_kinderen_met_ij%2c_Bestanddeelnr_928-2623.jpg) Last flight from Suriname atSchiphol Airport; welcoming Indo-Surinamese people at the airport on November 24, 1975 | |
| Total population | |
| 348,443[1][2] | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| Suriname 148,443[1] | |
| Netherlands | 200,000[2] |
| Languages | |
| Sarnámi Hindustáni,Dutch,Sranan Tongo[3] | |
| Religion | |
| Majority:Hinduism Minority:Islam,Christianity,Irreligion and Others | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Indo-Caribbean people,Indian people,Indian diaspora,Indians in the Netherlands,Indo-Caribbean Americans,Indo-Caribbean Canadians,British Indo-Caribbean people,Indo-Guyanese,Indo-Trinidadians and Tobagonians,Indo-Jamaicans,Indo-Fijians,Indo-Mauritians,Indo-South Africans,South Asian diaspora | |
Indo-Surinamese,Indian-Surinamese, orHindustani Surinamese are nationals ofSuriname who trace their ancestry to theIndian subcontinent. Their ancestors wereindentured labourers brought by the Dutch and the British to theDutch colony of Suriname, beginning in 1873 and continuing during theBritish Raj.[4] Per the 2012 Census of Suriname, 148,443 citizens of Suriname are of Indo-Surinamese origin, constituting 27.4% of the total population, making them the largest ethnic group in Suriname on an individual level. They are a subgroup ofAsian Surinamese andIndo-Caribbean people.
Indo-Surinamese are also known locally by theDutch termHindoestanen (Dutch pronunciation:[ˌɦɪnduˈstaːnə(n)]), derived from the wordHindustani, lit., "someone fromHindustan".[5] Hence, when Indians migrated to Suriname they were referred to as Hindustanis, people of Indian origin. Since 1947 the official name for the ethnic group in Suriname has beenHindostanen (“Hindostanis”). As the termHindoestanen was mostly associated with followers of Hinduism,Hindostanen also includes the Muslim and Christian followers among the Indian immigrants in Suriname.[6][7] Nowadays the termHindoestanen andHindostanen are interchangeably used in common Dutch language, and with that the meaning ofHindoestanen came to be more inclusive. They were also known askantraki orgirmityas, terms referring to the agreements that the labourers had to sign regarding the work and the period of stay, and meaning "Someone with an Agreement."[8][9]
During theBritish Raj, many Indians were sent to other British colonies for work. After the abolition of slavery in the Dutch colony of Suriname, the Dutch government signeda treaty with the United Kingdom on the recruitment of contract workers. Indians began migrating to Suriname in 1873 from what was thenBritish India asindentured labourers, Mostly from theNorthern part consisting of modern-dayUttar Pradesh,Bihar andBengal[10] and in smaller numbersHaryana,Punjab andTamil Nadu. However, among the immigrants there were also labourers from other parts of South Asia, such as present-dayAfghanistan,Bangladesh andNepal.
The first ship transporting Indian indentured labourers, theLalla Rookh,[11] arrived inParamaribo. Newly freed slaves in Suriname who witnessed Indian workers disembarking at the harbour, reportedly stated, "Jobo tanbasi", meaning "The white man is still the boss", suggesting that they viewed the development as a continuation of the slave trade. Initially, the transport and living conditions of Indian labourers in Suriname was worse than it had been prior to the abolition of the Dutch slave trade. The British Viceroy of India described it as "a new system of slavery". In 1870s, conditions were improved greatly following the passage of new legislation to protect the Indian workers. The Government of the United Kingdom and the colonial British Government in India feared comparisons to slavery would hurt their reputation, and enacted several legislations to make transportation of Indian workers safer and improve working conditions in plantations. The Dutch government, which had signed the agreement to recruit workers with the British after long and difficult negotiations, also feared jeopardizing the arrangement and meticulously followed the regulations imposed by the British. The Dutch were also concerned that they would be accused of reviving the slave trade.[12]
In order to reduce the mortality rate among workers being transported from India, the colonial British government required the presence of at least one doctor on every ship. As regulations required the doctor to be of European-origin, the regulations also required that one Indian indentured labourer be appointed as a translator and that he would be paid for his services at the end of the journey. Other regulations mandated that every ship have distilling apparatus with a capacity to produce at least 500 litres of drinking water from seawater daily, and also required ships to have a sickbay, male and female nursing staff, adequate food and medicine, and artificial ventilation in the passengers' quarters. Another regulation prohibited any ship transporting Indian indentured labourers from setting sail between the end of March and the beginning of August. Any shipping company that violated the regulations would be prohibited from transporting contact workers in the future. While the mortality rate among slaves working on plantations between 1680 and 1807 averaged 50.9 per thousand people, following the passage of the regulations post-1873, it dropped to 7.1 per thousand among Indian workers.[12]
Indo-Surinamese made up 37.6% of the population in the 1972 Census.[13] Following the independence of Suriname on 25 November 1975, a significant portion of the Indo-Surinamese population migrated to the Netherlands, thereby retaining theirDutch passport.
The majority religion among the Indo-Surinamese isHinduism, practiced by 78% of the people, followed byIslam (13%),Christianity (7%), andJainism. Among theHindus about 63% follow orthodox, traditionalHinduism that they callSanātanī to differentiate themselves from the 15% who belong to the reform movementArya Samaj, started byDayananda Saraswati.[14] Among the Indo-SurinameseMuslims, 75% followSunni Islam while 25% identify as Ahmadiyya, of either theLahore Ahmadiyya Movement for the Propagation of Islam or theAhmadiyya Muslim Community community.
