Read the passage from Sugar Changed the World.The arkatis (recruiters) who were hired by shipping companies were Indians themselves; they knew villagers would not want to cross the water. But they also knew where there were hungry, desperate people. So they fanned out to the countryside and began to look for strong men. Bharath, who was about to leave for Trinidad, later explained how that happened. His version of English is hard to understand, but it is how the Indians began to speak on the islands. "E no tell e I go chinedad you know . . . e no tell e no come back, e no greet mumma fadder again." ("He did not tell me I was going to Trinidad, you know. He didn't tell me I would never come back, or never see my mother and father again.")
Read the passage from Sugar Changed the World.And yet, for all the hardships and prejudice, most Indians decided to stay in the colonies even after their contracts ended. By the end of the 1800s, only a quarter of the indentures sailed back to India after their five years were over. Sometimes this was because they were still too poor. Others told tales of returning only to be spurned by their villages for having broken caste or to be preyed upon by relatives who stole their money. Most of those who stayed in the New World, though, chose to do so because it offered a new life. And in the late 1800s, the authorities began to make a new offer to Indian workers. If they remained in the Caribbean, they could get a small plot of land of their own. After putting in their time in sugar, they could begin to farm for themselves.
Read the passage from Sugar Changed the World.Indians were supposed to work seven hours each day, and to be paid a set fee for each day's work. But the planters instead preferred to pay by the "task''—they insisted that they wouldn't pay a worker until he had completed a specific job. Of course the owner would pick a job that took much more than seven hours, so a worker's day stretched from sunup to sundown. Bechu showed that this was illegal and unfair: "There are lots of indentured men who work by time and have drivers at their backs all day long." Yet, even then, they "do not earn'' the amount specified in their contracts.Several planters wrote back to the paper, furious at the suggestion that they were cheating the coolies. The letters were black with rage—at the Indian who dared to speak up and question the ethics of Englishmen. When a commission was convened in 1897 to investigate the conditions on the estates, Bechu—the Indian the planters hated—came before the judges to share his evidence.
Which question should a reader ask to identify an author's purpose?
Read the passage from Sugar Changed the World.Gandhi began to see that there was a way for the indentured Indians to strengthen themselves without having to rely on machetes and guns. Freedom, he realized, did not come only from rising up against oppressors or tyrants. It could also be found in oneself. The mere fact that the sugar masters treated their workers as some form of property did not mean the Indians had to accept that definition. In fact, it was up to them to claim, to assert, their own worth, their own value. A man who had his inner, personal dignity was free—no matter how a boss tried to bully him. Gandhi’s years in South Africa became a laboratory, as he experimented with how to be a truthful, free person. Finally, he was ready to put his ideas into practice.
What is an author's claim?
Read the passage from Sugar Changed the World.Workers could not leave the plantation unless they had a pass. And if they did decide to explore on their own, without permission, they could be thrown in jail, sentenced to hard labor, or lose some of their hard-earned wages. A charge of "idling" in the fields could result in the loss of a whole week's wages. Worse, if they dared rebel or protest, their contract could be transferred to another estate. And there were still complaints of flogging or mysterious deaths. Life, as the historian Hugh Tinker noted, was like being a prisoner on parole.
Read the passage from Sugar Changed the World.A fire was lit in a giant iron cauldron, and the certificates of 2,300 Indians were tossed into the flames—the first major act of Satyagraha. "I am not property," the Indians were showing. "I am not your victim," they were demonstrating. "I have the power of my conscience," they were proving. The quiet strength of the Indian community shook the South African government. And by June 1914 it gave in; the Black Act was taken off the books. The Indians had insisted that they were not mere workers but were citizens—and finally the government could not resist.
Read the passage from Sugar Changed the World.Sugar turned human beings into property, yet sugar led people to reject the idea that any person could be owned by another. Sugar murdered millions, and yet it gave the voiceless a way to speak. Sugar crushed people, and yet it was because of sugar that Gandhi began his experiment in truth—so that every individual could free him- or herself. Only sugar—the sweetness we all crave—could drive people to be so cruel, and to combat all forms of cruelty. The craving for sugar took us from that ancient time when people were defined by the work of their ancestors to our modern world—the one Gandhi led us to see, in which each individual is valued as human. Though terrible conditions for sugar workers still exist in places such as the Dominican Republic, and cane sugar has been replaced by other sweeteners invented in the Age of Science, this one substance forever marked our history.
Which type of evidence would most likely include a testimonial?
Did you find these answers helpful?