Chay Lee Chee Nee

Do you know the meaning behind the phrase "Chay Lee Chee Nee"? It is a phrase that changed the course of history for many Indians who were recruited, coerced, or tricked into signing Indentured Contracts. They were seen as a suitable replacement for Chattel Slavery: a population that could be easily controlled and manipulated to work tirelessly in the Sugar Plantations across the Caribbean. Many were promised easy money and a better life, but the truth was far from it. With little to no education or experience beyond their North Indian villages, many were led to believe that they were headed to the promised land. But in reality, many had unknowingly signed away their freedom. The phrase "Chay Lee Chee Nee" represents the beginning of a harsh journey for our ancestors that we must never forget. So join us as we celebrate the resilience and perseverance of the Indo-Caribbean community in Episode 3 of the Peppa Pot: Chay Lee Chee Nee!

 

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Credits

Beats and Music by Noyz

Research by Ryan N. Ramdin

Creative Direction by Sara-Sati Ramprashad

Produced by WESTINDIECO 

 

Resources

Bahadur, G. “Coolie Woman: the Odyssey of Indenture” (The University of Chicago Press: 2014).

Coolies: How Britain Reinvented Slavery. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Cncg3yhWPI&t=310s 

Chatterjee, S. (1997) “Indian women’s lives and labor: the indentureship experience in Trinidad and Guyana, 1845-1917”

Hoefte, R. (1987) “Control and Resistance: Indentured Labor in Suriname”, Nieuwe West-Indische Gids / New West Indian Guide, 61(½). 

Hoefte, R. “Plantation Labour After the Abolition of Slavery: The Case of the Plantation Matienburg (Suriname), 1880-1940” (1987), PhD dissertation, University of Florida.

Kempadoo, K. (2017) ‘“Bound Coolies” and Other Indentured Workers in the Caribbean: Implications for debates about human trafficking and modern slavery,” Anti-Trafficking Review, 9.

Mangru, B. (2013 May 4) “An Overview of Indian Indentureship in Guyana, 1838-1917” https://www.stabroeknews.com/2013/05/04/news/guyana/an-overview-of-indian-indentureship-in-guyana-1838-1917/

Moss K. & Jackson, S. J. (2022) “Coloniality and the Criminal Justice System: Empire and its Legacies in Guyana” Slavery and Abolition: A Journal of Slave and Post-Slave Studies, 43(4).

“New evidence emerges of indentured Indians’ mass graves in Suriname” (January 23, 2013) FirstPost. Available at:

https://www.firstpost.com/world/new-evidence-emerges-of-indentured-indians-mass-graves-in-suriname-599547.html

Ono-George, M. (2020) “Coolies”, Containment, and Resistance: The Indentured System in British Guiana.”

Ramsarran, P. (2008) “The indentured contract and its Impact on Labour Relationship and Community Reconstruction in British Guiana,” International Journal of Criminology and Sociological Theory, 1(2).

Roopnarine, L. (2010) “The Indian Sea Voyage between India and the Caribbean during the Second Half of the Nineteenth Century,” The Journal of Caribbean History, 44(1).  

Sheridan, R. B. “The conditions of the slaves on the sugar plantations of Sir John Gladstone in the colony of Demerara, 1812-49.”

“Unearthing history: Indian workers killed 110 years ago in Suriname” (2013) India TV News. Available at: https://www.indiatvnews.com/news/india/unearthing-history-indian-workers-killed-110-years-ago-suriname-18748.html

Vatuk, V. P. (1965) “Craving for a Chile in the Folksongs of East Indians in British Guiana,” Journal of the Folklore Institute, 2(1). 

Vatuk, V. P. (1964) “Protest Songs of East Indians in British Guiana,” The Journal of American Folklore, 77(305).