coolie

originally used to define indentured labourers from asia (e.g chinese railway workers in the u.s. & canada, or east indian sugarcane workers in guyana). now used in the caribbean (primarily guyana & trinidad) to refer to anyone of east indian origin.
ehh bannuh…was which lil coolie gyal i deh see you husslin last week by de seawall?!?! sheh nice & thick!!
term referring to those of west indian descent who have spend years and many more years to come contemplating whether it is indeed chicken curry, or curried chicken.
trini: curried chicken!
guyanese: nah! it’s chicken curry!
all dem trini and guyanese people livin in the west indies with an indian/hindu decent
all de coolie gyals n bwoys
the word coolie is originated from the hindi word for baggage carrier. this term is -ssociated with and only with the indentured servants that came to guyana, trinidad & tobago, & jamaica from india. the word coolie can sometimes be mistaken for the word “dougla.” but a “dougla” is someone that is a mixed with both african and indian decent. a coolie is a person that is only of full blooded indian descent.
guyanese :
gyal : ay coolie bai wah yuh do ?
bai : nothing coolie gyal meh deh hea.

trini :
gyul : ay coolie bwoy, i tell yuh tuh put di ting ova der in di corna.
bwoy : coolie gyul ah do it.

jamaican :
gal : wha gwan dey rude bwoy.
bwoy : nuttin, we guh lock it up tonite.
usually referring to a person of west indian decent…aka from trinidad/guyana!!

cooliez run dem tings!!
a term used to refer to west-indian people of east-indian descent be it guyana (mostly), trinidad or jamaica. a derogatory term which other indo-jamaicans are proud to be called because they love being called their equivalent of “n-gg-r”.
mi is a jamaican gyal an mi nuh like wen dey call me coolie
coolie can be traced back to the hindi kûlî, qulî, meaning, “hired laborer.”literally means “bitterly hard (use of) strength”. the word “coolie” is also used commonly in the hindi language to refer to porters…in trinidad and tobago, guyana and other parts of the caribbean… the word was commonly used to denote any person of indian origin or descent. nowadays, it is often considered an offensive racial slur on par with “n-gg-r.” its use by non-indians is usually seen as extremely offensive, but it may be used by people of indian descent in a neutral or positive way.

therefore, i’d like to introduce an alternative term. indo-caribbeans. first, in defining “indo-caribbean-ness” one must consider what this term means in the context of the caribbean, verses here in canada. moreover, it is important to address indo-caribbeans by not only their race, culture, and ethnicity but also in terms of social, political, and economic contributions, which they had made in the countries they reside in.
the definition of “indo-caribbean-ness” must also avoid making ethnic and racial distinctions by fragmenting the term “indian-ness” and “caribbean-ness” as different, when in fact it, through the process of creolization, there is a fusion between the two. the word indo-caribbean is moreover, an academic term used to establish difference, and as result is not widely used by those in the caribbean—indians verses indo-caribbeans. hence, the term appears more frequently in communities like toronto, where it not only represents difference, but also unifies group members in establishments like the indo-caribbean world and ontario society serving indo-caribbean canadians (ossic). notably, the term continues to pr-nunciate through use in canada, acting to differentiate “us” from the “other,” where indo-caribbeans are distinctly not black-caribbeans, nor are they east-indians, pakistanis, or any other group, which they are easily misidentified as, and therefore put into isolated categories or “same-ness.”
are you coolie or indo-caribbean or both or does it matter?