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History, culture and agriculture - Editorial

The imminent closure of Caroni (1975) Limited ends a long chapter in the cultural history of
Indians in Trinidad and Tobago.
The theme of this edition of our magazine is History,
Culture and Agriculture.
The magazine seeks to explore
the connections
between agriculture
and food production
as they relate to the history and culture of East Indians in
the Caribbean. Cultural practices and traditions influence
attitudes to land, cultivation
techniques,
tool technology,
crop rotation, and choice of crops grown. Anthropologists
have argued that policy planners need to know that cultural
concerns arc central to the achievement
of biodiversity,
sustainable development
and food security.
Wherever the history of Indians in the Caribbean
is
written, the one constant factor of their daily lives that
persists through time and space is their predisposition
to
agriculture. The reality is that agriculture,
even in its
smallest scale, has historically
informed the lifestyle of
Indians. Even to this day, there is hardly an Indian home
that is without flora and fauna derived from the ancestral
homeland.
When one considers the fact that the indentured status
in the West Indies was due to a demand for. labour in the
sugarcane estates, it is easy to see that the cultural history
of Indians is veritably
a history of agriculture
in the
islands. The reality of that history is that the majority of
households
in the
post-indentureship
period
were
supported by agricultural
activities. These activities were
an extension of the sugarcane
plantation
culture,
and
ranged from the cultivation
of cocoa and rice to animal
husbandry. Such a culture was well in keeping with the
lifestyle of the ex-indentured
immigrant labourers. Their
preoccupation
with agriculture
gave them psychological
therapy for the home-sickness
from which they suffered as
a result from being away from their native India.
Indeed, it is the sugarcane
plantations
that had the
greatest impact on the culture of Indians. When sugarcane
cultivation was vested in the Tate and Lyle establishment
in the 1960s, the lives of Indians in Trinidad continued to
revolve around agriculture in the estate villages.
As such,
areas from Chaguanas to as far as Princess Town owe their
development to the sugarcane industry. Much of the seed
money for businesses in these areas sprouted from savings
from work in the fields. The other aspect of the culture that
persisted was the investment by parents who worked in the
fields and saved for their children's education.
In the 1970s. Tate and Lyle gave way to Caroni (1975)
Limited. Today, Caroni
has become
an agricultural
monolith employing about 9,000 workers on 77,000 acres
of land. Caroni
is engaged
not only in sugarcane
cultivation, but also in animal husbandry,citrus
cultivation,
rice farming, and fresh water fish propagation. The painful
reality of it, however, is that the monolith will soon be
destroyed by the dynamics of a new political regime,

business
consideration,
and a shift
in the cultural
paradigm.
There is the common claim that Caroni is a
"drain to the treasury" and should, therefore, be shut down.
But University
(UWI) lecturer and Chairman of Caroni
(1975) Limited Dr.Kusha
Haraksingh
argues: "This is a
metaphor
I find very difficult
to understand"
and the
problem is related to the "failure of proper accounting."
In
other cane-growing
countries, the price of producing sugar
is the least concern. The value of growing cane is in its by:'
products like chemicals and fuel.
The imminent closure of Caroni (1975) Limited ends a
long chapter in the cultural history of Indians in Trinidad
and Tobago. By June 2003, Caroni is set to become a relic
of the past. The agricultural
bastion will crumble and give
way for an industrial
culture
through
a "voluntary"
separation
plan for all employees.
This change
is
exceedingly
traumatic
for all whose navel strings are
buried in the sugarcane soil. Such change entails serious
social, economic and cultural concerns for the Indian as
well as the wider community.
Prominent
among these
concerns is the nation's future food security.
As it stands,
the nation's food import bill already reflects an alarming
foreign dependence.
As the plan for the transformation
of Caroni (1975)
Limited
unfolds,
questions
are still not being clearly
answered.
How much land, for example, will remain in
sugarcane cultivation?
How much of Caroni land will be
diverted to non-cane agricultural cultivation?
What portion
of the land will go to houses, factories, malls and stores?
Who are going to be the new settlers and workers of
Caroni land? Would the transformation
of Caroni reduce
the heavy import bill on foreign food? Professor Nazir
Ahamad and Dr Ranjit Singh of UWI have argued that the
soil in Caroni is suited, in the main, just for sugarcane.
The authors are responsible for the content of their articles.
The opinions expressed therein are not necessari Iy those of
the publisher.
ICC is an independent non-profit educational organisation
recognised by the Government of Trinidad and Tobago. It is
dedicated to publishing two magazines a year - a Divali souvenir
magazine. and an Indian Arrival Day commemorative magazine.
Dr Kumar Mahabir. Editor and Chairman
Indo-Caribbean Cultural Council (ICC)
E-l1laiI: mahab((l)tsn.net.tt
Tl.'I~(868) 675-7707 Tel/fax: (868) 674-6008.
Cover depicts an Indian water buffalo carting cane at a weighing.
station in Debe, Trinidad. 2003. Cover design by Preddie Partap.

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Prime Minister
Republic of Trinidad and Tobago
Indian Arrival Day Greetings

On behalf of the Government and People of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, I wish to extend greetings to the
National Community as we celebrate Indian Arrival Day, 2003.
It is now IS8 years since the arrival of the first group of East Indian immigrants aboard the Fath AI Razak. The
subsequent evolution of the East Indian community in Trinidad and Tobago has proven to be a constructive engagement.
Our people of East Indian descent continue to make an invaluable contribution to the development of our nation, and we
are grateful for the preservation and passing on of various aspects of their traditions, cultural norms and institutions.
Appreciably, too, as with other groups among us, there have been many positive adjustments and adaptations, so much so
that after more than one and one half centuries our East Indian fellow citizens are as integrated as any other into all
aspects of our national life.
It is indeed remarkable and to be commended therefore, the extent to which East Indians in Trinidad and Tobago have
joined other groups, largely of immigrant background themselves, in working out a model plural society in which for the
most part our institutions are increasingly being shared and relations are growing more and more connected and positively
inextricable.
Today, rare is the citizen who does not feel or see himself or herself as part of our nation. This is not to say that there are
no challenges. Notwithstanding that these are commori to groups living in plural societies, the people of Trinidad and
Tobago have long been exceptional and exemplary in the manner in which we have been forging before the world one
nation out of the disparate social elements bequeathed by our colonial experience.
The people of our beloved country have long been more united than this and we can only sell ourselves short with any
such approach, having already progressed far beyond that stage. After so many years of integration and interaction
following our various arrivals we are now at that point where our ethnic diversity, for example, should be cherished for
the colour, quality, character, resilience and strength that it can and has provided for our nation.
Let us therefore celebrate Indian Arrival Day this year as a nation in which all our people have truly come to terms with
the fact of our diversity. Let us show ourselves as a nation fully appreciative of the merits of our cosmopolitan make-up
and determined to demonstrate to the world that groups of different backgrounds can both live together and progress in
peace and harmony, on the basis of genuine understanding, appreciation, and love and respect for each other.
Does not the Ramayana exhort us as follows?
Jahaa sumatee tahaa sampatee nana.
Through unity, prosperity and progress flourishes unceasingly.

Patrick Manning

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MINISTRY

OF CULTURE AND TOURISM

51-55 Frederick Street
Pori of Spain
Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, West Indies

Congratulations to the East Indian Community on the occasion oflndian Arrival Day 2003.
The East Indian community has made an invaluable contribution to the development of Trinidad and Tobago.
You came to this island more than one hundred and fifty years ago from Mother India, bringing to Trinidad a
new religion, rich cultural traditions, and strong value systems, and lifestyle. You have risen above what many
could deem insurmountable challenges.
Hardworking, committed to family and knowing the value of thrift and self sacrifice, the East Indian community
has made, and continue to make, significant achievements in all fields, be it health, business, finance, education,
or agriculture.
You have made an immense contribution to the development of agriculture in Trinidad, ensuring that Trinidad
remains one of the food basket countries in the Caribbean.
The East Indian community has blessed this country with a unique and rich cultural heritage and traditions,
value and lifestyle.
As we strive towards developed country status as enunciated in our VISION 2020, this government values and
embraces the commitment of the East Indian community in building Trinidad and Tobago.
On behalf of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, and by extension the government of Trinidad and Tobago, I
extend congratulations to the Indo-Caribbean Cultural Council, our East Indian sisters and brothers and the
people of our beloved Republic best wishes on the occasion oflndian Arrival Day 2003.

The Honourable Pennel ope Beckles

Minister of Culture and Tourism
Trinidad and Tobago

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Celebrating

our Indian identity

By Vishnu Bissram
There are 20 million of us flung far around the globe. The Caribbean alone has 1.5 million;
the U.S., another 1.75 million.
By the time you read this column, I would have
already gone to the Indian Diaspora
Conference
representing Indo-Caribbeans from New York to celebrate
our identity as a people at the India Day, or Pravasi
Bharitya Divas, conference in New Delhi. This is the first
of what will be annual conferences to honor Indians
around the globe for promoting better relations and
understanding between India and the diaspora.
The conference will explore the depth, variety and
achievements of the diaspora not only in the business
sphere, but also in the media, culture, education,
entertainment, philanthropy, science and technology. The
organizers say that it is a genuine attempt by India to
create a policy framework for sustained and productive
interaction with India and acquaint them on its problems
and expectations from India and also to provide an
opportunity for members of the Indian Diaspora to
network and build relationships.
It is exhilarating to belong to the Indian Diaspora. The
organizers say there are 20 million of us flung far around
the globe. The Caribbean alone has 1.5 million; the U.S
another 1.75 million. The Indian government finally
awoke to our existence as Indians; it is better late than
never.
The conference
is a too-Iong-in-coming
acknowledgement by India of people of Indian origin
around the world. But the Indian government seems
sincere in saying that it wants to join in celebrating our
identity centuries after we left the motherland.
There is nothing inherently wrong in celebrating one's
identity. Every nationality or ethnic group is asserting its
own unique identity and its members are celebrating who
they are as a people. Some countries have even given their
nationals living in other countries "the right to return", i.e.,
to go back to.their home country at any time.
But many Indians, especially those currently in or were
in government in Guyana and Trinidad are running away
from their identity although they exploit race to get votes.
Some do so because they want to appease the other races
that they are not really Indians. Others run away from
their identity because of years of neglect by India. They
became fed up of Mother India leaving them to fend for
themselves at the hands of wolves especially in Guyana,
Fiji and parts of Africa. Lately, most of us fourth and fifth
generation descendants of Indians have developed a
healthy disassociation from India but, still tune in to the
latest Indian movies and songs. The preservation of our
Indian identity has been assisted
by Bollywood,
importation of Indian goods, and the highly polarized
political environment defined by race.

Many Indo-Caribbeans are also going back to their

roots and visiting the mother land as tourists. Every year
for the last fifteen years, dozens of Indo-Caribbeans visit
India. Those who are running away from their identity
seem to have forgotten that others define us and no matter
how hard we try to deny our roots; we can't escape the fact
of who we are as a people.
In the U.S, everyone is a hyphen-American (Italian,
Jewish, Mexican, Polish, African, Irish, etc.). We can't run
away from our identity and as such I am proud of
belonging to this ethnic group called "Indians." And as
such the primary reason why I am heading to India as a
guest of the government to celebrate Pravasi Bharitya
Divas.
It is a pity that not many Indo-Caribbeans are going to
the conference; out of an estimated 2000, only 100 will be
Indo-Caribbeans.
The stalwarts of the Indo-Caribbean
struggle like Ravi Dev, Baytoram Ramharack, Yassan
Ramracha, Devant Maharaj, Kumar Mahabir, Kamal
Persad will not be at the convention; the government of
India could not find funds to bring them to India but find
funds to send for traitors. It is also sad to see that while the
government in Trinidad can find funds to send a sizeable
Indian delegation to celebrate their identity in India, the
Indian government in Guyana cannot find money to send a
significant delegation
of Indians to celebrate
their
Indianness in the land of their forefathers; incidentally, the
Indian government is the largest donor of aid per capita to
Guyana. The Indian government has paid the costs for
some of the participants. But several of these honored
guests have had a history of running away from their
Indian identity.
They have been the ones who unhesitatingly say they
are not Indians but Trinidadian, Guyanese, etc., yet they
always depended on Indian votes to get into government.
The Indian government should have paid the costs for and
honored the true nationalistic Indians. It is hoped that the
government will do a better job in its selection of honored
guests in future conferences. In spite of the shortcomings,
the Pravasi conference provides a unique opportunity to
rub shoulders with fellow Indians to establish contacts
with brethren around the globe and rediscover our roots.

Vishnu Bissram is based in New York and is the

director ofNACTA polling service.

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OPENING MONSAT

Kumar Mahabir
Written as a textbook for secondary schools
and as a collector's item for persona) pleasure
Caribb~att Ittbiatt folldal~s is an
interesting, authentic and useful book. It is the
first and largest collection of its kind to be
written in the original language of the
storytellers. The tales were tape-recorded in
English and transcribed with little or no editing
so as to maintain the rhythm of the narration.
~is
book consists of a collection of 25
stories which have been passed down from
generation to generation by word of mouth
from India to the Caribbean over a century and
a half. The tales were collected from traditionbearers in Trinidad, Guyana, Jamaica, St. Lucia
and Grenada since 1980.
This book is a valuable document of our language and
cultural practices.
-Professor Vibert C. Cambridge, Ph.D., Chair,
Department of African American Studies,
Ohio University.
It represents a major contribution
to the cultural
heritage of the Caribbean.
-R. Michael Ballantyne,
Founder and Past President of
The British Columbia Folklore Society, Canada.
Dr. Mahabir continues his brave effort in reconstructing
artifacts of Indo-Caribbean
culture which may
otherwise have disappeared.
-Dr Frank Birbalsingh, Professor of English,
York University.

Kumar
Mahabir
has
been
an
English/Literature teacher/lecturer for over
fifteen years in Trinidad and Tobago. He
received his BA and M.Phil degrees in English
from the University of the West Indies. He later
received his Ph.D. in Anthropology from the
Universityof Florida.

