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Just Try to Pass by Without Being Stunned - INDIAN DANCE IN MANHATTAN

2009-08-23T10:44:00.001-05:00

Just Try to Pass by Without Being Stunned - INDIAN DANCE IN MANHATTAN

"Of all the open-air programs I have seen in this city, nothing stops the casual pedestrian better than performers in full Indian dance attire....Erasing Borders: Festival of Indian Dance strikes me as the best new arrival on this city's dance scene in the last two years...The length, the rhythmic complexity and the intricate physical coordination of her solo (performed to taped music, composed by Ghulam Ghaus Khan) proved astonishing.
As were its sheer grace and exaltation....And - often - the coordination of upper- and lower-body parts, a lively interplay of both arm gesture and foot rhythm, a complex sense of through-the-body line and unequaled articulation of the eyes. Then the Western viewer begins to appreciate their differences....."

No, this is not inner-city "dutty" culture.... this is thousands of years in the making...don't know why some people think Indians would give this up for superficial, artificial, transient, 3rd world, banana republic "culture"

Dance

Just Try to Pass by Without Being Stunned

The Sa Dance Company performing at Chase Plaza on Wednesday as part of the Downtown Dance Festival and the Erasing Borders Indian dance festival.

By ALASTAIR MACAULAY
Published: August 21, 2009
New York has long had festivals of African and flamenco dance; the dance forms of India are every bit as memorable. For that reason Erasing Borders: Festival of Indian Dance strikes me as the best new arrival on this city's dance scene in the last two years. Individual performances here have often shown various aspects of this area, but the Borders festival affords a survey of its range, while honoring both traditional forms and modern developments.

The festival offered a program on Wednesday at Chase Plaza, and the result was just as varied and rich as the performances I saw in 2008, the festival's first year. (Wednesday's event was part of the Downtown Dance Festival.)
Of all the open-air programs I have seen in this city, nothing stops the casual pedestrian better than performers in full Indian dance attire, moving apparently every muscle from head to toe (not least those of the eye, the fingers and the toes).
Most extraordinary of all on Wednesday was the Chaturang solo, choreographed in the Kathak style of North India by Rohini Bhate (who died last fall) and danced by Prerana Deshpande. When Ms. Deshpande stood at the side of the open-air stage waiting, she - despite a dress of great beauty, with silk colored in aquamarine with mustard trimmings - looked unremarkable: dour, without radiance. Surprise! The length, the rhythmic complexity and the intricate physical coordination of her solo (performed to taped music, composed by Ghulam Ghaus Khan) proved astonishing.
As were its sheer grace and exaltation. No sooner did she start with slow arcs of the arms and torso than you felt the subordination of the dancer to larger principles. In dance there are perhaps three kinds of line. It can be something finite, stretching as far as the performer's limbs.. As part of a through-the-body gesture, it can beam forward into space, often far. And most rarely and movingly, it can seem something through which infinity passes. Indian dance often suggests all three, but it is still an unusual event to feel the third kind in all its transcendence; Ms. Deshpande did so early on.
The solo never paused but, over several minutes, passed through gradual accelerations and more marked changes of dynamics. Was Ms. Deshpande the mistress of her dance or its servant? Both. At times you felt her surrendering to its impulse as she allowed her torso to sway, gorgeously, from side to side; at times you felt the brilliance of her control as she changed or embellished an already elaborate rhythm with her feet. Well into the solo, while keeping up the footwork, she began a series of alternating turns to right and left.
The whole dance was a study in both contrast (looking down or up, moving in and out, bending left or right) and coordination (every body part seemed to come into play in different combinations). And you felt its spontaneity: more than any performer I have seen, Ms. Deshpande seemed to show the change of scale involved when a glance upward becomes, at Chase Plaza, a look up to a sky hemmed in by four skyscrapers.
The three best-known traditional Indian dance forms are Bharatanatyam, Kathak and Odissi, but it's not easy to see all of them in quick succession. Wednesday's performance included vivid examples of the three. The Western eye first notices what they have in common: bare feet; anklets composed of tiny bells; a percussive use of the ball of the foot, the heel and the sole. And - often - the coordination of upper- and lower-body parts, a lively interplay of both arm gesture and foot rhythm, a complex sense of through-the-body line and unequaled articulation of the eyes. Then the Western viewer begins to appreciate their differences.
Still, it was easy to see that the Bharatanatyam and Odissi dances on Wednesday were quite unlike the Kathak solo in many respects. Odissi (from East India) was represented by a male-female duet, Arabhi Pallavi, danced by Rahul Acharya (bare-chested, very slender-waisted, in blue pantaloons) and Nandini Sikand (in purple and pink) of Sakshi Productions. I adored the work's firmly statuesque positions, its riveting use (occasionally) of the pelvis and upper torso tilted drastically sideways away from each other, its flow of gestures, its extraordinary side-to-side language of the eyes (heightened by full eyeliner for both sexes). And I loved the way - in rhythm, spatial design and mutual address - the duet kept changing. (Though the two dancers often do the same movements, or similar ones in question-and-answer dialogue, the man sometimes kneels while addressing her: it's a compliment she may not return.)
The Bharatanatyam form (of South India) - which seems to share quite a few movements with Odissi in particular - was exemplified by two women (Sahasra Sambamoorthi and Srinidhi Raghavan). The work's floor patterns had the two dancers traveling now parallel, now in mirror patterns, sometimes breaking for their own question-and-answer passages; some gestures resembled speech, others were held like statuary. Mainly this Thillana dance, presented by the group Navatman, showed the rhythmic vivacity of Bharatanatyam. I love the way the dancers will advance head, arm and heel in the same direction, then pull them back, all as part of a larger, ebullient meter.
In all three of these dances I felt my breathing accelerate; so much is going on in each. But this Borders performance featured seven companies. The programming showed a good sense of contrast; the spoken introductions before each item were intelligently done, providing plenty of context.
Felicia Norton's performance of Noor, choreographed for Labyrinth Dance Theater by Ms. Norton and Sasha Spielvogel, was a foolish effort to tell a story of heroic World War II spying with soulful earnestness, a few props and fewer dance ideas. From the InDance troupe, Paul Charbonneau's performance of Hari Krishnan's 'Mea Culpa' was a cheerful essay in coarse outrageousness, supposedly - and very campily - imitating the early modern dancer Ted Shawn's all-too-Western concept of Lord Shiva. Emily Watts's performance of the same choreographer's "Firecracker" was longer, more accomplished and scrupulous in its attention to features of Indian dance style, and duller.
The most enchantingly chic item came from the four young women of Infin8. In "In the Blind," their mixture of hip-hop, pop, rock and Bharatanatyam, while suggesting aspects of pursuing a city life amid the current financial meltdown, was delivered with terrific polish and attack.. And their gray, black and white city-style uniforms are among the most charmingly designed nontraditional dance costumes I have seen in months.
No less winning - in maroon and black Indian attire - was the Bollywood team the Sa Dance Company (eight women, five men), lip-synching as they danced with irresistible good humor and high energy. The two young women who sustained a central duet - breathtakingly pretty, like all of the Infin8 women - combined stamina, skill and wonderful glee.
The Downtown Dance Festival continues through Sunday at Battery Park; batterydanceco.com.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/22/arts/dance/22borders.html?_r=2&hpw=&pagewanted=all

PM MANNING, THE MEDIA AND A WEAK OPPOSITION, By Professor Ramesh Deosaran, Independent Senator

2009-07-27T10:25:00.000-05:00

Commentary: July 26, 2009

PM MANNING, THE MEDIA AND A WEAK OPPOSITION

By Professor Ramesh Deosaran, Independent Senator

So the Media Association of Trinidad and Tobago (MATT), with apparent anxiety, plans to meet the Prime Minister, because, according to its youthful President, Marlon Hopkinson, MATT “should not engage in any public row now with the Prime Minister at this time and we thought the responsible thing to do is to meet with the PM to find out his concerns.”

On July 13 at a PNM mass meeting at Woodford Square, Prime Minister Manning expressed concerns over the media’s role in not educating the public. Judging from high-profile announcements in all three dailies, this MATT-PM meeting looks like a really grand affair, especially since Hopkinson mannishly states: “Of course, we too have concerns.” The high news fling given to this PM meeting suggests some heavy editorial backing too.

Now MATT or any group could meet anybody it wishes in this democratic society, even for a courtesy call. So too could the PM. But what tickles my own curiosity is the reasons advanced by MATT. MATT says it does not want to engage with the PM in any public row. Well, I declare. I thought that is the stuff which makes news. Given the basics of the separation of powers and the critical, robust role which the “free” media is expected to play in-between, I always thought that the relationship between the executive and the media should be consumed by arms-length professionalism and inevitable tension. Ironically, such professionalism is also for the benefit of the Government and its several agencies – not only for bringing muscle to our democracy as a whole.

With the promise of a highly credible, forceful Opposition still in dreamland, a lot now rests on the shoulders of our “free” media. And to have this seeming genuflection by MATT, well, the impression given is not worthy of an industry that is so well protected by the Constitution.

Are people who now buy newspapers, listen to radio and watch television to believe that after this MATT-PM meeting, the media as a whole and its brave and bold staff will go on a penance of good behaviour? Or will MATT tell the PM a thing or two and straighten him out too. Note well, Mr. Manning expressed his concerns at a public political meeting, not at any MATT-sponsored seminar or at a post-cabinet press conference. And he did not speak directly about news bias. In fact, any proper content analysis will tell you that, of whichever party, Government spokespersons and Ministers get the best of all coverage and without much parallel or follow-up analysis. A Minister could say the same thing one week after the next and on each time, he will be assured of an early-page headline.

At an OAS expert round-table on election financing in Miami three months ago, Caribbean pollster, Peter Wickham, described Caribbean journalists as “Minister-driven.” Just last week, veteran journalist Tony Best cautioned our journalists not to appear as “carrier pigeons.” Like one or two other professions, journalists too might wish to be careful about their image.

Now before I come to MATT’s concern about the PM’s concerns regarding the media’s role to “educate” the public, let me in the interest of balance remind MATT that many other political leaders, including Winston Dookeran and Basdeo Panday, have made similar and more heavily loaded complaints about the media. Will MATT now as a broad-minded gesture also meet with them? Now Jack Warner has developed some cutting edge techniques to woo and capture the media so I don’t think he needs MATT. But before I get misunderstood, let me declare that I too share Mr. Manning’s concerns about “educating the public.” And for a very long time too. My professorial instincts compel no less.

But wait, really, is the media’s role, the mass media that is, to “educate” the public, or to inform in an accurate and fair manner about events that matter. And in a timely and news worthy manner. We are talking about the early pages where I am sure Mr. Manning’s concern is assumed to lie. In fact, there are “educational” stories and features on TV and far back in newspapers. So, MATT’s sophistication would be enhanced if it asks the PM to show them a few examples where the media failed “to educate.” It will certainly help if a programme of scholarly research, in addition to a School of Journalism, could be developed on the Caribbean media, thus helping to put “concerns” as Mr. Manning’s on a more reliable footing.

I think that is what the “freedom of the press” and even “freedom of expression” clauses in the Constitution expect. Now you begin to see the dilemmas here. Firstly, the difference between “to educate’ and “to inform.” As referee, the Oxford Dictionary defines “to educate” as “to give intellectual, moral and social instruction.” Could our mass media deliver this, and even if so, how long would the one or even two who succeed remain financially viable on their own? Yes there is the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post, but here it is competition in the market place, my friends. During my stint as editorial writer for one of our dailies, the editor once told the staff: “A newspaper is not an academic journal nor for sermons.”

Secondly, the Government, at least through finance and management, already has control over three televisions stations, regular “Government Information” spots in all commercial television stations and even the option of radio spots. So why not use these options “to educate” the public?

I am not saying to reach the stage of BBC but surely there is space and the place to educate. Thirdly, I too am worried about “educating our citizens on public affairs” but I am not sure this is the primary role of the mass media. There are other institutions for this. From ethnic cleansing, constitution reform, regional integration, crime policies to corporal punishment, the death penalty and even daily political contestations, there are heaps of propaganda and self-serving, emotionally- driven stories in our media. A lot of this become neutralized if not cleansed by the “right to reply” the next day, but you know what is said about “first impressions.”

So while I agree with the PM’s concerns, I think we need a more deliberate, sustainable and practical way to heal the breach. I hope the medicine concocted at this MATT-PM encounter will not make the patient more sick.

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History of Mathematics in India

2009-07-20T20:33:00.000-05:00

History of Mathematics in India

In all early civilizations, the first expression of mathematical understanding appears in the form of counting systems. Numbers in very early societies were typically represented by groups of lines, though later different numbers came to be assigned specific numeral names and symbols (as in India) or were designated by alphabetic letters (such as in Rome). Although today, we take our decimal system for granted, not all ancient civilizations based their numbers on a ten-base system. In ancient Babylon, a sexagesimal (base 60) system was in use.

The Decimal System in Harappa

In India a decimal system was already in place during the Harappan period, as indicated by an analysis of Harappan weights and measures. Weights corresponding to ratios of 0.05, 0.1, 0.2, 0.5, 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, 50, 100, 200, and 500 have been identified, as have scales with decimal divisions. A particularly notable characteristic of Harappan weights and measures is their remarkable accuracy. A bronze rod marked in units of 0.367 inches points to the degree of precision demanded in those times. Such scales were particularly important in ensuring proper implementation of town planning rules that required roads of fixed widths to run at right angles to each other, for drains to be constructed of precise measurements, and for homes to be constructed according to specified guidelines. The existence of a gradated system of accurately marked weights points to the development of trade and commerce in Harappan society.

Mathematical Activity in the Vedic Period

In the Vedic period, records of mathematical activity are mostly to be found in Vedic texts associated with ritual activities. However, as in many other early agricultural civilizations, the study of arithmetic and geometry was also impelled by secular considerations. Thus, to some extent early mathematical developments in India mirrored the developments in Egypt, Babylon and China . The system of land grants and agricultural tax assessments required accurate measurement of cultivated areas. As land was redistributed or consolidated, problems of mensuration came up that required solutions. In order to ensure that all cultivators had equivalent amounts of irrigated and non-irrigated lands and tracts of equivalent fertility - individual farmers in a village often had their holdings broken up in several parcels to ensure fairness. Since plots could not all be of the same shape - local administrators were required to convert rectangular plots or triangular plots to squares of equivalent sizes and so on. Tax assessments were based on fixed proportions of annual or seasonal crop incomes, but could be adjusted upwards or downwards based on a variety of factors. This meant that an understanding of geometry and arithmetic was virtually essential for revenue administrators. Mathematics was thus brought into the service of both the secular and the ritual domains.

Arithmetic operations (Ganit) such as addition, subtraction, multiplication, fractions, squares, cubes and roots are enumerated in the Narad Vishnu Purana attributed to Ved Vyas (pre-1000 BC). Examples of geometric knowledge (rekha-ganit) are to be found in the Sulva-Sutras of Baudhayana (800 BC) and Apasthmaba (600 BC) which describe techniques for the construction of ritual altars in use during the Vedic era. It is likely that these texts tapped geometric knowledge that may have been acquired much earlier, possibly in the Harappan period. Baudhayana's Sutra displays an understanding of basic geometric shapes and techniques of converting one geometric shape (such as a rectangle) to another of equivalent (or multiple, or fractional) area (such as a square). While some of the formulations are approximations, others are accurate and reveal a certain degree of practical ingenuity as well as some theoretical understanding of basic geometric principles. Modern methods of multiplication and addition probably emerged from the techniques described in the Sulva-Sutras.

Pythagoras - the Greek mathematician and philosopher who lived in the 6th C B.C was familiar with the Upanishads and learnt his basic geometry from the Sulva Sutras. An early statement of what is commonly known as the Pythagoras theorem is to be found in Baudhayana's Sutra: The chord which is stretched across the diagonal of a square produces an area of double the size. A similar observation pertaining to oblongs is also noted. His Sutra also contains geometric solutions of a linear equation in a single unknown. Examples of quadratic equations also appear. Apasthamba's sutra (an expansion of Baudhayana's with several original contributions) provides a value for the square root of 2 that is accurate to the fifth decimal place. Apasthamba also looked at the problems of squaring a circle, dividing a segment into seven equal parts, and a solution to the general linear equation. Jain texts from the 6th C BC such as the Surya Pragyapti describe ellipses.

Modern-day commentators are divided on how some of the results were generated. Some believe that these results came about through hit and trial - as rules of thumb, or as generalizations of observed examples. Others believe that once the scientific method came to be formalized in the Nyaya-Sutras - proofs for such results must have been provided, but these have either been lost or destroyed, or else were transmitted orally through the Gurukul system, and only the final results were tabulated in the texts. In any case, the study of Ganit i.e mathematics was given considerable importance in the Vedic period. The Vedang Jyotish (1000 BC) includes the statement: "Just as the feathers of a peacock and the jewel-stone of a snake are placed at the highest point of the body (at the forehead), similarly, the position of Ganit is the highest amongst all branches of the Vedas and the Shastras."

(Many centuries later, Jain mathematician from Mysore, Mahaviracharya further emphasized the importance of mathematics: "Whatever object exists in this moving and non-moving world, cannot be understood without the base of Ganit (i.e. mathematics)".)

