Indo-Belizeans, also known as East Indian Belizeans, are citizens of
Belize
Belize (; bzj, Bileez) is a Caribbean and Central American country on the northeastern coast of Central America. It is bordered by Mexico to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and Guatemala to the west and south. It also shares a wate ...
of
Indian
Indian or Indians may refer to:
Peoples South Asia
* Indian people, people of Indian nationality, or people who have an Indian ancestor
** Non-resident Indian, a citizen of India who has temporarily emigrated to another country
* South Asia ...
ancestry. The community made up 3.9% of the population of Belize in 2010. They are part of the wider
Indo-Caribbean community, which itself is a part of the global
Indian diaspora
Overseas Indians (IAST: ), officially Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) and Overseas Citizens of India (OCIs) are Indians who live outside of the Republic of India. According to the Government of India, ''Non-Resident Indians'' are citizens of Indi ...
.
History and demographics
Indians began arriving in Belize after the
Indian Rebellion of 1857
The Indian Rebellion of 1857 was a major uprising in India in 1857–58 against the rule of the British East India Company, which functioned as a sovereign power on behalf of the British Crown. The rebellion began on 10 May 1857 in the fo ...
, with the first ship with Indians arriving in 1858 as part of the
Indian indenture system
The Indian indenture system was a system of indentured servitude, by which more than one million Indians were transported to labour in European colonies, as a substitute for slave labor, following the abolition of the trade in the early 19th c ...
set up by the British government after slavery was abolished. Initially coming in as indentured, many of them stayed on to work the sugar plantations and were joined by other Indian immigrants. Indians are spread out over many villages and towns primarily in the Corozal and Toledo districts and live in reasonably compact rural communities. Today, while there are few descendants of the original Indian indentured immigrants who are of full Indian descent, many of their descendants have intermarried with other ethnic groups in Belize, notably the
Creoles and
Mestizos
(; ; fem. ) is a term used for racial classification to refer to a person of mixed European and Indigenous American ancestry. In certain regions such as Latin America, it may also refer to people who are culturally European even though thei ...
. However, they are still identifiable through their physiognomy and are known as 'Hindus' or 'East Indians'. These set of Indians were almost entirely composed of people from the
Bhojpur region,
Awadh
Awadh (), known in British historical texts as Avadh or Oudh, is a region in the modern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, which was before independence known as the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh. It is synonymous with the Kośāla region of ...
region, and other places in the
Hindustani Belt in
North India
North India is a loosely defined region consisting of the northern part of India. The dominant geographical features of North India are the Indo-Gangetic Plain and the Himalayas, which demarcate the region from the Tibetan Plateau and Central ...
. A minority of indentured laborers were from
South India
South India, also known as Dakshina Bharata or Peninsular India, consists of the peninsular southern part of India. It encompasses the Indian states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Telangana, as well as the union territ ...
and other regions throughout
South Asia
South Asia is the southern subregion of Asia, which is defined in both geographical
Geography (from Greek: , ''geographia''. Combination of Greek words ‘Geo’ (The Earth) and ‘Graphien’ (to describe), literally "earth descr ...
. Later on in the 1870s-90s Indian coffee workers from
Guatemala and
Indian
Indian or Indians may refer to:
Peoples South Asia
* Indian people, people of Indian nationality, or people who have an Indian ancestor
** Non-resident Indian, a citizen of India who has temporarily emigrated to another country
* South Asia ...
sugar workers from
Jamaica
Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of His ...
immigrated to Belize and in the 1950s-90s
Indians from
Guyana and
Trinidad and Tobago
Trinidad and Tobago (, ), officially the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, is the southernmost island country in the Caribbean. Consisting of the main islands Trinidad and Tobago, and numerous much smaller islands, it is situated south of ...
emigrated. Their ancestors were also indentured immigrants and come from the same regions in India. It is from the original Indian indentured immigrants and the later group of Indian immigrants from other parts of the Caribbean that contributed to the Indian aspect of Belizean cuisine with foods such as
roti
Roti (also known as chapati) is a round flatbread native to the Indian subcontinent. It is popular in India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, Maldives, Myanmar, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, Guyana, Suriname, Jamaica, Trini ...
(especially
paratha
Paratha () is a flatbread native to South Asia, prevalent throughout the modern-day nations of India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, Maldives, Afghanistan, Myanmar, Malaysia, Singapore, Mauritius, Fiji, Guyana, Suriname, and Trinidad a ...
, dhalpuri, and sada),
wrap roti
Originating in the Caribbean with Indian roots, a roti is a wrap style sandwich filled with either curried or sometimes stewed meats or vegetables wrapped inside a dhalpuri, paratha, or dosti roti. Roti is eaten widely across the Caribbean. ...
s,
dhal bhat (dhal and rice),
pholourie
Pholourie (), also spelled ''phulourie'' or ''phoulourie'', is a snack food of Indo-Caribbean origin that is commonly eaten in Trinidad and Tobago as well as in Guyana, Suriname and other parts of the Caribbean. It consists of fried, spiced ...
