Broken Bond Pain and Agony: Indentured Labor

By Harish Noudiyal

Slavery has existed in many parts of the world since ancient times. But in the Caribbean British colony, the enslavement of Africans began in the 1600s and 1610s. Many Caribbean plantation owners were slave owners though both men came to believe that slavery was morally wrong. Slavery flourished in the Caribbean. In most of the US states, there were large cotton and tobacco farms that required slave workers. During the revolution in the years 1776s to 1783s in the West, it began to turn against slavery, believing it violated the US Constitution’s promise that “all men and women are created equal.’

As the 1800s began, Northern abolitionists were starting a crusade to end slavery while Southerners insisted on their right to continue their traditional way of life, which included owning slaves, which affected the Caribbean as well. Ram Chatar was born in the 1820s and reached the Caribbean sometime in the 1840s when the business of buying and selling slaves by the plantation owners was booming. Most of them were field hands, working to raise and harvest crops. Mostly slave women were domestic servants working in the plantation houses. The rising anger in the West and the Caribbean on the issue of slavery helped bring about American Civil War. When the war ended in 1865, slavery was abolished in the West but remain in the Caribbean and took a little time to end.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Nov 23, 2021
• ISBN: 9781664199798

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Copyright © 2021 by Harish Noudiyal.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

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Rev. date: 11/22/2021

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CONTENTS

Acknowledgments

Introduction

The Painful Life Of Indentured Laborers

About The Author

To the memories of my parents

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I will never forget those special best friends and their heroic battles with the phantoms that inhabited their minds. I never question for any reason about anything those were my mother and father. I hope that this account of my life, which many ways might be similar to others if they are alive now, I would like them and follow their instruction accordingly as a measure of comfort and hope as well as love. I am grateful to my best friends who were my parents.

My successes and glory belong to my parents. Our long walks and talks were inspirations that keep me going toward my destiny. I always feel you both with me. You both are my salvation, my inspiration, my angels, and my dream.

I love you both. I really do. You both are my mother and father, friends, hope, courage, stamina, strength, and success. I promise you both that the struggle you both go through I will never forget and will do my job and take care of my responsibilities to my families according to your instructions. I will proceed seriously, honestly, and truthfully until my eyes are closed and will be united with you for good.

No matter whether the family regards me or not, I need their blessings, as well as that of my grandparents too although I’ve never seen my grandparents. One day on sleep my grandmother comes to my dream and asked me that never give up, keeps on whatever you planned for, one day you will achieve my goal.

Whatever the circumstances, the loss of parents is very painful to bear. You both are the source of my strength. I miss you both. I am lonely. I have no one around who could comfort me during bad or good times. But of course, you both are. You both are in heaven and looking at me. I love you both and miss you as well.

INTRODUCTION

T he story of indentured labor concerns certain events that occurred in the early days of their lives. It all happened over 180 years ago. For many of us, it might sound like a tall tale because the people who sacrifice their lives wish we all come to know their pain during those difficult years. Ram Chatar and his wife as slaves and fated encounter with the amazing of Ram Chatar from beyond all the way from the Indian subcontinent. He was running from the British soldiers not to leave their village and family.

His dream was to build a family life, stay in the country, and buy his own land for planting instead of going west. There were many things to do in his village with the help of others. For instance, when Ram was young, nobody ever dreamed that he would become a plantation owner and have his own horse carriage and go around with the family around the village and the small towns. But all of those things were possible back then even though nobody knew in the village.

The story is like that. It’s about science that seems like magic even today and about the barbaric practice of slavery that so many of our ancestors had to endure. The author is putting down these words because the only one that history left alive remembers what it was like to be a slave.

The plantation in the Caribbean and think that it is important for other people to understand what this experience was like. The author made an oath all those years ago not to inform the general populace about the science exposed back then. The author hopes that the readers will enjoy this tale of struggle, adventure, and derring-do. But even as the readers take a thrill at the hardships and violent trials of the slave during those days, I hope the readers have a little understanding of what it was like to live as a slave in those times. Slavery might be the most unbelievable part of this whole story.