Caribb~a11111bial1 Fo1ktal~s
Collected by Kumar Mahabir
Colour Illustrations by

Angali Dabideen & Preddie Partap

English text.
San Juan, Trinidad and Tobago:
Chakra Publishing House.
2002. xi + 200 pp.
Glossary, index.
TT$40 or US$20 (includes postage)
Paperback. 14 x 21 cm.
ISBN 976-8180-20-0

Order copies by communicating to

Chakra Publishing House (Caribbean)
LP 52, Swami Avenue, Don Miguel Road,
San Juan, Trinidad and Tobago,
West Indies.
Tel (868) 674-6008, 675-7707.
E-mail: mahab@tstt.net.tt

Opposition against Indian Indentureship

By Gerard Besson

Despite the fact that the Indians, through dint of hard work, had solved the colony's financial
situation forty or fifty years before, reformed militants generated false notions about them.
Neilson's
Island, calIed Nelson Island, was a
quarantine depot through which tens of thousands of
Indians, possibly alI Indians, passed on their way to the
various estates where they would spend the next five years
or, in some cases, the rest of their lives. Like ElIis Island in
the United States, it was their first disembarkation and
their first encounter with natives of their host country.
Gregory Duruty, who lived to a great age, worked in his
youth in the Colonial Secretary's office and was aware of
the arrival of the last of the indentured Indians to come to
Trinidad aboard the S.S. Ganges in 1917. Duruty arrived
on Nelson Island with a camera and a gramophone and
took pictures, capturing a unique moment when cultures
clashed.
They, the newly arrived, had never seen these new
devices-a machine that produced musical sounds, and as
for the camera, they had no idea what it was. Interestingly,
the record that Gregory played that day was the worldfamous Rudy Valley singing "1 ain't got nobody and
nobody cares for me." This refrain, ironically, was played
over and over as the young Indian girls danced and
arranged and re-arranged the hair of Gregory's friends,
young Trinidadian women. The Indian men stood in rows
for their photographs to be snapped. The significance of
the words of the song may welI have been lost on alI of
them, and the significance of the occasion, it being the last
of the indentured to arrive in Trinidad, hardly grasped.
Such is the naivete of beginnings on the one hand and the
enormity of an ending on the other!
The transportation of a total of 143, 939 persons to
Trinidad from India over a period from 1845 to 1917
radically altered the ethnic composition of Trinidad's
population. Already, the nature of the island's population
had been very different from the other islands of the
Caribbean that had fallen into the hands of the British at
the end of the Napoleonic wars. Tobago and Barbados, for
example, had a population made up almost entirely of
people of African descent, and a small English contingent
of planters, merchants and administrators,
the vast
majority of whom were transients.
In Trinidad, however, the population in 1845 consisted
of a coloured black middle class aspiring towards
respectability, resident French, some resident English,
Spanish people left over from the previous century, some
Chinese, arriving Portuguese, Italians, Germans, Irish, a
few Jews, the newly freed slaves, and Africans taken off
slave ships bound for Brazil and set free in Trinidad. With
the sustained influx of East Indians from a variety of castes
and backgrounds, and of Indian Muslims from different

parts of India, Trinidad's ethnic mix was well underway to

being unique.
For the close to 144,000 Indians who arrived in
Trinidad, the majority of whom stayed on and started
families of their own, it meant the commencement of the
creation of a parallel society, one maintaining Indian
culture through marriage, language, religion and lifestyle,
and another that was to blend in part with the overall
population,
while at the same time becoming as
Trinidadian as what was once described as their 'host
environment.
The attitude of many people towards the arriving
Indians in the 1870s and onwards was much influenced by
the black and coloured professional middle class, people
who opposed indentureship not on humanitarian grounds,
but because it was seen as a symbol of the power and
privileges of the European planter class, represented by
colonial rule, with whom they were at loggerheads. Crown
colony rule was an economic reality. It meant employment
for the ruling classes, and the educated black and coloured
middle classes saw indentureship as a hindrance to their
own advancement.
A negative attitude to indentureship readily progressed
to hostility and the ridicule of Indians-as
seen in early
calypso--and opposition to the indentureship system, born
of reactionary attitudes towards prejudice against coloured
people. Despite the fact that the Indians, through dint of
hard work, had solved the colony's financial situation forty
or fifty years before, reformed militants generated false
notions about them.
Several prominent spokesmen, CP. David, Q.c., the
first man with African ancestors appointed to the
legislature, opposed indentureship. Another prominent
spokesman of this group was Sir Henry Alcazar, who
pointed out the abundance of labour and maintained that
further immigration would only depress wages and cause
unemployment. He said that the (black) masses were being
pauperised by the artificial state of things created by
Indian immigration, and that the labour market of the
colony, especially
in the sugar districts,
was so
overstocked that the earnings of the working classes were
miserably low. "They are unable to find more employment
than is absolutely necessary to keep starvation from their
doors."
Newspapers, owned by coloured people, such as the
New Era and the San Fernando Gazette maintained a
steady attack on indentureship.
From The Angostura Historical Digest (Paria Publishing).

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Animals from India in the Caribbean

By Dr Kumar Mahabir

Animals were brought on the same ship with labourers who were imported to work on the sugar
cane plantations after the abol ition or slav cr;
No focused research has been done on the animals and
birds that came from India to the West Indies/Caribbean.
Historians have instead chosen to study Indians (West
Indians) in relation to religion, caste, labour, leadership,
law and land. Animals were brought on the same ship with
labourers who were imported to work on the sugar cane
plantations after the abolition of slavery. Large lop-eared
goats, for instance, were the survivors of the ship Lapwing
that was wrecked near Barbados on its way to Guyana. As
agricultural workers during Indentureship (1838-1917),
Indians worked alongside cattle in the fields, and they also
kept private animals as property and pets. Indians have an
ancient tradition of animal husbandry that continued in the
West Indies. Indeed, it must be remembered that the cow
(cattle) has always been sacred to Hindus who form a
major ethnic group in Trinidad and Guyana. Until the
1950s, every Indian family raised cows to produce dung,
milk and manure for subsistence and sale. The animals
were raised on common holdings and fed crop residues,
wild grass and cane tops. They, therefore, did not compete
with their owners for food and space.
This neglect in research is unfortunate. Researchers
Julie Cole, Will Faust and Matt Fleming claim in their
work on "The Evolution of Wild Cattle" (1991) that the
first known bovid (family of cattle, sheep and goats) in the
world was the Aurochs, which is of Indian origin. The
breed first evolved in Asia, and then in Europe and Africa
at approximately the same time during the Pleistocene
Period (1.8 million to 11,000 years ago). Archaeological
findings and genetic evidence have proven that the farmers
in India were the first to capture and tame the humped
Zebu cattle, which is native to that country .
.Though domesticated cattle was first brought to the
Americas by Columbus on his second voyage, the Zebu
cattle (Bos indicus) was brought to the West Indies by the
British in the I 860s. Over 30 breeds (including a
miniature) came and were named after their province of
origin such as the Nellore, Hissar, Mysore and the Guzerat.
These have huge, curved horns, a massive hump just
behind the neck, and thrive in hot humid conditions. Zebus
have built-in protection against biting insects in the form
of muscles that allow better twitching of the skin. They do
not eat when water is unavailable and live off of the fat in
their hump. These were later crossed with other breeds.
In 1905 and 1908 during Indentureship, 30 Jafarabadi
Indian water buffaloes ("bhaisa") were brought to Trinidad
in the Tacarigua sugar estate to replace the cattle herds
(Zebu and Brahman breeds) that were infected with
tuberculosis. Crossbreeding by Steve Bennett in the 1960s

has produced a Trinidadian type ("Buffalypso") that has

been shipped to 19 different countries around the world,
especially to Central and South America, Cuba and
Barbados. Buffaloes in Trinidad have been found to be
relatively free from cattle diseases and insects, and almost
twice as efficient as cows in producing milk. Researcher
Leela Rastogi and others (1993) argue that their meat is
also reported to be superior in quality to beef, and
buffaloes have the unique ability to convert poor quality
rations into remarkable muscle growth. In 1978, there were
6,000 buffaloes in Trinidad living in environments hostile
to other animals. With the increasing use of tractor power
and the imminent death of the sugar cane industry (Caroni
1975 Ltd.), these animals are destined to disappear as
draught animals.
The small mongoose was imported from India
(sometimes through London) to Jamaica and Trinidad
around 1872. It (Herpestes auropunctatus) was brought to
control rats that infested the sugar cane plantations that
caused tremendous losses in revenue. From these islands
they were sent to Cuba, Puerto Rico, Grenada and
Barbados. They also kill snakes by inducing them tostrike,
stepping aside quickly, and then pouncing on their head
above with a bite that cracks their skull. They are
extremely intelligent animals and reliable pets.
In 1872, Indian goats were bought from vessels in
England, and about the same time they were brought to the
West Indies to be milked for the children of immigrant
labourers on the ships. The original goats imported from
Africa, Arabia and India were long-legged and hardy, and
were crossed by British breeders. Goat milk is valued for
people suffering with ulcers and marasmus.
Rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta) were released in
islands near Puerto Rico in the 1960s, and later in Florida.
They have a squat thickset built and are highly intelligent.
In India, they are considered
sacred and are left
unmolested.
Very few birds from India were brought to the
Caribbean, and none could have flown over the vast
oceans. The most widely distributed is the Peafowl (Pavo
cristatus). The Peacock is identified by its magnificent
huge tail that can be raised into a broad fan. Both male and
female-emit a loud scream. They are raised as garden and
farmyard ornamental birds and their feathers play an
important part in Hindu iconography.

Dr Kumar Mahabir is the President 01" the

Association of Caribbean I\nthropologists (I\CI\).

Researching our ancestral roots

By Ramdath Jagessar

Some of the older bo~ks are crumbling and falling apart. In earlier times, people who were
allowed to look at the records tore oft' pages and went away.
It's been 25 years since Indian Arrival Day was
revived in Trinidad, and much more than that since the
massive Centenary celebrations in Trinidad in 1945 and
Guyana in 1938. But in spite of all the books and papers,
research and documentaries, the most basic work on Indian
arrival in the Caribbean remains undone in both countries.
The records of the landing ofthe indentured immigrants in
Trinidad and Guyana have not been copied, made
available to the population and studied for the treasure that
they are.
Today we still do not have an accurate count of where
the girmityas came, their ages, caste, gender and so on. We
can only guess and make estimates since (to my
knowledge) nobody has gone through the whole collection
of records and done a complete analysis. Some ofthe older
books are crumbling and falling apart. In earlier times,
people who were allowed to look at the records tore off
pages and went away. It is possible that some of these one
of a kind (in the Caribbean) records have been lost.
The Indians who want to trace their ancestors back to
India still have no easy way to do so. Except for university
scholars, there is no availability of records of indentured
arrivals, which are kept in the archives in Port of Spain and
Georgetown. You can go up to St Vincent Street in Port of
Spain and try looking through 143,000 plus records, ifthey
will let you. If you don't have much information to start
with, you are in trouble. Try looking through 10,000 pages
at two seconds a page (333 hours or 47 days at 7 hours a
day) and you will understand. There must be a better way
than this. In Georgetown, you may have to go through
230,000 pages to find your ancestor again, they will permit
you. The tens of thousands of lndo-Caribbeans who live
abroad have no access to their ancestors' records at all.
Those who would like to start a genealogical database
of Indians in these two countries, similar to what Indians
in Suriname have completed, are stumped. They do not
have the base information to start. It is a crying shame.
One of my pet projects for Trinidad, which I've been
trying to get going for over 20 years, is to get our
ancestors' landing records copied and made available
widely. It can be as either paper or digital records, and
later as a searchable database available on the Internet or
as a separate program. In that way, anybody who is
interested can glance through the records for information,
or do a computer search for names, ships, regions of India,
Indian village names or the like. Researchers can do the
base work on compiling and sorting the records. People
tracing their family trees have the source material to work

with Indo-Caribbeans from Toronto in Canada to Sydney,

Australia can get full access.
Sadly, I've not had any luck, despite approaching
numerous people in North America and some in the
Caribbean. I've talked to business people, academics,
scholars, and average man-in-the street, Indo- Trinis.
People who are gung ho enthusiastic are usually willing
but do not have the finances. Those who have finances
have neither time nor willingness.
I even tried the last UNC government in Trinidad,
before they were thrown out of office, and all collapsed.
What a disgrace it is that when we had Indians in the
government they could find millions for Carnival and pan
headquarters but not for a small project that could benefit
every single Indo-Trinidadian at home and abroad. Yet it is
a fairly simple project to make digital copies of 147,000
paper records in 300 books (Shamshu Deen's estimate). I
estimate the Trinidad project would cost less than $15,000
Canadian or $54,000 TT and less than 3 months of work
to finish the copying. Two digital cameras, one laptop with
a CD burner, and two teams of 2 people each working 30
hours a week (720 hours for 3 months- or just over 2 hours
to do each book) would do it.
This is not rocket science. The pages in the book (one
page per individual bound into a book for each ship
landing in Trinidad) are written in black ink on somewhat
yellowing paper. A plain black and white image of
medium density (about 20K each) would be adequate. Set
the camera on a stand and place a small light to get a good
exposure. One person opens the book and flattens the page
slightly while the other presses the button. It would take
less than five seconds a page. When a book is completed,
the images are downloaded into the computer and the CD
or DVD burner makes a few copies on the spot. High
school or university students could handle it easily.
That's all there is to complete the first phase, after
which, the books could be sealed off and placed
somewhere very safe and secure. The database would take
some more time and money later. The CD's or DVD could
be made available at libraries, community and religious
groups in Trinidad and abroad. Later on, the whole thing
could be transferred to a searchable database with a
program like Access or Oracle, and made available on the
Internet. Let me emphasize that some of these precious
books are slowly crumbling to pieces.
-K:amdathJagessar is a-member
of the Indo-Trinidad Canadian Association, Canada

One

hundredand fitt9-eightgears ago, the

first group of cast Indians came to

Trinidad) bringing with them their own

unigue culture .

...Over the ~ears) the~ have made a

significant contribution to the rich fabric

of Trinidad and Tobago life.

NGCjoins the nation

in celebrating

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Indian Arrival Da~.

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Indian culture and agriculture

By Lena Chandool

On her small plot here in Trinidad, after building a house and a cow pen that were both
essential, the rest of the land was used to plant various crops .
The indentured Indians used up every inch of their
land. Although when they left India they didn't know that
they were going half way around the world, they took with
them seeds for planting crops and their cultural practices.
Because most of the people were very poor, they didn't
own much land or anything else. It was easy for them to
uproot themselves and start all over in another place.
My grand mother was one of those people, so, I have
first hand experience of how her small plot was utilized.
On her small plot here in Trinidad, after building a house
and a cow pen that were both essential, the rest of the land
was used to plant crops. Since the plot was small and she
needed variety she rotated the crops. As soon as she
harvested one crop, she would dig up the area, put manure
and plant a different type of crop. Without knowing it, she
was actually practicing crop rotation. The only part of the
garden she did not rotate was a little area where she
planted flowers. That was essential for making garlands
that were used in her religious ceremonies. There was also
a small patch of what I called bush, which was really
medicine bush; every leaf was a remedy for some ailment.
Such as lemon grass: (fever grass) carpenter bush, ginger,
for sore throat, Saffron: used as a cleansing agent also for
blood clotting, Rocktion bush for sores etc.
Land preparation was done manually. They used
pitchforks, for digging, a gilpin (straight edged cutlass)
for cutting canes, a swiper (bent cutlass with long wooden
handle) for brush cutting grass, and a spade for drainage. If
the job were too much, they would then hire a person with
a plough that was drawn by bulls, bison, mules, and, in
some instances, donkeys.
The land for the cultivation of sugar cane was cleared
with a swiper and a wooden or bamboo crook was used to
remove the weeds and shrubs after they were cut. The
grass was then bundled and taken for cattle feed; the
shrubs and branches raked together with the crook and
burnt in boucans (heaps of bushes, shrubs and branches).
Ploughing or forking turned up the area. During this
process, large furrows were made to plant the cane
between two furrows the soil was heaped to form mounds
or banks. In the furrows, canes were planted at regular
intervals. On the banks, various short-term crops were
planted. The most common was sweet potato that could be
harvested in three months.
Crops such as cassava, bodi, black-eye beans and
carilli, were also planted on the edges of the plot. More
long-term crops: banana, plantain, peas and com were
planted when the crops on the banks were ready to be
harvested. The sugarcane would now be between one to

.three feet in height. Now some manure would be placed in

the furrows and a little later on fertilizer would be added.
At this time the banks would be broken, crops harvested,
and the cane stools were molded. After harvesting the
canes, there would be no need to replant them. The ratoons
(roots of the cut canes) would keep on producing between
five to ten years, sometimes longer depending on the care
taken to these plants. The plants planted on the edges of
the field continue to produce for years after.
One of the other crops grown by indentured
workers was rice (paddy). Here the plots vary from a small
area "cola" 20 x 20 feet to one lot "j immy" to several
acres. The land was usually prepared manually or with a
small hand plough. This preparation of the land was
different to that of the sugar cane. The entire plot was
imploded with embankment all around to enable the plot to
hold water. The maarhe or embankment varied in
width from one to five feet. Here again the use of land was
observed. A variety of crops was grown. After harvesting
the paddy, the area was utilized again with a series of
short-term crops; mainly legumes. Bodi, urdi, black-eye
was made into daal. Urdi was also used for making bara
which is the fore-runner of doubles. Besides these legumes
supplying nitrogen to the soil, they were also an asset to
the family, providing food and also extra cash when sold
It was a common sight in houses to see a large wooden box
lOx lOx 6 for storing the paddy or dhan.
Cocoa was the other crop that benefited the individual.
Here, the estate owners would give one to five acres of
land to an individual on contract. The lands were covered
with forest lastro (medium forest) or small bushes. Here
the individual would clear the land by burning the bushes,
or, by rolling them up to create tracts. The area would now
be lined with pickets or poles at regular intervals
depending on the slope of the land. The pickets were
usually lOx 10 feet, 12 x 12 feet, or I 5 x I 5 feet apart.
The seeds are now planted at each picket.
Nowadays, seedlings or cuttings: (clones) are being
sold by the Government to the farmers to rehabilitate the
fields with high yielding varieties. While the seeds are
germinating, shade is required from the sun. So again the
farmers planted short to medium crops utilizing the land to
the fullest, including the coffee plant which branches out
faster than the cocoa for shade as well as a source of
income.

