Leela Gujadhur Sarup                                                                PRESIDENT'S NOTE

This Society has been created for the purpose of promoting and preserving the history of Indian Emigrants, mainly of the British Colonial era. Our aim is to pay homage to the hundreds of thousands of the Indian Indentured Labourers who left their motherland, from 1834 to 1920.

For a good part of India’s majestic history reporting, in books and in classroom teachings, little has been highlighted of the significance of Indian Indentureship in the context of global history and in the overall outcome and shaping of the world we know today. 

Millions of descendents of Indian Indentured forefathers were born in countries around the world, with Indian heritage and culture, but with neither the true knowledge of the pain and suffering that came before them nor the true account of the history of Indian Indentureship that drove the economic engines of the Colonial Empires both pre and post the abolishment of slavery in 1833. But thanks to this new society, a rightful positioning of the “significance” of the historical accounts will now be brought forward in Indian history teaching and literature, and made available for all Diasporas (and the world) to know about - the truth behind Indian Indentureship. 

I, as the President of this Society  about me  which we now fondly call GIDHS, have been compiling primary records on the Colonial Emigration since 1993. For this, I had to sit and copy records in the West Bengal State Archives, the National Library at Kolkata, the National Archives of India at New Delhi and the Maharashtra State Archives at Mumbai. As of 2011, it is now 18 years since I have been sitting long hours at the Archives. My original curiosity has turned into a frenzy of passion, bordering on madness. I have published fourteen voluminous books on Indentured Labour that are categorised in three sections:

(1) The Proceedings. These recorded events pertaining to the system of recruiting, its malpractices that involved kidnapping, false promises, coercion, difficulties in recruitment and so on. These incidents were discussed, reports were compiled, contributing to the Colonial Emigation Acts

(2) Colonial Emigration Acts were legislated and based on reports of the Proceeding. The Acts enforced terms, rules and regulations that permitted Indians to be shipped out of the country and these became law. The Acts demanded regular reports which were submitted vide in the third part.

(3) The Annual Reports to British and Foreign Colonies from the Port of Calcutta / Madras / Bombay and later Karachi.  These records have been complied haphazardly. In the initial stages, that is from 1842 to 1850, details and names of ships, Emigration Agents, Depôts, etc were not recorded. Gradually, the annual reports which were complied within ten pages were presented in 40 to 60 pages. Again, after 1912, the records diminished in number of pages and finally by 1932, they were in repeated in a  format of a not more than10 pages

Going through the records of the Colonial Emigration, one cannot help but worship those brave men and women who emigrated. Incidentally, one of our dreams, the Kolkata Memorial, a project I have pursued since 2005, culminated on 11th January 2011 on the historical  place from where the emigrants last touched the soil of their motherland. There cannot be a more befitting tribute!

The vision of GIDHS will embrace exciting missions going forward, full of dynamic activities that would open up the world of opportunities for all Global Diasporas to participate and preserve their history.  These activities will include everything from  setting up a Global Institute of Indian Indentured Research; a Museum for Global Indian Indentured Artifacts and Education, Memorials in Chennai and Mumbai, and other Diaspora Countries; GIDHS chapters in post-colonial and colony countries; a global searchable database for all Diaspora to trace their roots; endorsements and support of development initiatives to help address poverty in the stricken areas of Bihar / Uttar Pradesh. 

On this exciting moment, I invite you to please take the time to browse our site and learn about Indian Indentured history. I also encourage you to join our organization, either as a charter member or non-charter (facebook), and for you to consider getting involved in this exciting initiative going forward. Thanking you!

GIDHS President and Founder Leela Gujadhur Sarup – presenting a copy of "Colonial Emigration Acts 1837-1932 Indentured Labour – Slavery to Salvation" to His Excellency Shri A. P. J. Abdul Kalam – President of India – Hyderabad, 9th January 2006.

GIDHS President and Founder Leela Gujadhur Sarup – Launch of "Colonial Emigration Acts 1837-1932 – Indentured Labour – Slavery to Salvation" By Rao Inderjit Singh, State Minister of Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs, at Hyderabad. 9th January 2006

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Malay Mishra Kolkata, erstwhile Calcutta, the jewel on the British crown, had been witness to passages of destiny. From her docks ships had sailed out from the 1830s for about a hundred years carrying men and women drawn from far flung corners of the land to distant horizons. In search of a lucrative future and with a thousand dreams in their scantily clad minds they had boarded the vessels with their culture and traditions, their value systems and marginal life styles intact. Their aspirations, passing through the middlemen and putting them solidly anchored into the indentured system, had however not taken long in breaking against the crashing of a million waves on the shores of time. ....read more...

Sayantan Chakravarty The Kolkata Memorial belongs to these millions now whose forefathers left with the song of the seas on their lips, and the winds of change on their sail. Across thousands of miles of blue and green waters, those winds took them away to toil with nothing less than blood, sweat and tears. They toiled in order to fatten the swelling purses of an Empire in whose global expanse the sun never set. They toiled such that their progeny could see a better tomorrow. read more...