The last ship : repatriation from British Guiana to India

In 1955 the ship, the M.V. Resurgent, took the last group of ex-indentured Indo-Caribbean labourers back to India. This was a closing chapter on Indo-Caribbean Indentureship, whereby thousands of Indians came to Caribbean shores between 1838 and 1917. Indian indentured labourers had arrived to work British Caribbean plantations, with a "right to return" to India built into their indenture contracts. The clause did not specify a time limit on claims. Four decades after the abolition of Indentureship, a number of ex-indentured labourers from British Guianese plantations and their families opted to take the last ship back to a recently liberated India. This recovered history through the lived experiences of the last Repatriation Officer, Chhablal Ramcharan is located within the emancipatory energy of postcolonial scholarship, and uses narrative, memory and archives to contribute to an understanding of Indo-Caribbean migration, settlement, and diasporic identities