Asian Migration and Linguistic Presence

1
Asian Migration and Linguistic Presence

• Parts I II

2
General Aims

• To examine the history of the migration of Asians
  to the Caribbean.
• What did the slaves and the planters do when
  slavery was abolished and how did this affect
  interaction/language?
• How did the arrival of substitute labour from
  (largely) Asia affect the linguistic picture of
  the Caribbean?
• To examine their mark on the linguistic situation
  on countries such as Guyana, Jamaica and Trinidad
  and Tobago, and Suriname (to a lesser extent
  Cuba).

3
Asian Migration -- Background

• British Colonies at the time
• Jamaica, Antigua, Dominica, St. Lucia, Barbados,
  St. Vincent, Grenada, Trinidad, Guyana
• Jamaica, Trinidad, Guyana -- large territories
• Antigua, Dominica, St. Lucia, Barbados, St.
  Vincent, Grenada small territories

4
Asian Migration --Background

• Spanish - Cuba
• Dutch - Suriname
• French - Martinique, Guadeloupe
• Some territories had no immigration
• Haiti, Santo Domingo, Puerto Rico Barbados

5
Asian Migration -- Background

• The Apprenticeship system ended in 1838.
• Mass exodus from the plantations on the larger
  islands (this will help to inform us why
  different colonies had different numbers of
  Asians).
• Labour shortage on larger plantations.

6
Asian Migration - Background

• Marshall (in Beckles and Shepherd 1996) outlines
  three views of what Africans did upon
  emancipation.
• They were so horrified by slavery they left the
  plantations (where they could) and set up small
  villages in the interiors of territories (the
  Jamaican experience being the typical example)

7
Asian Migration - Background

• In general, they stayed on plantations but many
  left eventually when wages/working conditions did
  not prove favorable (typically Barbados)
• Africans so acculturated to forced labour they
  vowed never to do arduous work of any type.

8
Asian Migration - Background

• In Cuba abolition did not trigger a flight of
  labour.
• Many slaves became waged labourers, often in
  similar conditions to the life under slavery in
  barracks, genders typically separated but a
  growing reconstitution of family life around the
  provision grounds.
• Others joined caudrillas or work gangs who
  hired themselves out to plantations and who moved
  depending on the terms of employment.

9
Asian Migration - Background

• Situation seemed to be similar for the French
  colonies. Eric Williams reports the following -
• 1846 1856
• 34,530 (h.c) 32,000 (h.c.) Martinique
• 43,500 (wkrs) 43,794 (wkrs)
• 45,000 (h.c.) 32,000 (h.c.) Guadeloupe
• 51,522 (wkrs) 51,659 (wkrs)

10
Asian Migration --Background

• In Jamaica and Guyana substantial numbers of
  ex-slaves remained as waged workers.
• Hall (1996)
• Golden Grove Estate
• 1838 500 workers
• 1842 400 workers

11
Asian Migration -- Background

• Labour began to leave the plantations (where they
  could) when planters began to charge rent for
  provision grounds and housing and when wages
  became uncompetitive (this is in a context of
  falling sugar prices and general economic
  problems).

12
Asian Migration --background

• In the colonies of Barbados, Antigua and St.
  Kitts so called high density colonies where
  arable land was scarce because of the geography
  and the scope of the estates, labour was
  plentiful.

13
Asian Migration - Background

• The West Indian planters pressed for liberal
  immigration policies to solve their labour
  problems. A number of immigration schemes were
  tried.
• West African
• Phased out in 1865/1870 for grater reliance on
  Indian immigrants
• European (poor English and Scots, French, German,

14
Asian Migration --Background

• Portuguese from Madeira
• North America

15
Asian Migrants Why were they brought to the
Caribbean?

• All other schemes were unproductive. They came
  chiefly to solve labour problems i.e. to satisfy
  the labour shortage on the plantations.
• Planters required cheap consistent labour. The
  indenture system was a purely economic
  undertaking, and no attention was paid to the
  possible implications of introducing one more
  ethnic component into the West Indies (Black et
  al 197653)

16
Asian MigrantsWho came from where?

• Two main Asian groups came to the Caribbean.
• Chinese
• Indians
• Asians, by far, dominated numerically.

