Prime Minister Modi said he was deeply honoured to receive Guyana’s highest national award, the Order of Excellence. He thanked the people of Guyana for the honour. Shri Modi dedicated the award in honour of the 1.4 billion Indians and the 3 lakh Indo-Guyanese community and their contribution to Guyana’s development. Indo-Guyanese or Guyana Indians are Guyanese citizens of Indian origin who trace their ancestry to India and the wider subcontinent. They are descendants of indentured labourers who migrated from India in 1838. They are a subset of the Indo-Caribbean people.
The vast majority of indentured labourers in Guyana came from North India, particularly the Bhojpur and Awadh regions in the Hindi Belt of present-day Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Jharkhand. A significant minority also came from Southern India. Among the immigrants, there were also labourers from other parts of South Asia. Most Indians came as contract labourers, driven by the effects of political upheaval, the Revolt of 1857 and famine during the 19th century. Others of higher social status came as merchants, landowners and farmers.
A large Indo-Guyanese diaspora community is also found in countries such as the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom.
