The Agreement is a film and photography project documenting Indian communities descended from indentured Indian migrants. 

Initially Indian labourers were sent to replace African slaves when slavery was abolished and those newly freed slaves walked away from the extreme brutalities of life and work on sugar cane plantations

Over a million people left India and most never returned.

At the beginning of indenture they were sent to the sugar colonies on old slaving ships. Many were processed and catalogued in the what had been the slave market in Mauritius, sometimes living in slave quarters as they were selected for their final destinations to take their place in the sugar cane fields working for British, French and Dutch plantation owners. 

This ‘agreement’ they signed, many who were illiterate, was a form of economic slavery. Although they were promised free passage home after years of back breaking labour, many had no idea of where they were being sent and the brutality of plantation life they would face. The reality of life on the plantation was one of brutality and racist exploitation with barely enough rations to sustain, sexual predation from overseers, a penalty system that could extend indenture periods and control of the supply of goods which meant little money could ever be saved. 

Mahatma Ghandi would campaign for sugar cane workers rights when he was a young lawyer in South Africa at the turn of the century and upon his return to India would campaign for an end to indenture, which was also supported by British abolitionists. 

The consequences of this enormous movement of people through the world is a story that many outside of these communities do not know and the comparison of these modern day Indian communities provides a great opportunity to examine identity, racism and power through people’s ordinary lives and lived experience - it offers both hope and despair.

For many, once their period of indenture ended, there was a chance for a new life and their home and family was now a world away. The poor levels of literacy and great distances meant family ties were almost impossible to maintain. The experience of travelling across the ‘dark ocean’ to the new world and living in barracks side by side broke down caste barriers and ‘polluted’ those of higher caste making return to traditional life in India difficult.

And now they knew how to farm sugar. And in the sugar empire, where colossal profits had been made, there was a chance for independence and freedom. They went on to use the railways they had built and the plantations they had farmed to build families and a community, to establish businesses, schools and temples. 

But as their communities grew and flourished, often ethnic tensions developed. Even after any direct connection to India had long since disappeared, Indians in Fiji, Guyana and South Africa have faced the call to ‘go home’ from extremists and a denial of their right to be citizens in the country of their birth.

It is as if they are the ‘black Jews’ of the Commonwealth, never completely secure, not fully at home in the country of their birth, facing an implicit racist tension. Their tight knit and often very successful communities often led to mistrust and envy. Their economic success and persistent cultural difference led to fears of their political influence once independence was achieved.

The Indian communities now in the Caribbean. Mauritius, South Africa and Fiji are also in New York, Auckland, California, Toronto and Sydney fleeing ethnic tensions or coup and wanting security and opportunity. They have a disaporic hyphenated identity that is now American Guyanese Indian or Fijian Indian Australian as their families complete second migrations.

After signing an agreement more than a hundred years ago these modern day communities live with this complex legacy which calls into question ideas of race, belonging, land and freedom, and the right to be a full and equal citizen in the country of your birth.