Since their ar­rival in 1845, East In­di­ans, not on­ly with­in T&T, but through­out the West In­dies, have made and con­tin­ue to make an in­deli­ble mark on all spheres of life: the arts, acad­e­mia, pol­i­tics, cul­ture and more. Through­out the decades, the con­tri­bu­tions of the East In­di­an com­mu­ni­ty have be­come part of our main­stream cul­ture and have added fur­ther char­ac­ter and dis­tinc­tion to our mul­ti-eth­nic artis­tic ex­pres­sions.

Com­mu­ni­ty De­vel­op­ment, Cul­ture and the Arts (MCD­CA) Min­is­ter Nyan Gads­by-Dol­ly stressed the im­por­tance of cel­e­brat­ing our her­itage as a coun­try. Ac­cord­ing to the Min­is­ter of Cul­ture, “Now more than ever, we can­not af­ford to for­get or lose what makes us who we are as a dy­nam­ic, plur­al and mul­ti­cul­tur­al so­ci­ety. The in­flu­ence of the East In­di­an com­mu­ni­ty is seen in every sphere of our cul­ture from mu­sic to dance, to the­atre, food and vi­su­al arts. Our so­ci­ety is en­riched by the mul­ti­plic­i­ty of ex­pe­ri­ences that this her­itage in­forms; and when all is said and done, recog­nis­ing and cel­e­brat­ing our his­to­ry will help us move for­ward with con­fi­dence to form our fu­ture.”

As such, in com­mem­o­ra­tion of In­di­an Her­itage Month and the 175th An­niver­sary of the ar­rival of East In­di­an in­den­tured labour­ers to T&T, the MCD­CA has em­barked on a cam­paign of ac­tiv­i­ties high­light­ing as­pects of our cul­ture in­flu­enced by our East In­di­an her­itage. The dig­i­tal cam­paign will fea­ture a se­ries of vir­tu­al chats with key in­flu­encers and cul­tur­al per­for­mances. The se­ries will then cul­mi­nate with Masala, the fourth in the Live@Lunch Con­cert Se­ries for 2020, on May 30. The con­cert, which will be streamed on the Min­istry’s face­book page @art­sand­cul­ture, will fea­ture clas­si­cal singer Ravi Ja­groop, a po­em by Ra­jan Ma­haraj, dancer Alana Ra­jah, The Na­tion­al Steel Sym­pho­ny Or­ches­tra and The Na­tion­al Phil­har­mon­ic Or­ches­tra.

View­ers can tune in to the MCD­CA’s’ face­book page @art­sand­cul­turett, Youtube and In­sta­gram @Cul­tureCom­mu­nitt for this ex­cit­ing ini­tia­tive, which is aimed at cel­e­brat­ing and ap­pre­ci­at­ing the di­ver­si­ty that we all en­joy.