17
Map of Asia
18
Asian Migration Who came from Where?

• As early as 1806 efforts were made to import
  people from Hong Kong (China) , Singapore
  (Malaysia) and Calcutta (India) to settle as
  peasant farmers and to replace Negro domestic
  slaves in Trinidad.

19
Asian Migration -- China

• Chinese were recruited mainly from Canton. They
  were generally Hakka/Cantonese
• After the mid 19th Century a large number came to
  the West Indies as contract labourers, but they
  tended to drift into towns, where they acted as
  brokers and distributors of food and small
  shopkeepers.

20
Asian Migration -- China

• Between 1853 and 1879, British Guiana imported
  more than 14,000 Chinese workers, with a few
  going to some of the other colonies
• The Chinese languages brought to the Caribbean
  were
• Cantonese
• Mandarin?? (to the extent that standard speakers
  migrated to the West Indies)

21
Asian Migration -- India

• In July 1844 the British government gave
  permission for West Indian colonies to import
  labour from India chiefly at their own expense
  (minor imperial assistance).
• Calcutta and Madras were designated as ports of
  embarkation in India.

22
Asian Migration -- India

• Recruiting agents were paid bounties (per head).
  
• Indians were recruited from the cities and the
  depressed areas of the Granges Valley.
• In 1846 the first shipload of 226 Indians arrived
  in Trinidad from Calcutta.

23
Asian Migration India China

• According to the rules, they(Indians) were to be
• Allotted to estates in parties of 20-25 or 50
  under a headman or sidar.
• Given medical care, housing, provision grounds,
  monthly food rations, yearly allotments of
  clothing and free return passage after their
  contracts expired.

24
Asian Migration India China

• Contracts were for five years nine hours per
  day six days per week
• Immigrants were bound to reside on the
  plantations which indentured them.
• Land grants (among other more dishonorable
  tactics) were used to induce immigrants to remain
  on plantations after their contracts ended

25
Asian Migration -- India

• The Indian indentureship system was abolished
  in1917.
• Between 1838 and 1917, nearly half a million East
  Indians (from British India) came to work on the
  British West Indian sugar plantations, the
  majority going to the new sugar producers with
  fertile lands. Trinidad imported 145,000
  Jamaica, 21,500 Grenada, 2,570 St. Vincent,
  1,820 and St. Lucia, 1,550.

26
Asian Migration contd

• Chinese were the main immigrants to Cuba. By
  1877 Cuba had 54,000 Chinese. (Indentureship in
  Cuba abolished in 1921)
• Jamaica
• 37, 000 Indians up to 1921, 4, 500 Chinese up to
  1946)
• Guyana 1838 1900
• 165,000 Indians, 13,000 Chinese, 12,000
  Portuguese

27
Asian Migration contd

• Guadeloupe
• Indians 42,500, Africans 6,500, Chinese 500,
  Madeira, 413, Japanese 500
• Suriname
• 22,000 Javanese (1890- 1939). By 1971 the
  Surinamese Javanese community numbered 60,000,
  comprising 16 of the population of the colony.
  34,000 Indians (1873-1916)

28
Asian Migration contd

• Trinidad (1845-1916)
• 145,000 Indians, 4,000 Chinese

29
Indian languages which were brought to the
Caribbean

• Bhojpuri speakers were not the first Indian
  indentured labourers to be brought to the
  Caribbean. For the first 15 years of organized
  emigration most recruits came from Chhota
  Nagpur, the Calcutta hinerland and Calcutta
  itself.
• These people were native speakers of Bengali,
  Oraon, Mundari and Santali and Tamil (recruits
  brought from the Port in Madras)

30
Indian languages contd

• Of these first language only Tamil took root in
  tiny pockets for almost a century in Trinidad.
• By 1860 recruiting concentrated on Bihar where
  regional dialects of Bhojpuri, Maithili and Maghi
  were spoken and later on Uttar Pradash where
  Western Bhojpuri and the Eastern Hindi dialects,
  mainly Avadhi were found.

