Question

what do you mean by indantured labour ? what was its impact on colonies ?

Answer 1

Indentured labour was a voluntary labour system where workers migrated to a foreign land and paid for their passage by working for their employer for a certain number of years. This system was widespread in India during British rule. Over a million Indians went to various British colonies in the Indian Ocean (like Mauritius) and the West Indies during the nineteenth and early twentienth century.

This system had the following impact on the colonies.

1. It changed the demographic profile in the colonies where the indentured workers went. Earlier, there were only native population in the colonies. But with this system, a significant proportion of the population began to consist of these indentured workers.

2.When a large number of such workers went to a colony, it changed the culture and the language in those colonies. New forms of creole languages (a mixture of different languages) emerged in these colonies where the indentured workers went.

3. It led to the development of plantation farms (like sugarcane, rubber, tobacco) in the colonies where these indentured workers worked.