Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611

  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
Bechu: 'Bound Coolie' Radical in British Guiana 1894-1901

Bechu: 'Bound Coolie' Radical in British Guiana 1894-1901

Seecharan, Clem

Paperback

Caribbean HistorySouth American History

ISBN10: 9766400717
ISBN13: 9789766400712
Publisher: University of the West Indies Press
Published: May 1 1999
Pages: 326
Weight: 0.97
Height: 0.69 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English
Clem Seecharan has written a useful documentary history of Bechu, the first Indian to testify before the Royal Commission in 1897.

Now who was this Bechu? He was, in Seecharan's words, an indefatigable gadfly, who in letters to the local press revealed the conditions of Indian indentureship: poor wages, sexual exploitation of women by overseers and managers, and the virtual impossibility for Indians to obtain justice because of the collusion between colonial authorities and the planters. This knowledge we owe to economic historian Alan Adamson who discovered Bechu in the 1960s. Yet the man himself remained somewhat of a mystery, something Bechu himself seems to have cultivated. Seecharan has now filled a number of lacunae in our understanding with this two-part volume. The first section focuses on Bechu and the British Guianese environment in the late nineteenth century, while the second part includes letters and memoranda by Bechu (and reactions to them by local opponents).

Also in

South American History

View All