31
Indian languages contd

• Some labourers also came from further west and
  spoke dialects of Western Hindi and Braj.
• Note---Though all labourers were Hindi speakers
  they actually spoke geographical varieties which
  were very different from each other and since
  labourers were uneducated they did not know
  Standard Hindi or Urdu.

32
Linguistic impact of Asian Migration

• Introduction of new languages into the language
  mosaic which already existed in the Caribbean.
• LINGUISTIC IMPACT OF INDIAN MIGRATION
• For Indians there were new patterns of language
  contact, both internal and external, resulting in
  many linguistic changes.

33
Linguistic impact of Indian Migration contd

• There was increased interaction among speakers of
  the different geographical dialects.
• In the new environment (Caribbean) they needed
  linguistic unity.
• This led to dialect levelling and dialect mixing.

34
Linguistic impact of Indian Migration contd

• There were external contacts with Indigenous,
  European and Creole languages which caused large
  scale borrowing and some structural changes.
• Vertovec (1996) provides an 1855 comment when
  these people meet in Trinidad it strikes one as
  somewhat strange that they may have to point to
  water and rice and ask each other what they call
  it in their language.

35
Linguistic impact of Indian migration contd

• For Indians the development of a new varieties
  of Hindi (Overseas Hindi) distinct from any form
  of Hindi in India. Each developed under similar
  social and historical conditions yet have been
  maintained in varying degrees.

36
Overseas Hindi

• Among the places where what is referred to as
  Overseas Hindi developed were Guyana, Trinidad
  and Suriname.

37
Guyanese Bhojpuri

• Indians emigrated form 1838 1916 (78 years).
• Today Guyanese Bhojpuri is used only in a very
  limited way by members of the oldest generations
  in rural areas.

38
Guyanese Bhojpuri contd

• Rural men and women over 60 ---bilingual in GB
  and Creole/English
• Between 35 and 59 years ---passive bilinguals
• Under 35 monolingual in Creole/English
• GB has very limited use in the home but is used
  in some folksongs.

39
Trinidad Bhojpuri

• Indians emigrated between 1845 and 1916.
• Spoken by old, usually rural Indians. It has been
  displaced by Trinidad English Creole.
• NBStandard Hindi is an important ethnic language
  in Trinidad today.

40
Sarnami Hindi/Sarnami Hindustani/Sarnami

• Between 1873 and 1916 some 34,000 Indian
  labourers left North India for Suriname two
  thirds of which settled there (Damssteegt
  2002249).
• In 1980s there were approximately 130,000
  speakers (Damsteegt 2002251).

41
Sarnami Hindi/Sarnami Hindustani/Sarnami contd

• Although there is widespread bilingualism there
  has not been a significant shit to Sranan (the
  local Creole) or Dutch (the official language).
• Sarnami Hindi is the only variety of Overseas
  Hindi which has been recognized as a language in
  its own rights but is not extensively used
  outside informal contexts.

42
Social factors and the loss of Asian vernaculars
in most Cbbean Terr.

• All instances of language death are the result of
  language shift.
• Investigating the processes leading to language
  death therefore means studying language shift
  situations.

43
Social factors and language losscontd

• With regard to the phenomenon of language death
  two levels are involved.
• The environment political, historical, economic
  and linguistic realities.
• The speech community patters of language use and
  attitudes

44
Social factors and language loss contd.

• Concerning the first level the environment
  factors such as status, demography, institutional
  support (education and employment), time and
  space, urbanization, occupation, contact with
  other groups, pragmatics, access to information,
  entertainment and the arts, cultural (dis)
  similarity are relevant.
• These influence the second level speech
  community (patters of language use and attitude)

45
Social factors and language losscontd.

• In terms of causal relations then, changes within
  the speech community very often have to be
  understood as reactions towards environmental
  changes.
• Minority languages are the ones threatened by
  extinction in language shift situations.