Panini and Formal Scientific Notation

A particularly important development in the history of Indian science that was to have a profound impact on all mathematical treatises that followed was the pioneering work by Panini (6th C BC) in the field of Sanskrit grammar and linguistics. Besides expounding a comprehensive and scientific theory of phonetics, phonology and morphology, Panini provided formal production rules and definitions describing Sanskrit grammar in his treatise called Asthadhyayi. Basic elements such as vowels and consonants, parts of speech such as nouns and verbs were placed in classes. The construction of compound words and sentences was elaborated through ordered rules operating on underlying structures in a manner similar to formal language theory.

Today, Panini's constructions can also be seen as comparable to modern definitions of a mathematical function. G G Joseph, in The crest of the peacock argues that the algebraic nature of Indian mathematics arises as a consequence of the structure of the Sanskrit language. Ingerman in his paper titled Panini-Backus form finds Panini's notation to be equivalent in its power to that of Backus - inventor of the Backus Normal Form used to describe the syntax of modern computer languages. Thus Panini's work provided an example of a scientific notational model that could have propelled later mathematicians to use abstract notations in characterizing algebraic equations and presenting algebraic theorems and results in a scientific format.

Philosophy and Mathematics

Philosophical doctrines also had a profound influence on the development of mathematical concepts and formulations. Like the Upanishadic world view, space and time were considered limitless in Jain cosmology. This led to a deep interest in very large numbers and definitions of infinite numbers. Infinite numbers were created through recursive formulae, as in the Anuyoga Dwara Sutra. Jain mathematicians recognized five different types of infinities: infinite in one direction, in two directions, in area, infinite everywhere and perpetually infinite. Permutations and combinations are listed in the Bhagvati Sutras (3rd C BC) and Sathananga Sutra (2nd C BC).

Jain set theory probably arose in parallel with the Syadvada system of Jain epistemology in which reality was described in terms of pairs of truth conditions and state changes. The Anuyoga Dwara Sutra demonstrates an understanding of the law of indeces and uses it to develop the notion of logarithms. Terms like Ardh Aached , Trik Aached, and Chatur Aached are used to denote log base 2, log base 3 and log base 4 respectively. In Satkhandagama various sets are operated upon by logarithmic functions to base two, by squaring and extracting square roots, and by raising to finite or infinite powers. The operations are repeated to produce new sets. In other works the relation of the number of combinations to the coefficients occurring in the binomial expansion is noted.

Since Jain epistemology allowed for a degree of indeterminacy in describing reality, it probably helped in grappling with indeterminate equations and finding numerical approximations to irrational numbers.

Buddhist literature also demonstrates an awareness of indeterminate and infinite numbers. Buddhist mathematics was classified either as Garna (Simple Mathematics) or Sankhyan (Higher Mathematics). Numbers were deemed to be of three types: Sankheya (countable), Asankheya (uncountable) and Anant (infinite).

Philosophical formulations concerning Shunya - i.e. emptiness or the void may have facilitated in the introduction of the concept of zero. While the zero (bindu) as an empty place holder in the place-value numeral system appears much earlier, algebraic definitions of the zero and it's relationship to mathematical functions appear in the mathematical treatises of Brahmagupta in the 7th C AD. Although scholars are divided about how early the symbol for zero came to be used in numeric notation in India, (Ifrah arguing that the use of zero is already implied in Aryabhatta) tangible evidence for the use of the zero begins to proliferate towards the end of the Gupta period. Between the 7th C and the 11th C, Indian numerals developed into their modern form, and along with the symbols denoting various mathematical functions (such as plus, minus, square root etc) eventually became the foundation stones of modern mathematical notation.

The Indian Numeral System

Although the Chinese were also using a decimal based counting system, the Chinese lacked a formal notational system that had the abstraction and elegance of the Indian notational system, and it was the Indian notational system that reached the Western world through the Arabs and has now been accepted as universal. Several factors contributed to this development whose significance is perhaps best stated by French mathematician, Laplace: "The ingenious method of expressing every possible number using a set of ten symbols (each symbol having a place value and an absolute value) emerged in India. The idea seems so simple nowadays that its significance and profound importance is no longer appreciated. It's simplicity lies in the way it facilitated calculation and placed arithmetic foremost amongst useful inventions."

Brilliant as it was, this invention was no accident. In the Western world, the cumbersome roman numeral system posed as a major obstacle, and in China the pictorial script posed as a hindrance. But in India, almost everything was in place to favor such a development. There was already a long and established history in the use of decimal numbers, and philosophical and cosmological constructs encouraged a creative and expansive approach to number theory. Panini's studies in linguistic theory and formal language and the powerful role of symbolism and representational abstraction in art and architecture may have also provided an impetus, as might have the rationalist doctrines and the exacting epistemology of the Nyaya Sutras, and the innovative abstractions of the Syadavada and Buddhist schools of learning.

Influence of Trade and Commerce, Importance of Astronomy

The growth of trade and commerce, particularly lending and borrowing demanded an understanding of both simple and compound interest which probably stimulated the interest in arithmetic and geometric series. Brahmagupta's description of negative numbers as debts and positive numbers as fortunes points to a link between trade and mathematical study. Knowledge of astronomy - particularly knowledge of the tides and the stars was of great import to trading communities who crossed oceans or deserts at night. This is borne out by numerous references in the Jataka tales and several other folk-tales. The young person who wished to embark on a commercial venture was inevitably required to first gain some grounding in astronomy. This led to a proliferation of teachers of astronomy, who in turn received training at universities such as at Kusumpura (Bihar) or Ujjain (Central India) or at smaller local colleges or Gurukuls. This also led to the exchange of texts on astronomy and mathematics amongst scholars and the transmission of knowledge from one part of India to another. Virtually every Indian state produced great mathematicians who wrote commentaries on the works of other mathematicians (who may have lived and worked in a different part of India many centuries earlier). Sanskrit served as the common medium of scientific communication.

The science of astronomy was also spurred by the need to have accurate calendars and a better understanding of climate and rainfall patterns for timely sowing and choice of crops. At the same time, religion and astrology also played a role in creating an interest in astronomy and a negative fallout of this irrational influence was the rejection of scientific theories that were far ahead of their time. One of the greatest scientists of the Gupta period - Aryabhatta (born in 476 AD, Kusumpura, Bihar) provided a systematic treatment of the position of the planets in space. He correctly posited the axial rotation of the earth, and inferred correctly that the orbits of the planets were ellipses. He also correctly deduced that the moon and the planets shined by reflected sunlight and provided a valid explanation for the solar and lunar eclipses rejecting the superstitions and mythical belief systems surrounding the phenomenon. Although Bhaskar I (born Saurashtra, 6th C, and follower of the Asmaka school of science, Nizamabad, Andhra ) recognized his genius and the tremendous value of his scientific contributions, some later astronomers continued to believe in a static earth and rejected his rational explanations of the eclipses. But in spite of such setbacks, Aryabhatta had a profound influence on the astronomers and mathematicians who followed him, particularly on those from the Asmaka school.

Mathematics played a vital role in Aryabhatta's revolutionary understanding of the solar system. His calculations on pi, the circumferance of the earth (62832 miles) and the length of the solar year (within about 13 minutes of the modern calculation) were remarkably close approximations. In making such calculations, Aryabhatta had to solve several mathematical problems that had not been addressed before including problems in algebra (beej-ganit) and trigonometry (trikonmiti).

Bhaskar I continued where Aryabhatta left off, and discussed in further detail topics such as the longitudes of the planets; conjunctions of the planets with each other and with bright stars; risings and settings of the planets; and the lunar crescent. Again, these studies required still more advanced mathematics and Bhaskar I expanded on the trigonometric equations provided by Aryabhatta, and like Aryabhatta correctly assessed pi to be an irrational number. Amongst his most important contributions was his formula for calculating the sine function which was 99% accurate. He also did pioneering work on indeterminate equations and considered for the first time quadrilaterals with all the four sides unequal and none of the opposite sides parallel.

Another important astronomer/mathematician was Varahamira (6th C, Ujjain) who compiled previously written texts on astronomy and made important additions to Aryabhatta's trigonometric formulas. His works on permutations and combinations complemented what had been previously achieved by Jain mathematicians and provided a method of calculation of nCr that closely resembles the much more recent Pascal's Triangle. In the 7th century, Brahmagupta did important work in enumerating the basic principles of algebra. In addition to listing the algebraic properties of zero, he also listed the algebraic properties of negative numbers. His work on solutions to quadratic indeterminate equations anticipated the work of Euler and Lagrange.

Emergence of Calculus

In the course of developing a precise mapping of the lunar eclipse, Aryabhatta was obliged to introduce the concept of infinitesimals - i.e. tatkalika gati to designate the infinitesimal, or near instantaneous motion of the moon, and express it in the form of a basic differential equation. Aryabhatta's equations were elaborated on by Manjula (10th C) and Bhaskaracharya (12th C) who derived the differential of the sine function. Later mathematicians used their intuitive understanding of integration in deriving the areas of curved surfaces and the volumes enclosed by them.

Applied Mathematics, Solutions to Practical Problems

Developments also took place in applied mathematics such as in creation of trigonometric tables and measurement units. Yativrsabha's work Tiloyapannatti (6th C) gives various units for measuring distances and time and also describes the system of infinite time measures.

In the 9th C, Mahaviracharya ( Mysore) wrote Ganit Saar Sangraha where he described the currently used method of calculating the Least Common Multiple (LCM) of given numbers. He also derived formulae to calculate the area of an ellipse and a quadrilateral inscribed within a circle (something that had also been looked at by Brahmagupta) The solution of indeterminate equations also drew considerable interest in the 9th century, and several mathematicians contributed approximations and solutions to different types of indeterminate equations.

In the late 9th C, Sridhara (probably Bengal) provided mathematical formulae for a variety of practical problems involving ratios, barter, simple interest, mixtures, purchase and sale, rates of travel, wages, and filling of cisterns. Some of these examples involved fairly complicated solutions and his Patiganita is considered an advanced mathematical work. Sections of the book were also devoted to arithmetic and geometric progressions, including progressions with fractional numbers or terms, and formulas for the sum of certain finite series are provided. Mathematical investigation continued into the 10th C. Vijayanandi (of Benares, whose Karanatilaka was translated by Al-Beruni into Arabic) and Sripati of Maharashtra are amongst the prominent mathematicians of the century.

The leading light of 12th C Indian mathematics was Bhaskaracharya who came from a long-line of mathematicians and was head of the astronomical observatory at Ujjain. He left several important mathematical texts including the Lilavati and Bijaganita and the Siddhanta Shiromani, an astronomical text. He was the first to recognize that certain types of quadratic equations could have two solutions. His Chakrawaat method of solving indeterminate solutions preceded European solutions by several centuries, and in his Siddhanta Shiromani he postulated that the earth had a gravitational force, and broached the fields of infinitesimal calculation and integration. In the second part of this treatise, there are several chapters relating to the study of the sphere and it's properties and applications to geography, planetary mean motion, eccentric epicyclical model of the planets, first visibilities of the planets, the seasons, the lunar crescent etc. He also discussed astronomical instruments and spherical trigonometry. Of particular interest are his trigonometric equations: sin(a + b) = sin a cos b + cos a sin b; sin(a - b) = sin a cos b - cos a sin b;

The Spread of Indian Mathematics

The study of mathematics appears to slow down after the onslaught of the Islamic invasions and the conversion of colleges and universities to madrasahs. But this was also the time when Indian mathematical texts were increasingly being translated into Arabic and Persian. Although Arab scholars relied on a variety of sources including Babylonian, Syriac, Greek and some Chinese texts, Indian mathematical texts played a particularly important role. Scholars such as Ibn Tariq and Al-Fazari (8th C, Baghdad), Al-Kindi (9th C, Basra), Al-Khwarizmi (9th C. Khiva), Al-Qayarawani (9th C, Maghreb, author of Kitab fi al-hisab al-hindi), Al-Uqlidisi (10th C, Damascus, author of The book of Chapters in Indian Arithmetic), Ibn-Sina (Avicenna), Ibn al-Samh (Granada, 11th C, Spain), Al-Nasawi (Khurasan, 11th C, Persia), Al-Beruni (11th C, born Khiva, died Afghanistan), Al-Razi (Teheran), and Ibn-Al-Saffar (11th C, Cordoba) were amongst the many who based their own scientific texts on translations of Indian treatises. Records of the Indian origin of many proofs, concepts and formulations were obscured in the later centuries, but the enormous contributions of Indian mathematics was generously acknowledged by several important Arabic and Persian scholars, especially in Spain. Abbasid scholar Al-Gaheth wrote: " India is the source of knowledge, thought and insight”. Al-Maoudi (956 AD) who travelled in Western India also wrote about the greatness of Indian science. Said Al-Andalusi, an 11th C Spanish scholar and court historian was amongst the most enthusiastic in his praise of Indian civilization, and specially remarked on Indian achievements in the sciences and in mathematics. Of course, eventually, Indian algebra and trigonometry reached Europe through a cycle of translations, traveling from the Arab world to Spain and Sicily, and eventually penetrating all of Europe. At the same time, Arabic and Persian translations of Greek and Egyptian scientific texts become more readily available in India.

The Kerala School

Although it appears that original work in mathematics ceased in much of Northern India after the Islamic conquests, Benaras survived as a center for mathematical study, and an important school of mathematics blossomed in Kerala. Madhava (14th C, Kochi) made important mathematical discoveries that would not be identified by European mathematicians till at least two centuries later. His series expansion of the cos and sine functions anticipated Newton by almost three centuries. Historians of mathematics, Rajagopal, Rangachari and Joseph considered his contributions instrumental in taking mathematics to the next stage, that of modern classical analysis. Nilkantha (15th C, Tirur, Kerala) extended and elaborated upon the results of Madhava while Jyesthadeva (16th C, Kerala) provided detailed proofs of the theorems and derivations of the rules contained in the works of Madhava and Nilkantha. It is also notable that Jyesthadeva's Yuktibhasa which contained commentaries on Nilkantha's Tantrasamgraha included elaborations on planetary theory later adopted by Tycho Brahe, and mathematics that anticipated work by later Europeans. Chitrabhanu (16th C, Kerala) gave integer solutions to twenty-one types of systems of two algebraic equations, using both algebraic and geometric methods in developing his results. Important discoveries by the Kerala mathematicians included the Newton-Gauss interpolation formula, the formula for the sum of an infinite series, and a series notation for pi. Charles Whish (1835, published in the Transactions of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland) was one of the first Westerners to recognize that the Kerala school had anticipated by almost 300 years many European developments in the field.

Yet, few modern compendiums on the history of mathematics have paid adequate attention to the often pioneering and revolutionary contributions of Indian mathematicians. But as this essay amply demonstrates, a significant body of mathematical works were produced in the Indian subcontinent. The science of mathematics played a pivotal role not only in the industrial revolution but in the scientific developments that have occurred since. No other branch of science is complete without mathematics. Not only did India provide the financial capital for the industrial revolution (see the essay on colonization) India also provided vital elements of the scientific foundation without which humanity could not have entered this modern age of science and high technology.

Notes:

Mathematics and Music: Pingala (3rd C AD), author of Chandasutra explored the relationship between combinatorics and musical theory anticipating Mersenne (1588-1648) author of a classic on musical theory.

Mathematics and Architecture: Interest in arithmetic and geometric series may have also been stimulated by (and influenced) Indian architectural designs - (as in temple shikaras, gopurams and corbelled temple ceilings). Of course, the relationship between geometry and architectural decoration was developed to it's greatest heights by Central Asian, Persian, Turkish, Arab and Indian architects in a variety of monuments commissioned by the Islamic rulers.

Transmission of the Indian Numeral System: Evidence for the transmission of the Indian Numeral System to the West is provided by Joseph (Crest of the Peacock):-

*

Quotes Severus Sebokht (662) in a Syriac text describing the "subtle discoveries" of Indian astronomers as being "more ingenious than those of the Greeks and the Babylonians" and "their valuable methods of computation which surpass description" and then goes on to mention the use of nine numerals.
*

Quotes from Liber abaci (Book of the Abacus) by Fibonacci (1170-1250): The nine Indian numerals are ...with these nine and with the sign 0 which in Arabic is sifr, any desired number can be written. (Fibonaci learnt about Indian numerals from his Arab teachers in North Africa)

Influence of the Kerala School: Joseph (Crest of the Peacock) suggests that Indian mathematical manuscripts may have been brought to Europe by Jesuit priests such as Matteo Ricci who spent two years in Kochi (Cochin) after being ordained in Goa in 1580. Kochi is only 70km from Thrissur (Trichur) which was then the largest repository of astronomical documents. Whish and Hyne - two European mathematicians obtained their copies of works by the Kerala mathematicians from Thrissur, and it is not inconceivable that Jesuit monks may have also taken copies to Pisa (where Galileo, Cavalieri and Wallis spent time), or Padau (where James Gregory studied) or Paris (where Mersenne who was in touch with Fermat and Pascal, acted as an agent for the transmission of mathematical ideas).

References:

1.Studies in the History of Science in India (Anthology edited by Debiprasad Chattopadhyaya)
2.A P Juskevic, S S Demidov, F A Medvedev and E I Slavutin: Studies in the history of mathematics, "Nauka" (Moscow, 1974), 220-222; 302.

3. B Datta: The science of the Sulba (Calcutta, 1932).

4.G G Joseph: The crest of the peacock (Princeton University Press, 2000).

5. R P Kulkarni: The value of pi known to Sulbasutrakaras, Indian Journal Hist. Sci. 13 (1) (1978), 32-41.

6. G Kumari: Some significant results of algebra of pre-Aryabhata era, Math. Ed. (Siwan) 14 (1) (1980), B5-B13.

7. G Ifrah: A universal history of numbers: From prehistory to the invention of the computer (London, 1998).

8. P Z Ingerman: 'Panini-Backus form', Communications of the ACM 10 (3)(1967), 137.
9.P Jha, Contributions of the Jainas to astronomy and mathematics, Math. Ed. (Siwan) 18 (3) (1984), 98-107.