The bitterest time of slavery occurred during the first six months when Tam Chatar lived with his wife and some Indian friends he made in that strange place in the Caribbean. We all worked in all kinds of weather. It was never too hot or too cold; it could never rain, below, hail or snow. It was dry weather and extremely hot too hard for us to work in the fields. The longest days were too short for us slaves, and the shortest nights were too long. Ram and his wife and some other friends were somewhat unmanageable when we first went there, but a few months of this discipline tamed us.

Ram said that he was broken in body, soul, and spirit. He said that his natural resilience was crushed, his intellect weakened, his desire to read vanished, and the cheerful spark in his eyes died away. The dark night of slavery closed in upon him, and he was transformed from a man into a brute.

THE PAINFUL LIFE OF

INDENTURED LABORERS

I t’s the question many of us has pondered with frequency as a writer in my imagination toward fiction stories trying a good writer asking myself whether I could or otherwise. The question was raised in my vision when I decided to write this fictional story. It’s mostly based on what happened around us; it is an inspiring exploration at the time when the British Empire took over India from its Muslim rulers while the East India Company was established in West Bengal. The company was abolished in favor of direct rule over India by the British government. It took a while for as vital an economic institution as slavery mostly in a plantation in the West. As same regards in the numbers of indentured laborers were second only to Portugal. The British government started collecting laborers and slaves from different parts of the world, such as Africa, India, and some parts of Southeast Asia. Not only slaves but strong and healthy men and women to work in the plantation and sugarcane in the West, especially in West Indies which is called the Caribbean. This is a story about a young couple from Bihar who ran from the police not to split from the family to go faraway west, but unfortunately, they had been captured and forced into a boat with other slaves.

The Muslim conquests of the Indian subcontinent mainly took place in the twelfth until the sixteenth century, during the time of Rajput kingdoms in the eighth century. Mohamad of Ghazni, the first ruler to hold the title of sultan starting from the Indus River in the tenth century. The establishment of the Delhi sultanate resulted in several Muslim sultanates and dynasties emerging across the Indian subcontinent.

Prior to the full rise of the Mughal Empire by Babur, one of the dangerous, and gunpowder empires that annexed almost all of the ruling elites of the whole of Southeast Asia. In those days, the Sur Empire ruled by the Sher Shah Suri conquered large territories in the northern part of the Indian subcontinent. Immediately after, Akbar and Aurangzeb enlarged the Mughal Empire to include nearly all of South Asia at the end of the seventeenth century.

The Mughals suffered a massive decline in the early eighteenth century after Afsharid ruler Nader Shah’s invasion and unexpected attack that demonstrated the weakness of the Mughal Empire. The British Empire commenced at extending its political influence over the Muslim world through many forms of ideas and tactics. The start of the conquests from the Bay of Bengal and find out their weak points. Some reliable sources all Muslim empires were involved sexually and were consumed lots of liquor. After the British found out the weakness of the Muslim emperors, the British rulers’ East India Company supplied young blonde ladies aged sixteen to twenty-five and scotch liquor and made them addicted to both.

The East India Company slowly captured their state as well as killed them or arrested them. They extended into the Indian subcontinent and by the end of the nineteenth century. Much of the Muslim world, as well as the Indian subcontinent, came under European colonial domination.

The sultans of Delhi enjoyed cordial, if superficial, relations with the Muslim rulers in the east, west, north, and south and owed them no allegiance.

The Muslims based their laws on the Quran and the Sharia and permitted non-Muslims subjects to practice their religion only if they paid the jizya (tax). If non-Muslims do not follow their rules, either they were killed or were turned to Islam.

