Indian men, Afro‐creole women: ‘Casting’ doubt on interracial sexual relationships in the late nineteenth‐century Caribbean

Many Caribbeanists have attributed the limited social and sexual intercourse between Indian men and Afro‐creole women in areas of high Indian migration (such as Trinidad and British Guiana) during the nineteenth century to the prejudicial nature of the Hindu caste system. This article challenges this notion. It argues that there were structural factors, such as residential separation for example, which limited their social interaction. Moreover, it will demonstrate that scholars have overlooked the perspective of Afro‐creole women and have presented them as sexual objects to be had at the whims of Indian men when, in fact, these women had a decisive role in negotiating sexual relationships ‐ interracial or not ‐ and this was influenced by the earning power of potential spouses, existing stereotypes and cultural differences.