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2026, Funded by stimuleringsfonds  (dutch creative industry)

SELF-INITIATED AND SELF-DESIGNED PROJECT,  Sep 2026 - sep 2027

Context 
The period of 1975 - 1980 witnessed mass movement of Surinamese people to the Netherlands after they gained independence from the Netherlands on November 25, 1975 [1]. Many of these were Indians who were indentured labourers transported from mainland India to work the plantations in Suriname. Before this, there were only 500 Indian families living in Holland [2]. The Lalla Rukh carried the first Indians to Suriname on 5th June, 1873. The Lalla Rukh was followed by seven more ships and 32,000 Indians were transported to Suriname before indentureship was abolished [3]. Today, the Netherlands is home to 225,000 Indians, with approximately 200,000 of whom are Indo-Surinamese. The Indian diaspora in the Netherlands is now the largest in continental Europe and also a significant part of the Indian diaspora worldwide [4]. 


[1] Fokken, M. (2018). Beyond being koelies and kantráki: Constructing Hindostani identities in Suriname in the Era of Indenture, 1873-1921. Rijksuniversiteit Groningen.   
[2] Madan, B. N. (1999). Indians in the Netherlands: A profile. In R. L. Lakhina, V. V. Moharir, & H. U. Qureshi (Eds.), Fifty years of Indo-Dutch cooperation: A commemorative volume. Leidschendam: The Foundation for Critical Choices for India.  
[3] Kotin, I. (2008). Double migrants, diversity and diasporas: A snapshot of the Hindustani and non-resident Indian community in the Netherlands. IIAS Newsletter, 47.  
[4] Embassy of the Netherlands. (n.d.). Indian community in Netherlands. Retrieved June 20, 2025. 



Method - To access information and formulate a basis of knowledge to start the project, archival research, critical fabulative writing and object design will be the main methods used in the project. Critical fabulative writing as a method will be equipped as a design tool to create narratives and give created narratives and collected information a tangible form. 
 Central research question - How can documentation of Indo-Surinamese migration found in archives be creatively activated through critical fabulation? How can these narratives create a starting point for designing which can then enable a diverse audience to reconnect to the themes of coloniality, identity, culture and belonging?



Historical inquiry - What traces of Indo-Surinamese migration between India, Suriname, and the Netherlands remain in archives in the Netherlands and India?

 Creative inquiry - How do colonial bureaucratic documentation shape and transform the shifting meanings of identity, culture, belonging and citizenship? What history is missing from the indenture documents and what can critical fabulation and object design provide to these missing histories?
Writing inquiry - In what ways can critical fabulation enable the creation of diverse narratives that “fill in” the gaps of history. How can this be written and presented as an examination of the opressive complexities of recorded colonial histories? 
 Design inquiry -  How can designed objects embody the fabulated narratives and archival data of into an exhibition that can be experienced by a diverse audience?



The project is currently in progress.

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