Indian Indentured Women in the Caribbeans and the Role Model of Ramayana’s Sita: An Unequal Metaphor

Abstract

Migration for humans is a painful phenomenon, and to overcome the pain of separation, migrants tend to recreate their motherland in their alien environment; in this way, they become the carriers of the culture and traditions of their motherland. The paper shows that at times this is difficult for the migrants. The indentured system, under which many Indian men and women migrated to far-off sugarcane producing colonies as substitutes for the emancipated black slaves, during the British period, faced this problem. Even a cursory look at the system brings out the inhumanity inherent in it; women being the worst sufferers. Apart from the gruelling working conditions, the women faced gender-specific problems. The migrants carried the image of the Sita of the Ramayana as a role model for the women. In the plantation economy of the Caribbeans and elsewhere, the numerical strength of the Indian women being abysmally low, it was almost impossible for them to emulate Sita. The paper examines the qualities for which Sita was worshipped and, how when these women (many of whom had independently taken the decision to emigrate) looked for partnerships to provide them security, were slandered for moving away from the path of Sita. The paper brings out the abysmal living conditions on the plantations that made normal domestic life impossible, thus justifying the abolition of the indentured system.