A snippet of Indo-Jamaican history: A Thread.

Being born and raised in a Coolie Town/Hindu Town, the word Coolie confused me. We referred to ourselves as Coolies, but NEVER the Indians we saw on the Bollywood screens or the rich Indians in Jamaica who still had their language. https://twitter.com/Ch4ddie/status/1309404070839562241

I even remember my Maa correcting me when I called a woman with an Indian accent Coolie. She distinguished the woman from us.
The term 'Coolie' evokes mixed feelings within and external to the community of the descendants of Indian indenturers. It has been and, in some contexts,

continues to be used as a racial slur.
As to why a distinction between the use of 'Indian' and 'Coolie' came to be, we have to start by retracing our steps and start thinking about the sorts of processes that happened before the term came to occupy the position it does today

Indians make up the second largest ethnic group in Jamaica. In our history, there have been three separate mass migrations of Indians to the island:

1. Indentureship (1845 - 1917)
2. Merchant Phase Migration (early twentieth century)
3. 'Professional' Migration (1980 - present)

The first set of Indians who came to Jamaica, came as indenturers to replace former slaves on the estates.

Here is a documentary on indentureship:

The colonial motive for acquiring indenturers was not because there was any lack of abled workers in the colonies, instead plantation owners created an artificial labour shortage to conscript a group of controllable workers (through the law).

Coolie Bhai

Coolie did not start out as an ethnic marker. Most sources agree that the term is from either some Indian language such as Tamil, Hindi, Urdu or it was borrowed from Chinese Mandarin. In any case, it referred to people who worked so-called 'lowly jobs.'

The colonial administration labeled the workers as Coolies carrying forward that tradition of lowly workers. The formerly enslaved referred to indenturers as slave coolies for working on estates, and at some point, the indenturers started to refer to themselves as Coolies. Why?

'Coolies' as how it currently used in Jamaica and the Caribbean are Indians, but not all Indian people are Coolies. Some indenturers and their descendants appropriated the term to distinguish themselves from the two later migrations of Indians to Jamaica. The racial title links

back to indentureship. Indentureship was supposed to be a temporary system, and Indians were supposed to return to India. This was not the case, about two thirds of the indenturers remained in Jamaica. Why? Many reasons, but part of it was that the Indian government saw us as

destitute and polluted. As someone who identifies as Coolie, I use the word to talk about the Indian indenturers and their descendants not only to specify the group of people I am referring to, but also to emphasize their relationship to history, India, and the Caribbean.

Through the interactions with the colonial geographies of the Caribbean, they have created a culture that bears some estrangement from the Indians who are more intimate with post-colonial India. They evolved and (devolved?) through ndifferent processes from the later migrants.

If you want to know how estranged the other migrations are from us (with some exceptions), ask them how they celebrate Indian events and if we are ever invited. Ask the Indian commissioner to Jamaica if he's ever visited a Hindu Town or participated in one of our Indian sessions?

See Gaiutra Bahadur’s treatment of the word in Coolie Woman the Odyssey of Indenture , xix–xxi.

Also read about Indo-Jamaican history in:

Home Away from Home - the Mansinghs
From Transients to Settlers - Shepherd
Picturing South Asians in Jamaica - Arabindan-Kesson

Coolie Duppy

The term coolie duppy is an idiom in the Jamaican language. It can mean "the strongest and the most malignant spirit used by Obeahmen" (Cassidy). To conquer this duppy, is to say that you are a very powerful person.

See for example:

Roving With Lalah: A walk through Red Light via @YouTube

Moreover, "many cite the coolie duppy as a very bad one, one you plant on your neighbor when you want to harm him, and the China duppy as a particularly helpful one." Jamaican Duppy Lore" (Journal of American Folklore) - MacEdward Leach

Tony Matterhorn appeals to this understanding in parts of the following diss song:

Here is a poem (that I love) by Kei Miller on the subject of the Coolie duppy. Miller repaints the folk understanding of the Coolie duppy as a protector for those marginalized.

So why would I want to be identified by such a handle?

I appreciate the histories that advanced my life whether for the good and the bad. I see myself embodying a Coolie duppy, a combination of the histories of Afro- and Indo-Jamaicans as well that thorn in the flesh of those

elites on the island. I am that Coolie duppy that dem set pon people dem who appreciate the colonial constructs of our society without questioning or trying to rework it. I am that miscegenation inheriting violent racial histories tht recognizes an importance of dismantling their

products that seem to run perpetually. I am that dutty Coolie bwoy that embraces the hope for a better Jamaica.

So what I will not be doing is asking for permission to use a word that means a lot to me and my community. Before you try to say "it is a 'racist term,'" ask why?