ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the historical processes of continuity and change that have taken place in the culture of the Hindustanis living in Suriname that is reflected in the culture of their present generations. The story of the arrival of the migrants in Suriname and the conditions in which they lived there can be understood from the narrative of Baba Ambika Sarju, a hundred-year-old Bhojpuri migrant who was transported to Suriname in 1912. Today Suriname is the smallest independent country on the South American continent with a multi-ethnic population comprising Creoles, Maroons, Javanese, Chinese, Hindustani indigenous people and others. For studying the continuity and change that has taken place in the culture of the Indo-Caribbean diasporic Indians living in Suriname, the time period beginning from the initial migration of the Indo-Surinamese up to the present may be divided into cultural-historical phases such as: indentureship period and post-indentureship period. The latter may be divided further into successive phases of (re-)construction and modernization.
