An epic story of the struggle of the Indo-Caribbean people. From the 1830s through World War I hundreds of thousands of indentured labourers were shipped from India to the Caribbean and settled in the former British, Dutch, French and Spanish colonies. Like their predecessors, the African slaves, they laboured on the sugar estates. Unlike the Africans their status was ambiguous - not actually enslaved yet not entirely free - they fought mightily to achieve power in their new home. Today in the English-speaking Caribbean alone there are one million people of Indian descent and they form the majority in Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago. This study, based on official documents and archives, as well as material from British, Indian and Caribbean sources, seeks to fill a major gap in the history of the Caribbean, Indian, British and European colonialism. It also contributes to the history of diaspora and migration.