Indian women's lives and labor : the indentureship ...
nts Table 2.1 Areas from where emigrants migrated to Trinidad (1876-1892) Province Female Trinidad Male Total Orissa 16 235 144 5 2,207 41 255 120 49 57 490 264 54 West Bengal Cent. Bengal East Bengal Bihar 4,651 6,858 continued next page 35 Table 2.1 Contri. i r iniaaa Province Male Total N.W. Provs. 6 , 900 1 J , J O 1 20,281 Awadh 2,272 5,822 8,094 Cent. India 165 230 395 Punjab 123 614 737 65 158 223 States T~~\ _n_T_ 1—. — ma 1 Bombay, Madras 171 367 538 Total 12.303 25.688 37.991 Table 2.2 Areas from where emiarants minr^i-Pri ^r> (1876-1892 ) Guyana jr i. ovxiices Female Male Total Orissa 9 57 66 West Bengal 417 536 953 Cent . Bengal 180 243 423 East Bengal 13 65 78 Bihar 4,011 7,511 11,522 N.W. Provs. 11,564 24,054 35,618 Awadh 3,814 10,269 14,083 239 491 730 Punjab 186 832 1,018 Nepal & Native States 112 532 420 Bombay, Madras 514 975 1,489 Total 21.059 45.453 66.512 Source: Tables 2.1 and 2.2 compiled from yearly statistical tables in The Annual Reports on Emigration from the Port of Calcutta to British and Foreign Colonies, (1876-1892). Annual returns of the areas from where workers migrated are irregular, but the two periods - 1876 to 1892 and 1908 to 1917 show similar trends. While the provinces in these two periods were subject to territorial and nomenclature changes due to annexation to the British empire or administrative reorganization, the approximate regions from which migrants continued to be recruited remained the same. 36 Table 2t3 Areas from where emigrant ^ migrated to ( l'X)8 -1917) Tr inidad Provinces Females Males Total Benqa 17 36 53 East Bengal 2 3 5 and Assam Bihar and 484 84? 1 , 326 Orissa Un i tod Provs . 4 , 008 8,975 12,983 of Agra and Awadh Centra 7 31 38 Provinces f 'f 1 1 1 r a I I nd i a 1 1 1 2 J J A j mere ii . 37 48 Pun jab 4 8 1 68 216 Native Sts. l 85 658 843 Bombay and l 0 39 49 Madras Other Places 2 1 3 To l .1 1 4 .828 10,9$? 15,797 Tab 1 e 7 . 4 Ar eas from where omiqrants miniated t.o Guvana / 1 q n P 1 01 7 \ Guy, in. Provinces Female? Males Total Benqa 5 13 18 East Bonqal 2 3 5 and Assam Bihar and 283 454 737 Orissa United Provs. 3,534 8,250 1 1 ,784 of Agra and Awadh Central 50 59 109 Provinces Central India 97 203 300 A jmere 5 22 27 Pu n jab 51 209 260 Native Sts. 131 414 545 Bombay and 10 53 63 Madras Other Places 1 1 Total 4,168 9,681 13.849 Source*: Tables 2.3 and 2.4 compiled from yearly statistical tables in The Annual Reports on Emigration from the Port of Calcutta to British and Foreign Colonies. ( 1908-1917 ) . 37 From the above tables it is clear that approximately 92 percent of the female working force in the period between 1876 and 1892 were from the regions of Bihar, North West Provinces and Awadh. Figures for Guyana reflect the same pattern as Trinidad where 92 percent of the total female indentured migration came from the aforementioned regions of India. In the period between 1908 and 1917, 8 3 percent of those migrating to Trinidad in these years came from United Provinces, which was the erstwhile region of Awadh and parts of the North Western Provinces. In Guyana too, the numbers were similar where approximately 84.8 percent of the total female immigrants in the period between 1908 and 1917 came from the United Provinces and Agra. These trends in the regional origins were similar for male migrants too. What was it that made these regions the "labor catchment areas" for the bulk of the recruitment? In colonial contemporary imagination India was an "area of darkness", with teeming multitudes of famine and poverty stricken people waiting to migrate to better prospects, even when that meant travel overseas. As DeVerteuil observed: Of course under that system immigrants can be brought only from over-populated countries, such as India and China; the people are there more or less exposed to periodical famine and its consequent evils - starvation and epidemic diseases 23 What was the scenario in colonial India? Was India a "natural" labor catchment region of over-populated, underutilized, poor, starving people willing and ready to 38 migrate for work across several thousand miles of land and ocean? A vast h
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