Shantie Singh over Hindostanen en de erfenis van het kolonialisme

After the Comma - Hindustanis and the Legacy of Colonialism

Shantie Singh

In its apology for the slavery past, the Dutch government used a comma, not a period. Shantie Singh fills in the rest of the sentence: yes, slavery was abolished 150 years ago, but a new chapter in the colonial story began: the recruitment of contract workers from British India (present-day India and Pakistan) to replace slave labor, in order to keep the plantations in Suriname running.

What happened in Suriname after the slavery past should not be forgotten. On June 5, 1873, the first ship with contract laborers arrived. Shantie Singh shows how the colonial mentality persisted, and how it continues to affect the Hindustani people in the Netherlands to this day. In doing so, she sheds light on the heroes, resistance fighters, pioneers and feminists of this history. After the Comma is a passionate and personal plea for more recognition and visibility of the Hindustani story in the Netherlands.

Shantie Singh (1982) published the novels Vervoering and De kier, co-wrote the manifesto Optimistische wraak as a member of the feminist writing collective Fixdit and wrote stories and essays for the collections De komeet and Dat wij zangen. In 2024 she created the performance Her (s)tories – an ode to the women from the Hindustani migration history. Her pieces have been published in de Volkskrant, Trouw, De Gids, Tirade and Algemeen Dagblad, among others.