The Indian in society
The Indian in Martinique
The Indians present in Martinique were mostly Tamils, originally from the Madras region, who embarked from the ports of Pondicherry and Karikal. From 1873, recruitment was done mainly from the port of Calcutta, and they came from North West India. Physically, they were very different, did not have the same appearance or the same aptitudes for working the land. In 1878, Haurigot, a French writer, testifies in his book "Excursions aux Antilles Françaises":
They are tall, thin, slender, with light attachments and features of extreme finesse. Their flat hair is long and coarse, and dull black. They are generally gentle and skillful, submissive, even obsequious. They form a distinct caste which mingles little with the other inhabitants and thus constitute a separate element, a new nucleus of the population.
They were called the “Koulis” (pronounced Coolies) in Martinique and “Malabars” in Guadeloupe. The term came from the word "kuli" in the Hindustani language and meaning a plowman hired by the day. This was also the name once given to Hindus, Chinese, and other Asians who enlisted for pay to go and work in a colony. This term has become pejorative over the years. The Indians were not French citizens like the former slaves were. They had a special status. He had a contract of employment, a booklet, and an internal passport.
The employment contract was compulsory for any Indian immigrant and could not exceed 5 years. The booklet was compulsory from the age of 10. It was an identity card and a means of control. The enlisted man had to have it with him at all times under pain of a fine. The internal passport was essential for any adult over 16 years of age, subject to paying tax. Indian immigrants struggled to become full French citizens.
Even Indian children born in the West Indies were not French citizens (no land rights despite the French law of 1851). Although India was an English colony at the time, they were also not a subject of the Queen of England, but remained under the Empire's protection under British law. They had become stateless on their way to the West Indies. Thus, they were not concerned by the law of 1913, which extended the military service to the "four old colonies", nor by the order of mobilization at the beginning of August 1914. The Official Journal of Guadeloupe published in its edition of 25 November 1915 that the "descendants of Hindu immigrants under the empire of the convention of July 1861 must be considered as released from all military obligations."
French citizenship is a struggle of the Guadeloupe politician Henry Sidambarom (1863-1952), militant against the engagement in the French Antilles and for the French citizenship of the Indian immigrant workers, which resulted in the recognition of the French state of these workers in 1922.
Indian hires and children born to Indian parents in Martinique therefore, become French in their own right. Note that the Martinican Indians did not participate in the First World War because they were neither French citizens nor citizens of the British Crown. They had become stateless when they came to the West Indies.
Its integration into a new society
The "history" of Martinique was too recent to be able to speak of a purely Martinican society. The population came from recent immigration, and despite two centuries of shared history between the former Black slaves of African origin and the masters, former European settlers, it was not sufficiently homogeneous to speak of Martinican society. Thus, on the eve of the abolition, the population of Martinique numbered 121,130 inhabitants distributed as follows: 9,542 Whites, 38,729 freedmen and 72,859 slaves.
At the end of slavery and therefore with the arrival of Asian migrants, the population consists of Blacks, Whites, Mulattoes (word used to designate children with a black parent and a white parent), câpres and câpresses (a black grandparent), octavins (a Black great grandparent), etc... The Indians arrive on an island where there is a well-established hierarchy. Their main challenge will be to find themselves in a context where the disparities between blacks and whites are strong, as well as resentments linked to slavery.
Indeed, many Blacks categorically refused to return to the plantations where their ancestors and even their contemporaries had fallen. The will of integration of the Indians was strong, and they had to work to fit into this largely fractured population. Many participants have agreed to change their sounding name to Indian to have a more French name, either partially (for example, Moutoussamy becomes Moutou or Samy) or even completely (abandonment of their original name for a French name).
Their goal was not to cut away from their Indian origins but rather to integrate and not be a second or third rank citizen. They wanted to be the equals of the Blacks who themselves had to find a place between the Whites, the Capers or the Mulattoes. Many Indians formed mixed couples with the blacks present there on their arrival, but even more so after the Second World War.
With the end of Indian immigration at the beginning of the 20th century, Indians were fighting for survival and became a problem for the General Council, which decided to place them in the cleaning of the streets. These sweepers, reinforced every day by other Indians who abandoned the plantations, occupied a function which was despised by many at the time. A proverb even springs from this function: “Tout kouli ni on kout dalo pou'y fè” (Any Indian will one day or another find himself sweeping the sidewalk). He announced the curse, the fate of the Indians.
In society, they were seen as outcasts. Évariste Zéphirin, a writer from Martinique, depicts them as
the last race after dogs, beings just good at living in excrement, begging their bread and sleeping in the gutters
part of Martinican society. They remained on the margins of society, spectators of their lives, with no other choice but to end up as street sweepers.
They used to gather at the Grand Marché of Fort-de-France, where they rubbed shoulders with the merchants as precarious employees and detached from society like them.