Making of the word ‘coolie’

THE EDITOR: Many words are used in this country without the true understanding of their meanings. Among these are four commonly used in a derogatory way in Trinidad and Tobago; Coolie, Chamar, Madras and Rawan. The term “Coolie” comes to us from India via the English who learned the word from India’s caste systems. Arriving c 1700-1500 BCE, the European/Persian Aryans instituted a hierarchial socio-political and socio-economic system referred to as the caste system. At the bottom of this system lay India’s indigenous populations of African, Mongol and Australoid peoples who were termed Vaishas, Sudras/Shurdras and Candalas: the first two being lower caste whilst the last were outcasts. In East Bengal, from which almost 90 percent of the indentured labourers came, the caste system was termed “Kulinism” and the lower caste labourers and workers called Kulis from which we get the present Coolie. The English would popularise this term using it to refer to all Indians who served.

The African, with his colonial education, would adopt this term for Indians, which many understood as offensive. It was during the years of conflict in post emancipation Trinidad and Guyana that Africans would give this term a more odious meaning. Today the word Coolie carries with it a greater derogatory stench than it did when the British used it. The term Chamar, popular in Indo-Trinidadian English vernacular, comes to us from East Bengal where it was used to refer to the very dark skinned lower caste members. Perhaps stemming from the Egyptian “Km” or Hebrew “Ham” or “Cham,” the etymology of the term is unclear but it is based on blackness, a trait frowned upon by Northern Indians — Hindu and Muslims alike. As stated before, because most of the indentured Indians came through Calcutta, having originated in parts of the Bengal, the term survived as part of the cultural heritage of many Indians especially so because many indentured also came from south India, which is dominated by people with very dark complexions. Within the Indian community, Chamar, as does Coolie, carries with it a negative connotation and is reserved particularly for very dark and especially poor Indians. “Madras Indian” has become the appendage for the very dark Indians in Trinidad and Tobago. This stems from the fact that dark skinned Indians dominate south India and thus one may have supposed that all dark Indians came from the south through the port of Madras. The English thus used the name Madras to differentiate between Northern and Southern Indians because of this perceived colour affinity and Africans and Indians adopted this labelling. The Kol and Santoal of Bengal are as black as any south Indian and in fact look more African than most southern Indians and Caribbean “douglas.”

Indeed, Madras merely acted as a point of departure meaning that Indians come from many regions and carried many hues. Many blue and green eyed Indian Vaishas, Sudras and Untouchables came through Madras to become the Mahabirs and Maharajs of the Indo-Caribbean Diaspora. Finally we have the term Rawan, which many Indians have told me refers to negative qualities of people rather than any particular group. Though this is partly true, in Trinidad and Tobago Rawan is usually used in reference to Africans as I discovered first hand. The first time we encounter Rawan is in the Ramayana where in the Tulsidas and Valmiki versions he, a black monkey, kidnaps the virtuous Sita who is later rescued by the fair skinned Lord Rama. Historically the Rawan in Northern Indian interpretations referred to very dark Indians who by virtue of their bad karma had a filthy Dharma and consequently a low Varna in the caste system, thus religion provided the explanation for the social reality. Historically too many Northern Indian women would run away to the south to escape the sanctioned abuse of the Manu Smirti and concepts such as Sati (widow burning) and Bhitrini (religious sanctioned prostitution).

The African slave trade to India produced large communities of Maroons in the forest of Gir to which many fair Indian maidens fled. It was out of this historical circumstance that the southern versions of the Ramayana tells of Sita seeking out Rawan but more importantly the underlying suggesting that Rawan, the Black Monkey, was going to steal your fair skinned Indian woman. This was made even worse as most of our indentured Indians came from the north and many of the Indian women who came in the early period were prostitutes and many a wife did leave their Indian husband for a well-to-do free African. Thus the male Indian community could connect with the Lord Rama who himself was in exile from his home. Thus by virtue of historical circumstance the African man in particular was viewed as the Rawan and so he remains today in staunch Hindu communities. For further information consult The Blacks of Bengal: A Native’s Perspective by Horen Tudu,  Dalit: The Black Untouchables of India by V T Rajshekar, or Google Search: “Without Malice: The Truth About India.”

NSAKA NBEKE SESEPKEKIU
UWI St Augustine