Agreement And Recruiting

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60965 emigrants to a place with a bunch of islands called Fiji. Displayed as an opportunity to gain some wealth and improve the standard of living, this indentured labor was no less than a trap laid for poverty-struck Indian people by the planters who were just hit hard by new law abolishing slavery creating a collapsing void due to a shortage in labors in their estates.

And the ones who held this fishing rod were agents appointed by the recruiter to recruit the “well-built”, “healthy” and “agriculturally knowledgeable”. The job of these recruiters was to inform emigrants about the nature of work, destination places, and terms of indentured contract. But most of the time these recruiters were liars who give false hopes to the recruits that they can come home whenever they want, their job is so easy burden free, their wages will get inflated, and all.

These emigrants were commonly called as “Girmitiya” which comes from the term “Girmit” which was mispronunciation of the term “Agreement”1. This name was given to them because of the agreement they signed without knowing the actual terms and condition in that.

This Agreement included terms like:

·        This contract lasts for 5 years from the time of recruiting.

·        Cultivation or manufacture on any plantation works were made to do.

·        Anyone who attempts to escape from the estate before this time period could be criminally prosecuted.

·        9 hours work in normal week days. 5 hours work on Saturdays. And holidays on Sunday and authorized holidays.

·        An adult who is above 15 years old has to be paid minimum 1sheling. And every woman should be paid with at least nine pence.

·        Wages will be paid weekly on Saturday.

·        Emigrants can return to India at their own expense after completing five years.

·        Emigrants will receive ration from their employer during the first six months after their arrival in plantation according to the scale prescribed by the government of Fiji at a daily cost of four pence.

 

·        Every child between five and twelve years of age will receive approximately half rations free of cost, and every child, five years of age and under, nine chattacks of milk daily free of cost, during the first year after their arrival

·        House to stay will be provided by employer and will be kept repaired. And medical facilities were also provided to them by the employer.2

 

Some plantation owners appointed recruiters for the task. These agents can be divided into two group. Licensed agents and non-licensed agents. Though licensed agents were authorized to this task, planters preferred non-licensed who were most of the times lies, schemers and even kidnappers sometimes. The task of these recruiters was to gather emigrants, get their medical examination and present them in front of magistrate for confirmation of no forceful emigration. This was rule brought in by Government of India to avoid situations like slavery, that had just got abolished. But this process didn’t turn up so effective because recruits were lied or threatened by recruiters to confess their will to emigrate. These emigrants were exported majorly from two ports; Calcutta and Madras. The price of a coolie varied according to the distance of main depot to the place of recruitment. Travel expense was the main cause for the difference. The recruiters were, either contractual, or salaried. The head recruiters were paid on the contractual basis that is, price per coolie introduced to the emigration depot at port.3

Due to lack of hiring women for emigration sexual immorality rose very sharply in the emigrant place. As fewer women were there compared to men sharing of women started taking place leading to legal prostitution. To avoid this Government of India made a rule saying there should be at least forty women for sixty men when they are hired. But this was not followed strictly so ships left without reaching this percentage.4

This way recruitment was most of the time done in an unfair manner manipulating the terms of agreement while conveying it to recruits. Most of the people didn’t even knew for what they are imprinting their thumbprint for. It was only during the bad experience of travel and exploiting working condition at Fiji (about which you can study in next entries) made them realize what they have signed for.

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 Written By Ullas


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    Sources:

1.               https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4gA2q53j-g

2.               Indian indenture system. (2022, October 30). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_indenture_system

3.               Madhwi. Recruiting Indentured Labour for Overseas Colonies, circa 1834–1910. Social Scientist, September–October 2015, Vol. 43, No. 9/10 (September–October 2015), pp. 53-68

Eugene J. D'Souza. INDIAN INDENTURED LABOUR IN FIJI. : Proceedings of the Indian History Congress , 2000-2001, Vol. 61, Part Two: Millennium (2000-2001), pp. 1071-1080

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