The first wave of the Indian Diaspora is what we call the “Old Diaspora.” It began during the early 19th century and continued until the end of the British Raj.

Britain abolished slavery in 1833 and other colonial powers such as France, the Netherlands, and Portugal followed suit. Without the labor of African slaves, their colonies then desperately needed manpower to work the sugar and rubber plantations. To meet this demand, the British established the system of “Indentured Labor Migration” from the Indian subcontinent.

In 1834, Britain began exporting bonded Indian labor to Mauritius. The Dutch and French replicated the British system and also exported Indian workers to their colonies.

Conditions of absolute poverty in many parts of India, in addition to the prospect of gaining wealth overseas, motivated Indians to sell themselves and become bonded laborers. The conditions on these journeys were extremely difficult. Mortality was high on British, Dutch and French boats from the sub-continent to these colonies.

1.3.1.2. The Plantations in Islands

Workers for plantations in Mauritius, Suriname, Trinidad and Fiji arrived mainly from the present-day states of Bihar and UP. In Guyana and East Africa, laborers originated primarily from Punjab and Gujarat. Given the proximity of Tamil Nadu to French possessions in India like Pondicherry, the workers in most French colonies, such as Guadeloupe, Martinique, and La Reunion, were Tamils. The majority of these migrants were males. This brutal indenture system lasted until World War I, abolished in 1916-1917. By that time, more than 1.5 million Indians had been shipped to colonies in the Caribbean, Africa, and Asia.