Diaspora determined to keep Indian culture, traditions alive in Trinidad
Port of Spain: Interacting with the Indian Diaspora on the sidelines of the 21st Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) here, the feeling that comes out is that they are extremely proud and have fond memories of India, its culture and traditions, despite years and decades of living away from
their motherland. This feeling came out strongly during the reception hosted by
the Indian High Commission for Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh on the eve of
the CHOGM Summit. Devendra Duggal, President of the Gurudwara Sahib in Trinidad
and Tobago and former Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture, Trinidad
and Tobago, said there were just ten Sikh families in Port of Spain. He said there
was just one Gurudwara in the Tunapuna area, a two storied air-conditioned building.
"There is no granthi, but they follow all customs and traditions. The gurdwara
has been there for 80 years," Duggal said, adding that the Prime Minister, his
wife and daughter are planning to visit there today. Winston Dookeran, a political
leader and an economist, is a third generation Trinidadian. He said he has a sense
of pride that Dr. Manmohan Singh was here in Port of Spain. "Indians may have
lost touch with the language, but not with the culture and traditions," Dookeran
said. His wife Shirley Dookeran said that the Indian Diaspora has preserved Indian
culture for several generations. Their children have gone abroad, but they have
the wealth of both traditions Indian and Trinidadian, she added. Earlier, expressing
his delight at attending a reception for the community hosted by High Commissioner
Malay Mishra, Dr. Singh said he was happy to be here to participate in the CHOGM.
He said that whenever he meets people of Indian origin around the world, he celebrated
not only India's pluralism, but also its great civilisational inheritance. "Indianness
is like a large and all-encompassing banyan tree. It offers shade to everyone
who comes in search of it. It has deep roots at home and branches that in turn
go to great distances and strike roots there," adding the Indian community in
Trinidad and Tobago has "demonstrated the unique liberalism and pluralism of Indian
civilization" by successfully blending Indian culture and values with the local
cultural and social environment. Stating that India was on the move and reaching
out to the world with confidence and in a spirit of live and let live, Dr. Singh
said: "You (NRIs and PIOs) are, for millions of Indians, the most visible symbol
of our own globalisation." If the 21st century is being projected as the "Knowledge
Century", Dr. Singh said India today is viewed as a "Knowledge Economy" because
of the reputation that the people of Indian origin worldwide have earned through
their creativity and diligence. Indians, he said, have travelled the world as
both traders and teachers, and at one time in history, were the envy of the world.
But, in the last twenty to thirty years, Indians have lost ground both because
we failed to incentivise our institutions to become global players and because
foreign universities became more aggressive in marketing. Trinidad and Tobago
is little India in the Caribbean, with around 41 percent of its population of
ethnic Indian origin, and an equal percentage of African origin. They are descendants
of immigrants from India who went there when it was a British colony to work in
the plantations there after the abolition of African slavery. Starting from 1845,
around 147,600 Indians went to Trinidad over a 70-year period traveling by boats
for 36,000 kilometers,. Many died on the way. Most of them went from the present
Uttar Pradesh and Bihar States on a 10-year contract but very few could return.
What is remarkable is that, unlike other countries like Guyana, ethnic Indians
in Trinidad held onto their culture, establishing temples, masjids and a gurudwara,
patterned on their Indian replicas. When they left the shores of India, some carried
with them copies of the Tulsidas Ramayana, the Hanuman Chalisa, and the Bhagwad
Gita. The Muslims had with them copies of the Quoran in Urdu. These helped them
to hold on to their religion. Hinduism for most of the Trinidadians today is derived
from the Tulsidas Ramayana. The island had around 100 families of non-resident
Indians, mostly professionals - doctors, engineers and the like. Ispat, owned
by Laxmi Mittal, who is now one of the richest persons across the globe, employed
many of them. Laxmi Mittal took over an ailing steel plant around 1990 and has
now developed a non-oil industrial complex. Later the Essar group won a contract
to build a 1.2 billion steel plant. Indian goods are popular, but the cost is
prohibitive. The complaint, often heard, was that the Government of India did
not have any facility to transport them to the Caribbean region. The university
in the island is associated with Indian counterparts like Manipal and promotes
specialized courses. The people of Trinidad are also keen to come to India for
higher studies-including study of religion, to become 'qualified' teachers in
religious institutions in the island territory. Ethnic Indians have earned a name
for themselves, the foremost being V.S. Naipaul. Today, many Trinidadians have
become doctors and engineers and occupy important positions in the island territory
and in the United States and Canada.
