ABSTRACT
However, the challenging working and living conditions in Guyana quickly took their toll, and after a series of stops and starts in the migration, those that remained in the colony took to other opportunities on offer, and soon began to thrive in various business enterprises. This hardship was only the beginning of what followed when they finally arrived in Guyana on 5 May 1838. Despite such experiences, most of the 238,000 Indian indentured labourers who were taken to Guyana between 1838 and 1917, opted to stay in the colony, principally because they saw greater opportunities for their betterment than a return to worse situations in rural India. In terms of the Indian migrants' ability to stand up for their rights in Guyana, it is noted that after thirty-one years of the arrival of the first migrants in Leonora, a strike was called in protest against poor pay and conditions.
