AH challenge: More "Trinidadised" Caribbean and American countries

[Hendryk]

Trinidad-and-Tobago is an interesting case of a former plantation economy whose largest ethnic group is descended from East Indian indentured labourers rather than African slaves. So by "Trinidadisation", I mean the importation of large numbers of East Indian workers as a cheap alternative to chattel slavery, to the point where their descendants form a plurality of the host country's population by the present day and noticeably influences its culture. Bonus points if you can find a plausible way to do it in the Southern US states.

 

[JesterBL]

Part of it is a law of small numbers- Trinidad, like Suriname (which is the other example in the Americas), is a very small country, which means it can produce extreme results. And even then, in both examples East Indian ancestry is a scant plurality (in Suriname, its almost a technicality as Afro-Surinamese are divided as Maroons and Creoles).

I can think of, really, two PODs that could help you along- continued preference towards British colonies on sugar duties or a delayed introduction of high yielding sugar beets. Either gets you greater demand for labor in Caribbean sugar.

 

[Indicus]

Mauritius (far away from the Caribbean, but it was a plantation economy) is another example of that, where people of Indian ethnicity make up 66% of the population.

There was a period where Fiji had an Indo-Fijian majority, but following the 1987 and 2000 coups, which brought nativists to power, mass emigration changed that. If that doesn’t happen, Fiji could retain its Indo-Fijian majority, but ethnic politics would be extremely nasty.

IIRC Selangor, a constituent state of Malaysia, had an Indian plurality (but a very small one) before World War II for the same reason. Perhaps you could see more of that in Malaysia, especially if for whatever reason Chinese labor cannot be brought in. On the other hand, I wonder if that might result in a move to integrate Indian Muslims (and others) into Malay identity to establish a Malay plurality.

Part of it is a law of small numbers- Trinidad, like Suriname (which is the other example in the Americas), is a very small country, which means it can produce extreme results. And even then, in both examples East Indian ancestry is a scant plurality (in Suriname, its almost a technicality as Afro-Surinamese are divided as Maroons and Creoles).

Suriname also has a sizeable Javanese minority, brought in as indentured servants for the same reason. East Indians and Javanese people together make up a near-majority. Which is another thing that makes Suriname a special case.