hindi, onward migration to Europe and North America, and ethnic politics in Fiji and Guyana have diluted it.
- Renewed ties: Pravasi Bharatiya Divas (since 2003), OCI cards and ICCR cultural centres reconnect descendants with India.
Judgement
- Selective, creative preservation: core faith and festivals endure, but in hybrid, locally rooted forms rather than as a copy of nineteenth-century India.
Aapravasi Ghat, which UNESCO marks as the place where the modern indentured diaspora began, is now world heritage; the girmitiyas' descendants carry an identity recognisably Indian yet distinctly their own.
Prepared by Minimalist IAS to the answer standard of Shivam Singh (mentor, 7 years) · facts checked against official sources (how we verify) · updated 16 Oct 2026. UPSC publishes no model answers: compare your structure and coverage with this, then write your own.
