Prof. Arnold Thomas is a retired diplomat based at the embassy of the organisation of the Eastern Caribbean States at Brussels. He has worked for several years at the Caribbean Community Secretariat at Georgetown, Guyana. He is also the founding member of St. Vincent and Grenadines SVG Indian Heritage Foundation. In the panel discussion conducted by the Global Research Forum on Diaspora and Transnationalism on “Indian Diaspora during COVID-19: Coping Strategies and Future Prospects” held on 14th May, Prof. Thomas discussed the history of Indian diaspora in St. Vincent and how the Indian diaspora has been able to cope with the pandemic.
According to Prof. Thomas, between the years 1861 to 1880, there were around 2475 Indians that were brought to St. Vincent through ships. They enjoyed working in the island and many had intended not to go back to India. However, conditions changed drastically and many Indians marched barefooted in order to protest against their exploitation. As a result, it triggered the end of the‘indentured labour system’ (a system where the employee is bound by a signed or forced contract to work without pay for the owner for a given period of time) in St. Vincent. The Indian population further declined during 1882 to 1885 as half of the Indians went back. In addition to the protest march, the Hurricane of 1898 and the volcanic eruption of 1902 adversely affected the Indian population in St.Vincent.
After World War II, many of the remaining Indians joined Windrush and most of the Indian villages became de-populated. Around 10% of Indians are left today out of the total population of 110 thousand of Indians in St. Vincent. Interestingly, the majority of the Indian population have totally integrated and adopted Christianity as a means of survival.
Prof. Thomas further explained that a lot Indian descendants work on cruise ships as seafarers and due to COVID-19 they got stuck and the government faced problems bringing them back to St.Vincent. Since 23rd March, airports and seaports have been closed enabling implementation of rigid regulations. The country had 17 cases of COVID despite such early adoption of mechanisms. However, almost all got cured and fortunately there were no deaths. “We are not doing too badly compared with othercountries”, says Prof. Thomas. The country also received grants from organizations like the World Bank to check measures and protect the island of St.Vincent.
Mohsina Noorien, The writer is an MPhil graduate from Centre for West Asian Studies, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi, India. Her areas of interest include identity politics, conflict and security, foreign policy, bilateral relations, diplomacy and refugee crisis. Twitter handle: @MohsinaNoorien.