Bibee Zuhoorun: Women’s voices in the Indian indenture trade

 Bibee Zuhoorun’s testimony paints a picture of deception, ill-treatment and injustice.

Bibee Zuhoorun was one of 13 lakh Indian labourers recruited in Caribbean and Indian Ocean sugar plantations after slave labour was abolished in the British Empire. She migrated to Mauritius in the 1830s and on her return to India, testified in an official inquiry committee set up to investigate transgressions in the Indian indenture trade.

As the earliest voice of female indentured labourers, Zuhoorun’s testimony offers a rare insight into early migration – painting a story of deception, ill-treatment and injustice.

Report of the Calcutta Committee of Inquiry, 1839, containing Zuhoorun’s testimony 

In Calcutta, she was persuaded by a labour-recruiter to travel to Mauritius and work as a servant. After her departure, however, she realised she had been deceived: “I got no clothes given to me, nor blankets, nor brass pots”. Nor did she receive the quality of wages, or the six-month wage advance that the recruiter had promised.

In Mauritius, she spoke of the injustice meted out to fellow labourers – a story of overworked men subjected to ill-treatment and corporal punishment. Labourers were often confined within plantations and denied wages if they refused to work. She felt stuck in a foreign land with no means of returning to her homeland, urging “every one would leave if there was a land journey; not one would advise any of their friends to go there”.

‘Indian huts on a sugar plantation, Plain William near Port Louis’ c. 1853. Photographer: Frederick Fiebig. British Library Photo 250(25) Images Online

Zuhoorun’s testimony attested to the gendered experience of indentured migrants. While men tended to cultivate and process sugar, women often worked in the households of plantation-owners. Zuhoorun testified to “making salt, climbing tamarind trees to pick them, sweeping the house, and cutting grass for cattle”. She even learnt French to communicate with her French “master”.

Her testimony also highlighted instances of sexual harassment and the expectation of sexual favours – a common occurrence in plantations. Zuhoorun complained that her plantation-owner Dr Boileau asked her to be his mistress.

She refused, saying “I have degraded myself by going on board ship; I would not further degrade myself’’. Her attempts to complain to the police were met with a three-month stint at a house of correction, and then a return to Boileau’s house, where she was beaten and harassed further. Eventually, she decided to return to India before the end of her five-year contract, even if it meant not receiving any wages for her 2.5 years of service.

Zuhoorun’s bitterness towards the indenture system is evident in her testimony. She urged: “I would not return to Mauritius on any account; it is a country of slaves; […] I would rather beg my bread here”.

Overseas migration had also damaged her social position. She implored, “even my mother will not drink water from my hand or eat with me”; a sign of social ostracization tied to a taboo on crossing the Indian Ocean.

Indian and Chinese Indentured Labourers in British Guiana. Image from Edward Jenkins, The Coolie, His Rights and Wrongs (1871) from Wikimedia commons

Zuhoorun’s story is not just one of tragedy, injustice and violence, but also strength and resilience. She not only resisted Boileau’s advances and ended her contract early, but even complained to his wife, sacrificing her livelihood at the same time.

Although relegated to the footnotes of history, her testimony remains the earliest account of a female indentured migrant, characterised by its strength, detail and passionate criticism of the indenture system.

Further reading:

Read the testimonies of Zuhoorun and other indentured migrants in Letter from Secretary to Government of India to Committee on Exportation of Hill Coolies: Report of Committee and Evidence. Parliamentary Papers (House of Commons) 1841, Vol. 16, No. 45. 

Discover the life stories of indentured labourers -

‘Becoming Coolies’ - Life Stories and From the Archive

The Indentured Archipelago 

Marina Carter, Voices from Indenture: Experiences of Indian Migrants in the British Empire (London; New York: Leicester University Press, 1996).

Marina Carter, Servants, Sirdars, and Settlers: Indians in Mauritius, 1834-1874 (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1995).

Gaiutra Bahadur, Coolie Woman: The Odyssey of Indenture (Chicago, Illinois: University of Chicago Press, 2013).

(Source: Untold Lives Blog)

Makar Sankranti, the harvest festival

This is Sid's third Makar Sankranti. This is the festival which marks the shift of the sun into ever-lengthening days. Every year it falls on January 14, and very rarely on January 15.

We Hindus dedicate this to the Sun God and it also marks the six months of auspicious period known as Uttaarayana. Yes, it's the same period for which Bhishma in Mahabharata waited to die, as there is a belief that the gates of the heaven open during Uttarayana.

Makara Sankranti is believed to be a time for peace and prosperity. The day is regarded as important for spiritual practices and accordingly people take a holy dip in rivers, especially Ganga, Yamuna, Godavari, Krishna and Cauvery. The bathing in holy rivers is believed to wash away sins.

This is the Suggi or harvest festival for our farmers in Karnataka. On this auspicious day, girls wear new clothes to visit near and dear ones with a Sankranti offering in a plate and exchange the same with other families. This ritual is called "Ellu Birodhu".

The plate normally contains "Ellu" (white sesame seeds) mixed with fried groundnuts, neatly cut dry coconut and fine cut bella (jaggery). The mixture is called "Ellu-Bella". The plate also contains sugar candy moulds (Sakkare Acchu) with a piece of sugarcane.

We eat sesame and jaggery during this festival because the festival marks the arrival of sunny days. Our bodies require moisture and sesame seeds and peanuts which are rich in oil content act as moisturizers.

There is a saying in Kannada "ellu bella thindu olle maathadi" that translates to 'eat the mixture of sesame seeds and jaggery and speak only good.'

This festival signifies the harvest of the season, since sugarcane is predominant in these parts. Ellu Bella, Ellu Unde, bananas, sugarcane, red berries, haldi and kumkum and small gift items useful in everyday lives are often exchanged among women in Karnataka.

In some parts of Karnataka, a newly married woman is required to give away bananas for five years to married women (muthaidhe/sumangali) from the first year of her marriage and increase the number of bananas in multiples of five.

There is also a tradition among some households giving away red berries "Yalchi Kai" with the above.

We prepare Sihi (sweet) and Khara (spicy) Pongal as a naivedyam, besides vada and akki (rice) payasa. It was indeed fun to watch little Sid enjoying Khara Pongal for the first time, though he has tasted sweet pongal several times earlier.  

In north Karnataka, kite flying with community members is a tradition.

Drawing rangoli in groups is another popular event among women during Sankranti.

An important ritual is display of cows and bulls in colourful costumes in an open field. Cows are decorated for the occasion and taken on a procession. They are also made to cross a fire. This ritual is common in rural Karnataka and is called "Kichchu Haayisuvudu."

Happy Makar Sankranti to all!