Indian women in the colonies did not easily or willingly submit to these designs.

UNLIKE most contemporary research on women's history, this paper seeks not simply to reclaim past glory. It seeks rather to correct the strongly adhered-to myths and untrue generalisations about the character of immigrant Indian women which prevail in the commonsense understanding of history in Tinidad and Tobago. This 'commonsense historical tradition as far as Indian women are concerned has led to the commonly-held views that (1) the Indians unlike the Africans migrated as families and as a result of this and other reasons the Indian family system could be continuously maintained in its traditional fashion, and (2) that the Indian