Lena Chandool is a housewife who likes to write.

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Guyana Indian Heritage Month

By Guyana Indian Heritage Association (GIHA)

According to preliminary findings, the year of criminality shows a clear ethnic pattern and the
analysis included the use of ethnic violence as a political tool in Guyana.
The Guyana Indian Heritage Association launched its
activities for Indian Heritage Month with its fifth annual
Guyana Mela-Guyana's
largest celebration of Indian
culture at Everest Cricket Ground on Sunday May 4th that
started at 2 p.m.
Besides the usual Indian food, music, and dancing
performed by Nazia Dance Troupe and others; this year
saw the addition of several exciting new performances. Six
musicians and pichakaree singers from Trinidad and
Tobago were here to perform at the Mela. Universal
Airlines assisted with the sponsorship of their airfares.
There was a chaka display and drama that was performed
by students of the Saraswatie School, Cornelia Ida, WCD.
There was also an Instant Raffle drawn before the night
was out, and there was the launching of the GIHA Bazaar
where there were Indian musical CDs, pictures, and a host
of Indian accessories that could be bought on site.
This year, there were the usual games and rides for
children, but also specific athletic activities and new
games for children, between 2 p.m and 4 p.m.
As at previous Mela's, the stage design was stunning.
Last year, GlHA built a 40-foot Taj Mahal, and this year
the stage was transformed into a Jahaji ship completed
with colourful sails that towered 40-feet into the air. Salim
Nausrudeen designed the stage. The Mela continued on
the 5th, Indian Arrival Day, with an Indian Arrival Lunch
at Everest Cricket Ground that started at 11am. Diners
were able to take away their lunches, or have lunch at the
Ground, and were able to dine on board the deck of the
Jahaji ship. Arrangements were made to take the Guyana
Mela to Berbice this year. GIHA sponsored a fine arts
exhibition, "Reflections in Trembling Waters," which was
mounted by the Arts Forum, between May 19th and May
24th at the National Library, Georgetown. Those who
participated were the established Indian Guyanese artists
Bernadette Persaud, Philbert Gajadar and Betsy Karim,
emerging artist Ravi Doodnauth, and Walter Gobin who
now live in the Bahamas.
The artists'
works take their inspiration
from
traditional Indian art forms and aspects of Indian culture.
They ranged from Ms. Karim's fabric art and decorative
clay vessels that are rooted in Indian history and heritage,
to Mr. Gobin's art that are drawn from nature and a
nostalgia for home, to paintings that provide stark political
commentary on the painful reality of Indians in Guyana
today.
Also featured was the Indian traditional craft of
rangoli that was done by Indra and Faith Gobin.
Explaining the exhibition's title, Ms. Persaud said it was a

comment on the limitations of human perception. "Art,"

she said, "is a reflection of one's reality and that
perception is always a relative thing. Your perception is
modified by your own experience and the image can never
be clear. According to Hindu philosophy you can never see
reality clearly, and reality or truth is always seen as
reflections in trembling waters."
"Reflections in Trembling Waters" was formally
opened on Monday, May 19, 2003, at 2pm. The public was
invited to the opening viewing of the exhibition which ran
from Monday, 19th to Saturday, 24th. Admission was free.
In honour of our grandparents and older relatives,
GIHA hosted a Day-Out at the National Park for our senior
citizens on May 26th. Everyone was invited to come and
meet with these jahajis and jahajins, many of whom are
repositories of our oral history and have wonderful stories
to tell of life as it was in the old days. Our grandparents
were treated to lunch and there were tabla drummers and
musicians to encourage musical performances.
GIHA Movie Night GIHA presented a Movie Night at
Starlight Drive-in on Friday, May 30th. The movie to be
shown was announced later on that night. GlHA would
present its report on the criminal incidents that occurred
during February 23, 2002-February 28, 2003 at a public
symposium at hotel Tower on Monday, June 2, 2003,
starting at 5.30 p.m. The report will include day-to-day
crime reports, and analysis of the criminal activities.
According to preliminary findings, the year of criminality
shows a clear ethnic pattern and the analysis included the
use of ethnic violence as a political tool in Guyana, the
marginalisation of Indian culture and its nexus with ethnic
terror, the passivity of Indians to attack, the criminal
transfer of wealth from Indians to Africans, the trauma and
psychological stress incurred by the ethnic attacks on
Indians, and the role of the media at times of ethnic
conflict.
Among the panelists at the symposium would be
GIHA President Ryhaan Shah, religious leader Swami
Aksharananda, and cultural activist Amar Panday. The
report will be presented to the Government and all the
political parties, to the local diplomatic missions, the
media, to the United Nations, Human Rights International
and Amnesty International headquarters abroad. Copies of
the report would be on sale to the public.

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Indians in Guadeloupe, West Indies

By Candice Sankarsingh

I had been introduced to Marika by her boyfriend who had insisted that she was Indienne like
myself. ... She did not look Indian. She was, to me, just another fine example of metissage in
Guadeloupe. In Trinidad, we would have known her as a dougla with strong African genes.
... and does that mean that you go to a temple to pray?"
" Yes. but we won't be going this Sunday though."
She responded rather disappointed.
"Why not?"
" Because we don't have a goat."
Obviously, I had missed something. Why on earth
would anyone need a goat to go' to a temple? This
conversation had definitely gone from bad to worse. It was
at this point that I felt it had degenerated into something
unfamiliar and uncomfortable.
I had beeri introduced to Marika by her boyfriend who
had insisted that she was Indienne like myself. Everybody
around us at the time seemed convinced. I was not,
however. She did not look Indian. She was, to me, just
another fine example of metissage in Guadeloupe. In
Trinidad, we would have known her as a dougla with
strong African genes. In Guadeloupe I would later become
known as a vraie indienne suggesting a certain degree of
authenticity. These were both examples of inaccurate
stereotypes existing in the two societies.
We sat swapping concepts of Hinduism. I volunteered
the two devotional pictures contained in my wallet: one of
Ram. Sita, Laxman and Hanuman and the other of Mother
Lakshmi, Saraswati and Lord Ganesh. She had never seen
or heard of them before, just as I had never entertained the
idea of animal sacrifices in the mandirs of Trinidad.
Perhaps this is just another example of culture shock
that people often speak about. In my own country, it would
be unusual to find such a situation. And while I was never
raised in an environment that categorized religion and
race, somewhere along the line I had clearly mapped out in
my mind what a Hindu should look like.
The tale of the arrival of Indians in Guadeloupe reads
like any other. However, the subsequent stifling of the
Hindu religion is unique and not well documented. Forty
thousand Indians arrived in the Guadeloupe between 1854
and 1889. Recruited in India, the immigrants signed a
contract with the French Government and the Colonists
agreeing to work in the sugarcane plantations. The
contracted individual was to work for five years during
which time he would receive a minimum salary to look
after his family. Though the offer to return to India at the
end of the period existed, very few decided to leave their
adopted country.
Among the Indians that arrived, 80% were from
Pondichery, Maduri, Bangladore and Madras (South of
India) and 10% were from Uttar Pradesh to the North of
India. Already, there was a huge difference in terms of

culture, tradition and customs with the domination of

Southern practices over Northern observances.
This
favoured a reduction in the traditional Brahmin image of
the North and helped to emphasize the influence of
Kalimai and Mariaman cults of Southern India.
Upon arrival. the Indians were urged to assimilate and
by doing so, abandoned their native clothes and traditions
but more importantly. their mother tongues Tamil and
Hindi. Without the Hindi language to compliment and
support the Holy Scriptures. Ilinduism took its first major
blow. In 1905, Oriental practices and religions suffered
with the introduction of a law in France making
Catholicism the religion of the State and therefore, 01' its
colonies, such as Guadeloupe.
Ilindu ceremonies and
marriages were not recognized by the Statc and books such
as the Ramayana and Bhagavad-t iit were COil fiscated.and
replaced by the Bible.
Religious leaders recognizing that they were fighting a
losing battle were very concerned. Not wanting to lose all
pieces of their cultural identity and heritage. thdy decided
that they would fuse all religions into one. They believed
that by a unique blend of S) ncretism. they would
discourage the irreversible extinction ofthcir religions and
cultures. Today. it is not uncommon to hear Moslem.
Christian and Hindu prayers at a Guadeloupean temple.
The situation can be considered a lovely melting pot or a
cocktail of confusion and disaster depending upon how we
look at it.
There are many problems such as doctrinal deviation
and the exaggeration of rituals due to the historical events.
Many Guadeloupean Hindus argue that they do not
understand anything about the religion itself nor do they
know why or what the poucari (pund it) is doing. I see their
point. They are not instructed in Hindi. they do not read or
speak Hindi, so how is it possible to interpret or read the
scriptures? In many cases. there are no copies of the
scriptures. People chant anything without knowing why.
This is a reality that I consider to be very scary and very
sad.
Others generally view animal sacrifice in Guadeloupe
as a barbaric dark practice. While. I have nothing against
animal sacrifices (although I would not personally choose
this manifestation) I share the same view.
Trinidadian Candice Sankarsingh
worked as a Foreign Language Assistant
at the Lycee de Baimbridge, Guadeloupe, in 2001-2002.

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Indians dominated running in the 1930s

By Satnarayan Jaggemauth

East Indian athletes have for decades ruled long distance running in this lovely Island
East Indian athletes have for decades ruled long
distance
running
in this lovely
Island.
Trinidad.
Outstanding among them is Mannie Dookie. The lere milk
boy, considered
as the bare-footed
runner. did run
barefooted at the White City games in London in 1934.
Mannie led the field for more than six laps when the sole
of his feet was badly cut into small pieces as if they were
some ribbon in the sole of his feet since the track was a
cinder type track. He was forced to abandon the race.
Dookie has won many. races and recorded many
startling times, but he said that the race he treasured most
was the race in 1944 at the Oval. It was a three miler, and
south star Mannie Ramjohn was the favourite at this
distance. Mannie beat Ramjohn and created a great upset
at that time in the Oval. Some old chaps still talk about this
great event. Mannie had set a new mark for this distance: it
was 14 min.47 sec.
Mannie Ramjohn, too, is an Indian who has many
victories to his name. Mannie Ramjohn was a Southerne;.
He won many races at Skinners Park and at the Southern
Games at Point-a-Pierre.
He has left manv records on the
books. Some of the other long distance runners at that time
were Donald
Rajcoomar,
Manoo
Simmons.
Luther
Roberts.
Carlton
Lewis.
Ahamad
Hosein,
Beranrd
Goolcharan, Barl Sumair, Oswald Kissoon, S. Bocas, P.
Dookie. Fazal Khan. Shony Albert Dookie, Herman
Seucharan and C. Ramdass. But Mannie Dookie was the
star of long distance running in Trinidad. He won his first
big race at the Queen' s Park Oval a three m iler in 193 I .
At that time. the Iavourite long distance runner in Trinidad
was Francis Dinzey who many considered. was invincible
over the mile and three miles. Dookies victorv over him
was a shocker.
Mr. Mohammed of B.G. was in the race. After eleven
laps, he collapsed at the start of the 12th. and it was here
that Dookie took over and sprinted away, leaving Dinzey
almost standing. Dookie, after about a dozen years of his
three mile victory at the Oval that fans saw him lower the
W.1. record. He used to run around the Saddle 15;1.. miles
unofficially in OI~e hour and 33 minutes, in 1931. lie did
the 12 mile SI. James Tetron in I hour and in a minute in
1936. La Brea to Point Fortin (10 miles) in 58 minutes ill
1940. La Brea to San Fernando in one hour 35 minutes the
same year, from Store Bay to Scarborough Tobago about 8
miles in 40 minutes in 1941. The one mile in 4.22 at
Grenada in 1944. In all he did the three miles five times
under fifteen minutes and many other grand performances
through Trinidad and Tobago and Grenada. Dookie never
smoked or drank while training. He lived a decent and
healthy lifestyle. It was on the advice of his doctor that

Mannie stopped running. Mannie proved himself to be one

of the most outstanding
Long Distance Runners in the
West Indies. He represented Trinidad at British Guiana
(B.G.) at the young age of just 15. and at 19. he ran at
White City (London). At age 19 the most memorable of all
his races is when he triumphed over Mannie Rarnjohn.
Dinzey and others at the Queen's Park Oval in Trinidad.
Ramjohn was a small built chap like Dookie. He was
really the champ of the three-mile races in the island.
Mannie won six consecutive championship
three miles at
the Oval (1938-1943) and his best time was 15.07. After
his recent defeat. Mannie came back and won his pet
distance
at 14.47 3/5. He also had the honour of
representing Trinidad in England in 1939.
Mannie Rarnjohn (South), came into the lirneliuht in
1937 when he won the open mile event in Skinner~Park,
San Fernando. From then on he went on from triumph to
triumph and established a long list of victories, lie ran
from half mile to the 16-mile event. In 1944, he won four
consecutive cross country events, 10 miles from La Brea to
Point Fortin, Port-of-Spain to Diego Martin in 32 minutes.
Port-of-Spain to Arirna - 16 miles in 1 hour 47 minutes.
and from Princess TO\\n to San Fernando - 7 miles. But
alter that he continued to fail. lie failed at the 0\ al and the
public opinion was that he was on his \\a~ out.
In 1935, Luther Roberts from Woodbrook came into
the limelight and \\as fourth in the three miles at the Oval.
The public collected
and giH:s him a purse for his
wonderful efforts. Manco Simmons of Cocorite did some
good running in the middle of the 30's. His career was ofa
short duration. In 1934, he triumphed in the 15-% mile
Saddle Race. 111that race, Simmons beat Dinzev. Asokote
Gomez, Ossis Wcllinuton. Bootins Aikins and L-. Laddie in
that order. The time posted w a s one hour fortv minutes.
Two Southerners
Mannie Ramjohn and Aham;d Ilosein.
did some brilliant running in 1940. Bernard Goiolcharan
trained h~ Dook ic represented Trinidad in British Guiana
and Grenada \\ ith much success .In 1936, he ran second to
Bertie Ihompson in the RRO \ ards in Tobago. He won the
long jump and \\~b second in the High jump. At 19, he
represented
lrinidad in British Guiana and won the halfmile "B" c1a~:-; raced in the good time of 2 minutes 8
seconds.

I lc \\~h second to Dook ie in the mile but he won the

half-mile at Bichc in 1936, and carne second in the long
jump II) Baker. In 1940 at a meeting at Boissiere, he ended
up \\ ith two firsts in the Long Jump.
Satnarayan Jaggemauth
in Sports (1900-1945).

is the author of the book Indians

An agriculturalist

by heritage

It was not by choice but by fate, according to Vidyah

Rarnbarran.that
determined her inolvement in Agriculture.
Vidyah's destiny with agriculture
began in 1903. The
year her great grand mother Dharmin
and her son Rambaran
Nandhay- Vidyah's
grandfather,
arrived
in
Trinidad as an indentured labourer on the ship S.S Fonte.
She was bonded to the Verdant Vale Estate. At the end of
her indentureship,
in June 1919, she and her son settled on
lands on the Aranguez Estate.
V idyahs
father, Cyril Rambaran,
was born on the
Aranguez
Estate in the year 1932. He and his father
cultivated rice and vegetable crops until 1954. when her
father gained employment
at La Reunion
Propagation
Station in Centeno.
Cyril Rambaran worked at the Propagation
Station in
Centeno for over thirty-three
(33) years. During those
years, he secured' lands in Arima, and made there the
family hometown,
where Vidyah the second of seven (7)
children was born.
Vidyah's
love for agriculture
blossomed
under the
influence of her grand father. As a child, she observed his
love for the land and the care he gave to his crops. He
encouraged her to become a vegetarian by often sending
produce, which he selected particularly
for her, from his
garden.
On successfully
completing
her secondary education,
Vidyah had no hesitation, but to the dismay of her father,
in deciding to make agriculture
her career. She had to
convince her father of her plans to study at the University
of the West Indies (UWI). She graduated with a Bachelor
of Science Degree in Agriculture in 1982.
A year after' graduating
from UWI, Vidyah, like her
father, gained employment
in Centeno as an Agricultural
Training Officer at the Eastern Caribbean
Institute of
Agriculture
and Forestry.
She enjoys teaching
and is
dedicated to her work.
Vidyah's
inherited love for the land and firm Hindu
principles
has strengthened
her commitment
to the
environment.
She does not support the use of pesticides
and encourages
her students to use alternative
means of
pest and disease management.
A vegetarian for over thirty
(30) years, she is against the slaughtering
of animals and
does not promote animal production
for the purpose of
meat.
As her destiny dictates, Vidyah has had the opportunity to travel not only to Japan, Canada and the United
States of America. but also to India to solidify her deep
emotional identification
with her fore-parents .
.\rtick
ln-tnutc

pro\ idcd

or Agric

o~ the

lastcrn

Caribbean

ulturc and I ore'>tr) (I CIA I:).

