The Indian Community in Barbados

The Indian community in Barbados is one on the increase. The community has strived on being a close knit one, which tend to live in large families in the city environs.

The Indian community especially the Muslims have tried to maintain their "indianness" by adhering to religion and culture.

The community who came to Barbados in order to act as traders on the island. These Indians successfully formed businesses which sold merchandise to the blacks.

The Indians have been an important impetus to what Barbados is as a respectable community as a whole the world over. The Indians would travel into the black communities who live mostly in the countryside and sell merchandise at high prices, but allowed easy repayment terms.

These easy repayment terms allowed many Barbadians to acquire things such as household commodities and clothing, which they ordinarily would not have been able to afford at cash prices.

This has made the Indian community very rich, powerful, and influential within the Barbadian society as they help each other in forming wealth. Indians for the most part have isolated themselves and have shied away from direct community service, but has chosen to do so indirectly.

The segregation by the Indian community is not healthy for the society as a whole, because as the Indian numbers increase, it will lead to racial tensions within the society as in neighbouring countries such as Trinidad and Tobago, and Guyana.

Recently, many Indians have been entering Barbados from Guyana and some of these are in the island illegally. As these numbers increase Indians will seek to acquire more and more of their own space in terms of places of worship, radio and television stations, and schools. They will eventually what political power and form their own political party which will lead to further divisions. This is again the scenario depicted in Trinidad and Tobago, and Guyana.

In order to combat the inevitable, what is needed in Barbados is for the Indian community to become involved in the wider Barbadian society, and offer contributions at all levels. If they can feel as part of the whole then there would not exist a feeling of wanting to be a separate entity.

Recently, the Honourable Dr. Esther Byer-Suckoo has called on the Indian community to become more involved in the wider Barbadian Society. This is a notion which Trivester also supports as our Indian brothers and sisters also have a lot to offer to this Barbadian community we all call home.

Further Info

India Honorary Consulate , Barbados
91 Cherry Drive Oxnards
Saint James
Barbados
Phone:
+1-246-4262858
+1-246-4245491
+1-246-4380108