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Indo-Guyanese Foodways

Community

⚠ THE LARGEST SINGLE POPULATION IN GUYANA. Between 1838 and 1917 around a quarter of a million indentured labourers came from India — chiefly from BHOJPURI-speaking Bihar and eastern Uttar Pradesh, with a southern minority — to the sugar estates, after emancipation ended the enslaved labour force. What they brought and rebuilt: ROTI in its forms — DHAL PURI (split-pea stuffed and rolled), paratha/"buss-up-shut", sada roti, aloo roti; DHAL; CURRY of chicken, goat, duck, shrimp, potato, catahar; BARA and PHOLOURIE with tamarind and mango sour; achar and chutney; MITHAI, gulab jamun, kurma, parsad, sawine. ⚠ THE LANGUAGE — Caribbean Hindustani, a Bhojpuri koiné — is largely no longer spoken but survives almost entirely in the food vocabulary, which is itself a finding.

Atlas — where and when

Where in the world

Communities and languages

  • Indo-Guyanese community documented

Languages: Caribbean Hindustani, Guyanese Creole English

What is recorded

  • Approximately a quarter of a million indentured labourers were brought from India to British Guiana between 1838 and 1917, chiefly from Bhojpuri-speaking Bihar and eastern Uttar Pradesh, following emancipation. Caribbean Hindustani is largely no longer spoken in Guyana but survives substantially in food vocabulary, which is recorded as a finding in itself. documented
  • Indian indenture to British Guiana: around a quarter of a million people, chiefly from Bhojpuri-speaking Bihar and eastern Uttar Pradesh. documented

Related foodways

This foodway relates to

  • originates from Indian documented

    Indentured migration from Bhojpuri-speaking Bihar and eastern Uttar Pradesh, 1838-1917. ⚠ Recorded as Guyanese food of Indian origin, not as Indian food abroad.

  • related to Hindustani-Surinamese Foodways documented

    The same regions of India, the same route, the same decades — divided only by which European colony they landed in.

Recorded as relating to this foodway

  • related to Indo-Trinidadian Foodways documented

    Sister traditions from the same regions of India; dhalpuri, doubles and seven curry are shared and differently developed.

Regional cuisines

Recipes

No recipes are filed under this cuisine yet.