, chokhas such as
baigan chokha,
khichiri, and
tarcaris and
curries
A curry is a dish with a sauce seasoned with spices, mainly associated with South Asian cuisine. In southern India, leaves from the curry tree may be included.
There are many varieties of curry. The choice of spices for each dish in tradi ...
such as
curry chicken
Chicken curry is a dish originating from the Indian subcontinent. It is common in the Indian subcontinent, Southeast Asia, Great Britain, Caribbean, and Japan. A typical curry from the Indian subcontinent consists of chicken stewed in an onion- ...
and
curry goat
(''hseik-tha hnat'')
hi, Bakri curry id, kari kambing ms, kari kambing
, country = Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia
, region = Indian subcontinent, Southeast Asia (Myanmar, Indonesia and Malaysia) and the Caribbean (Tri ...
.
After India gained independence in 1947 up to present-day, many Indians further migrated to Belize as businessmen, entrepreneurs, doctors, and other professionals. However, they were not from the same regions of India as the original Indian indentured immigrant were from, they were mostly
Sindhis
Sindhis ( sd, سنڌي Perso-Arabic: सिन्धी Devanagari; ) are an Indo-Aryan ethnic group who speak the Sindhi language and are native to the province of Sindh in Pakistan. After the partition of British Indian empire in 1947, man ...
with some
Punjabis,
Gujaratis
The Gujarati people or Gujaratis, are an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group who reside in or can trace their ancestry or heritage to the present-day western Indian state of Gujarat. They primarily speak Gujarati, an Indo-Aryan language. While G ...
,
Kutchi,
Bengalis
Bengalis (singular Bengali bn, বাঙ্গালী/বাঙালি ), also rendered as Bangalee or the Bengali people, are an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group originating from and culturally affiliated with the Bengal region of ...
,
Tamils
The Tamil people, also known as Tamilar ( ta, தமிழர், Tamiḻar, translit-std=ISO, in the singular or ta, தமிழர்கள், Tamiḻarkaḷ, translit-std=ISO, label=none, in the plural), or simply Tamils (), are a Drav ...
, and
Telugus
Telugu people ( te, తెలుగువారు, Teluguvāru), or Telugus, or Telugu vaaru, are the largest of the four major Dravidian ethnolinguistic groups in terms of population. Telugus are native to the Indian states of Andhra Pradesh ...
. Most Hindus in Belize today are
Sindhi Hindus
Sindhi Hindus are Sindhis who follow the Hindu religion, whose origins lie in the Sindh region and spread across modern-day India and Pakistani Sindh province. After the Partition of India in 1947, many Sindhi Hindus were among those who fled ...
with few of the original descendants of the Indian indentured laborers retaining Hinduism and Islam.
In 1907, the Canadian Government made an unsuccessful attempt to transfer Indian independence activists residing in the province of British Columbia to Belize (then known as
British Honduras
British Honduras was a British Crown colony on the east coast of Central America, south of Mexico, from 1783 to 1964, then a self-governing colony, renamed Belize in June 1973, ). A Canadian delegation led by the chief clerk of the Canadian Ministry of the Interior Harkin, and a small Indian delegation including Teja Singh traveled to British Honduras in November 1907 to determine if conditions were suitable for the move. Upon his return to Canada, Teja Singh stated that Indians were being sent to Honduras for slave-labour and claimed that Canadian officials had attempted to bribe the Indian delegation to secure a positive report. The Canadian government blamed Teja Singh's statements for the failure of the proposed transfer.
Notable people
*
Payal Ghanwani, the first Indo-Belizean
Senator
*
Nora Parham, only Belizean woman to be executed
*
Doug Singh, politician
*
George Singh, former
Chief Justice of the
Supreme Court of Belize
Supreme may refer to:
Entertainment
* Supreme (character), a comic book superhero
* ''Supreme'' (film), a 2016 Telugu film
* Supreme (producer), hip-hop record producer
* "Supreme" (song), a 2000 song by Robbie Williams
* The Supremes, Motown-e ...
*
Lutchman Sooknandan
Lutchman Sooknandan (born 21 March 1948) is a Guyanese-Belizean lawyer. He previously served as Belize's Director of Public Prosecutions, practices law privately at Sooknandan's Law Firm, and serves as Guyana's honorary consul in Belize.
Career
S ...
, twice
Director of Public Prosecutions, a native of Guyana born to a father from
Kolkata
Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, comme ...
See also
*
Belize#Demographics
*
Hinduism in Belize
*
Belize–India relations
References
Further reading
The facts about East IndiansIndian Diaspora in South America/ Belize
{{Ethnic groups in Belize
Asian Belizean
Indians
Belize
Belize (; bzj, Bileez) is a Caribbean and Central American country on the northeastern coast of Central America. It is bordered by Mexico to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and Guatemala to the west and south. It also shares a wate ...
Indo-Caribbean