17 Chacon Street, San Fernando, Trinidad, W.I.

Tel: 868-652-6932 Fax: 868-653-6002

Indian women pioneered rice cultivation

By Anuradha Joshi
If sugar was the cash king, then rice was the subsistence crop. Sugar determined the quality of
life, but rice sustained Indians throughout the year.
If sugar was the cash king then rice was the
and skilled. Very often children too assist them. Quarter of
subsistence crop. Sugar determined the quality of life, but
a plot can be planted in a day if they are helped by their
rice sustained Indians throughout the year. The desire to
families. It was customary to sing a song about the
cultivate rice was a cataclysmic event in the history of
adventures of a king in India to make their work go faster
Trinidad. The early Javanese who were here tried to but
and alleviate their monotony. The women paused for a
failed to do so. Where the Javanese failed the Indians
meager lunch and finish working by about 2.30pm.
succeeded. This very act brought about a transformation in
The rice was considered ready when it had turned a
the agricultural structure of this country.
rich golden color. This takes about three and half months
Coming from the rice bowl area of India, immigrant
after planting so, the cutting of the paddy took place from
women were well aware of sowing, reaping and harvesting
the end of the month of October through November.
rice. Women did most of the labour. The credit of
Cutting and beating.requires a full day each. On drier land,
introducing rice as a staple food in the daily diet of most
this was easier but close to the swampy lands, it became
Trinidadians of today goes to the Indian women from the
difficult. Beating the paddy is done the next day and
villages of Uttar Pradesh. How many of us today are even
before this, it was customary to perform the adi-puja.
aware of this fact of taking our rice for granted? The
Burlap sacking is spread ('10 the kola and a machan is
present prosperity is the result of our grand mother's
erected.
knowledge and hard work.
A machan is a table usually of mangrove wood with
The women of Trinidad are pioneers in Rice
a top constructed of a number of parallel strips of wood
cultivation. In Trinidad and we should be thankful to our
with narrow spaces: between them. The paddy is piled near
great grand mothers for the blood, sweat and tears they
the machan while four or five other men and each grasp a
shed to provide rice for all of us. Rice growing was
bundle of rice at the stalk end. The ear of rice is brought
essentially a family affair with all the members involved in
down on top of the machan. Two or three such strokes and
the production. Families either bought the plot of land for
the all the rice grains are dislodged and fall through the
cultivation of rice or rented it from rich landlords.
spaces of the machan to the heap of dhan on the sacking
Let us examine how rice was planted in those days
below. The rice straw will be either discarded or used as
when mechanization was non-existent. Most families had
building materials. After the beating is completed, the rice
small plots of land or fields reserved for cultivation of rice.
is fanned and sifted. The dhan is put into sacks and
Each family field was subdivided by a number of low
transported to the home of the owners. At home the rice is
straight banks, meri, which met at right angles forming
spread out on the floor to dry.
small plots (each called a kola) about 20 to 30 feet square.
This has to be continuously turned over so that the
In the month of March, weeding of the plot was
drying process is thorough. Here again, the women have to
undertaken. The land was prepared for sowing the biya
work very hard to ensure that the rice is totally dry .For the
Kola, (nursery plot) and this was done by the men. By the
final drying the rice is put in the sun, which helps in
middle of July, the nursery was ready. On the plot the
preserving it through the year. Therefore, the harvesting is
grass is cutlassed and piled on the meris which are built up
in the month of November. An interesting fact is the use of
and reinforced. Sloughing takes place early if the season is
Hindi terminology used in every stage from planting of
dry, if wet, then just a week before planting. The process
seedlings to winnowing. For example, Berd (seedlings),
of "hengawe" (harrowing) follows the ploughing. First,
chitkai (dispersal of seeds), lagwai (transplanting), nirai
the meris are tied up, shored to retain water and the kola is
(weeding), sichai (irrigation), Katai (Harvesting) etc.
flooded. A day before planting the land is leveled and
vegetables brought from India. They also kept chicken and
harrowed by means of a henga (a flat board 8'to ,10 feet in , floats. This was a supplement to the daily diet of the
length, containing spikes, pulled behind a bull or bison).'"
Indians. Many of the vegetables that are available today in
Planting normally took place after mid July and
the local market are the result of the early women who
occasionally as late as August depending on the rainfall.
came to this land.
This consists of 2 operations: pulling the seedlings from
the nursery which is considered man's work and planting'
them in the kolas where they will grow to maturity. The
planting began at 7.30 am in the morning and this is
Anuradha Joshi is a journalist, and the wife of Dr. P.V.
considered women's work for ladies are very fast workers
Joshi, former High Commissoner of India to Guyana.
I

The ancient history of Indians in

agriculture
By D.H. Singh
The high involvement of Indians in agriculture
in our
country, and wherever they have settled in the diapsora, is
no co-incidence,
but a direct result of their long and
ancient association
with agriculture.
Indian civilization
remains one of, if not the only, continuously
living
civilization with a history of more that 10,000 years. Such
a civilization did not sustain
itself by invading
and
plundering other nations but by developing
its human
resources to its maximum. One area among others that the
Indian genius placed tremendous emphasis was in the field
of agriculture.
Ancient Indian literature
suggests
that during the
Vedic period, agriculture
developed
as a "science
of
producing and storing food for men as well as for domestic
animals:' It is interesting
to note that agriculture
was
defined as a "science" which is a learned way of doing
something. This also demonstrates
that from very early
Indians saw the need for research and development
to be
carried out to develop competence
in any particular field
and in agriculture it was no less.
Many treatises on agriculture
have been written in
ancient India. Among them are the Rigveda (ISOOB.C.E.);
Atharvaveda: Krishi Parashara (around 400 B.C.E.); and
Arthashastra by Kautilya (300 B.C.E.). These texts on
agriculture includes knowledge of irrigation, tools such as
the iron plough, shear, axes, sickles, hoes, etc, crops such
as barley, sugar- cane, rice, sesame, milk, ghee, honey, etc,
the benefits of crop rotation, domestication
of animals for
agricultural practices, plant protection and the concept of
sacred groves, crop pattern according to the environmental
condition, soil and season, seed treatment,
manures and
fertilizers for better crop production and animal husbandry
including veterinary medicine.
Plant ailments and disorders, another area of research,
was documented
in Surapala's
Vrikshayurveda. These
disorders were analyzed
and classified
according
to
symptoms and causes.
Some
materials
that
were
recommended for managing
various disorders
in plants
were hog fat, ghee, horse hair, cowl buffalo horns, ash,
milk, honey, cow-dung, cow's urine, bones of bulls/dogs:
Ayurvedic herbs, etc.
Knowledge and practice of agriculture in ancient India
was both thorough and comprehensive.
The ancient Indian
was conscious of the need for continuous
research and to
this end there were numerous scholars whose findings are
recorded in the many treatises on agriculture.
India has not
lost this ancient knowledge
of agriculture
which to this
date continues to help the nation to be sel f sufficient in its
production of food to feed its population of 1.2 billion.
Is it necessary for us today to study these ancient
methods of agriculture and apply them where necessary.

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Tel (868) 674-6008, 675-7707.
E-mail: mahab@tstt.net.tt

Defining our natfrbnal identity

By Ravi Dev
When Americans established the motto E Pluribus Unum - out of many, one - they meant
"one" based on ideological criteria. The ideological foundations were intended to become
supra-cultural values that would transcend the specific cultural inheritances of the immigrant.
Referring to the debate in a Guyana newspaper about
the legitimacy of ethnic identities v.ithin our plural society.
Mr Tony Farnum asked exasperatedly.
"What about a
national identity?" [SN 5-14-03]. lIis concern. obviously.
is ho-w car; we act in a concerted manner if \VC do not have
some sort of un it)' that the concept/narrat i\ e of "nat ion"
sought to provide as a symbolic force. lie has posed a most
pertinent question but I hope that he accepts that the
present debate was necessary to question conceptions of
"nation" that were oppressive to existing diversities and
that "nation" and "state" have to be disarticulated.
ROAR
has repeated I) placed its proposals on "unity" before the
public and does so once again.
We agree that we cannot throw out the baby with the
bathw ater and that we Guyanese have to achieve some
commonality of outlook to survive. Whether we like it or
not. the modern state is a reality and the unit within we act
and \\ hich has sovereignty in the international arena. At
independence we inherited a state but not a nation. since
the reality of our coming together ensured that we had no
common culture "looming out of some irnmernorable past"
as some other countries had. One does not identify with
the state just like that - and that's partially why we clung
to our ethnicities. The problem before us is how do we
construct a "unity" of the peoples within our state that docs
not seek to obliterate our diversities.
ROAR proposes that we demarcate our cultural sphere
as a private one, with minimal state intervention in terms
of definition and to build the overarching unity we need in
the publ ic sphere. What we are suggesting is that we move
from the idea of a "national
culture" as a site for
identification to the shared practice of a political ideology
as the basis for engendering such identification within the
state. Rather than those, such as Rex Nettleford,
who
demand that all ethnic groups assimilate
into Creole
culture to become "one nation." we propose that a feeling
of "we the people" - of "Guyanese-ness"
- can be
engendered in the process of our conscious construction of
a democratic state.
ROAR situates this construction of a national outlook
within what it has labelled "Project Democracy" - the
creation of conditions where we arc all treated as one.
equally, by the state. Equality of opportunity:
human
rights. encouragement
of diversities. due process: justice
and fair play and rule of law may seem dry compared to
the warmth of the blood ties of "nation". hut they can
engender the unity of public purpose and the recognition
of individual worth where we can be proud of our common

citizenship.
Citizenship
of Guyana
has .to become
something
that has concrete
meaning to all of us.
Institutions have to be organised around values that are
consonant with the goals of the particular society. Aren't
the values mentioned above ones that we all desire')
It was the United States, made up of immigrants with
diverse cultural backgrounds like us in Guyana. that first
attempted to institutionalise
this ideological definition of
"national identity" when they announced ringingly in their
Declaration of Independence: ..We hold these truths to hi!
self evident. that all men lire created el/I.III,that thev are
endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights.
that among these lire Life, Liberty and the pursuit oj"
Happiness .. , All Americans see these shared ideological
values as defining themselves - their Americaness - their
national identity. When they established as their motto E
Pluribus Unu/J1 - out of many. one - they meant "one"
based on ideological criteria. The ideological foundations
were intended to become supra-cultural values that would
transcend
the specific
cultural
inheritances
of the
immigrant.
They succeeded
to a great degree but
unfortunately
their founding
fathers undermined
the
legitimacy
of the ideological
premises
by implicitly
assuming that British culture was going to undergird and
suffuse this conception - they universalised
the British
cultural
experience.
This introduced
the nation-state
identity through the back door. which inevitably became
repressive and has rightly been rejected by rnulticulturalist
conceptions such as Afro-centricity.
Universalism
is never power neutral - its defenders
always have a certain interest in it. Contra to the
proponents of the universalism of Creole Culture to the
Caribbean and Guyana, we should not repeat the American
mistake here and privilege anyone group. Similarly. since
the state itself had justified its legitimacy through the goal
of all its citizens living by the principles and values of its
ideology. if this is seen not to be the reality for some. the
status quo will be challenged
by the excluded. The
movement
towards
allowing
citizens
to constantly
authenticate
themselves ideologically
is al-ways enabled:
multiculturalism
becomes part and parcel of the "nation by
design". for Guyana then. our ethnicities would be defined
outside our "Guyaneseness"
and to be African-Guyanese
or Indian-Guyanese
would not be contradictory
in any
sense. The first part of our identity would he specific while
the latter universalistic.
Ravi Dev, MP, is leader of ROAR part) in Guyana.

The greatness

of 111e

J ournec

111al changed our

1a 11C18 ca pe
forever.

Trinidad & Tobago

National Petroleum
Marketing Company
Limited - NP,
joins the entire national
community in salute of:

.--y. - ..
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Ar r iva l Da)'
THE

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The medicinal uses of amraklbilimbilcucumber

COMMON
NAME: Amrak (Hindi); Bilirnbi:
FAMILY: Oxalidcccae.
BOTANICAL
NAME: Averrhoa bilimbi L.
ORIGIN AND DISTRIBUTION
Arnrak is a native to Moluccas/Indonesia

(CSIR

Cucumber

1985:499).

tree.

It is now widely

introduced

in the tropics.

DESCRIPTION
Amrak is a small tree up to 15 m in height.
Leaves large, pinnately cornpounu. Leaflets l.anceolate,
10-20 pairs 5-10 cm long. Leafstalk
Flowers dark red growing on trunk and other branches, resembling small cucumbers.
Seeds small about 8cm long, oblong, light, yellow, and five-lobed.
CHEMICAL
COMPOSITION
Moisture 95 per cent, calcium

mg 17 per cent, phosphorus

tree

10 per cent, calorific

value

short.

17 per cent (CSIR

MEDICINAL
USES
The fruits are reported to promote digestion.
Syrup from the fruit is used for hemorrhage
of the bowels, internal
hemorrhoids,
hepatitis,
diarrhoea
bilious colic.
The leaves are used as a poultice tor itches, mumps, rheumatism
and pimples. and an: taken intcrnal!v
An infusion of the flowers is given for cough.
The fruit is regarded as a useful remedy for scurvy.
The leaves are used as a remedy for the inflammation
of the rectum.
EDIBLE USES
The fruits arc used for making pickles, anchar. and preserves,
and in talkari.
The fruit is generally used for souring (as a substitute for tamarind) in culinary
It makes good chutni, jam and cooling drinks.
OTHER USES
The fruit juice is used to remove

iron-rust

1985:4(9).

and
for svphili.

preparations

stains from linens and to impart a shine to hras-, v csscl-;

Extract from Medicinal and Edible plants used by East Indians of Trinidad
and Tobago
Chakra Publishing House, San Juan, Trinidad. Tel (868) 675-7707. E-Mail: mahab@tstt.net.tt

by Dr. Kumar Mahabir.

