The Indentured and Their Route: A Relentless Quest for Identity

Nobel Laureate and Holocaust survivor Elie Weisel noted: ‘An executioner always kills twice; firstwith his sword then through forgetting.’ The same is true for indenture.<br><br>The indentured system known disparagingly as ‘Coolitude’ was similar to Negritude. They were twosides of the same coin the Black slave on one side and the Brown indentured on the other. Theirsuffering due to their inhuman bondage represented one of the greatest tragedies of human history.<br><br>When slavery was abolished and erased from our collective memories UNESCO and the AfricanStates reminded us of the Slave Route. The moment has come to do the same for indenture. <br><br>It is the search for identity of the indentured that offers a possible response to the dialectics ofcoolitude versus nationalism. It does not involve the re-writing of history but its re-interpretation. <br><br>Identity in this case served as a saviour. The quest for identity continues in one form or the other.When it is not denied it flourishes into India’s great diaspora. When banished into the night itresults in conflict and war.