Paras Ra­moutar

Min­is­ter of Works and Trans­port Dr Su­ru­jrat­tan Ram­bachan has called for tol­er­ance among the var­i­ous eth­nic groups in T&T.He was de­liv­er­ing the fea­ture ad­dress at the 169th In­di­an Ar­rival Day cel­e­bra­tions at the Di­vali Na­gar, which was or­gan­ised by the Na­tion­al Coun­cil of In­di­an Cul­ture (NCIC) on Fri­day night. Ram­bachan rep­re­sent­ed Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar.

"As we go for­ward, we must imag­ine a com­mu­ni­ty in which eth­no-cul­tur­al groups are not mere­ly tol­er­ant of each oth­er, since the no­tion of tol­er­ance pre­sup­pos­es a pow­er on the part of one group to al­low the oth­er to ex­ist, but pro­tec­tive of the cul­tur­al free­doms of each oth­er and ac­tive­ly seek­ing to un­der­stand each oth­er," Ram­bachan said.He said that dis­tinc­tive cul­tur­al tra­di­tions in the Caribbean, In­di­an, African, In­dige­nous and Eu­ro­pean must not be made to feel that their rights to sur­vival and growth are favours be­stowed on them.

In­di­ans in the Caribbean, he said, have nev­er sought to cre­ate a Caribbean na­tion in which the tra­di­tions of In­dia be­come the ex­clu­sive and dom­i­nant ex­pres­sions."In­di­an cul­ture has al­ways been rad­i­cal­ly plu­ral­ist in char­ac­ter. From an an­cient ap­pre­ci­a­tion of the lim­it­less­ness of ul­ti­mate re­al­i­ty, the lim­its of hu­man ex­pres­sion and the di­ver­si­ty of hu­man na­ture, it has come to see and em­brace plu­ral­i­ty as a nec­es­sary and pos­i­tive fea­ture of the hu­man con­di­tion," Ram­bachan added.

Ram­bachan said cul­tur­al his­to­ri­ans would ac­knowl­edge, in time, that In­di­an per­spec­tives on re­al­i­ty have opened the Caribbean mind to the pos­si­bil­i­ties of a healthy plu­ral­ism, and this may be one of the pre­cious gifts to the Caribbean.Among those present were Speak­er Wade Mark, Min­is­ter of Jus­tice Em­manuel George and In­di­an High Com­mis­sion­er Shri Gau­ri Shankar Gup­ta.