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[II

Building Bridges Between

Indo-Caribbeans and Mainland Indian Culture
by Indrjeet Tajesbwar

opportunities to take baths in the

ndo-Caribbean
culture has
been transplanted in New
holy Ganges River, and to pray at
York City, thanks to the piovarious pilgrimage sites and also
neering spirit of several of
visit some of the wilderness
parks and wildlife sanctuaries.
the early
immigrants.
Ramesh Kalicharran, forThe groups also visit some
merly of Guyana, was among
of the areas where the Indian
those who worked against great
indentured servants were recruited, though not minimizing the
odds to transplant
IndoCaribbean culture in the city.
importance of places like the
Kali, as he is commonly called, _~4.,,--,,,,
nation's capital, New Delhi,
Haridwar, Rishikesh, Madurai,
helped in the transplantation of
Calcutta, Agra, Jaipur, Varanasi,
Indian culture, through the formation of temples and cultural
Madras
(Chenai),
Mathura
organizations and initiating var(Vrindhavan),
Ayodhya,
ious Indian celebrations from
Rameshwaram,
Kanyakumari,
the Caribbean in New York City.
Trivandrum, Cochin, Udaipur,
In addition to the drudge of
Jaisalmer, Khajuraho, Lucknow,
being a community activist, Kali
and Mumbai (Bombay).
The
has promoted Indian culture in
group gets a unique opportunity
the Triboro area through his
to get a glimpse of the history of
Bharat Yatras, his rediscovery
India, rekindling an interest in
their culture and identity, and to
tours of India, which has
become an important link
renew their emotional and culbetween Indo-Caribbean people
tural ties to the land of their
and India. These tours have Ramesh D. Kalicharran recognized by T. Balakrishanan of The Government
ancestors.
of India, Tourist Office for his pioneering work as a tour operator.
become an important bridge
No doubt, the Yatris feel the
between the people of India and
trips help to preserve Indian
identity. Particularly so, when they interact with the villagers who
the Caribbean by getting them across the great divide of misappretreat them like family. Kali says, "People in India are struck by the
hensions, to one of understanding each other's way of life, and in consolidating the idea of Indo-Caribbean identity.
deep interest we have shown in our ancestral roots after being in the
The India Tourist Office in New York, which is responsible for West for more thatl50 years, and encourage others to follow suit."
the promotion of Indian tourism from North America, Central
At the conclusion of the tour, many distinguished personalities,
America, South America and the Caribbean, invite hundreds of trav- cultural artistes, actors, actresses, dancers, and musicians from
el agents annually to an exhibition in India but only a handful is given Bollywood, entertain the group. On the eve oftheir departure, they are
the status as appointed agents and thus enjoys the privilege as a VIP given a grand farewell reception by famed Bollywood personalities
guest of the government of India. Kali is frequently among the few from the movie and music entertainment industry. The group gets an
who are selected for this unique honor because of what the ITB says: opportunity to tour the Indian film industry, Bollywood, and meet
Kali's pioneering efforts to promote tourism from the Americas and with several stars at work in the studios. They also receive special
the Caribbean to India and his vast knowledge of travel in India,
guided tours where the movies are filmed.
establishes him as the pre-eminent Caribbean tour operator in this
Indo-Caribbeans return, from their tours, fully satisfied. It is a
saga where East meets West.
dream come true for most who make the journey. Two Yatris from
Consequently, Kali Travel, which has been in the business for Queens, Basdeo and Newattie Tejeshwar, said, "You cannot call it a
more than twenty years, received several awards from the government
tourist trip or just sightseeing. It was a teerat, a pilgrimage. You get a
of India for promoting tourism among Indo-Caribbean people.
heavenly feeling. You shed tears of joy to visit your motherland. We
Generally, two tours are conducted annually, one for the observance
bring back Ganga water and earth from India." Haji Yasin Mohamed
ofDiwali, and the other, for Phagwa. However, Kali travel also offers
said he felt fulfilled performing dooah at Jama Masjid in Delhi. He
customized tours throughout the year, largely because Kali is well
was also very pleased to see and pray at the Taj Mahal, and to see remknown in the tourist industry in India and in Bollywood.
nants oftadjah (tazah) in Lucknow.
Many of the tourists to India are motivated to take the tour and
As part of his quest to build bridges between the Indo-Caribbean
visit the land oftheir ancestors. Many also seek to establish links with
world
and India, Kali also produced a number of highly professional
relatives they may have in U'P and Bihar, from where their ancestors
musical
albums. Perhaps the most ambitious, was his 1988 album,
left more than 150 years ago. Little wonder, Kali pioneered these
The Voyage, a lyrical narrative written by Balkrishna Naipaul, author
Yatras, or journeys largely to accommodate anyone wishing to visit
of Arc On The Horizon and Legends Of the Emperor's Ring, with
the land of their ancestors
The planned itinerary of each tour includes spiritual journeys to music by Padmashri Ravi, and sung by Asha Bhosle. It is a dynamic
piece of work, and one which greatly underscores Kali's commitment,
Hindu, Muslim, Christian, Buddhist, and Sikh shrines. Entertainment
is also a major feature where parties with Bollywood stars and shows not only to the propagation of Indian culture, but his ongoing challenge to embrace new and innovative measures to keep Indian culture
are tied with sight seeing of historic sites, monuments, forts, relics,
and other palaces of interest, as well as shopping. They also have alive and well on every new horizon.

pI::I:~t\

invites you to taste the spiritual world

Arati, kirtan, japa meditation and Bhagavad

reading from 4:30am daily at:
Sri Sri Radha-Gopinatha Mandir
Edinburgh Road, Longdenville
Ph: 665-2249
Sri Sri Radha Krishna Temple
4 Orion Drive, Debe
Ph: 647-6809
Sri Sri Radha Govinda Mandir
Garden Village, Arouca
Sundays 5:00 pm
Bhakti Yoga Center
132 Aranguez Main Road, San Juan
Ph: 674-2961
Thursdays 7:00 pm
Chant the Hare Krsna Mantra:

hare krishna hare krishna krishna krishna hare hare

hare rama hare rama rama rama hare hare
and make your life sublime

Being an Indian abroad

By Francois Gautier
Is this the legacy you want to bequeath to your children, 0 Indian brothers and sisters who long
for the American way of life?
What is it to be an Indian abroad - in the United States
for instance? How much of yourself do you give to your
American identity - and how much space do you preserve
for your Indian-ness? This what Indian expatriates should
ask themselves today. Many second generation Indians
whose parents settled in the US twenty or thirty years ago,
have merged themselves totally in the American way of
life, speak with an American accent, think American ... and
in the process forget all about their wonderful Indian
culture.
What is it in the American way of life that fascinates
so many Indians? The fast life? Right: fast is exciting; but
Americans live so fast - eat breakfast in their cars, gulp
down meat and French fries, and often grow immensely
fat. They also. run the risk of getting ulcers and heart
attacks by the age of 65. What else dazzles Indians in the
American way of life? The lights? True, New York is a
fascinating city, with its illuminated skyscrapers, its
millions of pulsating lights, its giant electronic billboards,
its fancy bars, that one feels a kind of throbbing vitality
entering as one walks the streets by night. But what a
waste of energy, when the world is fast losing its sources
of energy; and isn't this a kind of artificial vitality, that
fades away when one wakes up in the morning, with a
hangover and one has to face the reality of life?
What else? America's nature? No doubt, the United
States boasts of some wonderful natural beauty and
Americans have shown us what it means to plant trees and
live in a green environment. But nature can also be an
illusion here: a highway is never very far from the forest,
with its thousands of cars pouring out millions of cubic
feet of carbon dioxide, which annihilates natures' bounty,
as the Los Angeles smog amply demonstrates. Besides,
America is an unending suburban concrete jungle, with its
boring repetition of mega stores, parking lots, and KFCs.
When you have seen one city, you have seen them all.
What else? The 'quality' of American life: barbecue
parties, beaches, tattoos, fun and frolic? Yes, except that
one out of three American couples divorce within three
years, one out of four Americans consults a psychiatrist for
depression, bulimia, schizophrenia or plain boredom, and
American children often indulge in shooting other
children, just because they are exposed to so much
violence ...
Is this the legacy you want to bequeath to your
children, 0 Indian brothers and sisters, who long for the
American way of life? For this great brain drain that has
been going for so long, does not affect only the ordinary
middle and upper class 'secular' Indian, but also many

good Hindus. They put their children in the best US

universities and accept the fact that their children will
settle in the American way of life and will probably never
go back to India. True, their kids get heftier pay cheques in
the US, better facilities, escape the Indian bureaucracy,
corruption. But what are they going to bequeath to their
own children in the long run: insecurity, violence, divorce,
depression ... Above all their offspring, unknowingly, will
be afflicted by a loss of identity. They will not know, nor
feel like their grandparents did, this natural space of
Indian-ness, which automatically confers certain qualities.
What is that Indian-ness?
First and foremost it is this belief: 'I accept you; I
accept that you may be White or Black, Red or Yellow,
Christian, Buddhist, or Muslim. I am even ready to go and
worship in a church or a mosque, besides my temple. I
accept that my Gods are avatars, incarnations of the
Divine, but so is Jesus Christ, and also Buddha and even
Mohammed.' This an extraordinary
statement and a
marvellous instrument towards world peace, at a time
when the two great monotheist religions of the world,
Islam and Christianity still say: 'There is only one true God
in the world - mine - and if you worship any other god,
you are an infidel and a pagan and it is my right to convert
you by any means, or even to kill you.'
The September II attacks are nothing but a result of
that dangerous theorem. As a result, Indians adapt easily
wherever they go, particularly in the West, as they are very
open to Western culture. Of course, Indians also go to the
other extreme: 'not only I accept you, but I am going to
become exactly like you - not even Whiter than the White:
I am going to denigrate my own culture, spit on my
religion, belittle my countrymen.' This is why so often in
the U.S. you can come across negative articles on India
written by Indians - nay by Hindus. The Gujarat massacres
were actually a great opportunity for these Hindu haters,
such as Pankaj Mishra, to come out full blast and prove to
the world that India is a land of Hindu fundamentalists
where nobody is safe, particularly the Muslims 'who are
regularly victims of pogroms.'
Mishra conveniently forgot to mention that India is an
extraordinary country of freedom, where all persecuted
religious minorities in the world have found refuge over
the centuries whether Jews, Parsis, Syrian Christians, or
today the Tibetans.
Francois Gautier is a French journalist in South Asia tor Le
Figaro, France's largest circulation newspaper.
Source: http://www.rediff.com/news/2002/oct/IOfranc.htm

TIDeo

Tourism and Industrial Development Company

of Trinidad & Tobago Limited

Tel (8681623-6022-3,623-3591-2,623-1932-4

Fax (8681625-7548. E-mail: tourism-info@tidcocott

trade-info@tidcocott

invest-info@tidco.co.tt

Website: http!lwwwtidcoco.tt

celebrate as a community
Indian Arrival Day.
"Peace between countries must rest on the solid
foundation of love between individuals."
- Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948)

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E-mail: hcl@hclttcom
Website: www.hcltt.com

Medicinal plants used for colds from India

By Cheryl Lans

Of 189 plants examined, 41 were of Asian origin.

For my thesis on ethnoveterinary medicine. I compared the medicinal plant uses documented in my research
from 1995 tc 2000, to medicinal practices in Europe. Asia,
Africa and South America. Of one hundred and eighty nine
(189) plants examined 41 were of Asian origin (or from
the 'Old World tropics').
This article will use a non-experimental validation
method on those plants of Asian origin that are used for
colds.' In Trinidad and Tobago, influenza. asthma and the
common cold are illnesses associated with 'coldness'. 'Hot'
plants are used to stimulate the blood or to treat 'cold'
illnesses. 'Hot' teas are also used for colds and fevers.
Lochs are used for colds. One loch consisted of the root of
fever grass iCymbopogon citratusy, roots and leaves of
vetivert tVetiveria zizanioidest, garlic, sugar, and leaves of
the following: bamboo (Bambusa vulgaris), bois caner
(Cecropia peltata), z'herbe a pique (Neurolaena lobatai,
chigger bush (Tournefortia hirsutissima), salt butter and
lamp oil. It was said to 'become thick like jam'. It was
taken for 9 days. and then a purge was taken to 'flush
everything out'.
For each species or genus the medicinal uses in other
countries are given. Then follows a summary of chemical
constituents. in addition to active compounds if known.
This type of review and evaluation was developed by
Heinrich et al. (1992). The medicinal plants used in
Trinidad and Tobago for colds that originated in Asia or
the Old World tropics are summarized in Table I. Wong
(1976) previously recorded the use of Abelmoschus
moschatus (syn. Hibiscus abelmoschus) in Trinidad for
respiratory conditions. Mucilages are found in its leaves
(which can help smooth irritated tissue).
Abrus precatorius leaf decoction was used in Jamaica
and Barbados as a slave medicine for dropsy and coughs; it
is used in the Dutch East Indies for throat ailments. Abrus
precatorius leaves have high glycyrrhizin content. This
plant compound has expectorant properties and is thus
useful for coughs. Expectorants help remove mucus from
the respiratory passages.An infusion of leaves of Bambusa
species is used in India for fever. Cajanus cajan leaves are
used in teas for colds in the Caribbean and the Malay
Peninsula. Wong (1976) previously recorded the use of
Coleus aromaticus for coughs. Coleus aromaticus leaves
were used in the East Indian archipelago for aphthous
stomatitis (canker sores) because of their antiseptic
qualities.
Medicinal components are the essential oils carvacrol,
thymol, eugenol and methyleugenol. Coleus amboinicus
contains a compound with anti-inflammatory properties.
Coleus barbatus methanolic plant extract showed an

ability to relax tracheal smooth muscle showing potential

to prevent bronchoconstriction.
Cymbopogon citratus is one of the most used plant
infusions in Brazilian, Belizean and Cuban folk medicine
as an anti-inflammatory,
and for feverish conditions.
Myrcene and citral are the major pain relieving
components in the oil. A leaf decoction showed weak
diuretic and anti-inflammatory effects when given orally.
The popular use of Cymbopogon citratus to treat nervous
and intestinal ailments and feverish conditions was not
proven effective in a study conducted in 1986. Two
components of the essential oil of Cymbopogon citratus
showed antibacterial action on Gram-negative and Grampositive bacteria.
Cheryl Lans is affiliated to the University
of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada.

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The CaroniCrisis
By Parsuram Maharaj
Salman Rushdie describes the connection between the
.la"Qdandthe Indian best when he wrote "Indians don't just
own the ground beneath their feet; it owns them too." It is
therefore no wonder that the recent Caroni crisis had the
issue of land at the heart of its contention.
The Sanatan Dharma Maha Sabha (SDMS) has a
relationship spanning over 157 years with the sugar
industry. Many of the workers of Caroni are Hindus who
attend mandirs owned by the SDMS. Most of their
children also attend schools operated by the SDMS.
The Sanatan Dharma Maha Sabha's involvement in
the restructing plan for the sugar industry, particularly for
Caroni [1975] Ltd, is directly linked to the creation of the
SDMS and its 157-year-old Hindu bond to the industry. In
fact, so strong is this bond that when the sugar industry
was in crisis in February 1989, the SDMS organized an
all-day consultation entitled "The Future of Caroni."
Coming out of the conference was a publication that
examined the national land distribution programmes, and
SDMS's position on the use of Caroni lands. The present
crisis at Caroni has again engaged the full attention of the
SDMS. The territory under the direct influence of Caroni
has numerous temples, several schools, and the houses of
many thousand Hindus. Caroni [1975] Ltd employs
thousands of Hindus. The SDMS as the popular and
courageous Hindu voice of Hindus in Trinidad and Tobago
is deeply concerned with the plans to re-structure the
company by the present government.

Parsuram Maharaj is a member of the Maha Sabha.

Poem

Simply Indian
By Petamber Persaud
Why stare
at my hair
like it shouldn't be there
But let's get this straight
wear it I must
for I'm proud to be Indian
and you have a problem with my skin
i didn't ask
to be in this skin
brown or not
just ask around
So even if you skin me alive
I will still be Indian
then you want me to play something else
on my own tape deck
but Indian music is food for my soul
and cause mih caan tell yuh mo
dah wah mek mih feel
like an Indian
\ uh drc-,-, ethnic

then dictate what I wear

Out de place
yuh way out of line
Case Close
I'm Indian.
Petamber Persaud is an Indo-Guy ancsc writer.