9b. R C Gupta: The first unenumerable number in Jaina mathematics, Ganita Bharati 14 (1-4) (1992), 11-24.

10. L C Jain: System theory in Jaina school of mathematics, Indian J. Hist. Sci. 14 (1) (1979), 31-65.

11. L C Jain and Km Meena Jain: System theory in Jaina school of mathematics. II, Indian J. Hist. Sci. 24 (3) (1989), 163-180

12. K Shankar Shukla: Bhaskara I, Bhaskara I and his works II. Maha-Bhaskariya (Sanskrit) (Lucknow, 1960).

13. K Shankar Shukla: Bhaskara I, Bhaskara I and his works III. Laghu-Bhaskariya (Sanskrit) (Lucknow, 1963).

14. K S Shukla: Hindu mathematics in the seventh century as found in Bhaskara I's commentary on the Aryabhatiya, Ganita 22 (1) (1971), 115-130.

15. R C Gupta: Varahamihira's calculation of nCr and the discovery of Pascal's triangle, Ganita Bharati 14 (1-4) (1992), 45-49.

16. B Datta: On Mahavira's solution of rational triangles and quadrilaterals, Bull. Calcutta Math. Soc. 20 (1932), 267-294.

17. B S Jain: On the Ganita-Sara-Samgraha of Mahavira (c. 850 A.D.), Indian J. Hist. Sci. 12 (1) (1977), 17-32.

18. K Shankar Shukla: The Patiganita of Sridharacarya (Lucknow, 1959).

19. H. Suter: Mathematiker

20. Suter: Die Mathematiker und Astronomen der Araber

21. Die philosophischen Abhandlungen des al-Kindi, Munster, 1897

22. K V Sarma: A History of the Kerala School of Hindu Astronomy (Hoshiarpur, 1972).

23. R C Gupta: The Madhava-Gregory series, Math. Education 7 (1973), B67-B70

24. S Parameswaran: Madhavan, the father of analysis, Ganita-Bharati 18 (1-4) (1996), 67-70.

25. K V Sarma, and S Hariharan: Yuktibhasa of Jyesthadeva : a book of rationales in Indian mathematics and astronomy - an analytical appraisal, Indian J. Hist. Sci. 26 (2) (1991), 185-207

26. C T Rajagopal and M S Rangachari: On an untapped source of medieval Keralese mathematics, Arch. History Exact Sci. 18 (1978), 89-102.

27. C T Rajagopal and M S Rangachari: On medieval Keralese mathematics, Arch. History Exact Sci. 35 (1986), 91-99.

28. A.K. Bag: Mathematics in Ancient and Medieval India (1979, Varanasi)

29. Bose, Sen, Subarayappa: Concise History of Science in India, (Indian National Science Academy)

30. T.A. Saraswati: Geometry in Ancient and Medieval India (1979, Delhi)

31.N. Singh: Foundations of Logic in Ancient India, Linguistics and Mathematics ( Science and technology in Indian Culture, ed. A Rahman, 1984, New Delhi, National Instt. of Science, Technology and Development Studies, NISTAD)

32. P. Singh: "The so-called Fibonacci numbers in ancient and medieval India, (Historia Mathematica, 12, 229-44, 1985)

33. Chin Keh-Mu: India and China: Scientific Exchange (History of Science in India Vol 2.)

Another view on Indian Mathematics:

Indic Mathematics: India and the Scientific Revolution
Dr. David Gray writes:

"The study of mathematics in the West has long been characterized by a certain ethnocentric bias, a bias which most often manifests not in explicit racism, but in a tendency toward undermining or eliding the real contributions made by non-Western civilizations. The debt owed by the West to other civilizations, and to India in particular, go back to the earliest epoch of the "Western" scientific tradition, the age of the classical Greeks, and continued up until the dawn of the modern era, the renaissance, when Europe was awakening from its dark ages."

Dr Gray goes on to list some of the most important developments in the history of mathematics that took place in India, summarizing the contributions of luminaries such as Aryabhatta, Brahmagupta, Mahavira, Bhaskara and Maadhava. He concludes by asserting that "the role played by India in the development (of the scientific revolution in Europe) is no mere footnote, easily and inconsequentially swept under the rug of Eurocentric bias. To do so is to distort history, and to deny India one of its greatest contributions to world civilization."

Indic Mathematics

Related Essays:

Development of Philosophical Thought and Scientific Method in Ancient India

Philosophical Development from Upanishadic Theism to Scientific Realism

History of the Physical Sciences in India

Technological discoveries and applications in India

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Development of Philosophical Thought and Scientific Method in Ancient India

2009-07-20T20:29:00.002-05:00

Technological discoveries and applications in India

The earliest evidence of technological progress in the Indian subcontinent is to be found in the remains of the Harappan civilization (4000-3000 BC). Archaeological remains point to the existence of well-planned urban centres that boasted of private and public dwellings laid out in orderly fashion along with roads and drainage systems complementing them. The drainage systems were particularly remarkable for the times since they were built underground and were constructed in a manner to allow for regular cleaning. Smaller drains from private homes connected to the larger public drains.

Larger private dwellings were invariably multi-storied and all homes were constructed from standardized fired bricks and provided for separate cooking areas and toilets. Storage facilities for grain and goods for trade were built as were public baths and other buildings intended for various public functions.
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Philosophical Development from Upanishadic Metaphysics to Scientific Realism

Upanishadic philosophy: preparing the ground for rationalism

Although the Upanishadic texts (like some of the earlier Vedic texts) are primarily concerned with acquiring knowledge of the "soul", "spirit" and "god" - there are aspects of Vedic and Upanishadic literature that also point to an intuitive understanding of nature and natural processes. In addition, many of the ideas are presented in a philosophical and exploratory manner - rather than as strict definitions of inviolable truth.

Although the Upanishadic texts goaded the Upanishadic student to concentrate on comprehending the inner spirit, rational investigation of the world by other scholars was not entirely squelched, and eventually, the Upanishadic period gave way to an era which was not inimical to the development of rational ideas, even encouraging scientific observation and advanced study in the fields of logic, mathematics and the physical sciences.
http://members.tripod.com/~INDIA_RESOURCE/upanishad.html

Development of Philosophical Thought and Scientific Method in Ancient India

Contrary to the popular perception that Indian civilization has been largely concerned with the affairs of the spirit and "after-life", India's historical record suggests that some of the greatest Indian minds were much more concerned with developing philosophical paradigms that were grounded in reality. The premise that Indian philosophy is founded solely on mysticism and renunciation emanates from a colonial and orientalist world view that seeks to obfuscate a rich tradition of scientific thought and analysis in India.

Much of the evidence for how India's ancient logicians and scientists developed their theories lies buried in polemical texts that are not normally thought of as scientific texts. While some of the treatises on mathematics, logic, grammar, and medicine have survived as such - many philosophical texts enunciating a rational and scientific world view can only be constructed from extended references found in philosophical texts and commentaries by Buddhist and Jain monks or Hindu scholars (usually Brahmins).
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SOUTH ASIAN HISTORY

Pages from the history of the Indian sub-continent: Realism, Skepticism, Rational Thinking, Scientific Progress and Social Ethics

Development of Philosophical Thought and Scientific Method in Ancient India

Contrary to the popular perception that Indian civilization has been largely concerned with the affairs of the spirit and "after-life", India's historical record suggests that some of the greatest Indian minds were much more concerned with developing philosophical paradigms that were grounded in reality. The premise that Indian philosophy is founded solely on mysticism and renunciation emanates from a colonial and orientalist world view that seeks to obfuscate a rich tradition of scientific thought and analysis in India.

Much of the evidence for how India's ancient logicians and scientists developed their theories lies buried in polemical texts that are not normally thought of as scientific texts. While some of the treatises on mathematics, logic, grammar, and medicine have survived as such - many philosophical texts enunciating a rational and scientific world view can only be constructed from extended references found in philosophical texts and commentaries by Buddhist and Jain monks or Hindu scholars (usually Brahmins).

Although these documents are usually considered to lie within the domain of religious studies, it should be pointed out that many of these are in the form of extended polemics that are quite unlike the holy books of Christianity or Islam. These texts attempt to debate the value of the real-world versus the spiritual-world. They attempt to counter the theories of the atheists and other skeptics. But in their attempts to prove the primacy of a mystical soul or "Atman" - they often go to great lengths in describing competing rationalist and worldly philosophies rooted in a more realistic and more scientific perception of the world. Their extensive commentaries illustrate the popular methods of debate, of developing a hypothesis, of extending and elaborating theory, of furnishing proofs and counter-proofs.

It is also important to note that originally, the Buddhist world view was an essentially atheistic world view. The ancient Jains were agnostics, and within the broad stream of Hinduism - there were several heterodox currents that asserted a predominantly atheistic view. In that sense, these were not religions as we think of today since the modern understanding of religion presumes faith or belief in a super-natural entity.

That so many scholars from each of these philosophical schools felt the imperative to prove their extra-worldly theories using rationalist tools of deductive and inductive logic suggests that faith in a super-natural being could not have been taken for granted. This is borne out by the memoirs of Hieun Tsang (the Chinese chronicler who traveled extensively in India during the 7th C. AD) who describes the merchants of Benaras as being mostly "unbelievers"! He also wrote of intense polemics and debates amongst followers of different Buddhist sects.

Similiarly, there is other evidence that suggests that amongst the intellectuals of ancient India, atheism and skepticism must have been very powerful currents that required repeated and vigorous attempts at persuasion and change. Nevertheless, over centuries, the intellectual discords between the believers and non-believers became more and more muted. The advocates of mystic idealism prevailed over the skeptics, so that eventually, (at the popular level) each of these philosophies functioned as traditional religions with their pantheon of gods and goddesses enticing and lulling most into an intellectual stupor. But at no point were the advocates of "pure faith" ever powerful enough to completely extinguish the rationalist current that had so imbued Indian philosophy.

Early Rationalist Schools
One of the most ancient of India's rationalist traditions is the "Lokayata". Maligned and discredited by the evangelicals of mystical Buddhism and Vedantic Hinduism, their world view was sharply atheistic and scientific for their time. Unlike those who believed in reincarnation or an after-life, and in the indestructibility of the human soul - they refused to make artificial distinctions between body and mind. They saw the human mind as part and parcel of the human body - not as some separate entity that could have an independent existence from the human body. They acknowledged nothing but the material human body and the material universe around it. They rejected sacrificial gifts and offerings for the after-life as was common amongst followers of Brahmanical Hinduism during the time of Medhatithi in A.D 900 (a commentator on the writings of Manu who acknowledges that the Lokayatas were atheists or non-believers.)

For instance, they ridiculed the Brahmanical rituals of animal sacrifice: "If a beast slain in the Jyotistoma rite itself goes to heaven, Why then does not the sacrificer also offer his father?"

"If beings in heaven are gratified by our offerings made here, Then why not give the food down below to those who stand on the housetop?"

"If offerings produce gratification to beings who are dead, why make provisions for travellers when they start on a journey?"

"If he who departs from the body goes to another world, How is it that he comes not back again, restless for love of his kindred?"

The Lokayatas dismissed the Vedic priests and their Vedic mantras as nothing but a means of livelihood for those lacking in genuine physical or mental abilities. Instead, they gave primacy to human sense-perception, and through the application of the inferential process - they developed their theories of how the world worked.

One of the most notable aspects of the Lokayata belief system was their intuitive understanding of dialectics in nature. Many argued the mind-body separation as follows: Since the body is made up of things lacking consciousness - but the mind is a conscious entity - mind and body must necessarily be different - and consciousness must imply the existence of something else akin to the "soul". The Lokayatas countered this by citing the example of fermentation - how an intoxicating drink could be produced from something that was not itself an intoxicant. In essence they had discovered the principle that the whole was greater than the sum of it's parts. That physical and chemical processes could lead to dramatic changes in the properties of the substances combined. They were able to understand how special transformations could produce new qualities that were not evident in the constituent elements of the newly-created entity.

As keen observers of nature, they were probably amongst the first to understand the nature of different plants and herbs and their utility to human well-being. As such, it is likely that Indian medicine gradually evolved from the early scientific knowledge and understanding of the Lokayatas. Since the Lokayatas believed that consciousness emerged from the living human body, and ended with it's death - it is more than likely that the widely prevalent Indian custom of cremating the dead also originated amongst them.

This is not to say that the Lokayatas' understanding of the world was as elaborate and precise as that provided by today's science. By the standards of the 20th century, some of their formulations could be considered primitive and inadequate. That is only to be expected. Knowledge of science has expanded considerably since their times. But what is more important is that their world view was driven by a rational and scientific approach.

For instance, some later philosophical schools countered the Lokayata arguments concerning mind-body unity by bringing up the evidence of memory. Nyaya-Vaisesika philosophers like Jayanta and Udayana pointed out that the process of daily eating meant that the human body was constantly changing. The process of ageing also pointed to how the human body was ever-changing. Yet, an old person could remember in detail an incident from childhood. In other words - they tried to argue that memory was evidence of a human soul that existed beyond the mere physical body. Yet, we know today that memory is but a combination of proteins that can survive the length of human existence. There is both continuity and change in nature. The Lokayata world view howsoever sketchy and incomplete was not in contradiction with modern science.

If some of their characterizations required later revisions or refinement, or even corrections, it didn't take away from their fundamentally scientific approach. Their inadequacies were a consequence of incomplete knowledge and the understandable inability to see all the complexities of nature that we are now able (through advanced scientific instruments and centuries of accumulated knowledge). Their errors did not, however, stem from stubborn faith or deliberate rejection of reality and real-world phenomenon.

In practice, (according to some historians) India's ancient Tantric followers may have also had a largely rational world view, which sprang from a practical mindset and was impaired only by the limited amount of scientific knowledge available to humanity at that time. Critics of the tantrics dismissed them as sexually obsessed hedonists. But they failed to acknowledge that the early tantrics had an intuitive scientific streak and their understanding of sexual reproduction is probably what may have also impelled them to develop basic agricultural tools and other implements. In that sense, they were India's early technologists.

The Age of Science and Reason
But even amongst those Indian philosophers who accepted the separation of mind and body and argued for the existence of the soul, there was considerable dedication to the scientific method and to developing the principles of deductive and inductive logic. From 1000 B.C to the 4th C A.D (also described as India's rationalistic period) treatises in astronomy, mathematics, logic, medicine and linguistics were produced. The philosophers of the Sankhya school, the Nyaya-Vaisesika schools and early Jain and Buddhist scholars made substantial contributions to the growth of science and learning. Advances in the applied sciences like metallurgy, textile production and dyeing were also made.

In particular, the rational period produced some of the most fascinating series of debates on what constitutes the "scientific method": How does one separate our sensory perceptions from dreams and hallucinations? When does an observation of reality become accepted as fact, and as scientific truth? How should the principles of inductive and deductive logic be developed and applied? How does one evaluate a hypothesis for it's scientific merit? What is a valid inference? What constitutes a scientific proof?

These and other questions were attacked with an unexpected intellectual vigour. As keen observers of nature and the human body, India's early scientist/philosophers studied human sensory organs, analyzed dreams, memory and consciousness. The best of them understood dialectics in nature - they understood change, both in quantitative and qualitative terms - they even posited a proto-type of the modern atomic theory. It was this rational foundation that led to the flowering of Indian civilization.

This is borne out by the testaments of important Greek scientists and philosophers of that period. Pythagoras - the Greek mathematician and philosopher who lived in the 6th C B.C was familiar with the Upanishads and learnt his basic geometry from the Sulva Sutras. (The famous Pythagoras theorem is actually a restatement of a result already known and recorded by earlier Indian mathematicians). Later, Herodotus (father of Greek history) was to write that the Indians were the greatest nation of the age. Megasthenes - who travelled extensively through India in the 4th C. B.C also left extensive accounts that paint India in highly favorable light (for that period).

Intellectual contacts between ancient Greece and India were not insignificant. Scientific exchanges between Greece and India were mutually beneficial and helped in the development of the sciences in both nations. By the 6th C. A.D, with the help of ancient Greek and Indian texts, and through their own ingenuity, Indian astronomers made significant discoveries about planetary motion. An Indian astronomer - Aryabhata, was to become the first to describe the earth as a sphere that rotated on it's own axis. He further postulated that it was the earth that rotated around the sun and correctly described how solar and lunar eclipses occurred.

Because astronomy required extremely complicated mathematical equations, ancient Indians also made significant advances in mathematics. Differential equations - the basis of modern calculus were in all likelihood an Indian invention (something essential in modeling planetary motions). Indian mathematicians were also the first to invent the concept of abstract infinite numbers - numbers that can only be represented through abstract mathematical formulations such as infinite series - geometric or arithmetic. They also seemed to be familiar with polynomial equations (again essential in advanced astronomy) and were the inventors of the modern numeral system (referred to as the Arabic numeral system in Europe).

The use of the decimal system and the concept of zero was essential in facilitating large astronomical calculation and allowed such 7th C mathematicians as Brahmagupta to estimate the earth's circumferance at about 23,000 miles - (not too far off from the current calculation). It also enabled Indian astronomers to provide fairly accurate longitudes of important places in India.