During this time, Muslim rulers destroy all Hindu temples and built mosques on top of destroyed temples everywhere. The sultan’s army was easily on December 17, 1398. Timur entered Delhi and the city was sacked, destroyed, and left in ruins. Before the battle in Delhi, he executed more than a hundred thousand Hindus. On the other hand, he does not have any sympathy to waste on those wretches. Timur had granted protection to the people of Delhi; it’s a totally phony stunt. He started collectors who had begun collecting the protection money from non-Muslims. The large group of Timurid soldiers began entering the city like birds of prey and attacked Hindus and others. They began the immolation their women raped and killed and put the city sacked by Timur’s soldiers.

Then the British Empire took over India from its Muslim rulers on August 2, 1858, while the East India Company was established in 1757 only in West Bengal. The East India Company was abolished in favor of direct rule over India by the British government. It took a while after 1807 for as vital and economic institution as slavery. The British with some 2.7 million slaves, the same numbers as indentured labor were second only to Portugal. To wind down by the 1830s, the slaves on British plantations had begun to exercise their right to freedom. Africans could not remain in the catchment area for replacements; this trick would not be sustainable.

The eyes of the British government turned to its most lucrative colony in India, and by the time the British rule extended up to Bhojpuri and Bihar in the north, and between Madras and Mysore in the south. The families that resulted from white man’s unprecedented taxation followed by Lord Cornwallis.

Permanent settlement killed millions in Bengal and left those who survived on the edge of desperation. From this pool came the new slaves. The first batch from Bihar reached British Guiana in 1836. Within two years, Charles Anderson, a British magistrate of the island, unable to contain his anger, complained to London about the severity with which Indians had been treated. Whipping, imprisonment, and death were common. After going through starvation, nothing changed except for the colors of the slaves. The pressure became so strong that the colonial secretary suspended the import of Indian labor in 1840.

Jamaica and Trinidad first, then eventually followed Natal, Malaya, Ceylon, Burma, and again Bihar, women were picked up to saves. The problem with sex, starvation, and learnt the meaning of slavery when they were raped by the British crews en route. The British Empire started ruling over almost all.

This is a story of one of the poor families in Bihar, working in their farmland, living in a small mud hut with an old father, mother, and a young sister and brother. The brother was recently married. Their land was not sufficient for them to survive, so the newly married couple was working for a rich landlord who had plenty of farmland, and he employed daily workers even though he had connections with the British administration to find young and strong workers to work in plantations in the West.

When Ram Chander, later called Ram Chater, came to know that his landlord, Veer Singh, could hand him over to the British Empire to go to the west to a sugarcane plantation. Chater was recently married and had no plans of going west and leaving his poor family unattended without anybody. Most plantation agents preferred honest and strong men and women, and Ram, as well his wife, was from the same category.

During his marriage in the village called Madhubani, Bihar state to the small gathering among the villagers. While working on the farm, his body became tough and strong. He was 6’3", and he had a red complexion and was a good-looking young boy. His father found a young lady sixty miles away from Madhubani. The village is called Bhachhi, which was not far from his village, and was where he got married to a lady named Bhanumati. They were living together with the family and went to work on the farm close to the village.

After their marriage, one day, he decided to find a job in the city. Ram went alone to the city where, with the industrial revolution taking place, it was facing great progress.

Many factories in the city areas could produce massive numbers of different kinds of goods at low prices emerged. Ram and the others flocked from their farms where they were working in the countryside to the city to work in factories, mills, and mines. Despite such progress, life was not easy for a worker during the industrial revolution. Working conditions were very poor everywhere and sometimes dangerous. During the industrial revolution, workers were expected to work long hours or they could lose their jobs. Many workers had to work twelve to fourteen hours in one day for six days a week. They were not allowed to take any vacation.

There were so many rules in the working areas. If you get sick, you could lose the job, but if you were injured at the site, you would not be fired. When you recover from the injuries, you could have your job back. There wasn’t even single government regulation to help and protect the workers; the workers sometimes had to work closely with powerful machines that had no safety features. It was not uncommon to lose any part of the body, especially a hand or a limb. Workers in the mines were subject to tiny mistakes in tunnels that could easily collapse, and workers could stay trapped underground.

