Thread on Indian diaspora population and other analysis in the nations of Guyana, Suriname, Fiji, Mauritius and Trinidad & Tobago:-

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So, first off, the British empire after the abolishment of slavery, was in immense shortage of workers and labour.

Many of the investors in British voyages were getting increasingly frustrated with no labor to work in their agricultural bases.

So, they looked up to Indians.

People from British India were taken to various places around the world, from colonies of Africa to South America, Caribbean etc.

Many Indians were brought under various reasons (many coerced) to work underpaid jobs in horrid conditions.
Many unfilled promises were made.

While all workers of Indian descent were freed by the early 20th century, as is the case usually, quite a significant proportion of the labor decided to stay in their newly adopted nation.

This resulted in the diaspora in nations like:-

1. Fiji
2. Suriname
3. T&T
4. Mauritius

These people were trafficked half way across the world through the exhausting route of Cope of Good Hope (SA) where they were packed into very small compartments in ships practically much like the Trans-Atlantic slave trading.

This was done by more or less every European power.

Unhygienic conditions, dehydration, dysentery and scurvy led to a high mortality rate, on average 15% and up to a third of captives. Often the ships carried hundreds of slaves, who were chained tightly to plank beds.

The British, French and Portuguese were particularly harsh!

Once they landed in their destination, many as would be naturally expected, were subject to gruesome torture and sexual exploitation, much like the case with the African Slaves earlier.

One thing which often gets neglected, is the fact that these people got mocked and ridiculed for their faith in paganism, which translates into Hinduism!

The labourer's employers and owners would ridicule the supposedly "Satanic faith" which their Indian workers held.

Many of these Indian descent labor were coerced and borderline forced into Christianity by local missionaries and their owners.

Plantation owners gave Christian converts more pay, more freedom and better treatment!

Ridiculous propaganda was used to covertly change minds into converting. Many missionaries would suggest that 'God' are punishing them and cursed them with "ill faith" because of following 'satanic creatures.'

All of these factors played into subtle conversion over the yrs.

Trinidad and Tobago was particularly aggressive in terms of missionary conversions compared to other South American, Oceanic or Caribbean states.

Over half of the Indian diaspora have been converted to Christianity in the last century.

Indo-Trinidadians and Tobagonians have ancestry back to northern India, especially the Bhojpur and Awadh region of the Hindi Belt, which lies in the Gangetic plains, which is between the Ganga and Yamuna rivers and faces the mountain ranges of the Himalayas in Northern India.

Census data from Indo-Trinidadians and Hindus:-

Hindus in T&T:-

1900 25.2%
1911 25.5%
1931 22.8%
1946 22.6%
1960 23%
1980 24.9%
2000 22.6%
2011 18.2%

Indians in T&T:-

1871 22%
1911 33%
1931 33.59%
1946 35.1%
1960 36.5%
1980 40.3%
1990 40.3%
2000 40.0%
2011 37.6%

Indo-Trinidadian PM and Pres ever elected:-

Trinidad & Tobago (PMs)
-Basdeo Panday
-Kamla Persad-Bissessar

President
-NM Hassan Ali

Only 1 of them is Hindu btw. Mrs Bissenssar is a strong baptist C who propped up missionaries! She claims to be 'culturally H' lol.

Now, onto Guyana!:-

Indo-Guyanese people are indentured laborers and settlers who arrived beginning in 1838 from India during the time of the British Raj.

.....

Most of the Indian settlers who came to Guyana were from North India, specifically from the Bhojpur and Awadh regions of the Hindi Belt located in the present-day states of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, and Jharkhand. However a significant minority came from South India.

Interesting to note that nearly most of the labourers in the Caribbean were almost always Bhojpuri!

Anyway, The vast majority of Indians came as contract labourers during the 19th century, spurred on by political upheaval, the ramifications of the Mutiny of 1857, and famine.

Census Data of Indian descents and H:-

Indians in
1960 47.8%
1970 51.8%
1980 51.4%
1991 48.6%
2012 43.5%
2012 39.8%

Hindus in Guyana
1991 35%
2002 28.4%
2012 24.8%

(Couldn't find data from earlier. Sorry! ) Again, a gradual downward shift with an already small pop.

This is again, due to continuous coerced pressure by missionaries to convert these people, right from 1850s onwards, in the indenture period in Guyana.

However, the caste system was slowly removed in the Caribbean because of that being weaponised by C to convert low caste H.

This is the reason as to why I see Christianity as the biggest threat to paganism and polytheism. Their cunning acts have been largely successful (except pockets of asia) for centuries! More of an adversary than other Abrahmic faiths imo.

List of Indian origin Presidents/PM from Guyana:-

- Cheddi Jagan (Pres between 1992-97)

- Bharrat Jagdeo ( Pres between 1999 - 2011) VP now btw.

- Donald Ramotar (Pres between 2011-15)

- Moses Nagamootoo (PM between 2015- 20)

- Irfaan Ali (Pres since Aug 2020)

Btw, in Guyana, many jobs were restricted and segregated for Christians only! Jobs such as a principal, engineer, doctor were reserved for C only.

Non-Christian marriages in Guyana were considered to be illegal till 1946! Only after WW2 was European powers relaxed in colonies.

These were some of many social and economical tricks the Christ administrations in those nations and missionaries used to convert poor and handicapped Hindus.

Judeo - Christian books or media will nearly ever talk about this.

Now, onto Suriname!

Suriname was the least affected by missionaries and their percentage of Hindus and Indians have always been pretty steady. This is probably due to the Dutch Empire not being as conservative as it's fellow Europeans.

Indo-Surinamese people have ancestry from Indian indentured workers brought by the Dutch and the British to the then Dutch colony of Suriname during the 19th and 20th century.