The science of Ayurveda - (the ancient Indian system of healing) blossomed in this period. Medical practitioners took up the dissection of corpses, practised surgery, developed popular nutritional guides, and wrote out codes for medical procedures and patient care and diagnosis. Chemical processes associated with the dying of textiles and extraction of metals were studied and documented. The use of mordants (in dyeing) and catalysts (in metal-extraction/purification) was discovered.

The scientific ethos also had it's impact on the arts and literature. Painting and sculpture flourished even as there were advances in social infrastructure. Universities were set up with dormitories and meeting halls. In addition, according to the Chinese traveller, Hieun Tsang, roads were built with well-marked signposts. Shade trees were planted. Inns and hospitals dotted national highways so as to facilitate travel and trade.

India's rational age was thus a period of tremendous intellectual ferment and vitality. It was a period of scientific discovery and technological innovation. Accompanied by challenges to caste discrimination and rigidity and religious obscurantism - it was also a period of great social upheaval that eventually led to society becoming more democratic, allowing greater social interaction between members of different castes and expanding opportunities for social mobility amongst the population. Social ethics drew considerable attention in this period. Rules of engagement during war were constructed so as to eliminate non-military casualties and destruction of pasture-land, crop-land or orchards. The notion of chivalry in war was popularized - it meant not attacking fleeing or injured soldiers. It also required warring armies to provide safe passage to women, children, the elderly and other non-combatants.

The rational period thus saw progress on several fronts. Not only did it create an enduring foundation for India's civilization to develop and mature - it has also had it's impact on the growth of other civilizations. In fact, India's rational period served as a vital link in the long and varied chain of human progress. Although colonial history has attempted to usurp this collective heritage of the planet and make it exclusively euro-centric, it is important to note that fundamental and important discoveries in science and innovations in technology have come from many different parts of the globe, albeit at different times and stages of world civilization. India made significant contributions in this regard. If India is to fully recover from the depredations of colonial rule, it is imperative that we don't forget the achievements of this inspiring epoch.

Note: References to Greece and India are used in a very broad way. In the ancient world, the 'Greek' world included most Mediterranean nations - including those of North Africa, Palestine, modern-day Turkey, Bulgaria and Yugoslavia. References to India apply to the general expanse of the sub-continent.

For a somewhat more detailed outline of the different rational schools and their emergence in India, see Philosophical development from Upanishadic theism to scientific realism which outlines the epistemology of the Nyaya school, the Jain system of Syadavada, theories of causality and the atomic theories of Jain and Buddhist philosophers. Also see: Buddhist Ethics and Social Criticism

Other related essays:

History of Mathematics in India

Technological discoveries and applications in India

References:
K. Damodaran: Indian Thought, A Critical Survey

Debiprasad Chattopadhyaya: Lokayata: A study in Ancient Indian Materialism
Debiprasad Chattopadhyaya: In Defence of Materialism in Ancient India
R. C. Dutt: A History of Civilization in Ancient India
Studies in the History of Science in India (Anthology edited by Debiprasad Chattopadhyaya)

Also see Dr David Gray on: Indic Mathematics

Alberuni on Indian Science: In his memoirs, Al-beruni of Khiva (10-11th C) cites Brahmagupta and Varahamira and their arguments concerning the earth being spherical and the attraction of objects on the earth towards it's centre. He also cites how the daily phases of the tides were calculated relative to the rising and the setting of the moon. He also left commentaries on Indian mathematics, philosophy and other aspects of Indian life.

See Vinod Kumar's India as Al-beruni saw it

On Eurocentricism in the History of Science: Gloria Emeagwali brings up how discoveries made outside the Western world have rarely been properly credited in the West. She points to how the national origin of ancient scholars of North African and Middle Eastern descent is not correctly acknowledged, adding that Africans and Middle Easterners made important contributions to developments in science and philosophy in the ancient 'Greek' world.

See Gloria Emeagwali's Eurocentricism and the History of Science and Technology

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Last updated: Aug 15, 2001

TRINIDAD HIT BY ETHNIC CLEANSING EPIDEMIC: 'being an Indian was part of the problem'; BIAS AGAINST INDIANS; Khan: I am a victim of discrimination; WAR

2009-07-19T09:24:00.001-05:00

TRINIDAD HIT BY ETHNIC CLEANSING EPIDEMIC: 'being an Indian was part of the problem'; BIAS AGAINST INDIANS; Khan: I am a victim of discrimination; WARNER, IMBERT, MANNING SHOOT ETHNIC CLEANSING MESSENGER; Gopeesingh lists 13 doctors in ‘ethnic cleansing’; PUBLIC SERVANTS WIN IN APPEAL COURT, MANNING LOSES;

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PSC promotion judgment
Court rulings seen as signal against a trend
Shaliza Hassanali
Published: 19 Jul 2009

Acting Transport Commissioner, Pundit Haridath Maharaj, who won a historic victory over the Public Service Commission (PSC), feels that the judgments handed down sends a clear signal that Indian public servants are not wanted in the higher levels of the public service.

Maharaj was one of three people of East Indian descent, during the past week, who scored a historic victory over the PSC for failing to consider him for promotion to the office in which he had been acting for three years. Justice Maureen Rajnauth-Lee ruled on Friday that the commission erred when it ignored Maharaj’s claim to promotion and instead promoted his junior, Ruben Cato.

Rajnauth-Lee granted a declaration that the decision not to interview Maharaj for promotion to Transport Commissioner was unfair and irrational.
Maharaj’s judgment was the third in the past two weeks in which the court ruled that people had been unfairly treated by the PSC. Last week, the Court of Appeal ruled in favour of Ganga Persad Kissoon, who was bypassed for promotion for the post of Commissioner of State Lands, which Prime Minister Patrick Manning vetoed and blocked.

The Court of Appeal also ruled in favour of Feroza Ramjohn, whose recommendation to serve in the London High Commission was also vetoed by Manning. The three defendants were represented by attorney Anand Ramlogan.
“This trend is a very disturbing and dangerous one, which sends a clear signal that Indian public servants are not wanted in the higher levels of the public service. “There is a glass ceiling beyond which they are unable to rise,” said Maharaj—a public servant for 40 years.

Maharaj said he was victimised on the job for two-and-a-half years, for walking a straight line. “I felt that being an Indian was part of the problem…I am not against the person who was promoted; is just that I was angry with the system.” Because of mounting pressures, Maharaj said he felt like throwing in the towel. “This judgment can’t undo what I went through. I have to live with this for the rest of my life.”

Ramjohn said that for the five years the matter dragged on in court, her colleagues never had anything good to say: “Even after the judgment was handed down, only few of my colleagues congratulated me.” Ramjohn said she was trying to move on with her life, because the incident brought her no end of worry and stress. Kissoon said he was satisfied with the judgment, which should serve well for other public servants being overlooked for promotions. “No sitting Prime Minister should be allowed to manipulate the career of a public servant into high office,” Kissoon said.

Ramlogan: It’s an evil

Attorney Ramlogan said discrimination was a multifaceted evil that could occur for a variety of reasons: “The glaring racial imbalance in the upper echelons of the public service statistically supports and fuels this perception.”

Ramlogan said the system for acting appointments was also abused by putting someone to warm the seat without confirming them, while the favoured person was given time to qualify for the promotion. “The commission is supposed to be independent, but operates in a vacuum or ivory tower, as though it is unaware of the plight of those who complain about discrimination and unfair treatment. “It has done nothing to alter the racial composition of the interview panel,” said Ramlogan

What the people say

Former head of the Public Service, Reginald Dumas, hesitated to attribute race as the main reason for the objection to promote anyone. “What I found important in the court’s ruling is that you should not just veto people without reason. What the court is trying to say is that there has to be an emphasis on natural justice.” Vice-president of the Public Services Association Stephen Thomas, when contacted, said he had to peruse the judgment before commenting. However, Thomas said the commission “had made this blunder several times.”

http://guardian.co.tt/news/general/2009/07/19/court-rulings-seen-signal-against-trend

BIAS AGAINST INDIANS
Dr Tim stands firm on 'ethnic cleansing' charge at hospital
Juhel Browne jbrowne@trinidadexpress.com
Sunday, July 19th 2009

'QUALIFIED DOCTORS LEAVING': Dr Tim Gopeesingh

Opposition MP Dr Tim Gopeesingh yesterday charged that Government was carrying out a policy of political discrimination that was targeting one particular ethnic grouping in T&T.

"I don't think the Prime Minister is a racist at all but he is practising inequality and massive discrimination," Gopeesingh said yesterday at a news conference at his St Clair office.

Gopeesingh said he has known Manning for the past 30 years and had gone to university with him and believed the Prime Minister's "best friends are East Indians".

But he said, "What you practice as a political leader and a Prime Minister may be not the way you behave personally as an individual."

Gopeesingh also said he was not going to apologise for the comments he made in Parliament on Friday about there being "ethnic cleansing", and that most of the Indian doctors have had to leave the Port of Spain General Hospital.

"I felt compelled to bring it in the debate in Parliament rather than hiding it because I would have been doing an injustice to the society, particularly when people's lives are at stake and when I see lives are being lost because of negligence and people being operated on by junior doctors who never should be practising in Trinidad and Tobago," Gopeesingh said.

He said those junior doctors were being given licences to practise by what he called the Government's forming of a parallel medical board, as opposed to the constitutionally appointed Medical Board.

The Government has maintained that all foreign doctors being allowed to practise in T&T are properly licensed and qualified to do their jobs.

Gopeesingh said highly qualified doctors of Indian descent from this country were being turned away from key jobs in the public health sector or were leaving out of frustration.

"This Government is guilty, and guilty of massive discrimination in the health sector," Gopeesingh said.

Leader of Opposition Business in the Senate Wade Mark, who joined Gopeesingh at yesterday's news conference, accused the Manning administration of "pursuing a practice of selective discrimination particularly as it relates to employment in the Public Service".

On Friday evening, as he responded to Gopeesingh's comments on ethnic cleansing, Manning said the Parliament was not the place for "that kind of talk" even if the Opposition MP had the evidence to prove his claim. He called for Gopeesingh to withdraw the remarks.

Gopeesingh said, "There is massive discrimination and inequality in the award of scholarships, in the award of housing, in the hiring practices throughout the country and it must be spoken about. We cannot sweep it under the carpet because to sweep it under the carpet would be doing a massive disservice to the national community and it must be brought (out) and Parliament is the place that it has to be discussed.

"We cannot discuss this outside. We are elected by the people and the people expect us to discuss this."

He provided a list of names of 14 senior doctors of Indian descent who he claimed have been forced to take VSEP, did not have their contracts renewed or who have been frustrated out of the public health system from 2008 to present.

http://www.trinidadexpress.com/index.pl/article_news?id=161506348

Public servants win in Appeal Court
Double blow for PM
Francis Joseph
Published: 10 Jul 2009
It was a double blow for Prime Minister Patrick Manning in the Court of Appeal yesterday as he lost two judicial review cases in which he had vetoed the appointments of two senior public servants to high-ranking positions in the Public Service.

Manning was also under pressure in the Senate yesterday as he tried to convince senators to support the bill for postponing local government elections for another 12 months. In one court case, Feroza Ramjohn was deemed a national security risk and her transfer to the Trinidad and Tobago High Commission in London was rescinded. In the other case, Ganga Persad Kissoon was the number one choice to become Commissioner of State Lands, but he was bypassed for promotion.

Former Justice David Myers dismissed Kissoon’s judicial review case, but yesterday, the Court of Appeal, comprising Chief Justice Ivor Archie, Justice Margot Warner and Justice Allan Mendonca, ruled for the public servant against the PM and the Public Service Commission (PSC). In both cases, Sir Fenton Ramsahoye, SC, and Anand Ramlogan appeared for the public servants, while Russell Martineau, SC, represented the State.

In Ramjohn’s case, Justice Amrika Tiwary-Reddy ruled for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs accountant, but the State appealed. Yesterday, the court of appeal, by a 2-1 majority, dismissed the State’s appeal but ordered that no damages be awarded to Ramjohn. Warner and Mendonca ruled for Ramjohn, while Justice Wendell Kangaloo dissented. The court granted a declaration to Ramjohn that she was treated unfairly, by the failure of the Prime Minister to inform her of the case against her, and to give her an opportunity to make representations.

Ramjohn, 58, has been a public servant for the past 38 years. During her career, she served two overseas missions—as officer in charge of the registry in the Consulate in New York, and as accounts officer in the permanent mission to the United Nations, also in New York. On May 11, 1999, two diplomatic pouches which were despatched from Port-of-Spain to New York went missing on BW 424. It was later discovered that one of the pouches was found in a container with fish. The second pouch contained 200 blank T&T passports.

On June 5, 2001, one of two pouches with T&T passports went missing. An intelligence report, bearing dates June 23 and 25, 2001, stated that an official of the permanent mission in New York gave information “which tends to show that Ms Feroza Ramjohn, of the Registry, Foreign Affairs office in Trinidad, may be involved in a major conspiracy to steal a diplomatic pouch containing 200 blank T&T passports.”

Ramjohn denied that she was part of any conspiracy to steal blank T&T passports. She said she had left NY consultate ten years before and had no allies there. No charge or disciplinary action was taken against anyone. After accountant Bissoon Boodhai was charged with others for conspiracy to traffic cocaine in diplomatic pouches, Ramjohn was informed that she was going to the London mission as accountant. She received a letter and instrument of appointment about her transfer, which was signed by the Prime Minister.

But a month later, Ramjohn was handed a letter rescinding her transfer to London. She was considered a national security risk, and her appointment was vetoed by the PM. She was not given an opportunity to be heard, or to make representations. She was not sent to London, and someone else, her junior, was allowed to go to the T&T High Commission. Warner, in her eight-page judgment, said Ramjohn had no right to be transferred to the High Commission in London. But Warner found that Ramjohn was treated unfairly by the failure of the PM to inform her of the case against her, and to give her an opportunity to make representations.

Ramjohn, 58, has been a public servant for the past 38 years. During her career, she served two overseas missions—as officer in charge of the registry in the Consulate in New York, and as accounts officer in the permanent mission to the United Nations, also in New York. On May 11, 1999, two diplomatic pouches which were despatched from Port-of-Spain to New York went missing on BW 424. It was later discovered that one of the pouches was found in a container with fish. The second pouch contained 200 blank T&T passports.

On June 5, 2001, one of two pouches with T&T passports went missing. An intelligence report, bearing dates June 23 and 25, 2001, stated that an official of the permanent mission in New York gave information “which tends to show that Ms Feroza Ramjohn, of the Registry, Foreign Affairs office in Trinidad, may be involved in a major conspiracy to steal a diplomatic pouch containing 200 blank T&T passports.” Ramjohn denied that she was part of any conspiracy to steal blank T&T passports. She said she had left NY consultate ten years before and had no allies there. No charge or disciplinary action was taken against anyone.

After accountant Bissoon Boodhai was charged with others for conspiracy to traffic cocaine in diplomatic pouches, Ramjohn was informed that she was going to the London mission as accountant. She received a letter and instrument of appointment about her transfer, which was signed by the Prime Minister.

But a month later, Ramjohn was handed a letter rescinding her transfer to London. She was considered a national security risk, and her appointment was vetoed by the PM. She was not given an opportunity to be heard, or to make representations. She was not sent to London, and someone else, her junior, was allowed to go to the T&T High Commission.

Warner, in her eight-page judgment, said Ramjohn had no right to be transferred to the High Commission in London. But Warner found that Ramjohn was treated unfairly by the failure of the PM to inform her of the case against her and to give her an opportunity to make representations. In the case of Kissoon, a public servant for 36 years, he was recommended by the Service Commissions Department for promotion to the post of Commissioner of State Lands.

But Manning, by letter dated November 10, 2004, informed the PSC that he did not support Kissoon’s proposed promotion. Another name was proposed and it was accepted. Kissoon, 58, then filed for judicial review, seeking among other things, that the constitutional veto vested in the PM, was unfairly and illegally exercised for an improper purpose.

RESPONSES

FEROZA RAMJOHN:

Ramjohn said she was elated at the court victory, but was sad that her father was not around to see the final result. She said he died last year, although he was not optimistic that she could succeed over the PM. She said although she still had two years to go before retirement, she was still looking forward to the London appointment. “It has been a very stressful time for me,” Ramjohn added. She still works in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs at Sunjet House, Port-of-Spain.

GANGA PERSAD KISSOON:

“This victory is not for me, but for the younger ones coming up,” Kissoon said. “I have lost eight years because of this matter, and I have only two years to go. Although it means little for me, I am happy that I was able to succeed, although I was not that optimistic.”

Messenger under heavy fire
Peter Balroop
Published: 19 Jul 2009
Peter Balroop
UNC-A Chaguanas West MP, Jack Warner, felt funny to be within earshot when his colleague, Caroni East MP, Dr Tim Gopeesingh, let the cat out of the bag that you needed a microscope to find a doctor who looked like he had East Indian roots at Port-of-Spain General Hospital. The PNM had put on Hitlerite clothes and conducted ethnic cleansing at the venerable health institution, Gopeesingh declared during Friday’s sitting of the Lower House.

He swore that now you could find only doctors of African descent pacing the wards there. It was uncomfortable stuff, Gopeesingh putting into words the images that have from 1845 lurked here just under the surface in Trinidad and Tobago, when the first East Indians came as indentured labourers, meeting freed African slaves and their descendants, You have to be a fortunate citizen of this country—lucky to a fault—to be without the sin of nurturing racism in your heart and soul. Now, Gopeesingh’s comments about ethnic cleansing at the Port-of-Spain institution came in the context of him listing a litany of woes in the health sector that were begging for attention, a sort of in-passing comment.

