RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

Se­nior Mul­ti­me­dia Re­porter

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

Call­ing for na­tion­al uni­ty dur­ing In­di­an Ar­rival Day cel­e­bra­tions in Pe­nal yes­ter­day, Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar is­sued a re­minder to cit­i­zens, de­clar­ing that while some may ho­n­our their an­ces­tral home­lands, their true moth­er­land is Trinidad and To­ba­go.

Speak­ing be­fore a packed au­di­ence who braved the rains and slush to cel­e­brate at Clarke Road grounds yes­ter­day, Per­sad-Bisses­sar said uni­ty among all races was im­por­tant. “Though all of our an­ces­tors may have come on dif­fer­ent ships,” she said, “to­day we all sail to­geth­er in the same beau­ti­ful and unique boat called Trinidad and To­ba­go.”

“We have no Moth­er In­dia, we have no Moth­er Africa, we have no Moth­er Chi­na, no Moth­er Eu­rope, no moth­er oth­er na­tion. What we have is Moth­er Trinidad and To­ba­go,” Per­sad-Bisses­sar said.

How­ev­er, the Prime Min­is­ter said cit­i­zens should nev­er for­get their an­ces­tral ori­gins.

“Al­ways re­mem­ber, whilst we say we have no Moth­er Africa, In­dia, Chi­na or Eu­rope, we do have Grand­moth­er In­dia, Grand­moth­er Africa, Grand­moth­er Chi­na, Grand­moth­er Eu­rope, and grand­moth­ers all over the world be­cause we are one of the most di­verse pop­u­la­tions on the en­tire globe.”

The cel­e­bra­tions fea­tured a reen­act­ment of the ar­rival of the first In­di­an in­den­tured im­mi­grants aboard the Fa­tel Raza­ck. The sym­bol­ic jour­ney took place on a dam near Her­itage Pe­tro­le­um op­er­a­tions in Pe­nal, where par­tic­i­pants re­traced the steps of the ja­ha­jees be­fore mov­ing to the Clarke Road grounds for cul­tur­al cel­e­bra­tions. Even the Prime Min­is­ter ar­rived aboard a repli­ca.

Hun­dreds at­tend­ed the event, which fea­tured dis­plays of tra­di­tion­al In­di­an life, in­clud­ing chul­has (clay cook­ing stoves), cook­ing uten­sils, sug­ar cane and oth­er arte­facts re­call­ing the hard­ships of the in­den­ture­ship era. A pop­u­lar cur­ry duck com­pe­ti­tion at­tract­ed large crowds while cul­tur­al per­for­mances show­cased In­di­an mu­sic, dance and her­itage.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar de­scribed the jour­ney of the in­den­tured im­mi­grants as one marked by sac­ri­fice and ex­ploita­tion.

“Our an­ces­tors who board­ed the Fa­tel Raza­ck and oth­er ships be­tween 1845 and 1917 were poor vil­lagers from re­gions such as Bi­har, Ut­tar Pradesh and Madras,” she said.

“Many were de­cep­tive­ly drawn in­to ex­ploita­tive arrange­ments that ef­fec­tive­ly amount­ed to hu­man traf­fick­ing.”

Draw­ing par­al­lels with slav­ery, she said the treat­ment of in­den­tured labour­ers should nev­er be for­got­ten.

“Their new lives be­gan with long bare­foot jour­neys to­ward Cal­cut­ta, leav­ing be­hind homes, fam­i­lies and vil­lages they would nev­er see again. They sur­vived the treach­er­ous kala pani on­ly to face hard­ship, dis­crim­i­na­tion and con­di­tions lit­tle bet­ter than slav­ery. Still, they en­dured.”

The Prime Min­is­ter al­so shared the sto­ry of her great-grand­moth­er, Sumaria Seep­er­sad, who ar­rived in Trinidad from Madras as a teenag­er in the 1880s.

“She was on­ly 16 when she left her fam­i­ly in Madras with her tiny ja­ha­jee bun­dle and crossed the kala pani,” Per­sad-Bisses­sar said.

Af­ter be­ing wid­owed, Sumaria raised her chil­dren alone while work­ing in the cane and co­coa fields.

“Every morn­ing be­fore sun­rise, she got up and kept go­ing, nev­er re­al­is­ing that she and thou­sands like her were lay­ing the foun­da­tion for gen­er­a­tions they would nev­er live to see.”

Re­flect­ing on her own po­lit­i­cal jour­ney, Per­sad-Bisses­sar said her great-grand­moth­er could nev­er have imag­ined that her de­scen­dant would one day be­come Prime Min­is­ter.

“That is their tri­umph, their vic­to­ry, and the great­ness of the ja­ha­jee lega­cy.”

Mean­while, In­di­an High Com­mis­sion­er Pradeep Singh Ra­jpuro­hit al­so ad­dressed the gath­er­ing, prais­ing the en­dur­ing bonds be­tween In­dia and T&T.