Indians began migrating to Suriname in 1873 from what was then British India as indentured labourers, mostly from the modern-day Indian states of Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Bihar and TN. However, among the immigrants there were also labourers from other parts of South Asia.

The majority religion among the Indo-Surinamese is Hinduism, practiced by 78% of the people, followed by Islam (13%), Christianity (7%).

Attached is a picture of Arya Dewakar temple, which belong to the Arya Samaj, started by Dayananda Saraswati!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dayananda_Saraswati

Census data of Indians and Hindus in :-

Indians in Suriname
1950 31.3%
1960 34.7%
1972 37.6%
2004 27.4%
2012 27.4%

Hindus in Suriname
1900 16.4%
1906 16.8%
1936 21.8%
1946 19.5%
1964 27%
1980 27.4%
2004 19.9%
2012 22.3%

Pretty decent rate of retention.

List of Presidents/PM of Indian origin in Suriname:-

- Fred Ramdat Misier (Pres between 1982-88)

- Errol Alibux (PM between 1983-84)

- Pretaap Radhakishun (PM between 1986-87)

- Ramsewak Shankar (Pres between 1988-90)

- Chan Santokhi (Pres since July 2020 - ?)

#Suriname

Now, onto Fiji!

Indo-Fijians, much like their Caribbean counterparts, were employed by European ships and owners to work in agricultural lands. The first recorded presence of an Indian in Fiji was by Peter Dillon, a sandalwood trader in Fiji, of a lascar (Indian seaman)!

The vast majority of Indo-Fijians trace their origins to the modern-day Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. The major home districts of Fiji's North Indian labourers in the present day Awadh region of Uttar Pradesh and the present-day Bhojpur region of Bihar. https://qz.com/india/290497/the-forgotten-story-of-indias-colonial-slave-workers-who-began-leaving-home-180-years-ago/

Indians from all over India were initially brought to Fiji as indentured labourers to work on sugar cane plantations, for example. Between 1879 and 1916, a total of 60,000 Indians arrived in Fiji. Approximately 25,000 of them returned to India.

From 1900 onwards, some Indians arrived as free immigrants, who were mostly from the provinces of Gujarat, Sindh and Punjab.

A significant minority of these people were also converted to Christianity by missionaries. The 'Methodist church' of Fiji plays major role in politics.

Census data of Indians in :-

Indians in Fiji:-

1921:- 38.56%
1936:- 42.85%
1946:- 46.5%
1956:- 49%
1966:- 51%
1976:- 48.5%
1996:- 43.71%
2007:- 37.47%
2012:- 33.81%!

The coup of 1987 by Sitiveni Rabuka sparked radical demography changes.

Christians think Fijians are their slaves and servants btw. They keep coercing Hindus and Indians to convert to Christianity and have a growing population now in Fiji. https://twitter.com/i/status/1195679555211558913

Religious demography of in Indian diaspora :-

76.7% Hindu
15.9% Muslim
6.1% Christian
0.9% Sikh
0.4% Other

Religious demography of Fijians in total:-

Christian:- 64.4%
Hindu:- 27.9%
Muslim:- 6.3%
Sikh:- 0.3%
Other:- 0.3%

(Census:- 2007 data)

The Fiji Indian diaspora developed with people of Indian origin leaving Fiji, mainly following the racially inspired coups of 1987 and 2000, to settle primarily in Australia, New Zealand, USA,UK and Canada.

Culturally, they are still very similar to mainland Indians.

#Fiji

List of Presidents/PMs of Indian Origin in Fiji:-

- Mahendra Chowdhury (PM between 1999 - 2000)

He got removed within a year in the Fijian coup of 2000.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2000_Fijian_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat

#Fiji

Now, finally, the last but not the least, Mauritius!

Mauritius is one of the most friendly states to both India and ofc still maintains a Hindu-Majority nation.

This island is in the middle of the Indian Ocean, located approx 2400 km off the SE coast of Africa.

Indians came to Mauritius as indentured workers to work largely in sugarcane fields. Mauritius took about 450,000 such labourers, making it the greatest British colony recipient of indentured migrants.

Indentured labourers were mostly brought from the states of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, with a large number of Tamils, Telugus and Marathis amongst them.

Mauritian Indians are some of the richest indenture descendants in the world btw, with a healthy 2/3 of the population.

Census data of Indians in Mauritius :-

Indians:-

1901 69.06%
1911 69.87%
1921 70.52%
1931 68.31%
1944 63.27%
1952 66.91%
1962 66.73%
1972 68.41%

(Census was stopped thereafter)

#Mauritius

Data of Indian Hindus in Mauritius :-

1901 55.62%
1911 54.26%
1921 52.7%
1931 50.37%
1944 47.26%
1952 46.97%
1962 47.55%
1972 49.56%
1983 50.65%
1990 50.63%
2000 49.64%
2011 48.54%

Overall religious data of Mauritius :-

Hindu:- 73.8%
Islam and Others (animism):- 26.2%

Mauritian politics have been historically dominated by the Indo-Mauritian community due to their majority as a whole on the electoral platform. All presidents except Karl Offmann and all prime ministers except for Paul Berenger have been members of the community.

Links to list of PM/Pres of Mauritius:-

Most Hindu celebrations are public holidays. Indian influence is felt in religion, cuisine and arts too.

#Mauritius

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_prime_ministers_of_Mauritius
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_presidents_of_Mauritius

So, this is it!

The thread has been finally completed! A detailed analysis have been made of Indians in Suriname, T&T, Fiji, Mauritius and Guyana!

Hope you all will enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it! 45 tweets have been made, free of cost!

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Thank you for reading. More such threads soon!

Edit:-

Sorry for not including Seychelles in the thread. That will be for another day.