But his critics, in particular Prime Minister Patrick Manning and Leader of Government Business Colm Imbert, latched on to the remark like leeches. They pinned Gopeesingh to the cross, and declined to allow him to elaborate, during their contributions, on why he had made the observation that left them seething. The action took place during debate on legislation to establish an ambulance authority in T&T, in a bill piloted by Health Minister Jerry Narace. The bill was passed 26-7 late on Friday night in its own wave of controversy, with Warner and his fellow UNC-A dissident colleague, Mayaro MP, Winston “Gypsy” Peters, voting with the ruling PNM.

Swelling rapidly

Gopeesingh had made the point that the T&T population was swelling rapidly, there being 18,000 births annually, compared with 12,000 deaths, coupled with Prime Minister Patrick Manning’s open invitation to the OECS that they were welcome to flock to the land of milk and honey to take up residence, and voting rights.

Nevertheless, while the country was filthy rich, people had to wait in many cases for two days before they could be warded on a hospital bed. Patients with fractures must lie on their backs for months, before the requisite screws, plates or pins were available to mend their limbs, Gopeesingh accused. As for burn victims, crapaud smoke their pipe, Gopeesingh lamented, just before he observed that 150-plus senior doctors of East Indian descent had been forced out of the public health service during recent times, in what he could only conclude was ethnic cleansing.

Even Speaker Barendra Sinanan was not happy with Gopeesingh publicly going where few Trinis would dare to tread, counselling the Caroni East MP to return his focus to the bill. But the damage had already been done, with Manning himself taking the floor to chastise Gopeesingh for bringing race talk into the debate. Imbert was even more abrasive, questioning Gopeesingh’s academic as well as medical credentials.

Warner, the Fifa vice-president, is locked in a bitter feud with Opposition Leader Basdeo Panday, who counts Gopeesingh as one of his right-hand men. On Friday, Warner, the only man of thoroughly African descent in T&T who can be safely described as an honorary East Indian, took offence at Gopeesingh going down the ethnic cleansing road. He said the comments, which smacked of resorting to tribalism, embarrassed him. Warner, who boasts that Chaguanas West is the best-run constituency of the 41 in T&T, said it was up to MPs to set the pace and prevent any polarisation of society.

Riot squad

Later, Manning echoed the sentiments, even going further to label the messenger—Gopeesingh—as a guttersnipe. But the Sunday before, when the One Voice activists, led by Inshan Ishmael, spontaneously found themselves at his St Ann’s palace demanding better healthcare for nationals, Manning’s response was to call in the police riot squad. With the John Jeremie issue still hanging over his head, as well as the raging crime tsunami, Manning’s plate is full.

The pressure is building, and our Prime Minister might just do the unexpected—call a general election in October to defuse all the simmering tensions. He needs just 35 days’ notice, according to the Elections and Boundaries Commission. And between the expected passing of the 2009-2010 Budget, in early September, and the Commonwealth Heads meeting in late November, there is plenty of time.

Gopeesingh lists 13 doctors in ‘ethnic cleansing’
Shaliza Hassanali
Published: 19 Jul 2009
Shaliza Hassanali
Caroni East MP Dr Tim Gopeesingh is sticking to his claim that there is ethnic cleansing at Port-of-Spain General Hospital. To substantiate his claims, Gopeesingh produced the names of 13 doctors from various departments of the hospital who had been forced to take VSEP, have not had their contracts renewed, or were frustrated out of the system from 2008 to now. During a press conference yesterday in Woodbrook, Gopeesingh responded to statements by Prime Minister Patrick Manning, who stated that the doctor’s remarks in Parliament on Friday were expected from a “guttersnipe and not a parliamentarian.”

Gopeesingh said ethnic cleansing was being carried out among doctors at the hospital. Manning also called on Gopeesingh to withdraw his comment. Gopeesingh said however: “My comments reflect a valid complaint from various sectors of the medical fraternity who, through blatant intimidation and ongoing discrimination by the government, have chosen or been forced to remain quiet on the issue.”

Gopeesingh said institutionalised discrimination had a domino-effect on deteriorating health standards, to the point where lives and limbs were lost. Gopeesingh said he would make no apologies for his statements, since they were valid and worthy of national attention and parliamentary debate. He also pointed out that the issue he raised, as alleged by the PM, was not based on racial relations, but targeted one group of professionals based on a perception that the group was anti-PNM.

With 35 years of medical experience under his belt, Gopeesingh admitted that it was hard for him to vent this issue in public. “But I did so because I felt it was time that the public realised that the PNM is going down a dangerous road of subverting the constitutional rights and guarantees of equality of all citizens for its political purposes.”

List of doctors
• Dr Ajit Kuruvilla
• Dr Gordon Naraynsingh
• Dr Hemant Persad
• Dr John Woo
• Dr Mary Ahow
• Dr Steve Mahadeo
• Dr Robert Ramcharan
• Dr Shehenaz Mohammed
• Dr Kim Hosein
• Dr Robin Hosein
• Dr Godfrey Araujo
• Dr Lall Sawh
• Dr Hassan Khan

http://guardian.co.tt/news/general/2009/07/19/gopeesingh-lists-13-doctors-ethnic-cleansing

Khan: I am a victim of discrimination
Rhonda Krystal Rambally
Published: 19 Jul 2009

Dr Fuad Khan

Rhonda Krystal Rambally
Dr Fuad Khan says he is a victim of discrimination, and he believes “that racism may have had a part to play.” Khan claimed he was bypassed for a senior consultancy position last year for “a less experienced Nigerian doctor” who was working under a senior urologist.

He said that senior urologist and another East Indian doctor “were forced out of the hospital.” In a telephone interview yesterday, Khan said the post of consultant urologist was advertised by the North Central Regional Health Authority (NCRHA) around August, last year, and that he had applied. However, after being interviewed by the panel, he said: “I never heard anything after.”

Khan, who has been a senior consultant urologist for the last 16 years, said he met the requirements for the position, unlike the Nigerian surgeon, whose post-graduate degree was not in urology. He claimed that several doctors and members of staff at the hospital also informed him that ethnic cleansing was occurring in the medical field.

Khan said he was the one who had informed Opposition MP, Dr Tim Gopeesingh, of the issue of racism at Port-of-Spain General Hospital, and had asked him to raise the matter before Parliament. Dr Gopeesingh did so on Friday, and Prime Minster Patrick Manning and Works and Transport Minister Colm Imbert responded to Gopeesingh’s comment, saying his statements were irresponsible and could provoke racial hatred. Khan said, however:

“They know exactly what they are doing, and it has stung them on their faces. “There seems to be an attempt to frustrate the hiring of local doctors, so that they can control the foreign doctors who are on contract. “They are now making sure that they put us out of the system.” He called on the PNM administration to cease the racial attack on East Indians in the country. “I want the PNM to stop practising racism towards Indians. “I am really serious…I have been pushing for equality in this country, not only for Indians, but for all races.”

Specialists leaving

Khan also claimed that gynaecologists, opthalmologists and anaethesists have left. He even said one of the senior urologists was forced out without compensatory leave. Referring to the late Rosa Parks, who fought for the rights of blacks in the US, Khan said Gopeesingh was fighting for the rights of East Indians.

“Dr Tim is like Rosa Parks. He has begun a civil rights movement for equality of Indian people in T&T.” Khan also said he “found out” that the scholarships offered to nationals to pursue medicine in Grenada were “given to 90 per cent of Africans and ten per cent to East Indians.” Apart from education, he said the intake in the Public Service and the distribution of houses by the government were all part of the ethnic cleansing.

He is calling for a full-scale investigation into the NCRHA, and said he had applied for documents from the Freedom of Information Act, through his attorney Anand Ramlogan. “I am backing Dr Gopeesingh 100 per cent, because of what happened to me.” He said according to Section 4 of the T&T Constitution, no national should be treated unfairly by a public authority or body. “If I have to seek judicial review, I will do that.” Efforts to reach Health Minister Jerry Narace proved futile.
http://guardian.co.tt/news/general/2009/07/19/khan-i-am-victim-discrimination

Jack hits back at UNC colleague
Gopeesingh: Ethnic cleansing among doctors at PoS hospital
Juhel Browne jbrowne@trinidadexpress.com
Saturday, July 18th 2009

'

Opposition MP Jack Warner yesterday expressed complete disagreement with comments made by fellow Opposition MP Dr Tim Gopeesingh that, according to information he received, there was ethnic cleansing being carried out among doctors at the Port of Spain General Hospital.

"I am in a political party where I meet this every day. Far too often, far too often, where I go, some of us resort to tribalism in the worst possible way and I don't want to be part of that, Mr Speaker, and, therefore, for the records, I want to say that I resent very much this thing about ethnic cleansing," Warner said at yesterday's Parliament sitting.

Warner, who is co-leading a faction for change in the Opposition party along with Opposition MP Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj, did so just one week after he voted in favour of the Government's Securities Bill 2009 during the House of Representatives sitting on July 10.

As his comments were immediately accompanied by desk-thumping from Government MPs, Warner quipped, "You all clapping the table, if you feel you getting me expelled, I have news for you, you know."

Warner spoke out against Gopeesingh's comment less than an hour after Works and Transport Minister Colm Imbert said there was no "ethnic cleansing" occurring at the Port of Spain General Hospital. Describing Gopeesingh's comments as scandalous, Imbert said, "I consider it highly irresponsible in the extreme for a member of Parliament to utter these entirely racist statements."

Imbert said Gopeesingh, as a former chief executive officer of a regional health authority, should know that "the majority of doctors in the public health sector in this country are of East Indian descent".

Gopeepsingh said he was told that ethnic cleansing was occurring at the public health institution in the capital city, during his contribution to the debate on the Emergency Ambulance Services and Emergency Medical Personnel Bill, 2009.

But Warner said members of Parliament "must at all times try to avoid further polarising this society" and just because someone claims there is ethnic cleansing going on in a public health institution, they should not necessarily have to repeat it.

Social Development Minister Dr Amery Browne endorsed Warner's comments when he contributed to the debate, and called on Gopeesingh to apologise for his remarks and withdraw them.

http://www.trinidadexpress.com/index.pl/article_news?id=161506008

‘Ethnic cleansing’ at PoS hospital—Dr Tim
Richard Lord
Published: 18 Jul 2009
Richard Lord
Opposition MP Dr Tim Gopeesingh claims there is ethnic cleansing at Port-of-Spain General Hospital, an allegation which Prime Minister Patrick Manning and Works and Transport Minister Colm Imbert described as irresponsible in the extreme.

Manning’s comment was made while he was on his seat in the House of Representatives during yesterday’s debate on a bill to establish, among other things, an Ambulance Authority in T&T. The legislation was presented for debate by Health Minister Jerry Narace. But it was during the contribution of Gopeesingh that the claim of racism at the hospital surfaced. “There has been an issue of ethnic cleansing at Port-of-Spain General Hospital as far as the doctors are concerned,” Gopeesingh said. “I understand that most of the East Indian doctors have had to leave Port-of-Spain hospital. I understand the Port-of-Spain (General) hospital is a virtual African hospital now.”

Panday, who was seated in the Chamber, was heard saying in support, “racism.” Gopeesingh said he was told of these developments but was not aware if they were true. Minutes later, he said they were facts. Gopeesingh said there were more than 150 senior doctors in T&T of East Indian descent and “they have been forced out of the service. There is a collaboration between the Medical Chief of Staff and the administrator at the Port-of-Spain hospital, dealing with this situation.” At this point, Speaker Barendra Sinanan intervened, saying that the issue was the subject of another proceeding but not the bill being debated. Later in his contribution, Leader of Government Business Colm Imbert accused Gopeesingh of uttering the “racist statements that could provoke racial hatred.” “Mr Speaker, without a shred of evidence... irresponsible in the extreme,” Imbert said.

Imbert said the vast majority of medical practitioners in the Public Service were East Indians so it was not possible for there to be a majority of African doctors at any public health institutions in T&T. “It is a fact that the majority of doctors in this country are of East Indian descent,” Imbert stressed. He said 80 per cent of the graduates of the faculty of medicine at the University of the West Indies were of East Indian descent. “I can say without any fear of contradiction that the majority of doctors in every hospital in the public health service, with the possible exception of Tobago, are of East Indian descent,” Imbert said. He said he could not stand in the Parliament and allow Gopeesingh to “utter falsehoods and promote racial hatred in this country.” Imbert said Gopeesingh’s claims were “wholly irrelevant, baseless, unfounded, frivolous and vexatious.” He demanded that Gopeesingh prove his claim of ethnic cleansing.

...Manning: Words expected from gutter snipe
Saturday, July 18th 2009

Prime Minister Patrick Manning last evening said that comments made in the Parliament by Opposition MP Dr Tim Gopeesingh, that ethnic cleansing is being carried out among doctors at the Port of Spain General Hospital, are the kind to be expected from "gutter snipe" and not a Parliamentarian.

Manning further said that the Parliament is no place for "that kind of talk", as yesterday's debate on a bill concerning ambulance services in this country turned into one that was almost overtaken by the issue of race, after Gopeesingh said there were more doctors of African descent than Indian descent at the public health institution.

"I don't want you to bring it. I'm not interested in it. You see, Mr Speaker, it would have been enough if the member had come and said 'on the basis of this evidence I make this statement', I would have objected also, I would have objected also, Mr Speaker, because evidence or no evidence, that kind of talk in a Parliament like this does us no good," Manning said.

The Prime Minister's comments came in an unplanned contribution to the debate on the Emergency Ambulance Services and Emergency Medical Personnel Bill, 2009, during the House of Representatives sitting at the Red House, Port of Spain.

He made them in response to Gopeesingh's comments earlier in the proceedings that according to what he had been told, there was ethnic cleansing being carried out among doctors at the Port of Spain General Hospital.

Saying that he had respect for Gopeesingh as a doctor and a senior Parliamentarian, Manning said he was "very much taken aback when on the basis on what the honourabale member said he was told, he sought to come to the Parliament to raise an issue of race and to raise it in such a manner that could be the source of tremendous discord".

"It is not the kind of talk that I would ascribe to a member of Parliament. It sounded like the kind of talk that you will expect from a gutter snipe, that is how it sounded to me. Most inappropriate," Manning said, calling on Gopeesingh to withdraw the remarks

Pizza, Roti and Papad

2009-06-13T15:17:00.000-05:00

Pizza, Roti and Papad

Some of the code words used by illegal bookmakers in India to take bets on the country’s elections. (Roti and papad are types of flatbread.)

On May 16, results from India’s five-stage general election revealed a decisive victory for the Indian National Congress party. According to the BBC, analysts had expected a much closer race between the Congress Party and the B.J.P. (Bharatiya Janata Party).

Reporting recently from Mumbai, The Press Trust of India stated:

In the lull between polling and counting, punters rushed to place bets worth Rs 20,000 crore [$4 billion] on what was better — pizza or roti.

There was also papad on offer, but it had few takers. Pizza, roti and papad were among the code words bookies used while taking bets so as to avoid the police net.

Pizza, code word for Congress, was the hot favourite among punters, while roti (B.J.P.) saw lesser volumes, a bookie said here. B.J.P.’s P.M. hopeful L. K. Advani was code-named papad.

Have We Really Arrived?

2009-06-02T17:52:00.002-05:00

From: maneesh dhanoo
Date: Tue Jun 2, 2009 6:36 pm
Subject: Have We Really Arrived?

I often wonder if time travel was entirely possible what our ancestors who made a perilous journey across the Atlantic ocean henceforth we are here. would think of us now.

To begin with I firmly believe we are the architects of our destiny and we shape it daily. When one would traverse the length and breadth of this land we would realize how disgusting and lewd our so-called Indians behave. On several occasions I had to ask people attending a Hindu wedding at a temple not to consume alcohol on the temple premises to which the response would be one of vile and contempt sneers and responses, "Arrived Indians".

When you drive through the streets and villages you would see all the rum shops wide open and well patronized by whom?,"Arrived Indians".

When any right thinking individual listens to the average conversation amongst East Indian young men their biggest achievement is how many bottles of liquor they have consumed.

Ask them to attend a Temple or a religious function; that is like asking them to amputate a limb. Mind you, there are some who join the pentecostal and open bible faith and suddenly become Holiest of them all. They suddenly know the Lord but when you were a Hindu they were godless.

The most disgusting is at the Chutney shows where the most vile and demoralizing behavior is on full display. I once remembered attending a wedding at the Chinmaya temple at Reform near Gasparillo where there were two Indians, like myself, Wining and gyrating in a most vulgar manner in front of the murtis of Lord Shiva and Mother Durga. When I asked them to stop they wanted to fight. Brothers and sisters these are a few observations of my own of the behavior of our own people.

The issue goes even further - in the village where I live the most famous event is Ramleela. It is well attended but when one takes a closer look at the behavior of these people involved, the participants display a chutney carnival behavior surely not becoming of an event like Ramleela.The same vulgarity is displayed at Phagwa.

The most amazing fact is the leader of this group is a Teacher at a Sanatan Dharma Maha Sabha school. His behavior is the worst of all yet he is rubber-stamped by the SDMS.

Looking deeper we hear the great Sat Maharajh saying that Gopio should not get funding from the government. Who is he to decide? Why doesn't he tell the nation the reason for this is sour grapes over the exit of Devant Maharaj from Gopio.

I admire Deo Bisnath for returning the check to the PNM. Why did Sat not be as honorable and do the same since you are a mouthpiece of the COrPse.

