The vast majority of indentured labourers in Guyana came from North India, most notably the Bhojpur and Awadh regions in the Hindi Belt of the present-day states of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Jharkhand.

[3] Indian immigration to the British West Indies was triggered by Great Britain's decision in the 1830s to outlaw the enslavement of labour brought from Africa.

An example of deception related to labourers who signed to immigrate to Surinam; recruiters would pronounce the country as "Sri-Ram," which would be perceived as the names of two Hindu deities with complex but very positive connotations.

[4]: 105 In addition to having to deal with lack of freedoms, intense heat, and brutal working conditions, these indentured servants were largely met with hostility from the newly freed African population.

On 5 May 1988, a bronze sculpture of the Whitby, the ship which carried the first labourers to British Guiana, was presented to the people of Guyana by the Indian government.

Once their labor contracts expired, they resumed their original occupations and recreated near-typical traditional Indian village life in their adopted homeland.

[9] Indo-Guyanese Christians celebrate holidays such as New Year's, Christmas, Easter, Good Friday, Ash Wednesday, Epiphany, All Saints' Day and the Feast of Corpus Christi, among others and depending on their denomination.

Through colonial influence, celebrating holidays such as Diwali, Phagwah, Eid ul-Fitr, New Year's, Christmas, and Easter, is common regardless of religious beliefs.

Weddings are qualified by the number of people fed, and a basic meal of roti, rice and a vegetable curry is considered the bare minimum.

Indo-Guyanese snacks include sal sev (also called chicken foot due to appearance, although there is no actual meat in it),[14] gantia,[15] plantain chips,[16] roasted nuts, and fried channa.

[17] Appetizers and street foods include boil and fried or curried channa as well as bara, wrap roti, pholourie, and aloo (potato) or cassava/egg ball which are served with a chutney or sour.

Meat and seafood based main dishes include chicken, duck, goat, lamb, fish (especially hassa, gilbaka, banga mary, butterfish, houri, haimara, cuffum, cuirass, lukanani, patwa, pakoo, red snapper, as well as tinned salmon, tuna, and sardine), shrimp, crab, lobster, pork (except Muslims and some Hindus) and beef (except Hindus) curry or bunjal (a type of dried curry).

In Guyana, among the Indo-Guyanese people, it is popular to eat curried or fried vegetables such as okra, eddoe, breadnut, lablab beans, pumpkin, bitter melon, drumstick, long beans, calabash, potato, ridged gourd, sponged gourd, cassava, cabbage, cauliflower, green banana, green papaya, chickpeas, and eggplant.

Desserts include gulab jamun,[22] mohanbhog (parsad), gurma (gurumba),[23] ladoo,[24] mithai, panjeeri, jalebi, gulgula, doodhpitty,[25] barfi,[26] pera, halwa, gujiya (goja), roat, sirnie, falooda, badam lacha, lapsi, vermicelli (sawine),[27] and kheer (meetha bhat/sweet rice).

Many Bollywood stars have visited and performed in Guyana like megastars Shah Rukh Khan, Juhi Chawla, and Preity Zinta, also very popular singers such as Sonu Nigam, Asha Bhosle, Alka Yagnik, Shreya Ghoshal, Udit Narayan, Sunidhi Chauhan, Kumar Sanu, Hari Om Sharan, and Anup Jalota have had very successful shows in Guyana.

Popular local Indo-Caribbean singers include Sundar Popo, Terry Gajraj, Ramdew Chaitoe, Dropati, Ravi Bissambhar, Rakesh Yankaran, Rikki Jai, Drupatee Ramgoonai, and Babla & Kanchan.

Indian instrumental influence can be seen in Guyana through the use of the tabla, harmonium, dholak, dhantal, manjira, sitar, khartal, and tassa drums.

[29] Indo-Guyanese literature includes novels, poetry, plays and other forms written by people born or strongly affiliated with Guyana, who are descendants of indentured Indian servants.

The Indo-Guyanese who remained in India settled in villages and in cities like Prayagraj, Varanasi, Lucknow, Kanpur, Basti, Gorakhpur, Azamgarh, Ballia, Chhapra, Faizabad, Patna, Chennai, Visakhapatnam, and Kolkata.