Ch­agua­nas may­or Or­lan­do Nages­sar has called for a re­turn to fam­i­ly val­ues. He said this in his ad­dress at In­di­an Ar­rival Day cel­e­bra­tions host­ed by the Mere Desh Com­mit­tee on Wednes­day. The func­tion was held at the car park of Mid Cen­tre Mall, Ch­agua­nas. Nages­sar said one of the hall­marks of the in­den­tured In­di­ans was their com­mit­ment to fam­i­ly val­ues and work­ing to­geth­er as a fam­i­ly to lift them­selves in­to a bet­ter sphere of life. He said fam­i­ly val­ues and com­mit­ment to fam­i­ly life had been dis­ap­pear­ing from con­tem­po­rary so­ci­ety as decul­tur­al­i­sa­tion from ex­ter­nal el­e­ments was creep­ing in­to the In­di­an com­mu­ni­ty.

He said: "The in­flu­ence of the ja­ha­ji and the main­tain­ing of tra­di­tions must be up­held. The im­por­tance of fam­i­ly life, ed­u­ca­tion and hard work must be part of our psy­che. "Our fam­i­ly bond­ing, our eco­nom­ic pur­suits, the urge and de­sire for ed­u­ca­tion, our eth­nic wear, our re­li­gion and cul­tur­al her­itage must re­main strong. "We must not be en­slaved by decul­tur­al­i­sa­tion." Nages­sar said the com­mu­ni­ty had risen from a gen­er­a­tion of cane cut­ters to peo­ple with the high­est po­si­tion in the land be­cause of de­ter­mi­na­tion and strug­gle.