INDIANS IN SURINAME
Romesh C. Surya, an immigrant from Suriname, said this to me::-
“I am from Suriname. I arrived in the US in 2005. I came for my studies and got a job. I am an architect by profession. My ancestors came as indentured labourers to Suriname from Bihar.
Suriname, often called the ‘Mini Bihar’ of South America, is home to around 30% people of Indian origin whose ancestors travelled over 15,000 km from British India between 1873 and 1916 as indentured labourers, following a system similar to that in neighbouring British Guiana. More than 34,000 Hindustanis arrived to work on plantations, with records for 28,775 still held in a Dutch database, though many names were altered in spelling by colonial officials and recruiters.
Families often moved between colonies ; for example, some born in Guyana later settled in Suriname’s Nickerie District, while descendants later migrated to the US, Canada and the Netherlands. Unlike in British colonies, the Dutch allowed Indian languages to survive, so most Surinamese Indians still speak Sarnami Hindustani, and Indian culture remains strong with Diwali and Holi as national holidays and temples such as the Arya Dewaker and Radha Krishna Mandir across the country. There are Muslims too. My parents had strong ties with them. Eid was a common celebration. We lived peacefully. Some Indians married locals. In spite of a mixed cultural background, Indian culture retains its strong base in these families as well. At present, more than 1,60,000 persons of Indian origin residency in Suriname. Our president is also of Indian origin ."
This conversation developed my curiosity in the subject.
indians in Suriname: Crossing, Keeping and Becoming.
Suriname sits on the north eastern shoulder of South America, tucked between Guyana to the west, French Guiana to the east, Brazil to the south and the Atlantic Ocean to the north. It is the smallest sovereign state on the continent, about 163,820 square kilometres, roughly the size of Georgia in the United States or twice the size of Scotland.
The land falls into three distinct belts. First is the Young Coastal Plain, a narrow low lying strip forty to eighty kilometres wide. This is where ninety percent of the population lives. It holds Paramaribo, the capital, the rice fields of Nickerie and Coronie and the old plantation districts. Dikes and canals keep the sea out and the fields drained. Second is the Savannah Belt just inland, poor sandy soil dotted with small towns. Third is the Interior, which covers more than eighty percent of the country. It is Amazon rainforest on the Guiana Shield, one of the oldest geological formations on earth. It is cut by great rivers, the Suriname, Coppename, Saramacca and Marowijne, which were the original highways. The interior is home to Maroon and Indigenous villages and to gold and timber resources and extraordinary biodiversity.
The climate is tropical, hot and humid with two rainy seasons. The rivers meet the sea at Paramaribo, a wooden colonial port city that is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. This geography shaped everything. People settled the coast, farmed the heavy clay, and travelled by boat.
Population
The total population of Suriname is about 650,000 according to 2024 to 2025 estimates. The Indo Surinamese or Hindustani community numbers between 150,000 and 160,000, about twenty seven to twenty eight percent of the total. They are the single largest ethnic group, just ahead of Maroons and Creoles.
Hindustani in Suriname refers to descendants of indentured labourers from India who arrived between 1873 and 1916. The community includes both Hindus and Muslims. There is also a large diaspora of about 350,000 people of Surinamese Indian origin living in the Netherlands, mainly in Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague and Zoetermeer.
The Crossing: Routes from Village to Vessel to Plantation
The sea between Calcutta and Paramaribo was not on any map in the mind of a villager from Bhojpur in 1873. It was a line of questions. Will the ship hold. Will the contract hold. Will I return.
Yet on 5 June 1873, 410 men, women and children stepped off the Lalla Rookh onto the wooden jetty at Nieuwe Haven in Paramaribo. The Dutch flag was up. The air smelled of molasses, salt and endless green. That day began what would become the largest Indian community in the Caribbean outside Guyana and Trinidad, and the most Dutch speaking one.
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After Britain abolished slavery in 1834 and the Netherlands followed in 1863, the coastal plantations lost coerced labour. Sugar, coffee, cocoa and rice still had to grow. The Dutch, like the British and French, turned to indenture. Five year contracts, passage paid, wages fixed, return passage promised.
The first route ran from villages in present day Uttar Pradesh and Bihar through recruitment depots in Calcutta. Agents promised a land of gold. The second route opened after 1890 from Madras and brought Tamil and Telugu speakers who settled largely in Nickerie and Coronie.
From Calcutta or Madras, recruits were marched to the depot, given a number, inoculated and put on sailing ships and later steamers. The voyage took seventy to ninety days, round the Cape of Good Hope, across the South Atlantic and into the mouth of the Suriname River.