Brothers and sisters my point is simple when we can behave in a manner befitting respect we attain such but in the meantime as long as the Chutney Rum culture continues we are going on the wrong path.

The first and foremost institution of learning a child has to attend is the home and when the younger generation of Indians are totally unaware of our rich heritage and culture Indian Arrival is only a state of mind.

Always remember "When we forget where we come from then we don't know where are going."

Maneesh Dhanoo.
Proud Indian and Hindu

GOPIO knocks Govt over $5,000 Arrival 'pittance' Kim Boodram Monday, June 1st 2009

2009-06-01T17:10:00.002-05:00

GOPIO knocks Govt over $5,000 Arrival 'pittance'
Kim Boodram
Monday, June 1st 2009

SPECIAL AWARD: Makandal Daaga, left, congratulates Sri Ravindra Nath Maharaj after he received an award for his contribution to Indian culture during GOPIO's Indian Arrival Day observance and National Chutney Awards ceremony at Gaston Courts, Chaguanas, last Thursday. -Photo: TREVOR WATSON

The local chapter of the Global Organisation for Indian People (GOPIO) announced on Thursday that it intended to "follow up" on what it considers poor funding from the Government to those celebrating Indian Arrival Day this year.

The announcement was made by GOPIO head, Deosaran Bisnath, in the presence of President George Maxwell Richards, the patron of this year's GOPIO Indian Arrival Day Observance and Awards Ceremony and National Chutney Awards 2009.

The joint venture was held at Gaston Courts in Chaguanas and was attended by the cream of the chutney industry, as well as former prime minister and United National Congress (UNC) political leader Basdeo Panday.

Richards was initially scheduled to deliver the feature address but declined to speak, in light of an address to the nation that was planned for Friday night.

In his opening address, Bisnath revealed that GOPIO had received $5,000 from the Government to aid in Indian Arrival Day celebrations, the sum of which was then placed in an envelope for return to the sender.

"It reeks of tokenism," said Bisnath of the "paltry amount".

Though he did not call names, Bisnath remarked on statements by Chaguanas West MP and UNC Deputy Political Leader, Jack Warner, that Indian groups should stop begging for a pittance from the Government.

"I want to make it clear that we are not begging for a pittance, we are simply asking for what is due to us as citizens of Trinidad and Tobago," Bisnath said, adding later on that Indian culture was still not being treated as part of national culture.

He also listed several other issues that GOPIO wants to see resolved immediately, among them the firing of columnist Kevin Baldeosingh by Newsday, shortly after Baldeosingh publicly levelled charges of plagiarism against Fr Henry Charles, who used to have a column in the Guardian newspaper.

It was after this accusation that Fr Charles stepped down from his appointment as head of the Integrity Commission - an appointment that was made by Richards. Charles, however, resigned because the appointment was against the Catholic Church's laws.

On Thursday night, the Head of State remained passive during Bisnath's statements. Bisnath also called for the installation of the Equal Opportunities Tribunal and for ex-workers of Caroni (1975) Ltd to be given their lands.

Chutney awards were also given to a 41 local artistes. A presentation was also made by the Sundar Popo Monument Committee.

A spokesman for the committee said that a statue of Popo has been completed and will soon be erected in Barrackpore. The monument will honour the memory of the late singer, who pioneered chutney soca music locally and abroad.

A GOPIO award was also presented to Chayman Ramlagan Sawh, better known as "Prabhu". Sawh, a sculptor by profession, built the statue of Siewdass Sadhoo which stands near the Temple in the Sea at Waterloo, Carapichaima. He has also carved the statue of Popo.

-Reporting by

Ariti Jankie

http://www.trinidadexpress.com/index.pl/article_news?id=161484758

Taking the Indian out of Indian Arrival Day

2009-05-31T08:07:00.003-05:00

...is what many in T&T want to do.

Indian Arrival Day was celebrated long before it was designated a National holiday;
Indian Arrival Day was celebrated without miserly funding from the State;
INDIAN ARRIVAL DAY WILL ALWAYS BE CELEBRATED WHETHER THEY TAKE THE WORD
"INDIAN" from "INDIAN ARRIVAL DAY" or whether they take away the holiday or
leave as is; or whether they provide grants or not...

WHO ELSE ARRIVED ON MAY 30th? Why is the Prime Minister praising Indians in T&T yet in the next paragraph of this speech he wants "Arrival Day", not "Indian Arrival Day"? doublespeak...confused people...

What is it with the word "Indian" that bothers them?

Here are two excellent articles on this topic.

Sunday Newsday Editor, Vashty Maharaj:
"....I would suggest to Mr Manning that if he designates a thanksgiving day he can then let go of his reluctance to utter and accept the use of the word “Indian” in Indian Arrival Day. He can then find a way to learn to accept that Indian Arrival Day is a reality and will exist for some time in the future, long after he has died and gone to his heaven, or his hell, depending on how good a boy he has been in this life...

The worst thing the Government could do is to attempt to turn back the clock and return to the original “Arrival Day”. There is a reason that Indo-Trinidadians fought long and hard for a day dedicated to their presence and it has nothing to do with ego or racism or even being race-proud. It has instead, to do with a cry from the heart for acceptance, a reaching out to the wider society and saying “see us, hear us, accept us and allow us to honour our forefathers and foremothers for what they brought to this country that we happily call home.”

Andre Bagoo in Sunday Newsday:
But, a supporter of “Indian Arrival Day” would say, if we were to remove the “Indian” on the basis of living in a multi-cultural society, then by the same token, we should remove all religious holidays. The supporter would have a good point. Why should there be so many Christian holidays like Corpus Christi, for instance, when the majority of the population have no idea what they signify?

An opponent of “Indian Arrival Day” might be reluctantly swayed by this and concede that if the “Indian” goes then so too must most of the religious holidays.

IJJ, May 30th, 2009: 164 years later - the Indian does not always find an equal place.

2009-05-29T22:44:00.005-05:00

International Jahajee Journal (IJJ), May 30th, 2009

Voice of the International Indian Diaspora
http://www.jahajeedesi.com/

Home of the International Jahajee Diaspora

Dear Readers:
On behalf of the International Jahajee Journal and GOPIO Trinidad and Tobago,
I extend greetings and felicitations on the auspicious occasion of the 164th
Anniversary of the arrival of East Indian indentured immigrants in Trinidad and
Tobago.

GOPIO Trinidad & Tobago held its annual Indian Arrival Day Observance and
Awards ceremony on May 28th 2009 - see below for more information.
Some will be offended but the truth does offend, at times. In 2009, 164 years after
the arrival in Trinidad, they still face discrimination and prejudice. See my
presentation on this topic, below.

Deosaran Bisnath,
Editor, International Jahajee Journal.
President, GOPIO Trinidad and Tobago
Moderator, Caribbean Hindus Network,
Jahajee Blog
IJJ BLOG

It is good to see ourselves as others see us. Try as we may, we are never able to
know ourselves fully as we are, especially the evil side of us. This we can do only
if we are not angry with our critics but will take in good heart whatever they
might have to say.
-Mahatma Gandhi

Women pray together while on board a recreated Fath al Rozack - the first boat which brought indentured labourers to the shores of Trinidad. This was all part of procession through the streets of Princes Town to mark Indian Arrival Day hosted by the Sanatan Dharma Maha Sabha. Photo: DAVE PERSAD, TRINIDAD EXPRESS

GOPIO RETURNS $5,000 Indian Arrival Grant to Ministry
"...We will not accept the grant of $5,000 and we disagree with the total of $760,000 allocated for Indian Arrival Day. We consider this a mere pittance, it reeks of tokenism, and we will not condone this. Consequently, we are now sending back this cheque to the Ministry, via courier mail.

CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY

The MNCs are sucking this country dry, they are now even on State Boards – this could and would never have happened during the era of Makandal Daaga, George Weekes, Butler, and Cola Rienzi. The gains achieve by NJAC are now being frittered away; there was a time when there were very few Afro or Indo Trinidadian faces in banks and companies; thanks to NJAC and others this was hastily removed during the 1970s.

Today, the MNC banks are coming back after they deserted us when things were not so good. Soon, they may take control of the entire indigenous banking system, even First Citizens and Unit Trust, who knows what else will be put for sale?...."
Deosaran Bisnath, President, GOPIO Trinidad & Tobago
at GOPIO's Indian Arrival Day Observance and Awards Ceremony.
CONTINUED HERE...

CARONI
a movement from a longer poem, The Rain Suite, from
AMERICAN FALL
ISBN: 9781845230432
August 2007, Peepal Press
by Dr. Raymond Ramcharitar.

On these ululating plains, the rain is fate,
Draining the Indian’s ashes from the lips
Of the patient Caroni, to incarnate
Into the canestalks’ tasseled, sky-turned tips—
Arrows to the India of the mind.
While below, in patchworks of glistening strips
Of razor grass and dirt, board houses on stilts
Enclose the brown, work-knotted bodies,
Still-sitting, folded at the hip and knee
As primal eyes grope along the endless chains
Of the rain seeking escape, samadhi,
Inside the dank Chaguanas cinema
Where the pink, rose-lipped maidens pout and dance
In streams and around trees—a panorama
Of sublimated lust, which spreads outward
Through the roads outside the towns, the chance
Settlements along old sugar cart-routes
where, now and then, resilient mud-spattered shards
Of humanity still walk through the downpours
Of fingers which reach under rough cotton
Like the coolie farmer’s trembling hand explores
His daughter’s taut, brown flesh to the strum
Of small bullets on the raw galvanise, to come,
Hesitantly, to a stop, as the final memory
Of the mother dissolves under the glare
Of the unforgiving sun whose gaze clears
Ruthlessly the dewy fields and glassy paths,
Silencing the rain’s many-armed history.

India in Queens, With a Caribbean Accent
Little Guyana
By COREY KILGANNON

The A train rumbles to a halt at the Ozone Park/Lefferts Boulevard stop in central Queens. To the east, a dozen blocks of Liberty Avenue unfold in a series of roti, sari and gold shops that make up the fragrant spine of Richmond Hill, a community of immigrants who descend from Indians sent to the Caribbean to work on sugar plantations in the 19th century.

One must first reconcile the sight of saris and turbans with lilting English inflected with Creole. Then there is the juxtaposition of Hindu temples and gritty convenience stores, and thumping West Indian dance-hall music pouring out of religious shops. On weekend mornings, locals bring their black finches to Phil Rizzuto Park, formerly known as Smokey Oval Park, for chirp-off contests.

1 P.M. Eat lunch at Sonny’s Roti Shop, 118-06 Liberty Avenue, (718) 835-7255, right under the train station. Sonny’s may not be as well known as Brown Betty’s, Sybil’s or the Little Guyana Bake Shop, but the owner, Steven Rajkumal, a Trinidadian immigrant known as Sonny, is happy to introduce newcomers to the dishes. Order rotis ($5.50 for chicken, $8.50 for oxtail), or try snacks and desserts with cool-sounding names like jalibee and paymee ($2 each).
CONTINUED... .

------------ --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --

Brechin Castle
by Madeline Coopsammy
(Trinidad , 2005)

For Yolande Nunez
Friend of My Youth

“ Brechin Castle to Shut Down”

This name of an unequalled music
heralding visions of the rugged Scottish landscape
of Walter Scott and Lorna Doone
of murderous feuding Clans
and the glories of an Empire
on which the sun would never set
was the misnomer for a sugar-cane plantation
in the backwaters of Central Trinidad
its coolies once fettered by
Indentureship, inheriting a legacy
more bitter than the fruit they harvested

One warm and lovely breezy island night
you and I, searching out a fete
on a casual invitation
as we were wont to do
were bound for
a sacred fortress
the Plantation House
of Brechin Castle

leaving well-worn paths behind
our familiar haunts of
Woodbrook, St. James,
Cascade and Belmont
we drove through miles of darkened canes
and approached the Castle grounds
meeting no impediment neither moat
nor armoured Knights
only a sentry at a Gate
who cheerfully waved us on
for we had a password, a Manager’s name
and your Father’s car,
an imported American Rambler
the Mercedes in our third world economy

Independence had not yet come
but you with your mulatto confidence
the long history of your European ancestors
your Portuguese name
never feared to venture anywhere
you took me once on Carnival Day
into the Queen’s Park Hotel where the black waiters
viewed us with disdain, laughing in our faces
you never noticed, too busy enjoying the music and the jump up
while I was left alone to feel their scorn
for we were the only coloured people there

and since you always drove the car
I had no choice but to follow where you led

and thus we found ourselves
in Brechin Castle
which symbolized to me
the servitude of sugar
white colonial overseers
and sweating coolies cutting cane

but the fete was non-existent
someone had failed to extend the invitations
or perhaps the house was subject to a boycott

for the elegant spacious ballroom was deserted
peopled only by
an inebriated Englishman
his wife consorting with the black
yard boy

in South Africa in the days of Apartheid
white women were incarcerated in Insane Asylums
for just such indiscretions

but our hostess welcomed us
with warmth and kindliness
and to my surprise
in excessive courtesy
graced us with a curtsey fine and practised
while I puzzled over
this outmoded custom
which, once habitual in Victorian times
was surely now confined to
visits to the Queen.

but rendering such regard to us
one a coolie woman
the other of indeterminate race
left me wordless with wonderment

but as the years moved on
and the world mad e room for us
that surreal night coming sharply into focus
afforded me the realization that it was already
the dying days of Empire
and our misguided hostess
an Englishwoman of a newer breed
who knew no better.

That was more than forty years ago
now cane will soon be gone from Brechin Castle
the plantation houses stand stately and morose
eerie clones of those on Indian tea estates
we drive between still lovely avenues shaded by Royal Palms
a gentle wistful breeze
fans the rolling landscape

what tales the land could tell
what bitter-sweet memories remain upon
the Castle grounds, the fields
of shimmering waving canes
in the noonday sun
what fate now lies in store for them
since sugar will make way for
housing, development, malls?
I shudder to return.

____________ _________ _________ _________ _____

Race and the overpass

"....Because, as we all know, politically- inspired and institutional racism has existed and is encouraged against the people of Central Trinidad in particular, for daring to support an Indo- based political party and for having the audacity to retain an attachment to Indian culture.

The disdain and contempt shown in that comedian’s video against Indo-Trinidadians is not something new. It is, unfortunately, endemic in our society and a sad reflection of a lack of maturity and a rabid unwillingness to appreciate that while we may all have culturally or individually differing views, attitudes and beliefs, we are, at the end of the day, simply one human race."
VASHTY MAHARAJ, EDITOR, SUNDAY NEWSDAY, TRINIDAD

http://www.newsday.co.tt/commentary/0,100747.html

____________ _________ _________ _________ _____

The Indian does not always find an equal place

"... Our national anthem describes the yearning for freedom of a people formerly in slavery and indentureship. With hope, prayer, and faith, we pledge our lives to country, though one is not sure how many would sacrifice ourr lives for country. And, we proclaim every creed and race finds an equal place. This is a noble objective, but is this merely a feel-good, hollow statement? Are we genuinely committed and prepared to work hard to achieve this objective? Let’s explore this issue as we look at several complaints, suggestions, and comments that GOPIO has received during the last few months...."

Deosaran Bisnath, President, GOPIO Trinidad & Tobago

at GOPIO's Indian Arrival Day Observance and Awards Ceremony.

CONTINUED HERE...

____________ _________ _________ _________ _____

Green Face Man
from THE GREEN FACE MAN
by Professor Rosanne Kanhai
ISBN: 976-620-227- 3
Nobody see me, they know my face is green
nobody touch me, they know my skin slippery
nobody hear me, they know how I curse
nobody watch the bad eye I born.
I am the green face man
coming down, coming down
all over de town

Sugar in my blood, sugar
I plant the cane
weed the cane
cut the cane,
I grind the cane to sweeten my tea.
Sugar in my blood
I tief the cane
suck the cane,
make me faint
all that sugar not good for me.
My eyes going blind
my foot swell up
sores on my skin
my hands tremble when
I take out the cutlass
sharpen it on a stone
cut my veins
let the sugar out

I see blood flowing
more dirty than Caroni
more sacrifice than Ganges
I see splatters
from the highway to the back trace
accidents happen every day,
a whole family clean-up
trap in burglar proof
a little child hold down
two brothers break they neck
a taxi turn over
a truck run off the road
land up in somebody bedroom
I put kajar in my eye, I don't see so good.....

____________ _________ _________ _________ _________ __

"....GOPIO is urging the Government to do all it can to facilitate the distribution of funds from the European Union to the canefarmers. This is not taxpayers’ money; this is not coming from the Treasury; these are funds from the European Union – why is the Government blocking access to these funds to the long-suffering cane farmers? Why this injustice?

INDO-TRINIDADIAN CULTURE IS NATIONAL CULTURE
Before the Fifth Summit of the Americas, GOPIO had urged the Government to ensure there are more elements and facets of Indo-Trinidadian culture in the cultural events and ceremonies. There is a simple reason for this: Indo-Trinidadian culture is also national Culture, Indo-Trinidadian culture is a very important element of national culture.
Regrettably, and embarrassingly so, there were only 60 seconds of anything remotely associated with Indo-Trinidadian culture in the opening ceremony. We urge the Government to ensure that what is showcased as National Culture truly represents this wonderful multi-cultural multi-racial multi-religious nation of ours. GOPIO suggests a Committee - composed of representatives of all components of our national culture – should be responsible for creating the cultural programs and ceremonies for national events. This should be implemented at the forthcoming Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in November.... "

CONTINUED HERE.....