Indians and heart disease

by Dr. V. S. Rambihar

South Asians (Indians) everywhere, have increased risk of heart disease .... It is
a matter of style ... lifestyle acting on an underlying susceptibility.
About 10 years ago, I recognized an excess of heart
disease among - South Asians in Toronto. This reflects a
pattern reported worldwide.
South Asians (Indians)
everywhere, have increased risk of heart disease at a young
age, more difficult to treat, tracking through generations,
and not explained by the usual risk factors for heart disease
including diabetes and cholesterol.
Diabetes and impaired glucose tolerance, with a
relative excess risk of about 1.2, can account for only part
of the reported 2-10 times excess (depending on the age
and comparison group). This is the strange attractor. .. (a
concept from chaos theory) that binds South Asians, with
patterns and differences within this group. We all know of
many South Asians living long and healthy lives without
heart disease, however, this excess risk is evident despite
the variety, variability and exceptions that we observe. We
have a unique opportunity to do something about it. A
broad based S. Asian Heart Project was launched at the
York University/OSSICC
Heritage Day Health of the
Indo-Caribbean People Conference, June 1990, Toronto.
The excess heart disease affects S. Asians everywhere,
with some regional variation, sparing rural Indians. It starts
young, is relentless, more diffuse, and is more difficult to
treat. It is not just the diet, diabetes, nor the curry as
commonly thought. It is also a matter of style ... lifestyle
acting on an underlying susceptibility. Herein, lies the
chance for change ... the lifestyle and environment that
allow the excess risk to be expressed. It does not affect
everyone.' however, with the many healthy older and
elderly in our midst, and the millions of rural South
Asians, all spared, protected by their style ... lifestyle ... or
genes. This emphasizes that; heart disease is not inevitable
for all South Asians. Excess heart disease in S. Asians is
part of a much wider issue of ethno-cultural and ethnoracial aspects of health and heart health.
Despite the increasing evidence of more variety and
differences within a race or ethnic group, than between
them, it is evident that ethnic origin and culture, as well as
other aspects of diversity, do affect health and care through
complex mechanisms. These differences are wide-ranging
from
genetics
and
molecular
biology
to
the
pathophysiology
and clinical expression
of disease,
including-excess
high blood pressure and its adverse
effects in Blacks, a difference in side effects to medication
in Chinese, increasing heart disease and stroke in Native
Peoples and Blacks, excess heart disease in South Asians,
and much more, extending also to the "non-medical"
determinants of health-socioeconomic
status, gender,
education, access, language, etc. This then requires a

holistic,
inclusive
approach
to health
promotion
emphasizing improved lifestyle and improved education,
in the interest of Heart Health ... for ALL.
Here are ten positive steps to prevention:
* Enjoy your life ... there is much around to enjoy.
* Enjoy stress ... it never goes away and some is necessary.
* Use the enjoyment oflife ... to reduce and prevent excess
stress, and learn how to respond if stress becomes too
much.
* Keep active ... physically ... it helps with everything else
even more.
* Keep active ... mentally ... it helps with everything else
even more.
* Make the world ... the whole world ... a non-smoking
one.
* Maintain a heart healthy lifestyle.
* Enjoy a heart healthy, low fat, low saturated fat,
antioxidant, closer to vegetarian diet. .. Iots of fruits,
grains, breads, pasta, veggies, fibre, and some fish.
* Start now ... even a little makes a difference.
* Teach the children ... IO steps to prevention ... the future
is theirs.
The excess risk is not completely explainable by the
usual risk factors for heart disease, including diabetes and
cholesterol.
South Asians, with a 2-10 times increase in
heart disease do not have an excess of conventional risk
factors, except for diabetes, which accounts for a relative
excess risk of only 1.2. Insulin resistance, a pattern
prevalent among but not unique to South Asians is
associated with an increased risk. McKeigue in London
proposes a role for this insulin resistance pattern abdominal obesity, diabetes, high triglycerides (fats in the
blood), and low HDL (the "good" cholesterol), in
explaining the excess risk, which suggests that heart
disease genes may be involved in interaction with diet and
lifestyle. South Asians, like everyone else, are exposed to
the usual risks for heart disease and the usual determinants
of heart health, but may be sensitive to some.
Genes influence heart health at various levels,
including multiple genes determining, to some degree,
cholesterol levels, high blood pressure, obesity, and even
abdominal obesity.
Dr. v. S. Rambihar is a cardiologist based in Toronto.
Extract from his book South Asian Heart: Preventing
Heart Disease (1995).

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1137 Old Southern Mom Rood, Monfrose, Choguonos

I Poem by Rajandaye

Ramkissoon-Chen

Indian Arrival Day Celebration 2000,

at Waterloo, Trinidad.
I.
They sit like Fatel Rozack's
immigrants, in piroguesjoy-red like this island's dawn.
They dress in the yellow green
of parakeet wings that soared
the Chota Nagpur hills,
hold flags like a gunwale
of oars paddling the wind.
They ride away, pirogue on lorry,
from plantation site to site
where a barrack room was home
where a biraha song and a chillum puff in a small communal
yard gave respite.
2.
On the path to the temple
a twine of leaves
arches a coronet on each
passing head. Rows
of gayndas and redhead zinnias
with lances of petal and leaves
tip a colour-guard.
The littoral raises flagstone
steplike, ascending- image
of a Nelson Island landing.
Shiva seated in stone
Wraps the poisoned serpent
round his throat.
Hanuman waits, mace
on shoulder bulging
with iniquities' defeats.
Marianne and Grace beside me
breathe the floral freshness
of the fence. I look beyond,
dissolved in the bay's grey
unruffie, like old Sankar,
on the immigrants' shipdeck
'watching the water ,only
watching the water.'
He was tossed on the long unknown seas of fear.
I stand anchored
With bequeathed hope.
3.
The Sadhu, figured
on his monument, looks
Upon the unseen beneath
a spreading burial field,

upon the pyre-wood's

single-room stack
for the solitude of the dead.
The pedestal is steep.
The lad's firm will defies
the buff, ropes his ascent.
He throws a garland
round the Sadhu's neck
rich yellow buttercups loaded
with floral luminescence.
Beneath are cracked coconuthalves with kernels, white
like bared souls.
The High Commissioner
as diminutive as the Sadhu
as humble, traces his origins
to the Ganges river plains
the same ancestral place.
He groups with progeny
beneath a blue-white tent
on Arrival Day.
4.
The sea winds blow away
my voice, scatter my words.
They snatch my pages
like elfin couriers, puff out
corners like flying pennants.
I stay my pages in the flagpole
of my fingers. Kusum battles
a runaway page.
Samdaye sits intent
In the front row while I read
'The Sadhu is sentenced
a trespasser on the estate land ...
emotion drips from the dark
wrinkle of her face.
'I helped tote gravel
for the old sea temple' pointing
to her head where her sari
a widow's modest cream
is pinned. 'On meh katta
in jute- bag and basket
where bicycle couldn't go adding
a gold- enriched smile.
Gupte hold up the honour
scroll. Mungal clicks with drizzled
Lens, his picture keepsakes uncertain.
Time pales the willowy colours
of life; leaves foxing.
Only the rained soul prints
perpetuity.

New

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The All Trinidad Sugar And General Workers Trade Union

By Ashwani

Mahabir

Adrian Cola Rienzi (formerly Krishna Deonarine), who had earlier shot to prominence as the
President of the Southern branch of the Trinidad Workingmen's Association, was now called
upon to lead the Oilfield Workers Trade Union (OWTU).
The period after the First World War was marked by a
thirst for constitutional reform, but of the Commissions
established to pursue such changes, none included
representatives of the Indian plantation working class. It
was the Governor who pointed out that there was callous
retrenching and over tasking at the sugar companies. In
1934 the Trinidad Labour Party (TLP) was formed,
Captain A.A. Cipriani having finally decided to register a
political party as opposed
to a "workingmen's
association." In that same year sugar workers took to the
streets, though it did not meet with the favour of Cipriani.
The country was also experiencing something of a cultural
renaissance, capable of instilling further pride amongst
workers.
Then it all culminated in the riots of June 1937. The
deteriorating economic conditions had become unbearable;
poverty was on the rise, workplace related injuries and
sickness had doubled, malnutrition and overcrowding
ruled supreme and infant mortality was as high as"127 per
thousand. Organized trade unionism was the natural
consequence of the 1937 riots. Adrian Cola Rienzi
(formerly Krishna Deonarine), who had earlier shot to
prominence as the President of the Southern branch of the
Trinidad Workingmen's Association, was now called upon
to lead the Oilfield Workers Trade Union (OWTU) and the
All Trinidad Sugar Estates and Factory Workers Trade
Union (ATSEFWU). By the end of 1937, unions evolved
to represent workers in the field of railway and
construction, woodwork, waterfront and public works.
In this early period, the ATSEFWU encouraged the
Governor to set up a Joint Sugar Control Board, which
sought to reconcile the competing aims of union and
company. In 1945, the first Collective Agreement setting
out the working relationship between the workers and the
Sugar Company was signed signaling a new era in the
trade union movement. It was Rienzi who pioneered these
early successes and he must be remembered for his efforts
at labour unity.
In 1953 amidst much internal struggle and rivalry, a
rival Federation of Unions of Sugar Workers and Cane
Farmers emerged, with Bhadase Sagan Maharaj at the
helm. All Trinidad was led by Anthony Geoffrey and Oli
Mohammed at this time. Eventual1y, this Federation
merged with All Trinidad and as a seemingly natural
consequence, Maharaj assumed leadership. Maharaj is best
remembered for introducing trade unionism amongst the
lower management levels of the sugar Company. Hi,
leadership style was unique; it was forceful, some ever

called it dictatorial. It is said however, that Maharaj failed

to democratize the Union and that to some extent' fie
alienated the rank and file. What was considered his
strength was perhaps also his biggest weakness. Maharaj
died in 1971 and his passing would have signaled a new
chapter in the history of All Trinidad.
When Maharaj died, the then Secretary General
Rampartap Singh, approached a southern-based attorneyat-law, Basdeo Panday, who had been associated with the
OWTU, to lead the Union out of the leadership crisis.
Panday, had abandoned an opportunity to further his
academic development to advance the aspirations of the
working class. When he accepted the Leadership position,
Panday had little option but to forge a closer link with the
membership of the Union. He quickly realized that a
greater level of democracy had to be encouraged to instill
patriotism within the Union. He knew that he had to
integrate the working class and to do this he started
meeting with all the workers and by establishing councils
and delegations as a means of encouraging transparency.
When the internal reorganization was complete, he began
to work towards securing a higher standard of living for
workers and towards ensuring guaranteed work.
Under his leadership the membership of the Union
doubled to include persons in the food, processing,
garment, catering, construction and travel industries. As a
result, the name All Trinidad Sugar and General Workers
Trade Union evolved to reflect this new organization. Bro.
Basdeo Pan day eventually led the Union until 1995 when
in his capacity as leader of the United National Congress,
he was able to form the Government and was appointed
Prime Minister of the Republic. He was subsequently
named an Honorary President because of the invaluable
contribution he had made to its development.
With Basdeo Panday having to give up the leadership
to run the affairs of State, there was an immediate need to
fill the vacuum. That was when the experienced Boysie
More Jones emerged. Jones had been involved with the
Union since 1965 having been an employee of the
company since early in the 1950's. In 1978, he was
recruited as a Grievance Officer by the then leader, Basdeo
Panday after serving successfully as President of his
Branch. In 1983, he became head of the Department of
Industrial Relations and in 1985 he was elected to the
position of Second Vice President.

Ashwani Mahabir is an attorney-at- law.

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The Dhangars who came to the Caribbean

By Professor

P.K. Misra

for a majority of the Indian emigrants, they had exchanged one form of poverty and
servitude for another, and many more found only death and disease in the new Iilc.
While discussing the recruitment of the Indians
for overseas plantation work, Tinker (1974) gives
details as to how the system of recruitment of the
Indian labourers evolved from 1834 until 1917. He
mentions for the first 15 years recruits were
'Dhangars' from Chota Nagpur area. Later recruitment
of 'Dhangars' was given up, and slowly the
recruitment net expanded to the heartland of the
present-day western Bihar and eastern Uttar Pradesh
in India. Tinker further remarks that, for a majority
of the Indian emigrants, "they had exchanged one
form of poverty and servitude for another, and many
more found only death and disease in the new life."
But what weighed most in the balance of benefit
and affliction was that the Indians exchanged a
society and a living community for a life-less system
in which human values always mattered less than the
drive for production. It was the system that demanded
the emigration of Indian workers overseas and
stamped its mark upon the coolies as a "peculiar
people" for so many years to come.
When the British came to India, the did not
understand the concept of tribe and caste; they were
too occupied with the expansion and the consolidation
of the Raj. Totally disregarding the local traditions
and the rights of the local people, the British
established the right of the state over forest and land.
They imposed taxes and brought in the uniform
administrative system. Rail and road network were
being established for quick transportation of goods
and supplies. The areas inhabited by the 'tribes' were
being opened up. All this increased the inflow of
immigrants in the areas inhabited by tribes. The
influx
of
immigrants
resulted
in
frequent
confrontation between the tribes and the immigrants.
Chota Nagpur is a rugged, well-wooded region
comprising of hills and valleys now a part of a
separate state in the Indian union. The area is rich in
fauna and flora.
The region has been home of
numerous tribes of which the Santhal, the Munda, the
Oraon and the Ho are the most numerous and referred
to by Tinker as Dhangar. Each one of these tribes had
their own culture, tradition and languages. Socially,
there was no interference in their way of life. They
had full freedom to carve out a life for themselves but

they did interact with the neighbouring populations

for various activities. The Hindus practiced their own
form of religion. Often long years of interaction with
the Hindu peasantry and the Hindu functionaries
made them to acquire a position in the socioeconomic and cultural system of the region and
gained a status in the Hindu caste system.
Thus they entered the Hindu caste society with
their customs, beliefs, gods, goddesses and practices,
adding charm and variety to the civilization and also
earning the epithet for the entire society as "peculiar
people." However, this almost an ideal state of affairs
received a severe jolt with the coming of the colonial
system. It was an entirely different system both in
ideology and practices. It did not recognize diversity
in languages, customs, religion and the freedom of
minority. It had set goals for itself and it was ruthless
in achieving them.
There was a huge demand for cheap labourers in
the far off colonies after the abolition of slavery. In
the beginning, the new system which was being put in
its place called as indentured labour was a hush hush
affair because the authors of the new system were not
sure how the so called humanitarians in Britain were
going to treat it. Now the question as to why Chota
Nagpur and Dhangars were selected for recruitment to
begin with.
Tinker opines that it was owing to the higher
mortality rate among them that may be true but was
not the sole reason. The demand for cheap labour
from overseas as well as in India was increasing
tremendously. A large number of people from Chota
Nagpur were being recruited as labourers to work in
tea plantations
in Assam, mining and indigo
plantations elsewhere. Obviously, the colonial regime
had to look for labourers far and wide. They could
not have found a more appropriate people than the
peasantry from Indo-Gangetic plains. They had a long
and rich experience of agriculture. But a large number
of peasants from these areas were being pauprised by
the new land settlement policy.
P.K. Misra was a visiting Professor at UWI, St. Augustine,
between 1990-93. His latest book is My Anthropological
Journeys (New Delhi, Mittal Publication).

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A documentary

film on Indentureship

By Suresh Kumar Pillai

Jahaji Bai is a documentary

film series on the history of migration and the struggles and

evolution of Indian communities in the Caribbean.

