Garden Reach: A statue of a couple carrying a sack of belongings each stands on the bank of the Hooghly, a stark monument to the indentured labourers crammed into a ship that had set sail from there in 1873 to reach the former Dutch colony of Suriname.

Called the Mai Baap statue, it is a replica of the original monument of the same name in Parimaribo, the capital of Suriname on the east Atlantic coast.

Minister of state for external affairs M.J. Akbar on Saturday unveiled a Dutch plaque on the base of the Mai Baap statue in Suriname Ghat during an event coinciding with the tiny nation's Independence Day. The memorial previously had plaques in English, Hindi, Bengali and Suriname.

"The word 'indentured labour' hides the inherent exploitation of these poor workers. They were taken as replacement slaves and not employees. They were cheated... thaga diya. They had been told that they could come back after five years. But that was not to be," Akbar said, harking back to February 26, 1873.

That was the day a ship named Lalla Rookh set sail from the jetty of the Calcutta port, carrying 400 labourers, most of them from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. They were being taken to Suriname to work in the sugar plantations there.

The ship reached its destination on June 5, a day that is since observed in Suriname as "Indian Arrival Day".

Sixty-four more ships would sail to the South African, African, Caribbean colonies after that historic first trip, carrying millions of indentured labourers.

The gathering at Suriname Ghat on Saturday included the Surinamese ambassador Aashna Kanhai, herself a descendant of indentured labourers. She said the labourers had left Indian shores with just two pairs of clothes and a copy each of the Hanuman Chalisa and the Bhagwad Gita.

Kanhai said India's relationship with the former Dutch colony had since undergone a sea change.

The focus has shifted from exploitation to reconnecting with the huge Indian diaspora and "strengthening the bond" through various programmes.

Dutch ambassador Alphonsus Stoelinga recalled that slavery being abolished in 1816 was the trigger for the influx of indentured labourers to the colonies.

"This created a huge demand for cheap labour in the plantations. In 1871, the Dutch bought recruitment from British India," he said.

On Lalla Rookh, Stoelinga said the name of the ship came from the eponymous poem by Thomas Moore that speaks of the love of the tulip-cheeked princess of Aurangzeb.