The construction of a Hindu mandir in Tobago will enhance the concept of religious and cultural diversity in the nation state of Trinidad and Tobago, according to Rayan Ramoutar, president of the Tobago Hindu Society. Ramoutar underscored this point in an address at a religious service conducted by by Pundit Satyanand� Maharaj of the Sanatan Dharma Maha Sabha at the Esplande, Scarborough earlier this month. "We must move towards a new orientation building�serious religious and cultural diversity in T&T. The arrival of our brothers and sisters from the African continent, followed by Europeans, and Asians from both China and India have contributed to the large stock of peoples, and to which today we can proudly boast that our land is a multicultural comity of people," Ramoutar said.
She said in this context, she hailed the establishment of the Ministry of Arts and� Multiculturalism by the People's Partnership government as an institution which�would blossom, foster and enrichen the spirit of true multiculturalism which has escaped other minds in past leaderships. "Hindus in Tobago, and the numbers keep sprawling, need a place of worship, and for too long we have been denied such a facility. This facility would not only be used for religious purposes, but for the teaching of tass-drumming, Indian dances, yoga, aryuvedic medicine, and Hindi."