The labor shortage of West Indian sugar plantations in

between Africans and Indians in the Caribbean also goes
the immediate aftermath of African slave emancipation in
back to this scab labor trading.
1838 forced the 19th century European planters and British
Jahaji Bai is an attempt to recapture the historical
circumstances which led to this large scale displacement of
colonial government to engage in a massive scale labor
people and the evolution of Indians as distinct ethnic
trading. When the freed slaves demanded higher wages
communities. The series has three different films of 50
and better living conditions in the sugar plantations, the
minutes duration:
planters adopted a new strategy of importing cheap labor
from other countries to check the demands of the Africans.
I. The Anatomy of a Migration
After several aborted experiments in China, Portugal,
2. Ethnic Conflicts Between Africans and Indians
Africa and USA the planters turned their attention to India.
3. Hinduism in the Caribbean
An impoverished
India after the First War of
Jahaji Bai was launched in May 2001 in Trinidad as
Independence, or Great Mutiny in 1857, became the
the private initiative of the producer and director of the
perfect source of cheap labor recruitment. A new system of
series Suresh Kumar Pillai.
contractual slavery termed "Indentured Labor Contract"
The series was shot in DV & digital 8 cameras with
the active support of a local crew.
was soon developed by the colonial administration to bring
migrant laborers from the Indian subcontinent.
A 45-minute presentation was made on the Trinidadian
For eighty years, between 1838 and until the abolition
component using local editing studios and was screened
for a selected audience at Divali Nagar, Trinidad on
of indentures in 1917, the plantation economies in
December 200 I. The presentation attracted tremendous
countries ranging from Sri Lanka in South Asia to Surinam
(formerly Dutch Guiana) in South America have survived
encouragement and support from a wide cross-section of
by the hard labor of these Indian laborers or "Coolies."
Indo Trinidadians.
As part of this huge labor migration, nearly half a
Following this, a biographical film was made on the
Caribbeans foremost jewellery businessman, Kewal Maraj.
million laborers came to various Caribbean islands and
The film entitled "The Diamond King: the Lift! & Times of
South American colonies. The Indian laborers came from
Kewal Maraj," is both biographical and historical. The
areas stretching from the Punjab to Dacca (now Dhaka) in
North India, and from areas of the former Madras
film was an attempt to weave 84-year-old Kewal Marajs
life with the evolution of Indian entrepreneurship
in
presidency in South India.
Destined to live in barracks/logies left by former
Trinidad and the unique emergence of Indian jewellery
designs in the West Indies. The film was shot and edited
African slaves, these indentured laborers struggled against
several oddities. Several thousands perished during their
using the local crew.
In February 2002, the project moved to Guyana where
journey through Kala Pani, the dark waters of the Atlantic
the conflict between Africans and Indians has assumed
and Indian Ocean, and later on through the inhuman
extremely violent forms. In October 2002. the project
working conditions of plantations.
received a prestigious fellowship support from the Centre
The descendants of these Indian indentured migrants
today occupy a very important place in the socio-cultural
for Caribbean Studies. University of Warwick for postand political milieu of the Caribbean world. Known
production.
The films include extensive coverage of archival
variously as East Indians, Indo-Caribbean, West Indian
materials such as old newspapers, immigration records.
Indians, the people of Indian origin spread across several
island nations such as Trinidad & Tobago, Jamaica,
ship
and
estate
registers,
immigration
depot
Grenada, Barbados, St. Vincent, St. Lucia and in South
correspondents,
general letters written by immigration
officials, money order registers, records on return ships
American countries like Guyana (formerly British Guiana)
etc., apart from interviews and social and cultural events of
and Suriname.
the past 19 months in Trinidad and Guyana.
The extraordinary cultural fusion that took place
between four great civilizations - Amerindians, Indians,
More information on the project could he obtained
Africans and Europeans - in these colonies gave birth to
from www.trikkan.corn or ~\\-\\"iahaii.llctlirn.~l)lJ}
different kinds of (Hindu, Islamic and Christian religious
practices. The genesis of the ethnic or racial conflict

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Our immigrant grandmothers

By Shanta Singh- Ramjattan
Through ruthless self-denial, they purchased land so that it may truly be said the lands which
they now own were paid for in sweat and blood.
Their first tribulation must have been to leave gun} and
relatives. To their long overland journey and homesickness
while waiting in the immigration
depot, add the
seasickness of their perilous voyage. They traversed the
Indian, the Southern and the Atlantic Oceans in the pal ki
jahaj, which took ninety days and the aag ki jahaj, the first
of which was the "MY Yirawa" in 1901, which took fortyfive days. Passing through the fearsome pagal samundar,
where giant waves threw them about mercilessly, they
must have held on to the ropes and vomited and shrieked
in terror and were grateful to remain below closed hatches
in inclement weather.
When she stepped out at Nelson Island an onlooker
must have seen a barefooted nayga coolie, tallish, slim and
fair if she were a Kalkatiya; or dark if she were a
Madrassi, dressed in the traditional jhula, gangree and
orhni and adorned in ornate silver jewelry.
Timid and
illiterate as she might have appeared, she had the valour
and flexibility to seek her fortunes on foreign shores. She
brought with her the skilled knowledge of her caste and
class. If she were an ahir she was a skilled milkmaid; is
she were a chamine she was a skilled midwife. How
powerless and disoriented she must have felt, clinging to
parents or husband and children, her only links to life and
sanity in this new land of bondage.
Moving into the moolah to serve her three-year contract,
she moved into a life of neoslavery, of toiling from dawn
to dusk. They pulled khudaries to weed fields of young
cane, fetched dirt in katras to build estate roads and made
rollers with cane trash to fertilize the fields; the same
monotony and drudgery day after day, year after year.
from youth to old age. As wife and mother every day was
a battle for survival, a struggle just to get enough food to
keep her family healthy. She carried on her head firewood
gathered in the woods and water drawn from ponds and
springs. Sheer determination and raw courage helped them
survive the misery, degradation and squalor of the kotee
and life as indentured labourers, a system under which
they were bullied, intimidated, whipped, seduced and
raped.
When she and her husband got their plot of land in lieu
oftheir return fares, she began to feel a little liberated. She
busied herself with a little kitchen garden, poultry to be
used when relatives and dear friends came to visit, goat,
sheep and cattle. Some practiced their caste skills as a
sideline. They toiled as hard, if not harder than their men,
sacrificing and living for their children. Battling to live in
two worlds simultaneously and fearing assimilation and
the loss of their Indian identity, they clung to their culture

and religion almost fanatically, performing puja and

namaaz and observing the fast.
She wore a flowing gangree and the ubiquitous gauzy
orhni if she were Hindu, or in the shalwar if she were
Muslim. She was adorned in ornate silver jewelry: the
jhunka hanging from her ears, the haar glowing on her
neck, the bayra jingling on her wrists, and the gullahara
tingling on her ankles. If she were from the vaishya varna
which consisted of nineteen castes she could have been an
ahir, in which case she was a skilled milkmaid; if she were
from the sudra bullied, intimidated, whipped, seduced and
raped.
Through ruthless self-denial they purchased land so
that it may truly be said the lands which they now own
were paid for in sweat and blood. And they transformed
themselves from transient coolies into landowners and a
flourishing peasantry. Not only did they save the sugar
industry which they found in shambles, but they also built
up private sugar, rice, and dairy industries. By their
ceaseless labour and endless devotion, these were devoted
hard-working women. Some practiced their caste skills as
a sideline to supplement their income, thus working at two
jobs.
Had they not been our proud foundation, where would
we now stand? In the eternal words of the Guyanese poet
Rajkumari Singh in "Per-Ajie: A Tribute to the First
Immigrant Woman," she writes: "let us pray, O'er thy
head/By burdens hallowed /Malas/Of brightest hues/We
place/In reverence/Seeking ever/Thy benediction." These
women sacrificed for their children, through whom and for
whom they lived.
In an aspiration common to all
immigrants they hoped and prayed for a bright future for
their progeny in this new adopted land.

Shanta Singh-Ramjauan
teaches in a secondary
school ill Trinidad. She is writing her second novel.

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Writers and playwrights during Indentureship

. By Dr Baytoram Ramharack

Sadly, we are told, after all the "service and sacrifice" of Bharat Laskhmi in her new land, there
was "not a monument to commemorate her life."
The British Guiana Dramatic Society presented a play
entitled "Footlights of Hindustan" which highlighted many
achievements of Indians in the colony during Indentureship (1838-1917). They also staged a two act play, "The
King and Queen"
by Rabinbranath
Tagore.
In
commemoration of the centenary of the advent of Indians
to British Guiana, the Susamachar East Indian Young
Men's Society also declared open a library on Tuesday,
May 17, 1938.
Probably the most important aspect of the celebration
was the presentations made by the learned citizens and
leading members and supporters of the British Guiana East
Indian Association (BGEIA). C.R. Jacob, in his capacity as
president of the BGEIA, reminded his audience about the
continued neglect of the large numbers of Indians,
particularly those in Essequibo and Berbice. He rejected
the suggestion that the "hyphenated" Indians would be
more acceptable in society if they were to merge with the
dominant Creole culture.
He appealed to others to support the BGEIA so that it
can work to bring "peace and prosperity" to' all citizens.
While noting that it was Indian labour that saved the sugar
industry and developed the rice industry, he called on the
colonial government to provide immediate assistance to
the marginalized population in Berbice and Essequibo.
Peter Ruhomon and Joseph Ruhomon both adopted a
more historical approach in their examination of the
circumstances that led to the introduction of Indian
labourers into the colony, as well as the central concerns of
the Indian community during the first hundred years. An
obvious theme in their analysis was the role of India and
Indians abroad. They felt Indians away from India were in
a position to demonstrate patriotism in "sacrifice for the
Motherland," and for the Indians abroad, a strong Indian
can promote "peace, happiness and contentment of
generations yet unborn."

Peter Ruhoman, a former civil servant, and brother of

Joseph Ruhomon, used to write a regular column in the
section called "Indian Intelligence" in the Sunday edition
of the Daily Chronicle. He played a leading role in
addressing the social and economic conditions in which
Indians lived. He was a founding member of the
Susmachar East Indian Young Men's Society and was
actively associated with the Hindu Society (founded by
Ramroop Maraj). His most celebrated book, published in

1947, is the Centenary History of East Indians in British

Guiana (1838-1938).
Robert Janki, a member of the British Guiana
Dramatic Society, captures the imagination of "the story of
the advent of Indians to Guiana" in melodramatic
vaudevillian style through the eyes of its main female
character, Bharat Laskhmi, who boarded the Hesperus for
"The Magnificent Province" on the day of "Diwali."
Bharat Lakshmi's life in the colony is told in great detail,
with all her trials and tribulations, up to the time she went
"to join her forefathers in the land of Reincarnation where
no one dies but lives always.
Sadly, we are told, after all her "service and sacrifice"
in her new land, there was "not a monument to
commemorate her life." One can easily assume that the
experience of the Indians in Guyana during Indenturship
continues through the "reincarnated souls" of Bharat
Lakshmi who continues to watch over the lives of the
Indians many years later.
Their contribution and presence in Guyana after 163
years, is still being challenged today by non-Indians who
subscribe to a "prior arrival" theory to justify their claims
over the national patrimony. In his essay, David Dharry
condemned the love for "wine and song" by Indian youths
and challenged them to play a more constructive role in
society's development by identifying and working for
"noble causes".
Mrs. J .B. Singh reminded participants about the work
of the elders in providing social services to those in need
and noted that the greatest "reward" Indians could give to
its elders was to continue providing those services. The
secretary of the British Guiana Cricket Club, M. M.
Beramsingh, presented a detailed overview of "Indians in
Sports," particularly the role they played in cricket.
From the religious aspect, a number of essays focused
0.'1 "Christian missionary work" and other traced the rise of
Hinduism through the role of the Arya Samaj movement.
Included also is a section on statistical data from the 1931
census report which gave some indication on the "state of
affairs" among Indians up to that time.
Dr Baytoram Ramharack is a political science lecturer at
Nassau Community College in the USA. He has just
released a book entitled Centenary Celebration of the
Arrival of Indians in British Guiana (1838 - 1938).

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A vision for Indians in Trinidad

By Dr. Kirk Meighoo
The vision should be built on their inherited values of discipline, hard work, hierarchy, order,
respect, commitment to vocational excellence, and duty. With foundations in Oriental religions,
philosophies, and outlooks, it would create a distinctive civilisation in the New World.
I am extremely distressed at how Indians are misled in
this country, guided by so many fears, the encouragement
of feelings of victimhood, and smallness of vision. There
is an important contribution for Indians to make to the
building of this New World civilisation, which is still in its
infancy and only half-made.
All groups, whether they are defined by "race"
(Africans, "French Creoles," Chinese, Syrian/Lebanese),
religion (Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Orisa), gender
(male, female), occupational niche (artisans, industrialists,
merchants, financiers, intellectuals, artists), or what have
you, have specific roles to play in the process. But for
these groups to be maximally effective, they must
capitalise on their natural advantages and "sleeping
resources," that is, distinct inheritances that have as yet
been untapped.
We cannot simply follow fashion as we have been,
making up our society with other people's rules. This is a
prime source of our disaster, our lack of confidence in our
independence. We must discern our own values, not accept
uninformed, even if globally current ones. IndoTrinidadians, particularly, have much to offer in the
process. To do so requires a clarification of three areas:
coming to terms with their place in the West Indies;
establishing links with the Old World, particularly Asia;
and establishing a distinctive, viable New World culture,
society, and economy.
First, Indians must come to terms with their place in
the West Indies. Many Indians, including their leaders,
have taken a parochial, defensive stance, not facing up to
reality. They look inwards, erect defensive walls, and are
fearful of Creole society devouring them. We cannot
Indians must forward a distinct, larger vision, seeking
transformation to a different type of society; better than
what presently exists, not equal to it. The vision should be
built on their inherited values of discipline, hard work,
hierarchy, order, respect, commitment to vocational
excellence, and duty. With foundations in Oriental
religions, philosophies, and outlooks, it would create a
distinctive civilisation in the New World. Yet, despite the
proud boasts, these religions are in a sad state of decline,
losing their vital energy and relevance. Their revival is
critical, not only for practitioners but for the building of
the West Indies as a whole.
Economically, Indians have taken important steps in
creating a viable, home-focused West Indian economy.
Importantly, in the countryside and elsewhere, many
Indians have chosen to stay and build, when they generate

pretend that Trinidad and Tobago is separate from the

region, or prevent the inevitable process
What is the basis of despair for Indians? I am
convinced that Indians can thrive and prosper, up and
down the West Indies, as Indians. Not only that, they can
have an even more central place in West Indian life than
they do at present, and surely more than they would in
Canada, the UK, or the US. There should be nothing to
fear in West Indian integration, particularly since the
countries of Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, and Suriname
will inevitably act as a sub-region in which Indians have
laid a significant foundation.
Indeed, in the history of the Federation of the West
Indies (1958-62), Indo-Trinidadians played vital roles. For
instance, if the DLP had won the elections, Ashford
Sinanan would have been named Prime Minister of the
West Indies. The DLP lost by a slim margin, though they
won a majority of seats in both Trinidad and Jamaica, and
Sinanan was made Leader of the Opposition in the West
Indian Parliament. (Today, Basdeo Panday and Ramesh
Maharaj indeed have links with parties in the Eastern
Caribbean, largely with the offshoots of the old DLPaffi Iiated parties.)
Once this question is settled, and Indians acquire the
confidence to openly participate, as Indians, in building
here a civilisation in which they will be central and
indispensable, they must bring their particular resources to
bear. One of these is the proclivity to establish deeper links
with the Old World, particularly Asia. Importantly, this
can play a vital role in helping to unshackle the region
from US thralldom, by engaging Asian popular culture,
technology,
religion,
enterprise,
art, and so on.
wealth, not to sell and move to the suburbs of Port of
Spain. Yet, despite the perception, the steps so far taken
have been only small. These efforts need to be transposed
to a higher level. In this regard the Hindu Credit Union
and its conglomerates represent an extremely important
development. When we see the development of HCU
Energy, the next major economic milestone will have
been reached. Such a vision of development is necessary
not only for Indians, but for the entire West Indies,
starting with Trinidad and Tobago. Undoubtedly the
resources - cultural, intellectual, social, and economic exist. What is needed is a leadership not griping about
"discrimination," but looking fearlessly to the future.
Dr. Meighoo is the author of the recently-released
book, Politics in a Half-made Society (2003).