____________ _________ _________ _________ _________ ___

Coolie Mother
by Professor David Dabydeen

Jasmattie live in bruk-
Down hut big like Bata shoe-box,
Beat clothes, weed yard, chop wood, feed fowl
For this body and that body and every blasted body
Fetch water, all day water like if the
Whole slow-flowing Canje river God create
Just for she one bucket.

Till she foot bottom crack and she hand cut-up
And curse swarm from she mouth like red ants
And she cough blood on the ground but mash it in:
Because Jasmattie heart hard, she mind set hard.

To hustle save she one-one penny,
Because one-one dutty make dam cross the Canje
And she son Harrilal got to go school in Georgetown
Must wear clean starch pants, or they go laugh at he,
Strap leather on he foot, and he must read book,
Learn talk proper, take exam, go to England university,
Not turn out like he rum-sucker chamar dadee.

------------ --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --

RELIGIOUS INTOLERANCE AND BIGOTRY

Global Organization of People of Indian Origin (GOPIO) Trinidad and Tobago strongly condemns what we regard as religious intolerance and hate speech contained in the article by Kenneth Assee, titled “Weak Criticisms by Baldeosingh”, in the Guardian newspaper, on Sunday May 10, 2009.
Specifically, reference is made to Assee’s statement:
“This is why religions like Hinduism and Islam continue to exist despite rational criticism of the cruelties they sanction. Their followers choose to believe.”
GOPIO categorically rejects Assee’s claim that Hinduism and Islam sanction “cruelties”, and the characterization that Hindus and Muslims “choose to believe.”
While Christians, Hindus and Muslims may be tempted to respond with the long list of cruelties perpetrated in the name of religion throughout the past two millenniums, we caution against descending to such low levels of behavior; instead, we urge everyone in our multi-religious rainbow nation to practise tolerance of all religious communities, acceptance of every citizen, and inclusion of all, as we seek to develop a peaceful and harmonious society.

CONTINUED HERE....

____________ _________ _________ _________ _________ _____

East Indians Stand Proud
We sailed the Kala Pani
In ships so small and frail
We braved the monsoon’s tyranny
Most times we had to bail
But came we on to West Indies
From famine and from jail
Because British sahibs said the coolies mutiny
We came to work the sugar cane
Which lay in abandonment
We worked those fields with so much pain
From sun up to day’s end
Still our cultures we maintain
Our traditions and religion
Of east and western India and the Gangetic Plain
Our food and music, capra and dance
How widely they have grown
Local culture to enhance
To all the world we have shown
Our peacefulness and tolerance
So great is our contribution
To the Trinidad and Tobago islands
From early days to present time
We’ve laid a solid foundation
We saved each paisa, every dime
To improve our education
On many pedestals we’ve climbed
Hold elevated positions
In religion, government and administration
So East Indians stand proud
Be never ashamed of your roots
Hold high your heads in every crowd
Let the world see the fruits
Of your labour and shout aloud
Of your achievements, your pursuits
Since the journey on the Fatel Rozack
And your ultimate reward

Eva David Swain
TRINIDAD

____________ _________ _________ _________ _________ _

Indian groups angry over poor Arrival Day funding

"...The Global Organisation of People of Indian Origin (GOPIO) has also expressed dissatisfaction with the Government’s funding for Indian Arrival Day celebrations, calling it “grossly inadequate, embarrassingly unrealistic and unfair”.

The President of GOPIO Deosaran Bisnath told Sunday Newsday, “This is a national disgrace and shows the government’s contempt for Indian Arrival Day. The pittance they gave us is totally unacceptable. If the government could not donate an amount that could contribute to the cost in a meaningful way, then they should just not have given anything at all. It demonstrates that the government does not recognise the significance of Indian Arrival Day to our country’s history. ”

In a release, the group stated, “GOPIO Trinidad and Tobago, a national organisation, was allocated a mere $5,000 to defray expenses for the activities to mark the 164th anniversary of the arrival of East Indians in Trinidad and Tobago.”

The head of GOPIO said that this token amount cannot even cover the cost of a PA system, venue preparation, decorations and food. He explained that a basic event can cost anywhere from $15,000 to $20,000 and a major national event can run upwards of $30,000.

According to GOPIO, cultural groups throughout the country are in dire need of financial assistance to offset the expenses they incur to host their activities. Bisnath stated, “More groups need to be given funding because those 56 organisations are not representative of all the groups in the country hosting Indian Arrival Day events. There is something like 200 groups that requested grants....”
http://www.newsday.co.tt/news/0,100732.html

____________ _________ _________ _________ _________ _

IN THE DUNGEON OF MY SKIN

In Suez they thought I was Egyptian

In Manitoba they wonder if I'm native-born

In India they said derisively:

Indian Christian! Goan! Anglo-Indian!

In the Bronx, wayside vendors spoke to me

in the guttural music of Cervantes and Borges.

A long time ago, in my native place

on coral shores beside the Pirates' Main

they said, "You surely must be Spanish."

In a country famous for its indiscriminate racial copulation

ethnic nomenclature was the order of the day

and "Spanish"

was a mantle that gathered in its folds

all who bore or seemed to bear some trace,

however faint, of European ancestry.

It labelled you a cut above

the blacks and Hindus, low men on the totem pole;

rendered you a more pleasing place in the racial mosaic.

Now though the landscape of my being

negates the burnished faces of my youth

while molten rhythms

forged from the heart of Africa and India

elude me now

and I have cast from consciousness

satiric folk-songs spawned from the tortured metres of our

bastard English tongue

have clipped the bonds of cultures and boundaries

and made myself a universal woman

yet this poor frame, no castle

proves itself no fortress, but a dungeon from which

there can be no release.

Madeline Coopsammy

From: her book, “Prairie Journey” published by TSAR Publishers, Toronto, 2004

____________ _________ _________ _________ _________ _________ _____

Not enough $$ for Arrival Day

"....Maharaj compared the grant received by the Maha Sabha with governmental grants for other events, including Carnival on which he claimed $120million was spent this year.
"Put it (the grant) against the kind of money T&T is spending, no grant given for education and religion is ever sufficient," Maharaj said. Though he never said how much money the Maha Sabha received from the Ministry, he later told reporters that the Maha Sabha's celebrations would exceed $400,000, even with donations.
On Friday, the Ministry of Culture distributed cheques to various groups to assist in the celebrations of Indian Arrival Day on May 31.
A total of $750,000 was distributed to 56 organisations.
The Global Organisation of People of Indian Origin (GOPIO) also protested the amount of money given to the organisation to help with hosting Indian Arrival Day activities.
GOPIO's president, Deosaran Bisnath, said the organisation received a mere $5,000 which he said was "grossly inadequate."
Gopio got $10,000 to help with its Indian Arrival Day activities last year.
Bisnath said the East Indian Community was generally disappointed in the "token amounts given."
"What can we do with $5,000? This sum cannot even cover the cost of a PA system and venue preparations. I know of a group that received only $3,000, that is an insult," Deosaran said in a telephone interview yesterday. He accused the Ministry of showing "utter disrespect and contempt" for Indian Arrival Day celebrations and to the Indian community.
Bisnath said GOPIO has since written to the ministry, expressing its dissatisfaction with the sums allocated and was requesting that Government provide additional funds to these groups, "to cover the expenses for activities for Indian Arrival Day 2009."
Bisnath said GOPIO was prepared to return its $5,000 cheque if Government ignored this request.
with reporting by Rohandra John

http://www.trinidadexpress.com/index.pl/article_news?id=161481373

____________ _________ _________ _________ _________ _______

Episodes of Indian Experience
by Professor Kenneth Ramchand

Professor Kenneth Ramchand is Professor Emeritus of West Indian Literature,
University of the West Indies (UWI), Professor Emeritus of English (Colgate
University), and currently, Associate Provost, The Academy at the University of
Trinidad and Tobago for Arts, Letters, Culture and Public Affairs.
http://deosaranbisnath.blogspot.com/2008_05_01_archive.html
____________ _________ _________ _____

KALA PAANI — THE BLACK WATERS, by Ashram B. Maharaj
KALA PAANI—THE BLACK WATERS
by Ashram B. Maharaj

Death of an Arkatya

http://jahajeedesi.blogspot.com/2009/05/kala-paani-black-waters-by-ashram-b.html

‘When you reach to Chinidad (Trinidad), all you have to do is sift
sugar. I tell you that the place is like Vaikunth (Heaven) and anyway,
is the same Dharti Maataa (Mother Earth) everywhere. After three
years, you will be coming back with plenty jewels and gold,’ the
arkatiya (recruiter) assured the gathering.

Dookhee was absorbed with the arkatiya’s promises. He had always
considered his future to be in Bharat. But if he stayed in India, he
would have to continue paying rent to his landlord, Lallaji, for the
plot of land he was cultivating. Paying rent seemed futile since the
land was not yielding as bountifully as before. Besides, his bullock
that he used to till the soil had recently died. He could not ask his
brothers for assistance since they were also struggling to survive.
...CONTINUED... .
http://jahajeedesi.blogspot.com/2009/05/kala-paani-black-waters-by-ashram-b.html

____________ _________ _________ _________ _________ _________ _________

"Tracing the Roots" Tracks Down Family Tree in India
Indian Americans (and Indians throughout the world) now have the
chance to track down the details of their origins in India, thanks to
a new program introduced by the Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs.
For more information on the Tracing the Roots program or to
download an application, visit the Ministry of Overseas Indian
Affairs' Web site at http://www.moia.gov.in or e-mail indiroots@yahoo. com.
http://indiawest.com/readmore.aspx?id=746&Sid=1
http://www.indiroots.com/
http://www.cousinconnect.com/d/a/192237

Editor's Note: Dr. Chandra Tiwary from INDIROOTS.COM is now in
Trinidad; if anyone wants to meet him, send mail to gopiott@gmail.com or deobisnath@yahoo.com

____________ _________ _________ _________ _________ _________ ______

The latest issue of the Indo-Caribbean Times can be
accessed online at
http://www.esnips.com/web/Indo-CaribbeanTimes
____________ _________ _________ _________ _________ _________ _____

Indian Indentured Immigration to Trinidad

By Deosaran Bisnath.
President, GOPIO Trinidad and Tobago.
Moderator, Caribbean Hindus Network,
Jahajee Blog
IJJ BLOG

Part 1 :
Origin of The Coolie Slave Trade

Sookra Khadoo Male 15, Panchoo Darhoo Male 16, Dabee Sing Sobrun Sing
Male 16, Hullodhur Gobardhun Male 18, and Chowdory Aukalee Male 18, were
amongst the youngest in the human cargo aboard the FATH AL RAZACK when
it departed the Port of Calcutta on 16th February 1845. One hundred and three
days later - on May 30th - the first immigrant ship from India to Trinidad arrived
off Nelson Island. Deepa, Mungree, Ancklee, Jhalowa, and Somoreeya were
among the 225 who survived the perilous journey across the Kala Pani; the
unfortunate six who died were dumped unceremoniously, without rituals or rites.
.... READ MORE...

Indentured Indian Immigration to the Caribbean, Part 2 of 3
Journey of the Jahajees:From Calcutta to Caribbean
An Arkatya came and told me
To come to "Chinidad" (Trinidad)
All the people here were told
That the streets were filled with gold
And once we reach over there
Our problems would disappear.
Now that all of us on this ship
And we are sailing out to sea
The Arkatya comes and tell me
We are all bound kulis
.... READ MORE....

Indentured Indian Immigration to the Caribbean, Part 3 of 3
Life on the Plantation, and Beyond.
Some push us around, some curse us
Where is your splendor and prestige today?
The whole world calls us black thieves.
The whole world calls us 'coolie.'
Why doesn't our flag fly anywhere?
Why do we feel low and humiliated?
Why is there no respect for us in the whole world?
-- An early Indian immigrant protest song
...READ MORE....

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SURINAME ARCHIVES:
http://www.nationaalarchief.nl/suriname/base_hindo/database/engine/zoeke\ n.asp?4=On&39=On

INDO-CARIBBEAN GENEALOGY WEBSITE
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Bhatchaman/
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GOPIO Trinidad & Tobago
a chapter of GOPIO International.
P.O. BOX 2286, Chaguanas. TRINIDAD.
BECOME A GOPIO member: write to -
GopioTT@gmail.com

GOPIO on the NET:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/GopioTT/
http://gopiott.blogspot.com/
http://www.gopio.net
http://gopio. com

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MERE DESH Indian Arrival Day Events
E-mail: poojabhavan3001@ yahoo.com

Community Announcement
Mere Desh 3-Projects

Junior Tassa Rama Competition
On Saturday 30th May, 2009 at the Mid Centre Mall Car-park Chaguanas
Time-5.00pm
Registration 672-4423 Big Cash prizes to be won!

Also the public is invited to attend Free Classes
@ 1.00pm also the same day and venue mid centre mall
(1) The Applying of Mehendi- Teaching various artistic designs on both hands
and feet
(2) The Cutting of Kite paper for Decorations
(3) The Making of Stuff Toys e.g. Teddy Bear
(4) Garment Construction, Curtain and Draperies designs

Sports - Wind ball Cricket Match
10-Over One Day Cricket wind-ball Tournament
Venue- Knowles Recreation Ground, Curepe
Time- 10.00am Date- 30th May (Indian Arrival Day)
Contact- Joe Dwarika, Anand Balram, Premchan Roopia or Praimsingh-672- 4423
Big Cash Prizes to be won!

This project is in celebration of 164th Anniversary Indian Arrival

Slogan/Theme for this project-
"The greatest gift one can give to someone is to pass down to others what one
has learnt for oneself"

Entertainment Galore- Brantec Orchestra, Dances by top Artistes .D J Alma Sound
5- Sons & Daughters will be honoured * Guest Speakers by prominent citizens
Venue Mid Centre Mall, Chaguanas, Saturday May 30th 1.00pm - 9.00pm

Cricket-Lovers
Wind-ball Cricket Match- Knowles Street Recreation Ground 10.00am
No Entrance or Registration fee!. It's Free to the Public
Bring the entire Family!
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Immigrants to Citizens: the Indian Community
in Grenada, 1857 to the Present
by RON SOOKRAM
http://74.125. 95.132/search? q=cache:r3R12HK_ 5oEJ:arts. brunel.ac. uk/gate/entertex t/6_3/ET63Sookra mRevsED.doc+ coolie+return+ India&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=455&gl=ca&client=firefox- a

EAST INDIANS IN BELIZE
http://www.amandala .com.bz/index. php?id=5336

~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~~

JAMAICA : INDIAN HERITAGE DAY IS MAY 10
http://www.indocari bbeanheritage. com/content/ view/43/64/

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HINDU WISDOM

The laws of life are five:
Nonviolence,
Truthfulness,
Integrity,
Chastity,
Nonattachment.

These laws are universal. Unaffected by time, place, birth,
or circumstance, together they constitute the "Great Law of Life."
-The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, 2:30-31

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Books published on Indentureship in the Caribbean

Dr. Kumar Mahabir
University of Trinidad and Tobago (UTT)

The theme of this year’s edition of the Indian Arrival Day magazine produced by the Indo-Caribbean Cultural Council is “A pictorial survey of books on indentureship in the Caribbean.”

After the abolition of African slavery, Indians came to the Caribbean to work as indentured labourers from 1838. They came to work in sugarcane plantations in the British, French and Dutch colonies under a semi-slave contract system known as indentureship. By the time indentureship ended in 1917, about 400,000 Indians had come to Trinidad, Guyana/Guiana, Jamaica, Guadeloupe, Martinique and other Caribbean islands.

A survey of the literature reveals that approximately 85 books have at least one chapter on Indian indentureship in the Caribbean. The first book was written by Joseph Beaumont and published in 1871. It is entitled The New Slavery: An Account of the Indian and Chinese Immigrants in British Guiana. Beaumont was appointed Chief Justice in 1863 and attempted to alleviate exploitation and abuse of both Chinese and Indian labourers by applying the laws that were designed to protect them.

About 80 years later, the second non-fiction book on Indian indentureship in the Caribbean was written by Dwarka Nath and published in 1950, entitled A History of Indians in British Guiana. Unlike Beaumont, Nath was an Indian and a senior immigration agent in colonial Guyana. Nath ranks among 75 Indian historians to have written at least a chapter on the subject.

Eighteen years after in 1968, two non-fiction works were published independently by Judith Ann Weller and Donald Wood. Weller is the first woman to undertake an in-depth study of the Indian indentureship in the Caribbean in The East Indian indenture in Trinidad. Wood’s publication, Trinidad in Transition: The Years After Slavery, is an important contribution to the historiography of indentureship.

Since then about 80 books have been written on the subject, mainly by Indians in the Diaspora, some of them being women. Basdeo Mangru and Clem Seecharan, are the two Guyanese historians who have written the most books on indentureship. Seecharan has four books and Mangru five. They were followed by a Trinidadian, Ron Ramdin who has written three books on the subject. Brinsley Samaroo and David Dabydeen have edited the largest number of volumes on the subject.

Sixteen books on indenturehip were written by women, seven of which are by non-whites. Two books were written by Verene Shepherd, a half-Indian from Jamaica. Shepherd’s two books are Transients to Settlers: The Experience of Indians in Jamaica, 1845-1950 and Maharani's Misery: Narratives of a Passage from India to the Caribbean. Another woman, Laxmi Mansingh, co-authored with her husband Home Away From Home: 150 Years of Indian Presence in Jamaica 1845-1995.

