TODAY, 29th September, 2015 marks the 143rd Anniversary of the Devonshire Castle Strike and Riots of 1872, an event in Guyana’s history which unfortunately was for a long time not given the prominence it so richly deserves. As a consequence not many in Guyana and the world at large are fully conscious of this highly significant historical event. Indeed, they are more familiar with the Enmore Strike of 1948 and Enmore Martyrs Day because of its recency and more widespread publicity and observances.Within recent years however, the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports (now Department of Culture, Youth and Sports) and the administration of Region 2 and other related agencies have been making strenuous efforts to highlight this event and its importance largely through their annual commemorative activity at the monument site, Devonshire Castle on the Essequibo Coast.
BACKGROUND
The importation of indentured labourers from the Indian sub-continent was part of the continuing search for a reliable labour force to meet the needs of the sugar industry and the powerful plantocracy following the abolition of slavery and the termination of the apprenticeship system in the 1830s. The system of Indian indentureship could be characterised as one of intense struggle, supreme sacrifice and persistent resistance. It was closely linked to slavery. This was certainly the view of prominent historians Hugh Tinker, Dr. Walter Rodney, Dr. Basdeo Mangru and Chief Justice in the second half of the nineteenth century, Charles Beaumont.
In the colony indentured labourers had to endure the critical period of ‘seasoning’ or adjusting to their new environment. This was no easy task and many found themselves introduced to plantation labour very quickly after their arrival here. On the estates the indentured labourers experienced the harshness of the system and it was obvious that the powerful plantocracy had effective control of the immigrant labour force which they exploited to the maximum. An important aspect of this control was the contract under which the immigrant was recruited from his homeland. While it stipulated the obligations of the labourer and the employer, the labour laws weighed heavily against the former.
The implementation of the labour laws and the period of industrial residence were taking place thousand of miles from the labourer’s homeland and in a social and political environment dominated by the employer. It was not surprising therefore, that laws were easily varied and very often abused by the plantocracy to suit their “whims and fancies”. Of added significance was the fact that some Immigration Agent Generals and Stipendiary Magistrates tended to side with the planter class and as a result cases of intimidation, assault and battery were often covered up.

Court trials were often subjected to abuse and were, in many instances reduced to a farce as official interpreters aligned themselves with the plantocracy while the hapless labourers had very little opportunity of defending themselves. Throughout the period of indentureship immigrants were faced with meager wage rates and unrealistic tasks. Weekly earnings depended on the number of tasks completed, the nature of tasks, whether it was weeding, shovelling, manuring, planting or harvesting and the speed with which they were completed. In any event it was the employer or planter who invariably determined the wage rates and whenever there was a fall in sugar prices immigrants found their wages minimised.
The immigrants often went before the courts as victims of the harsh labour laws and the legal system of the day. The planter had at his disposal several instruments of prosecution. He could prosecute for refusal to commence work, or work left unfinished, absenteeism without authority, disorderly or threatening behaviour or even neglect. Punishment resulted in imprisonment or fines. Moreover, an immigrant imprisoned for misconduct could have his indenture extended to include the period in jail. This meant that the immigrant was effectively punished twice for the same offence.
Immigrants also suffered from a paucity of social amenities. The tenement ranges or ‘logies’ were small, overcrowded and unventilated, potable water was virtually non-existent and medical facilities and sanitation were poor. As a result outbreak of diseases tended to assume epidemic proportions.
Through vagrancy laws immigrants had their movements restricted. This was an integral part of planters’ strategy to localise labour and to place restraints on workers’ liberty. It was because of their vast powers of control over the indentured labourers that planters became increasingly arrogant. Some openly and repeatedly boasted that the labourers on their estate should only be “at work, or in hospital or in goal,” One Demerara planter publicly stated “give me my heart’s desires in coolies and I will make you a million hogsheads of sugar”.
It was not surprising that from the 1860s onwards the myth of Indian docility on the plantations was seriously challenged as the labourers began to openly defy the system. There was a steady deterioration of industrial relations, increasing working class protests and imperial investigation. Violent eruptions were occasioned by many specific and localised grievances such as overbearing behaviour of managers, wage rates disputes, disagreement over tasks, sexual exploitation of women by overseers and the arbitrary reduction of labourers’ wages. In 1868 the Royal Gazette reported that “hundreds perhaps thousands, who would now work on the sugar estates cannot find employment.” Further by 1869, the price paid for cutting canes to make one hogshead of sugar was only half of what it was in 1854.
Signs of mounting discontent and assertiveness among the workers were evidenced through pulling down of fences, vandalism of equipment and implements and various other destructive acts including arson to crops and building. Of a more confrontational nature was the tendency to refuse work, demand concessions, reject orders, threaten whites and ever so often reacting to violence.

The first major disturbance and strike took place at Plantation Leonora, West Coast Demerara in 1869 and this was followed by violence on Plantations Hague, Uitvlugt, Mon Repos, Non –Pariel, Zeelugt and Vergenoegen during the next two years. Of significance around this time was also the lengthy letter of Stipendiary Magistrate George William Des Voeux to the Secretary of State for the Colonies in which he complained bitterly about the depressing conditions and numerous abuses facing immigrants. These complaints led to the appointment of a Royal Commission of Inquiry which investigated living and working conditions in the British West Indies. (to be continued)

By Tota C. Mangar