Between 1873 and 1916, 34,304 Indians arrived on sixty four ships. The names are still remembered. Lalla Rookh, Avon, Ganges, Rhone. At Paramaribo they were assigned to coastal plantations such as Mariënburg, Zoelen, Waterloo and Alliance. A smaller number went upriver to timber and gold concessions. After five years a labourer could sign a new contract or take a small plot of land instead of a return ticket. Most took the land. By 1921 return migration had almost stopped.
Work: From Cane to Rice to Town
The early work was cane. Cut at dawn, carry, boil. The overseer spoke Dutch or Sranan Tongo and the labourer answered in Bhojpuri, Awadhi or Tamil. Pay was in cents.
But Indians in Suriname moved out of cane. Two shifts changed everything.
First was rice. The coastal clay and the network of canals suited wet padi. By the early 1900s ex indentured families in Nickerie and Coronie were leasing kavels and growing rice. Scientists such as Dr Soerindre Persad developed local varieties that made Suriname self sufficient by the 1980s. Rice became an Indian crop and an Indian business and then a national export. Today Suriname is one of the top rice exporters per capita in the world and Nickerie is called the rice bowl.
Second was trade and craft. With land came a bazaar economy. A man who could not read Dutch could still weigh rice, mend a cart, tailor a kurta, cut hair or run a shop selling dhal, ghee and cloth. By the 1930s Indian shopkeepers lined Grote Combé in Paramaribo and the market in Nieuw Nickerie.
Later generations moved into civil service, teaching, medicine and law after Suriname gained autonomy in 1954 and independence in 1975. Agriculture remained the base but the ladder went up.
Religion: Temples on Reclaimed Land
They brought almost nothing in their trunks. What they carried was practice.
Hinduism is practised by about seventy percent of Indo Surinamese. Early temples were thatch and wood on plantation land. Priests were often men who had memorised verses. The Arya Samaj arrived in the 1920s via missionaries from India and Guyana and pushed Hindi and Vedic recitation and social reform. Alongside it Sanatan Dharm kept puja, katha and pilgrimage. Two organisations still dominate, Arya Dewaker and Sanatan Dharm. Diwali, Phagwa, Shivaratri and Ram Navami became national holidays.
Islam came with about fifteen percent of the indentured, mainly from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. Mosques were built with the same hands that built levees. The Suriname Islamic Association and later the World Islamic Mission shaped practice. Eid ul Fitr and Eid ul Adha are public holidays.
Christianity also took root, especially among descendants who attended Moravian or Catholic schools. Some converted and some married in but kept Indian names and food.
What is striking is not conversion but coexistence. A Hindu shop closes for Friday prayers. A Muslim neighbour brings sewai at Eid to a Hindu home. In Suriname religion became less about boundary and more about calendar.
Language and Culture: Three Tongues in One Mouth
The first generation spoke Bhojpuri, Awadhi and Tamil at home. The second generation learned Sranan Tongo on the plantation and Dutch in school. The third generation spoke Dutch first.
Dutch is the official language. Sarnami Hindustani, a mix of Bhojpuri and Awadhi with Dutch and Sranan words, became the home language for North Indians. Tamil and Telugu communities kept their languages longer in Nickerie, with Tamil schools running into the 1960s. Today you can hear a grandmother pray in Sanskrit, scold in Sarnami and watch the news in Dutch.
Food is where India stayed most intact. Roti and dal, bara, pepeer, telo, saffron rice, chutney and achar. Then it met Suriname. Pom with chicken, moksie meti with rice, saoto soup. Indian sweets such as barfi, jalebi and laddu sit next to bojo and pastei in the same bakery.
Music began with bhajan and chutney. From the 1970s Surinamese Indian musicians fused Hindi film melodies with Caribbean rhythm to create baithak gana and later chutney. Siegmien Staphorstius became known as the Queen of Baithak Gana and carried the music to the Netherlands and back. Instruments moved from dholak, harmonium and tabla to electric keyboard. Weddings run for days, mehndi and sangeet followed by a reception with both qawwali and soca.
Clothing adapted to heat. The sari and salwar kameez for women and kurta pajama for men, cut lighter for the tropics. At Independence Day parades you will see a Dutch suit next to a pheran inspired jacket next to a Tamil veshti.
Important Festivals of Surinamese Indians
Most of these are recognised as national public holidays.
Among Hindus the major observances are Divali or Deepavali, the Festival of Lights, when homes and temples are lit with diyas and Lakshmi puja is performed. Phagwa or Holi, the Festival of Colours, with music and coloured powder and large public celebrations in Paramaribo and Nickerie. Shivaratri, a night vigil for Lord Shiva. Ram Navami, the birth of Lord Ram with Ramayan recitals. Hanuman Jayanti, with devotional gatherings. Navratri and Durga Puja, nine nights of worship of the Goddess.
