Rijksmuseum display marks 150 years since Indian indentured labourers first arrived in Suriname

Indian indentured workers
On 5 June 2023 it was exactly 150 years since the Lalla Rookh docked in Suriname carrying the first indentured labourers from India. It was just weeks before the end of the Dutch state-run scheme that obliged former enslaved people to continue working for plantation owners for a further ten years after the abolition of slavery. Plantation owners in the country were urgently searching for a new workforce. The Indian migrants (known as ‘Hindustanis’ in Suriname) were hoping that their five-year contract would enable them to liberate their family back home from famine. Contrary to what was promised, life in Suriname also consisted of poverty, exploitation and violence.

Although employers were mainly interested in finding fit male labourers, women were also necessary for maintaining a stable community. Despite a mandatory quota for the number of women, there was always an imbalance between the sexes. This unequal relationship led to major social issues, but also offered opportunities to the women.

In the Rijksmuseum
The objects on display include photographs and journals produced by Théodore van Lelyveld (1867-1957) and Hendrik Doijer (1863-1925), two amateur photographers working for the Dutch government. They collected and took photographs that captured the lives of members of the Indian community in Suriname. The images include scenes from the ‘immigrant’s depot’, where indentured labourers were accommodated after arrival. One particularly notable photograph shows a group of indentured labourers sleeping on the deck of a ship, with one woman looking directly into the lens with a watchful eye – wary of the dangers she would face on the voyage. Multiple researchers point to the lax attitude to the protection of women aboard such ships.

The display also features a significant work on loan from the Dutch Sarnámi Institute: a mohar málá, or coin necklace. The relatively small numbers of females, coupled with a preference for marrying within the community, put Indian women in a strong bargaining position. The necklace offers an insight into the position of women and represents their financial and social capital: the more jewellery and coins a woman owned, the more respect she could elicit.