---

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The Trinidad villages of Debe and Penal

by Sheila Ramdass
In almost every home, a plot of land was set side for the growing of vegetables
to enrich the diet of daal and rice.
I recall being teased many times by people when they
heard that I lived in the Debc/Penal vicinity. I was young
then. and geographically
far from where I am today. but
the words arc stuck to my mind.
Debe . Penal

bodi ka dahl
come go Penal gul
come go Penal
Profiling the Debe and Penal communities
in this way
was meant to be funny and even a put dO\\11. Its origin is
unknown Yet in this profiling lies more than a glimpse of
the history and the culture of Indians.
Indians contributed
to the history of agriculture in Dcbe and Penal. and in turn
the history of agriculture
in Trinidad.
and indeed the
Caribbean. Their primary occupation was tilling the soil to
grow a variety of crops including sugarcane.
rice. pcas.
beans. bodi. and pumpkin as a livelihood. But more than
this. for Hindu Indians. the carth itself is a.sacred place.
and like a mother. Agriculture is 51sacred activity
The characteristics
of Dcbe and Penal have changed
significantly in recent years. But 30-40 years ago. Dcbc
and Penal were t\\ a agricultural
to\\11S or villages as they
were sometimes called. The to\\11S border the Oropouche
lagoon. one of two large lagoon areas in Trinidad. Lagoon
refers to fresh water. inland swamp lands.
Debe and Penal were considered to be Indian areas.
The
population
was
almost
100% Indians.
the
overwhelming majority of whom were Hindus.
Everyone
knew that .among the staple foods of the Indian community
were rice. dhal. beans.
bhagi and bodi. which they
produced themselves. Agriculture was the main occupation
of the people in these 1\\0 communities.
During the rainy
season. rice was the main crop cultivated. During the dry
season crops such as watermelon. cucumber. and a variety
of beans and bodi were planted Some of this produce went
to the local markets. but much remained for domestic
consumption. Some Indians also worked in sugarcane
estates as hired labourers. or on small personal estates.
It is significant to note that cultivating these crops was
marc than an occupation
for Indians. It was done \\ ith
sentiment and rituals in a traditional
wav. It was an
unbroken link \\ ith their Indian heritage and formed part of
an ancient occupational
inheritance from their ancestors in
India.
Rice cultivation
in Dcbc and Penal was mainlv
subsistence
agriculture.
not a big cash crop. This was
because Indians gre\\ rice using traditional
methods they
had brought with them from India Hands and feet did
everything.
There \\ ere no mechanical
equipment
and

machinery to SO\\ the seedlings. to cut the stalks or tresh

the gram. for example
Hands and hoe pulled up weeds.
Year after year the same fields were cultivated without the
use of fcrtiliscrs to replace depleted soil nutrition. The land
was suitable for rice growing during the rainy seasons
when the fields were flooded but there were no irrigation
facilities
to control the flood levels.
In addition.
the
government
did not provide
much subsidies
for nee
growing as they did for other crops such as cocoa and
sugarcane.
Yet. Indians continued to cultivate rice
Aside from food. Indians continued to grow rice for
traditional.
sentimental
\ alucs Rice growing is a kind of
religious rite. For Hindus. nee a vcrv important ingredient
in religious rituals
At /)11/(/\ and \\ cddings. rice is a part of
ritual offerings.
Khtr . made from rice is a sacred food
Growing and reaping large amounts of rice is a symbol of
plenty. and lends hope for the absence of hunger
Daal is one of the oldest and most basic of Indian
cuisine. as is rice. Daal IS a kind of soup made of one or
more types of peas or beans. YelIO\\ split peas daal is the
most common type in Trinidad.
Indians in India have been
cooking many \ arictics of dhal for centuries. Eating rice
\\ ith daal is an ancient custom. Most Hindu Indians in
India are vegetarians
and foods such as peas. beans and
lentils are critical to their diet as their main sources of
protein Indians brought the tradition of cooking daal. and
eating daal with rice to Trinidad
It is not a coincidence
that the people of Dcbc and
Penal cultivated rice and bodi in abundance. One varictv of
bodi grO\\11. - black eye peas - was commonly used to
make daal. It IS possible that eating rice and black eye peas
daal bv the Indians of Dcbc and Penal. as their ancestors
had done for ccntuncs 111 India. was the inspiration for the
little rhvmc profiling the community .
Aside from agriculture
as all occupation.
Indians of
Dcbc and Penal. like other Indians planted a kitchen
garden. In almost cv crv home. a plot of land was set aside
for the grow ing of vegetables to enrich the diet of dhal and
rice Among these were ochro. bygan. tomatoes. cassava.
cddocs. dashcen. peas and hot peppers.
This custom of
cultivating a kitchen garden for home consumption
is also
one that was brought from the motherland. But it was more
than a sentimental custom. and love of the land. It was a
way of survival for Indians in Trinidad and other parts of
the Caribbean
as it has been for people of India for
centuries.

Sheila Ramdass
Ontario

is a policy analyst with the

Government, writer and poet.

P It Experience

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The Global Organization of People of Indian Origin [GOPIO]

By Ashook Ramsaran
GOPIO is a non-partisan, non-sectarian global organization that is actively promoting the
interests of East Indians worldwide.
People of Indian Origin [PIO] now reside in almost all
countries, among which there are over 25 countries where
PIOs constitute a significant percentage of the population.
Some of these PIOs are first time immigrants, while others
are fourth and fifth generations.
Indian emigration became
a routine business starting in 1834 when the first shiploads
of indentured
laborers
were taken by the British to
Mauritius, Uganda, Nigeria and South Africa, followed
immediately (in 1838) by large numbers to the Caribbean
area. Over the next 84 years (unti I 1917) this trend
continued, with several of these countries
now having
substantial PIO populations.
In 200 I. the High Level Committee
on the Indian
Diaspora made a detailed study of the Indian Diaspora and
has published the findings in a very extensive report. Part
of that report lists the PIO population
by country, copy
attached herewith.
It is generally agreed that, there has always been rights
abuses perpetuated against PIOs in several countries where
they form a significant
percentage
of the population,
ranging from the physical, economic, political, cultural and
educational
aspects.
There continues
to be a constant
struggle on these fronts with efforts by various local and
global agencies
such as the United Nations,
Amnesty
International,
Human
Rights Watch,
the International
Commission of Jurists and the Carter Commission.
However,
in the recent past - and continuing
at
alarming .levels - PIOs in several countries are the targets
of atrocities that include killings, rape, beatings, armed
robberies, blatant harassment, and physical abuses beyond
the levels of the past. The East Indians of Guyana, Fiji,
Trinidad. Zimbabwe, South Africa, Suriname, Malawi and
others are experiencing
enormous problems at this time.
Unacceptable as the levels of violence are, the other urgent
concerns are the continuing trend and increasing levels of
these atrocities,
especially
when the attackers
seem
encouraged by their leadership and by similar events in
other countries where PIOs are being attacked.
The situation has reached crisis proportions and needs
urgent action at all levels to safeguard the lives and the
rights of PIOs in the affected countries. These are issues of
urgent concern to the PIO community
worldwide,
indeed
to the global community itself.
GOPIO
is a non-partisan,
non-sectarian,
global
organization that is actively promoting the interests of East
Indians
worldwide
by continuously
monitoring
and
addressing
current critical
issues of concern,
and by
enhancing
cooperation
and
communication
between
groups of East Indians living in various countries.

GOPIO
IS
uniquely
qualified
and
universally
recognized
as the only
globally
established
civic
organization
that is suitably positioned
to address these
crucial issues of concern to PIOs. In its continuing effort to
monitor and address these PIO issues. GOPIO is fulfilling
the mandate of its charter. It has also established
local
GOPIO chapters in most of the countries where there are
current problems.
GOPIO was established
in 1989. in response to the
need for a global organization
to address the interests of
the PIO popu lations that now exceed 25 mill ion people.
GOPIO's
First Global
Convention
was held at the
formulation
in 1989 with the publication of "Migrations of
Indians Around the World." Since that time GOPIO has
been at the forefront. addressing
the issues of concern to
PIOs: Human rights violations
petition
to the United
Nations on Fiji in 1990 and on Sri Lanka in 1992, then met
with the United Nations on the Fiji crisis in 2000. GOPIO
became a member of the United Nations Commission
for
Human Rights and sent a delegation to the Durban. South
Africa conference
in 200 I. GOPIO
has continued
its
efforts with regular conferences
and symposia on critical
issues of interest to PIOs. concluding
with appropriate
resolutions
on current
adverse
events and making its
positions known on these issues.
The primary efforts initiated by GOPIO to address this
very serious problem focus on immediate identification
of
the problems
and the associated
countries
involved,
confirmation
from sources
including
the local GOPIO
chapters, initiation of prompt awareness
in the local and
international
media and relevant agencies. and solicitation
for appropriate
redress from the respective governments,
the Government
of India and human rights agencies. It is
incumbent
on CiOPIO.
with its mission
and unique
position, to continue the efforts initiated since its inception
in 1989.
GOPIO has a unique obligation to expand its efforts to
address the concerns of PIOs throughout
the East Indian
diaspora,
especially
at this time of extreme
violence
perpetuated
against PIOs in several countries. GOPIO also
needs to increasingly
promote its efforts worldwide
and
solicit international
dialogue among other organizations,
governments,
agencies,
institutions
and individuals.
The
problems facing PIOs in countries where they are targets
of atrocities
are also the problems of PIOs (and others)
worldwide.

Ashook

Ramsaran is Secretary General of GOPIO.

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Book review

by Veronique

Bragard

Curry Flavour by Lelawatee Manoo-Rahming

Spices equally embody the heritage the author's Indian ancestors brought with them in their
cultural suitcases, Indian food has altered Caribbean food while having adapted to new
landscapes and peoples.
Lelawatee Manco-Rahming, who was born in Trinidad
and currently lives in Nassau (Bahamas), has recently been
awarded the David Hough Literary Prize by the Caribbean
Writer and has won the Commonwealth
Broadcasting
Association 200 I Short Story competition.
Published by
Leeds-based
Peepal Tree Press in 2000, her poetry
collection
revisits the author's
spicy ancestral
Indian
heritage while creatively cooking and mixing it with the
numerous cultural references of the Caribbean and various
aspects of her experience. Nostalgia, family ties and a deep
fascination
for cultural
elements
and archetypes
have
carried the Trinidadian
poet to new discoveries,
passages
in time and place across the Caribbean.
Curry Flavour is a poetry collection in which spices
embody cross-cultural
heritages and identity nasalification
and whereby women's role as transmitters
of culture and
life recipes is celebrated.
Imbued with the )mprint
of
Hindu mysticism,
most poems are reflections
about life
and death, the sad experiences of infertility and separation.
but also the celebration
of ancestors, spiritual figures and
cultural forms of expressions.
Words, like spices, are mixed in balanced and original
ways to create a tasty dish of rhythm, questions
and
meaning.
Manco-Rahming's
poem
"Making
Soup"
illustrates
this
metaphor
of food
preparation:
the
elaboration of soup equates a mythic engendering
process
of creativity that transforms
sensations
and memory into
poetic forms: "Boil four cups/Liquid
memory/In a desert
wh irlwind/ Add a cup of crisp/Autumn
colour/and
a
tablespoon
of/Fresh
sunset/until
on
awakening/one
morning/all rememberings/are
blended and a poem/gurgles
forth from this primeval soup."
Spices equally embody the heritage the author's Indian
ancestors brought with them in their cultural suitcases.
Indian food has altered Caribbean
food while having
adapted to new landscapes
and peoples:
"Your curry
mango with bandhania,lwild
coriander,
shadon
beni,
instead of true dhania/coriander
from India." ManooRahming uses the imagery of the spices to allude to a
historical and cultural subtext: the Indian heritage of the
region and the adaptation
of Indian culture on plural
grounds.
Spices are also deeply connected with smells and the
body. In "Leaf-of-life
hands," the mother figure, who has
abandoned her children, is remembered
by her songs, her
hands, her herbs and the familiar smell of her cooking'

"Where was the lemon-grass tea?/To warm us when we

lay cold/Alone
on wooden floors? ( ... ) Where were the
roti and dhal/We needed to plug the holes in our bellies?"
Sensuality becomes eroticism in "Come and Dine with
Me" and "Curry Flavour" in which spices are used in the
witty and sensual celebration
of female sexuality. These
two poems offer a rather positive image of gender relations
in contrast with the author's short story "Saving Rupa," in
which a young girl remembers
an attempted rape on her
friend. The protagonist
eventually
turns into a bird to
swallow her calibanic enemy and oppressor. Through her
transformation
into
a
bird.
a
magical
realist
metamorphosis.
the protagonist
metaphorically
defeats the
patriarchal
power while experiencing
the lightness
of
psychological
liberation.
A similar symbolic scene closes
her short story "The Night I lost my Mama" whereby the
abandoned child, by killing a chicken. metaphorically
kills
her mother and releases her anger and suffering.
But the poet is also a masalchi
of heritages
and
identities.
Lelawatee
Manco-Rahming
uses ancestral
myths, transforming,
comparing,
challenging,
rewriting
them or creating new ones. By revisiting the transoceanic
crossing of her ancestors,
she establishes
a new myth of
origins, the genesis of a collectivity.
In "Incarnation
on the
Caroni" and "Ode to my Great-Great
Grandmother:'
the
physical
and psychological
strength
of ancestors
is
celebrated
and called out for reincarnation.
In "Eve of
Creation:'
the poet emphasizes the archetypal patterns and
similarities
between all belief systems and myths thereby
challenging
Western monolithic
ideologies and bringing
forward a creative and solidary Pan-Caribbeanness
that
includes the reference to Caribbean deities and festivals.
Finally,
Manoo-Rahming
points to the ever-ending
process
of
identity
masalification
influenced
b)
encounters, travel, nostalgia and a need and fascination for
creative forms of expression.
Identity does not cfepend on
soil: "Home is/where the heart is." Although her home has
remained Trinidad, Manoo-Rahrnings
poetry testifies to a
cross-cultural
imaginary.

Veronique
Bragard, is a Ph.D. student who teaches at the
Universite
Catholique
de l.ouvain (Belg ium). She is
completing
a Ph,D. on Coolitudc
and Wornens
Writing
from the Diaspora.

G
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Th.eIndian. classical singing competition

By Ajeet Praimsingh
The Mere Desh Organisation of Trinidad and Tobago
will be organising an Indian classical singing competition
th
on Sunday 30 May 2003 - a public holiday. It will be one
th
of the several activities marking the 158 anniversary of
the arrival of Indians to Trinidad and Tobago. This
competition is being staged in recognition of Indian
classical singers of Trinidad and Tobago, and the father of
Hindi Poetry Sant Kabir. Classical Singing, Tent Singing
or Baitaak Gana is one of the musical art forms' that have
evolved in Trinidad and Tobago. Our singers have created
their own unique dubh or styie in rendering classical
songs, as well as with thumree, tilaana, horee, drupad etc.
Other types of song in this genre are Kaharwaa, Lawnee,
Malaar, Kajaree, Chaitee,
Horee, Ghazal, Gaajaal,
Beehaag, Daadra, Beekaat, Kimtaa, Barmasee, Bhitahpaat,
Damrnar and Qawaali.
The competition is open to all nationals of Trinidad
and Tobago. Each contestant will have to render two songs
in the unique classical style. Each contestant must also
declare on stage the type of song being rendered e.g.
drupad, thumree, etc. In four to five sentences the
individual must be able to explain in English, on a written
script, the message of each song. No song copies will be
allowed on stage. All songs must project the theme nation
building, love and harmony amongst all.
At the competition, ten of our (unsung) sons and
daughters who have made sterling contributions to our
country in the area of culture will be honoured. The
classical singing who were pioneers in the early days were
Bel Bagai, Firemta, Ali Jan, Bahadoor, Samsir, Tulisram
Seebalack Toolum, Adolphus, Jame Ramsawak, Benny
Seenath, Ramcharitar, Jagru and others. The songs were
the only avenues of relaxation as an expression of their
feelings in a home away from home in native India.
Our singers' style of singing classical songs is
different to that of India. They were able to create their
own cultural identity in classical singing, a Trinidad style
with the rhythm hands or taal played on the dholak (drum)
and the dhantaal (iron rods).
For further information, telephone 672-4423.
Visit Our Website www.ajeetpraimsingh.com
Ajeet Praimsingh is the Coordinator of the
Mere Desh Organisation of Irinidad and Tobago.

New edition 2001. 169 pages. Price TT $ 40.

Order copies by contacting Chakra Publishing House.
Tel: (868) 674-6008, 675-7707
E-mail: kumarmahab@hotmail.com

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