Many factories and mines were filled with dust that not only made it difficult to breathe but could cause diseases, including cancer. Other places were unsafe as well. Fire hazards where they dealt with flammable chemicals. The smallest spark could set off a blaze or explosion. Not only adults, but children migrate to work in cities as well. Child labor in unsafe conditions too. During that time, factory owners hired children because they worked for low wages. In some cases, they hired small children because they could fit into the places where adults could not.

Children were subjected to the same long work weeks and even poor condition without any problems as adults would. Sometime many children were killed or get sick in very poor environment working in the factories. The living conditions in the crowded cities weren’t any better than the working conditions. As more and more people including Ram and his other friend wife if they have no children, moved into the cities from villages. The area where they moved become large slums formed. These places were dirty and unsanitary conditions.

Sometimes, entire families lived in a single-room apartment with so many people living so close together. Diseases could spread rapidly, and there were no sufficient medical facilities or care to help them get well. Industries, such as the cotton trade, particularly the white man property hard for workers to endure long hours of labor. The nature of the work being done meant that the workplace had to be very hot. Steam engines contribute further to the heat in the areas and other industries. Even though the machinery was not even always fenced off and workers would be exposed to the moving parts of the machines while they worked. Children were often employed to move between tightly packed machinery as they were small enough to go in between. This led to them being placed in a great deal of danger, and mortality was quite high in the factories and cotton industries.

Adding to the danger of these workplaces, also consider the importance of the number of hours worked. People worked more than twelve hours in a hot and physically exhausting workplace. Exhaustion naturally leads to the workers becoming sluggish, which again makes the workplaces more dangerous. The existing regulations failed to stamp out abuses in the system, which continued, including recruitment through false pretenses, and consequently, in 1943, the government of West Bengal, a British colony, was forced to restrict emigration from Calcutta and some part of Bihar, which was connected to the part of Calcutta because the emigration authorities were facing lots of problems as well as while transporting the slaves from one place to others. They were not having proper documents and even refused to board the ships. The emigration authorities and captain of the ship only aloud to departure after the signing of a certification from the agent and countersigned by the protector.

Migration to British colonies to Mauritius and Caribbean, but they start to Mauritius around 12,000 strong male and 2,600 female wife and children been transported in 1844–1845. The British government legalized emigration to Jamaica, Trinidad, and Guyana. The first ship, called Whitby, sailed from the port of Calcutta for British Guyana on January 13, 1838. Transportation to the Caribbean faced major problems in the ship and stopped on the way in the ship and reached Trinidad 1851 and Jamaica 1860. Ram Chatar’s (Ram Chander) name was there in the list of Whitby, but before he boarded the ship, he and his wife ran away from their captivity while he was among the group.

Ram come to know that he and his wife and a few other villagers had been sold for a little number of rupees by the landlord, Veer Singh. Ram was not happy to leave his family, not only that, there were other reasons too, which were with the high death rate in voyages and an investigation revealed that regulations for the return voyages were not being satisfactorily followed. The entire area was circulating a story of uncertain or doubtful which was a rumor that once you were in their custody, you never come back to your families. If you get sick or were injured through any circumstances, you would have been thrown into the ocean no matter who or where you come from.

With a shortage of skilled Indian labor, the West Indian sugar colonies tried the use of emancipated slaves, families from Ireland, Germany, Maldives, and Portuguese. All the help from these countries did not satisfy very much the laborers’ needs in the colonies due to the high mortality of new arrivals and their reluctance to continue working to the end of their indenture. On November 16, 1844, the British government of India legalized emigration to Jamaica, Trinidad, and Guyana and fulfill their colonies’ requirements. The first ship, Whitby, sailed after being repaired and reached 1851 with importing labor became viable for plantation owners because newly emancipated slaves refused to work for low wages.

In the Bay of Bengal port, the skilled and strong laborers were not ready to leave their families and friends but were captured by the authorities by force as their names, as well as their photographs, were on the register. The second time Ram Chatar was caught at the banks of the Bay of Bengal. Ram had