Among Muslims the major observances are Eid ul Fitr, marking the end of Ramadan. Eid ul Adha, the Festival of Sacrifice. And Eid Milad un Nabi, the observance of the Prophet Muhammad’s birthday.
There is also Indian Arrival Day on 5 June, which commemorates the arrival of the Lalla Rookh in 1873. It is marked by cultural programmes, food fairs, exhibitions and speeches.
A defining feature is participation across communities. At Divali Creole and Javanese neighbours light diyas. At Eid sweets are shared with Hindu families. These are now considered Surinamese holidays, not merely Indian holidays.
Prominent Persons of Indian Origin
Jagernath Lachmon, 1916 to 2001, lawyer and founder of the VHP. For decades he was the voice of Indo Surinamese in parliament. In 1975 he refused the Prime Ministership to keep ethnic balance during independence negotiations with Henck Arron, the first Prime Minister.
Ramsewak Shankar, born 1937, President from 1988 to 1990. From a farming family in Nickerie, he pushed for democratic restoration after military rule.
Jules Wijdenbosch, 1941 to 2025, President from 1996 to 2000. His mother was of Indian descent. His government expanded infrastructure and ties with India.
Chan Santokhi, born 1959, President since 2020. Former police commissioner and Minister of Justice. From Lelydorp, he made the first state visit to India in decades in 2023. His focus has been anti corruption, oil, rice and diaspora ties.
Ashwin Adhin, born 1980, Vice President from 2015 to 2020. The youngest to hold the office. An academic who wrote on Indian philosophy and youth policy.
Pretaap Radhakishun, 1934 to 2023, economist and Prime Minister from 1986 to 1987 during a period of crisis.
Rudi Kanhai, 1940 to 2021, cricketer. The first Surinamese of Indian descent to play Test cricket for the West Indies. He scored two centuries against India in 1969.
Dilip Sardjoe, 1943 to 2017, businessman, former VHP leader and minister. He built one of the largest rice and trading companies in Nickerie.
Radjinder Khargi and Chitra Gajadin, writers and poets who work in Dutch, Sarnami and English. They brought the Vaakhs of Lalla and plantation memory into Surinamese literature.
Five Important Things to Know about Suriname
First, it is the most ethnically diverse country in South America. The population of about 650,000 includes Creole, Hindustani, Javanese, Maroon, Indigenous, Chinese, Dutch and Lebanese. No single group forms a majority.
Second, its history runs from Dutch colony to independence. Colonised by the Dutch in 1667. Slavery abolished in 1863. Indian and Javanese indenture followed. Independence from the Netherlands on 25 November 1975.
Third, the economy rests on gold, oil, bauxite, timber and rice. Nickerie rice feeds the nation and is exported. Offshore oil and gold are now the main drivers.
Fourth, more than eighty percent of the country is rainforest. It sits on the Guiana Shield and is one of the greenest countries on earth.
Fifth, unity in diversity is the operating principle. Public holidays include Divali, Phagwa, Eid, Chinese New Year, Indigenous Peoples Day and Keti Koti. The national motto in practice is Eendracht maakt macht, Unity makes strength.
Memory and Meaning
Walk through Nieuw Nickerie on a Sunday morning. The air is wet. A mosque loudspeaker calls. A temple bell answers. A shop sells masala next to Dutch cheese. Old men play carrom and talk in Sarnami about the price of padi. Young women in jeans and a bindi take selfies by the river.
Marriage patterns show the same blending. Endogamy was strong until the 1960s. Then intermarriage with Creole, Javanese, Chinese and mixed dougla families increased, especially in the city. Names hyphenated. Recipes fused.
Education became the new migration. After 1975 many Indo Surinamese moved to the Netherlands. Today the diaspora there is larger than the community left in Suriname. WhatsApp calls and flights keep the villages linked.
Why did they stay. The contract ended but the land did not. Rice gave independence from the plantation. Religion gave continuity. Politics gave voice.
They did not build a little India. They built Suriname with Indian hands. The rice that feeds the country, the music that plays at Carnival and at Divali, the politicians who brokered a multi ethnic state, all carry that imprint.
If you ask an elder in Groningen district what he remembers of the crossing, he will not quote the ship’s log. He will say, we came with nothing but a pot and a prayer. Now look, the pot is still here and the prayer has a temple.
From Calcutta depot to Nickerie field, from contract to citizenship, from Bhojpuri to Dutch, from cane to rice to statecraft. A community that learned to be at home on a low coastal plain between river and rainforest, and made it ever new.
That is Suriname. A small country on a big river where many peoples learned to live as one.
( Avtar Mota )
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