Colonial Emigration Nineteenth, Twentieth Centuries : Annual Reports from the Port of Calcutta to the British and Foreign Colonies, Vol. V
"The National Congress Party in India started emerging with the closing of the nineteenth century and beginning of the twentieth century. Many Indians stalwarts started raising their heads and questioning the British Raj about matters pertaining to the welfare of the Indians in and out of India; several petitions were submitted to the British Government to stop emigration of indentured labour. The ill-treatment and exploitation of Indian workers in the colonies were highlighted. Not that the Indians in India were being treated as first-class citizens! Had the British started sharing power with the Indians, history might have taken a different turn. By elevating one Indian to peerage and appointing a few odd ones on a few committees, the British did not do justice by denying capable Indians of administrative posts of importance.
India continued to be pestered by famine. The end and beginning of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and in 1900, the population was the almost the same as the census of 1890, inspite of a ten year gap where, under normal circumstances, the population should have grown! Millions died during these periods: Lord Curzon was the Viceroy of India from 1899 to 1904 with an extension of another five years to 1909. In the beginning of the twentieth century, Curzon took a "Begging Bowl" around the world asking for help for the famine stricken people of India! Due to his policy of dividing Bengal in two parts, Curzon faced joint angry Muslim -- Hindu riots and shifting the capital from Calcutta to Delhi in 1911 was a result of this unpopular outcome.
However, emigration continued in the 1900\'s, under different conditions. Returned emigrants had saved enough money to take their families and friends back to the colonies as passengers.
A few of these emigrants who worked as Sirdars on the plantations were sent back by their employees to recruit labourers who again were taken as passengers. The indentured system slowly came to an end." (jacket)
