Indo-Trinidadian people
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| (470,518 ) | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| Trinidad and Tobago · United States · United Kingdom · Canada | |
| Languages | |
| English · Trinidadian Hindustani | |
| Religion | |
| Hinduism • Islam • Christianity | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
|
Indo-Caribbean Indo-Caribbean American British Indo-Caribbean people Indo-Guyanese Indo-Surinamese Indo-Jamaican Indo-Aryan peoples, Dravidian people |
Indo-Trinidadian and Tobagonian (shortened as Indo-Trinbagonian) are nationals of Trinidad and Tobago of Indian heritage or descent. They are usually categorized with multiple identities, with a more localized prioritized ethnic orientation, for example, Bhojpuri people, Awadhi people, Rajasthani people, Malvi people, Himachali people in addition to further tribal, village, or religious identities.
In his book Perspectives on the Caribbean: A Reader In Culture, History, and Representation, Philip W. Scher cites figures by Steven Vertovec, Professor of Anthropology: of 94,135 Indian immigrants to Trinidad, between 1874 and 1917, 50.7 percent were from the NW/United Provinces (an area, which today, is largely encompassed by Uttar Pradesh), 24.4 percent hailed from the historic region of Oudh (Awadh), 13.5 percent were from Bihar, and lesser numbers from various other states and regions of the Indian Subcontinent, such as Punjab, West Bengal, and South India primarily Madras (Chennai)] (as cited in Vertovec, 1992). Out of 134,118 indentured laborers from India, 5,000 distinguished themselves as "Madrasi" from the port of Madras and the immigrants from Calcutta as "Kalkatiyas".
Indo-Trinidadian and Tobagonians has now become interchangeable with Indians or West Indians. These were people who were escaping poverty in India and seeking employment offered by the British for jobs either as indentured labourers, workers or educated servicemen, primarily, between 1845 and 1917.
The demand for Indian indentured labourers increased dramatically after the abolition of slavery in 1834. They were sent, sometimes in large numbers, to plantation colonies producing high value crops such as sugar in Africa and the Caribbean. In his book Finding a Place, author, journalist, editor, and academic Kris Rampersad challenges and rejects the notion of East Indians to describe people in Indian heritage in the Caribbean and traces their migration and adaptation from hyphenated isolation inherent in the description Indo-Trinidadian or Indo-Caribbean for the unhyphenated integration into their societies as Indo-Trinidadian and Indo-Caribbean that embraces both their ancestral and their national identities.
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