The major difficulties in the encounter between Indians and western law in Trinidad arose from clashes of values. This was revealed in the preference for the claims of capital over those of labor, especially immigrant labor. Also, the law apparently placed greater value on individual than on joint endeavor. In the latter context, the Christian bias of the content of western law was obvious, promoting to some extent an "underground" existence among Indians in which certain laws were deliberately broken; for example, a shopkeeper in the Indian villages would sell liquor on Sundays, even though this was against the trading laws. The development of an underground culture of Indian institutions and structures closely associated with their religious and social practices was facilitated by the settlement in free villages of Indians who had completed their indentures. The Indians constructed a parallel legal process as a means of affirming a culture that differed from that reflected in the law of the dominant minority. 25 notes