On arrival at the plantations, the indentured labour found extremely horrible and miserable living and working conditions. Working hours were very long and labourers had few legal rights.
The indentured labour in the Caribbean islands gave rise to new forms of individual and collective self expression which blended different old and new cultural forms in the following ways.
(a) In Trinidad, the annual Muharram procession was transformed into a riotous carnival called ‘Hosay’ (for Imam Hussain) in which workers of all races and religions joined.
(b) Similarly, the protest religion of Rastafarianism made famous by the Jamaican reggae star Bob Marley is also said to reflect social and cultural links with Indian migrants to the Caribbean.
(c) ‘Chutney music’, popular in Trinidad and Guyana, is another creative contemporary expression of the post-indenture experience.
(d) These forms of cultural fusion are part of the making of the global world, where things from different places get mixed, lose their original characteristics and become something entirely new.
