ABSTRACT
Chapter 2 analyses the process of group formation, ethnogenesis, of British Indian indentured labourers who were shipped to the Caribbean. The origin of ethnic groups is often taken for granted and assumed to occur spontaneously. This chapter proposes that ethnic group formation depends on several preconditions, including the ecology of the new society, the demographic characteristics of the immigrants, their heterogeneity, their ideology and their relationship with the receiving population. Ethnogenesis requires the formation of such internal ethnic institutions as community vernaculars, religious institutions, family structures and public festivals, and the invention of traditions. The chapter argues that ethnogenesis performs as a cultural and emotional home. The argument is established by means of a comparison of British Indians in two former plantation colonies: Suriname and Guyana.
