Yesterday it was exactly 138 years ago that the first indentured labourers from British India set foot in
Suriname, then a Dutch colony in South America. Having left Calcutta port on 26 February 1873 with
410 indentured immigrants on board, it took the sailing ship Lalla Rookh over three months to cross
the Kala Pani (black water). Finally, on 4 June 1873, she arrived in Suriname with 399 British Indians
left, as 11 had died on the way. Due to health reasons, the immigrants1
did not disembark immediately,
but one day later, on 5 June. These migrant workers avant la lettre belonged to the first batch of a total
of 64 sailing vessels and steam boats heading for Suriname. My endowed Chair has been named after
this very first sailing ship with Hindustani immigrants destined for Suriname.2

Between 1873 and 1916 – a time span of 44 years – 34,0343
men and women were shipped off to work
on Surinamese plantations (De Klerk 1953, Verkade 1937, Adhin 1969, Tinker 1974, Emmer 1986,
Emmer 1989, Emmer 1992, Bhagwanbali 1996, Hoefte 1998). A small group of children accompanied
their parents.
Slavery was abolished in Suriname in 1863. Due to the expected shortage of labour the ailing
plantation economy was on the verge of collapse. Next to a compensation of no less than 300 Dutch
guilders per freed slave, the powerful planter class existing of plantation owners, had imposed a tenyear
State Supervision. Thus liberated slaves were made to work on the plantations for another ten
years (Siwpersad 1979, Schalkwijk 2010). Since this State Supervision would end in 1873, the highly
influential plantation owners were very worried about the work that needed to be done in the fields
and factories. Thus, a new labour force was urgently required to continue to work on the plantations;
work that was previously done by former slaves. Many of those emancipated slaves no longer wanted
to do the heavy work, such as cutting sugar cane in the killing (tropical) heat. Not even when offered
payment.