Join us on the latest episode of the Peppa Pot as we explore the history of Indentured Indian Women and the challenges they faced once they arrived in the Caribbean. Throughout the period of Indian Indentureship, the number of men recruited to work throughout the Caribbean greatly outnumbered the number of women, resulting in women being in high demand but receiving no preferential treatment and often falling victim to abuse. Despite this, for some women, arriving in the Colonies represented freedom and an opportunity to overcome generations of oppression that they experienced back home. Learn more about the history and adversity of Indentured Indian Women and how they took care of themselves by tuning in to Episode 5 of the Peppa Pot: Leggo me nah Raja.

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Credits

Beats and Music by Noyz

Research by Ryan N. Ramdin

Creative Direction by Sara-Sati Ramprashad

Produced by WESTINDIECO 

Resources

Bahadur, G. “Coolie Woman: the Odyssey of Indenture” (The University of Chicago Press: 2014).

Chatterjee, C. (1997) “Indian women’s lives and labor: the indentureship experience in Trinidad and Guyana, 1845-1917”.

Christian, R. “‘They Came in Ships...’ Indo-Caribbean Women and their Construction of Safe Spaces in the Caribbean” in Lurdos, M. & Misrahi-Barak, J. (dir.), “Transport(s) in the British Empire and the Commonwealth.”

Jagessar, R. “Kiss and Breathe: Only the Broken Ones Will Rise” (Rohit Jagessar: 2022). Khan, A. (2016) “Voyages across Indenture: From Ship Sister to Mannish Women” A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies, 22 at 249-280.

Martinez, K. (1997), “Chutney in yuh Soca,” available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPCJqqYCXBs&t=383s 

Mehta, B. (2020) “Jahaji-bahin feminism: a de-colonial Indo-Caribbean consciousness” South Asian Diaspora 12(2) at 179-194.

Mehta, B., Diasporic (Dis) locations: Indo-Caribbean Women Writers Negotiate the Kala Pani. (Jamaica: UWI Press, 2004).

Niranjana, T. Mobilizing India: Women, music and migration between India and Trinidad. (USA: Duke University Press, 2006).

Sengupta, S. (1995 June 5), “Relishing the Mix New York's developing a taste for the musical fusion called chutney,” Newsday. 

Sharma, H. (23 December 2020) “Why Indian women became the faces of these Victorian-era postcards,” CNN, retrieved at: https://www.cnn.com/style/article/indo-caribbean-women-colonial-postcards/index.html 

Singh, K. A. “Comparative Caribbean Feminisms: Jahaji-bhain in Carnival” in “Indo-Caribbean Feminist Thought: Genealogies, Theories, Enactments” (New York: Palgrave Maxmillan, 2016).