46
Social factors and language losscontd

• The minority language has to be valued highly by
  the members of a speech community in order for it
  to survive a generally hostile environment.
• Patterns of language choice reflect language
  attitudes.

47
Social factors and language losscontd

• In cases of language shift one has to investigate
  underlying changes in attitude towards the
  languages involved, that is the abandoned
  language and the target language. Additionally
  investigations have to be made into

48
Social factors and language loss contd

• Internal pressure on minority languages such as
  limited communication yield caused by restricted
  distribution of the language.
• External pressures on minority languages such as
  stigmatization, exclusion from education and
  political participation and economic deprivation.

49
Social factors and language losscontd

• The actual process of abandoning a language may
  be observed in a decrease in
• Number of speakers
• Functional domains
• Competence

50
Social factors affecting language maintenance and
shift

• Asian vernaculars in general have had no
  practical value -- they have never been (widely)
  used in broadcasting, newspapers, information
  distribution or entertainment in the form of
  films, education, employment etc. European
  varieties are used for these purposes.

51
Social factors contd

• Pragmatic aspects
• Concerns how widely the language is used and the
  benefits gained by its use.
• In Guyana and Trinidad OH is dying because the
  oldest generation of speakers did not regard the
  language as having practical value, so it was not
  transmitted. Languages have practical value in
  areas such as education, employment, wider
  communication, access to information,
  entertainment etc. Situation is similar for the
  Chinese.

52
Social factors contd

• Urbanization and Occupation
• Language shift usually occurs more readily in
  urban areas because of the increased contact.
  People usually migrate to urban areas in search
  of greater employment opportunities.
• Language shift from Overseas Hindi in Trinidad
  and Guyana is more extensive in urban areas. (In
  general, urbanization does not necessarily lead
  to widespread language shift, but when the shift
  begins, it may occur more rapidly among the urban
  population.

53
Social factors contd

• Urbanization and Occupation contd
• Maintenance of occupation promotes language
  maintenance. Mohan and Zabor (1986315) report a
  close relationship between having been a labourer
  on the sugar estates and high competence in
  Trinidad Bhojpuri.
• Two factors which have conditioned the near loss
  Trinidad and Guyanese Bhojpuri therefore are the
  shift in occupation and urbanization.

54
Social factors contd

• Demography
• Chinese were not a numerically dominant group
  (except in Cuba). Numerically non-dominant
  groups are usually under pressure to conform.

55
Social factors affecting language maintenance and
shift

• Size of the group is sometimes an ambivalent
  factor. The expectation is that the large size
  of the Indian communities would have encouraged
  language maintenance. In terms of actual numbers
  the country with the smallest Indian population,
  Suriname has one of the thriving varieties of
  overseas Hindi.

56
Social factors contd

• Time and space can also be an ambivalent factor.
  Longer history of migration is usually a factor
  in language maintenance but Suriname which had
  the shortest years of Indian migration is the
  only speech community with OH thriving.
• Trinidad (71years), Guyana (78 years) Suriname
  (43years).

57
Social factors contd

• Contact with other groups.
• Related to urbanization and occupationless
  contact, the greater the chance of maintenance.
  Indians working and living in sugar estates in
  the rural areas are usually isolated from other
  groups (Guyana).

58
Social factors contd

• Education and Employment
• European languages served as official in
  Caribbean territories before and after
  independence. In Trinidad and Guyana, OH has no
  official place in education and employment.
• Gambhir (19813) the major reason for the shift
  from OH has been the importance of learning
  English for success in education, for economic
  gain and for political power.

59
Social factors contd

• Wider communication
• No Asian vernaculars have been useful for
  intergroup communication. The advantage of having
  another language for wider communication within a
  country may be an important factor in language
  shift. (In Suriname however, Sranan is the lingua
  franca but there has been no shift from Sarnami
  --ethnicity issues)