Due to deteriorating socioeconomic conditions in
British India, more than 36,000 Indians came to
British Jamaica as
indentured labourers under the Indian indenture system between 1845 and 1917, mostly from
Bhojpur and
Awadh in the
Hindi Belt as well as other parts of
North India. A significant minority were from
South India. Around two-thirds of the labourers who came remained on the island. The demand for their labour came after the end of slavery in 1830 and the failure to attract workers from Europe. Indian labourers, who had proved their worth in similar conditions in
Mauritius, were sought by the British Jamaican government, in addition to workers coming from
China. Indian workers were actually paid less than the ex-slaves, who were of West African origin. While slaves obviously were not paid for their labour, when they were emancipated in the 1830s, their wages were more than those given to Indian indentured servants. Indian immigrants therefore undercut the wages of the ex-slaves. This, along with fundamental cultural and linguistic differences and a tendency to not mix with the local population, caused the Africans as well as the British to look down on them. Indians were harassed with the derogatory term, "
coolie," referring to their worker status. Despite such hardships, many Indians in Jamaica have retained their culture and religions like
Hinduism and
Islam. The
British Indian government encouraged indentured labour and recruiting depots were established in
Calcutta and
Madras, although agents were paid significantly less per recruit than for a European worker. Most Indians who signed contracts did so in the hope of returning to India with the fruits of their labour rather than intending to migrate permanently. The Indian Government appointed a Protector of Immigrants in Jamaica, although this office tended to protect the interests of the employers rather than the workers. Although technically the workers had to appear before a magistrate and fully understand their terms and conditions, these were written in English and many workers, signing only with a thumb print, did not comprehend the nature of their service. In the mid-20th century, smaller numbers of Indians from the
Sindh,
Gujarat,
Kutch,
Bengal and
Punjab regions came to
Jamaica not as labourers but as merchants conducting business alongside Chinese and Arab immigrants. Some Indians have married into the local population of
Africans,
Creoles,
Chinese,
Hispanics-
Latinos,
Arabs,
Europeans, and
Jews. Today the Indian population of Jamaica is either full-blooded Indian who are recent immigrants or their descendants, full-blooded Indians who are the descendants of the original indentured laborers, or mixed Indians, such as
Douglas,
Chindians, and
Anglo-Indians. When black and Indian women had children with
Chinese men the children were called chaina raial in Jamaican English. The Chinese community in Jamaica was able to consolidate because an openness to marrying Indian women was present in the Chinese since Chinese women were in short supply. Women sharing was less common among Indians in Jamaica according to Verene A. Shepherd. The small number of Indian women were fought over between Indian men and led to a rise in the amount of wife murders by Indian men. Indian women made up 11 percent of the annual amount of Indian indentured migrants from 1845 to 1847 in Jamaica. ==Arrival in Jamaica==