![]() Nonetheless, by the 1920s, Indians began entering the learned professions, especially law and medicine, in substantial numbers, and the trend toward increasing participation in leadership roles in mainstream society continued until the mid-sixties. It was entrenched, however, by the determination of the British planters to keep their Indian workers on their estates and prevent them from acquiring an education and mainstream occupations. The general tendency of Indian families and the Indo-Guyanese community generally is to maintain a distinctive and separate identity clearly derived from their attachment to Indian culture. It is also quite common for adults to continue in the family business or farm and to seek to pass it on to yet another generation. Since parents pass their beliefs on to their children and subsequently to their grandchildren, family values have remained constant, and the possibility of family and personality conflicts have been significantly lessened. This reinforces the transfer of values and norms, as most personality theorists agree that the significant personality developments occur before the age of eight. Very often older family members who are no longer gainfully employed are responsible for looking after pre-schoolers. Their knowledge is seen as relevant to current situations since culturally the way of life has changed very little through the generations. The Indian family in Guyana is a very close-knit band of extended lineage, which includes two, three, and often four generations living in close proximity. In Trinidad, Indians eventually constituted about 45 per cent of the population, and in British Guyana they were the majority. With time, distinctive Indo-Caribbean communities were established-especially in Trinidad and British Guyana, where the populations were large enough to form a separate identity and community. Many were granted an allotment of land that they could cultivate in addition to their estate work. Though their time in the West Indies was meant to be limited by the contract, Indians who had completed their obligation were allowed to commute their return passages into cash. They went as indentured labourers, an alternative work force for the sugar plantations after the abolition of slavery in the British Empire. Bruce Ally describes the changes in situation and experience of recent immigrants from Guyana.īeginning in 1838 more than 600,000 Indians migrated to the Caribbean, including approximately 238,000 to British Guyana. In the complex mix of communities that make up the South Asian diaspora in Ontario, the unique historical and cultural experience of Indo-Caribbeans separates them as a particularly distinct group. ![]() © 1991 Multicultural History Society of Ontario Indo-Caribbean Life in Guyana and Toronto ![]()
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