Answer:
In the 19th century,
hundreds of thousands of Indian and Chinese labourers went to work on plantations,
in mines and in road and railway construction projects around the world.
(i) In India,
indentured labourers were hired under contracts which promised return travel to
India after they had worked for five years on their employer's plantations.
(ii) Gradually,
in India, cottage industries declined, land rents rose, lands were cleared for
mines and plantations. All this affected the lives of the poor; they failed to
pay their rents, became indebted and were forced to migrate in search of work.
(iii) The
main destinations of Indian indentured migrants were the Caribbean islands,
Trinidad, Guyana, Surinam, Mauritius, Fiji and Ceylon and Malaya.
(iv)
Recruitment was done by agents engaged by employers and paid a small commission.
(v) Agents
also sometimes tempted these migrants by providing false information about
final destinations, modes of travel, nature of work and living and working
conditions.
Sometimes, agents
even forcibly abducted less willing migrants.
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