When Prime Minister Narendra Modi visits the Netherlands in the coming days, it will carry significance far beyond diplomacy or trade. For thousands of Indo-Dutch families, it will also be a moment of historical recognition.
Many among them are descendants of Indians who left colonial India nearly 150 years ago as indentured labourers for plantations in Suriname, Guyana and other Caribbean territories after the abolition of slavery. Over generations, these communities crossed yet another ocean and settled in the Netherlands, creating one of the world’s most remarkable diaspora journeys.
Thousands of impoverished Indians, largely from present-day Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, boarded ships under indenture contracts, often unaware of what awaited them. They crossed the dreaded “kala pani,” leaving behind villages, families, languages, and familiar worlds.
Among the most remembered ships was the Lalla Rookh, which arrived in Suriname in 1873 carrying the first large group of Indian labourers under Dutch colonial rule. Even today, the name evokes deep emotion among Indo-Surinamese communities. Family memories still speak of migrants carrying small copies of the Ramayana, tulsi leaves, or handfuls of soil from their villages—fragile symbols of a homeland they feared they might lose forever.
Life on the plantations was harsh. Labour was gruelling, discrimination pervasive, and survival uncertain. Yet these migrants preserved Bhojpuri songs, festivals, food traditions, and faith with extraordinary resilience. Temples emerged beside sugar plantations. Ramayana recitations continued after exhausting workdays. Cultural memory survived oceans and the empire.
Over generations, the descendants of these labourers became teachers, traders, politicians, professionals, and entrepreneurs, contributing significantly to the national life of Suriname and Guyana.
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Indian culture in Netherlands
History moved them once again after Suriname’s independence in 1975, when many Indo-Surinamese families migrated to the Netherlands. Starting often from modest circumstances, they rebuilt their lives through hard work and education. Today, the Indo-Dutch community is among the most successful and well-integrated migrant communities in Europe, contributing to Dutch public life in business, academia, healthcare, governance, technology, and the arts.
Yet India remains emotionally alive within the community. Hindi and Sarnami phrases survive in homes. Diwali illuminates Dutch cities. Weddings, music, cuisine, and rituals continue to carry echoes of ancestral villages left behind generations ago.
That is why recent diplomatic outreach has a deeper resonance. PM Modi’s visit to Guyana in 2024 and External Affairs Minister (EAM) S Jaishankar’s recent engagements with Suriname and the Netherlands reflect India’s growing recognition that diaspora communities are not merely cultural symbols, but living bridges between nations.
The Indo-Dutch community today can play an even greater role in strengthening India-Netherlands relations through education, technology, innovation, water management, healthcare, entrepreneurship, and cultural diplomacy. Rooted in both Europe and Indian civilisation, they are uniquely placed to connect two dynamic partners.
Their journey—from the decks of the Lalla Rookh to the cities of modern Europe—remains one of the most extraordinary stories of human perseverance in the modern world.
It reminds us that the strongest bridges between nations are often built not by governments alone, but by ordinary people who carry memory, culture, and hope across oceans and generations.
Dnyaneshwar Mulay is the Former Secretary and Ambassador of India. Views are personal.
(Edited by Saptak Datta)