Eight of the 85 books on indentureship in the Caribbean are works of fiction. The first of which was published over 132 years ago in 1877, and entitled Lutchmee and Dilloo: A Study of West Indian Life. It is written by Edward Jenkins. The second came 40 years later in 1917, entitled Those That be in Bondage: A Tale of Indian Indentures and Sunlit Western Waters (1917). Its author is Albert Raymond Forbes Webber. Other novels published on the subject are The Dispossessed (1992) by Clement Maharaj, The Promise (1995) by Sharlow Mohammed, Tikasingh’s Wedding (1998) by Wilfred D. Best, Chalo Chinidad - Let’s Go Trinidad (2003) by Jang B. Bhagirathee, Rama’s Voyage (2004) by Ron Ramdin, and Jahajin (2007) by Peggy Mohan.

Both Trinidad and Guyana have produced an equal number of books on indentureship in the Caribbean. However, there is a severe scarcity of books on indentureship from the smaller Caribbean islands and the non-English- speaking territories. There is also, an absence of imaginative books in the form of poems and plays on the subject.

Dr Kumar Mahabir

Assistant Professor, University of Trinidad and Tobago (UTT)

Chairman, Indo-Caribbean Cultural Council (ICC)

10 Swami Avenue, Don Miguel Road

San Juan, Trinidad and Tobago

West Indies

Tel: (868) 674-6008

Tel/fax: (868) 675-7707

Mobile (868) 756-4961

E-mail: dmahabir@gmail. com, kumarmahab@hotmail. com

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HINDUS CONSTANTLY ATTACKED IN TRINIDAD

Since 1845, the Hindu population has constantly been attacked by people who do not share our views. Cowshed schools, “coconut oil head,” Concordat, idol worshippers, bastards, illegal marriages, radio and TV licences etc are examples of intolerance of eastern religions.
The latest example took place at the Barrackpore Senior Comprehensive where jhandis were ordered to be taken down by “the authorities.” Who are these authorities? Do you recall the incident with the jhandis placed by then Prime Minister Basdeo Panday at the PM’s residence? Let it be known to those who continually attack Hinduism that this religion was brought here from India and it belongs to us. It is over 7,000 years old during which time there have been numerous attempts worldwide to destroy it. It is based on solid principles of philosophy. Ask Morgan Job. It has the only complete language in the world (44 letters).
Joel Quintal, in a letter in the May 18 Guardian, wrote about the Trinity Cross and religious intolerance, stating that the cross is a symbol of Christianity and that Hindus and Muslims met it here when they came. However, my readings tell me that the cross is Egyptian in origin. And may I ask Quintal who the Christians met when they first arrived in the west? What happened to the people who they met? What about their symbols? Where is the tolerance of which Quintal writes?
Hindus represent 37 per cent of the population, yet we have to go to the Privy Council to obtain redress for intolerance. Legal victories, yes, if that is the way to go. We have come of age, just like Barack Obama. Finally, Quintal, your intolerance is revealed when you say that those who are offended by the Trinity should pack up and leave this country. Be mindful that Hindus also have a Trinity which is “OM” meaning Bramha (the creator), Vishnu (the preserver) and Mahase (the destroyer), and this is recognised over 7,000 years ago.
Doodnath Maharaj
http://guardian.co.tt/commentary/letters/2009/05/29/another-act-intolerance

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Indian civilisation - Worthy of emulation
by Robert Buddan

THE MONTH of May is significant for Indians in the Caribbean. It is the month in which
Indians first arrived (in different years) in Guyana, Trinidad and Jamaica.
CARICOM is, in reality, a largely Afro-Asian region. .......READ MORE....

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GIVE BACK ARRIVAL MONEY

http://guardian.co.tt/commentary/letters/2009/05/29/return-arrival-day-money-govt

With the distribution of the pitiful sum of $750,000 to 56 groups for Indian Arrival Day celebrations, it has become painfully clear that the Government has no interest in distributing the nation’s resources equitably.
However, as history has shown time and time again, when you oppress and take advantage of a people they rise up even stronger and more resilient. I believe that the Indo-Trinidadian groups which seek the interest of the East Indian community should instead focus their energies on becoming more self-sufficient. We have seen the devastating effects that becoming dependent on this Government has had on other sectors of the community and it would be a tragedy of national proportions if the Indo-Trinidadian community were to fall victim to the same syndrome.
It is hurtful as a law-abiding, tax-paying citizen to see my tax dollars so unfairly distributed but I think in the long run it will work out to the benefit of the Indo-Trinidadian community. The 56 groups should return every cent of that $750,000 and show the Government that they can be totally self-sufficient. By becoming self-sufficient they will at least have lifted the burden of having to invite these politicians to their functions and pander to them with tassa drumming, flag waving and free food.
Naushad Khan
http://guardian. co.tt/commentary /letters/ 2009/05/29/ return-arrival- day-money- govt

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Yesu Persaud: All Guyanese should be proud to
celebrate Indian Arrival

The Indian Commemoration Trust (ICT) is happy to celebrate this historic
day not only with Indians but with all Guyanese because this is a part of
our history as the indentured Indians made tremendous contributions in
helping to build the nation, ICT Honorary President, Dr Yesu Persaud
said in a statement on the commemoration of Indian Arrival.
.... READ MORE....

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Voyages into Coolitude:
A Comparative and Textual Analysis of Kala Pani
Women’s Cross-Cultural Creative Memory

.... CONTINUED AT...

http://edoc. bib.ucl.ac. be:81/ETD- db/collection/ available/ BelnUcetd- 05142003- 074243/unrestric ted/VoyagesCooli tudeShort. pdf

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From Bengal to Bushlot to Belize -
THE INDENTURED IMMIGRANTS
by Karan Chand
Karan Chand is a Guyanese living and teaching for the past 19 years in Belize City,
Belize. This book is on the list for Literature at two high schools in Belize and others
are now considering it to be included as an additional text.
From Bengal to Bushlot to Belize - THE INDENTURED IMMIGRANTS is available from
the author - E-mail kchand16@hotmail. com

Inspiration
http://www.jahajeed esi.com/forums/ index.php? showforum= 10

FORGET THE BODY

He who does sankirtan (same as kirtan: chanting) forgets the body and the world. Sankirtan brings
super-intuitional knowledge. Sankirtan brings darsan (vision) of God or attainment of divine
consciousness in this Kali Yuga (dark age). It develops love. It is the easiest, surest, safest, quickest
way for attaining God-realisation.

Those who do sankirtan in the beginning, for the sake of mental enjoyment, will realise the purificatory
effects of sankirtan after some time and then they will do it with bhava (devotion) and sraddha (faith).
There is a mysterious power in the name of the Lord. Man cannot live by bread alone but he can live on the name of the Lord.

The harmonious vibrations produced by the singing of the names of the Lord help the devotees to
control their minds easily. They produce a benign influence and elevate the mind at once from its old
ruts, to magnanimous heights of divine splendour and glory. If one does sankirtan from the bottom of
one's heart, with full bhava and prem (love) even the trees, birds and animals will respond. They will be
deeply influenced. Such is the power of Sankirtan. It brings the devotee face to face with God.

http://groups. yahoo.com/ group/CaribbeanH indus/
http://www.jahajeed esi.com/forums/ index.php? showforum= 10

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Kahe Gaile Bidesiya 05 - Trinidad
Desecrating Nelson Island
Published in Bhatchaman@yahoogro ups.com
by "Lloyd Harradan"

PEOPLE WHO cause harm to Nelson Island or its environs will be
fined $5000, an advertisement in the August 14th 2007 issue of
Newsday stated. The foliage, fauna and any monuments should not
be interfered with, the Government ad stated.

In which case the National Trust of Trinidad and Tobago should be
fined for causing harm to the Island.

Pictures available here
http://www.indocaribbeanheritage.com/component/ option,com_ zoom/Itemid, 76/catid, 6/

____________ _________ _________ _________ _________ _________ _____

Contribution by People of Indian Origin to Jamaica
by Pandit Lochan Nathan Sharma
http://pandit-jamaica.com/ index_files/ Documentation. htm

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WORD PLAY

indenture
Spelled Pronunciation [in-den-cher]
IPA noun, verb, -tured, -turing.

–noun 1. a deed or agreement executed in two or more copies with edges correspondingly indented as a means of identification.
2. any deed, written contract, or sealed agreement.
3. a contract by which a person, as an apprentice, is bound to service.
4. any official or formal list, certificate, etc., authenticated for use as a voucher or the like.
5. the formal agreement between a group of bondholders and the debtor as to the terms of the debt.
6. indentation.

–verb (used with object) 7. to bind by indenture, as an apprentice.
8. Archaic. to make a depression in; indent; wrinkle; furrow.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Origin:
1275–1325; ME < ML indentūra. See indent 1 , -ure

Related forms:

indentureship, noun
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Contextualizing the Roots of Chutney Music
by
Dr. Ashford Maharaj
Finance Professor, Berkeley College, White Plains, NY

The birth of Chutney as an art form must be broadened to include a
greater contextual comprehension of a more encompassing antecedent
that has allowed chutney to become popular Trinidad and Caribbean
art form.... READ MORE....

Tassa in Felicity, Trinidad
http://www.youtube. com/watch? v=YgWmdx8E8oY

Berbice Dance
http://www.youtube. com/watch? v=xiiG0HYaMy4

Petrotrin Boodoosingh Tassa Group in Queens, New York
http://www.youtube. com/watch? v=rSjZEwKhU0A

Tassa Trini Style in Sunrise, Florida
http://www.youtube. com/watch? v=AS5cVbyG4JA

Ladies Only, at Indian Wedding, Trinidad
http://www.youtube. com/watch? v=Ba_l2xwNzUk

Sylvan Bharat Tassa in Toronto, Canada
http://www.youtube. com/watch? v=l9azGoTmQWA

Maticore in Aranguez, Trinidad: Dancing to Tassa
http://www.youtube. com/watch? v=oKu5WIvPT1o

Tassa Wine at Hibiscus, NY
http://www.youtube. com/watch? v=fYT-dGb1ccE

Tassa crew from NY Duck Curry Competition 08
http://www.youtube. com/watch? v=egms1gITJtI

Dancing Tassa - Maticoor Night, El Dorado, Trinidad
http://www.youtube. com/watch? v=B9r2I-3Dvog

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President Jagdeo lauds inner strength of indentured Indians
HEAD of State President Bharrat Jagdeo has noted that it is
important to know the history of the struggles of our ancestors
and has urged Guyanese to work together to help build the country. ... READ MORE....

____________ _________ _________ _________ _________ _________ _
"jahaj" = ship; "desi" = Indian
"JahajeeDesi" = The Indians who crossed the Kala Pani by ship,
the Indentured Indian Immigrants, and their descendants.
http://www.JahajeeDesi.com
For Free Subscription to this Newsletter, or to Join the JahajeeDesi
YAHOO Group, or to contribute News, Letters, Essays, Reviews,
Send Mail to: CCDSJ@yahoo. com

http://twitter.com/iTrinidad
http://twitter.com/Chaguanas

http://deosaranbisnath.blogspot.com

164 years later - the Indian does not always find an equal place.

2009-05-29T21:26:00.002-05:00

Speech by Mr. Deosaran Bisnath, President of GOPIO Trinidad & Tobago
at GOPIO Trinidad & Tobago’s Indian Arrival Day Observance and Awards ceremony
On Thursday May 28th, 2009 at Gaston Court, Lange Park, Chaguanas

His Excellency, Professor George Maxwell Richards, President of the Republic of Trinidad & Trinidad; High Commissioner of India, His Excellency Shri Malay Mishra & Mrs. Mishra;
Leader of the Opposition, Mr. Basdeo Panday & Mrs. Panday;
Deputy Leader of the Congress of the People, Mr. Prakash Ramadhar;
Representative of the Ministry of Community Development, Culture, and Gender Affairs; Members of the Diplomatic Corp;
Head of NJAC, Chief Servant Makandal Daaga & Mrs. Dagga;
Representative of the Emancipation Support Committee;
Mr. Ome Ayagorro, Head of NJAC’s Cultural Council;
Iiya Shango Wummi, Chief Orissa Priestess
Ms. Obika, Head of the Caribbean Historical Society;
Mr. Ricardo Hernandez, Chief of the Amerindian or First Citizens Community;
Mr. Jervase Caesar, Young Calypso King;
Ladies and Gentlemen:

On behalf of GOPIO Trinidad and Tobago, and GOPIO International, and our co-hosts, the National Chutney Foundation, I extend a warm welcome to you at this, our 2nd Annual Indian Arrival Day Observance and Awards ceremony, in commemoration of the 164th Anniversary of the arrival of Indentured Indian Immigrants in Trinidad and Tobago.

GOPIO Trinidad and Tobago is the local chapter of GOPIO International, a highly regarded and well-respected global organization that advocates and represents People of Indian Origin - commonly referred to as PIO. GOPIO Trinidad and Tobago is a secular, non-partisan, registered non-profit and NGO (Non-Governmental Organization). GOPIO is not a political party and not a religious organization. GOPIO is committed to national loyalty, national unity, and the development of a peaceful and harmonious society.

In the early 1980s, GOPIO was brought to Trinidad & Tobago by Pandita Dr. Indrani Rampersad, through her involvement in Gopio New York; later Pandita Dr. Indrani and Shri Ravindra Nath Maharaj (know popularly as Raviji) started GOPIO Trinidad & Tobago. The current executive of GOPIO Trinidad & Tobago was elected in February 2008. We invite you to become a member of GOPIO – membership forms are available at the reception table.

During the past few weeks we have sang and recited our National Anthem at several events.
Forged from the love of liberty
In the fires of hope and prayer
With boundless faith in our destiny
We solemnly declare:

Side by side we stand
Islands of the blue Caribbean sea,
This our native land
We pledge our lives to thee.

Here every creed and race finds an equal place,
And may God bless our nation
Here every creed and race finds an equal place,
And may God bless our nation

Our national anthem describes the yearning for freedom of a people formerly in slavery and indentureship. With hope, prayer, and faith, we pledge our lives to country, though one is not sure how many would sacrifice ourr lives for country. And, we proclaim every creed and race finds an equal place. This is a noble objective, but is this merely a feel-good, hollow statement? Are we genuinely committed and prepared to work hard to achieve this objective? Let’s explore this issue as we look at several complaints, suggestions, and comments that GOPIO has received during the last few months.

1. Discrimination still exist
“….High Court judge Maureen Rajnauth Lee found that the Education Ministry had discriminated against teachers Vijesh Mahadeo and Vashti Maharaj. Both individuals, who applied for teaching posts, were turned down on the basis that they were not suitably qualified….The Education Ministry did not even come to court to challenge the case against them….:
Newsday Editorial, Friday May 1st, 2009

“…That discrimination exists in the Public Service is not a new revelation. Over a decade ago, the now-defunct Centre for Ethnic Studies produced a research report which stated that “One of the major findings of the investigation was the tendency for Indians to be heavily under-represented at the higher reaches of the Public Sector.”
This from the same Newsday editorial.

I discussed this several employees of the Public Service; all agreed that not much has changed since that report and that today “Indians” are heavily under-represented in the upper echelons of the Public Service, especially in the Permanent Secretary category. Why? GOPIO calls upon the Government to accelerate the implementation and operation of the Equal Opportunity Commission, including the Equal Opportunity Tribunal. This should be one of the top priorities of the Government; we challenge the Government to have the EOC and EOT fully operational by Independence Day, August 31st, 2009. GOPIO will be monitoring this closely.

2. EX-CARONI WORKERS. FARMERS, AND CANE FARMERS
GOPIO Trinidad and Tobago has received numerous complaints and requests to help ex-Caroni workers who have not been give the lands they were promised. We call upon the government to honour its obligations and facilitate the speedy transfer to these lands to the people who have been waiting for years.

In a related matter, GOPIO is urging the government to implement, immediately, the Cabinet decision for farmers to lease land at $200 a hectare. We fully support Mr. Norris Deonarine and the foodcrop farmers: “the State should stop “fighting down” local farmers, and instead strive to help them.”

GOPIO is urging the Government to do all it can to facilitate the distribution of funds from the European Union to the canefarmers. This is not taxpayers’ money; this is not coming from the Treasury; these are funds from the European Union – why is the Government blocking access to these funds to the long-suffering cane farmers? Why this injustice?
3. INDO-TRINIDADIAN CULTURE IS NATIONAL CULTURE
Before the Fifth Summit of the Americas, GOPIO had urged the Government to ensure there are more elements and facets of Indo-Trinidadian culture in the cultural events and ceremonies. There is a simple reason for this: Indo-Trinidadian culture is also national Culture, Indo-Trinidadian culture is a very important element of national culture.
Regrettably, and embarrassingly so, there were only 60 seconds of anything remotely associated with Indo-Trinidadian culture in the opening ceremony. We urge the Government to ensure that what is showcased as National Culture truly represents this wonderful multi-cultural multi-racial multi-religious nation of ours. GOPIO suggests a Committee - composed of representatives of all components of our national culture – should be responsible for creating the cultural programs and ceremonies for national events. This should be implemented at the forthcoming Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in November.

4. RELIGIOUS INTOLERANCE AND BIGOTRY

Global Organization of People of Indian Origin (GOPIO) Trinidad and Tobago strongly condemns what we regard as religious intolerance and hate speech contained in the article by Kenneth Assee, titled “Weak Criticisms by Baldeosingh”, in the Guardian newspaper, on Sunday May 10, 2009.
Specifically, reference is made to Assee’s statement:
“This is why religions like Hinduism and Islam continue to exist despite rational criticism of the cruelties they sanction. Their followers choose to believe.”
GOPIO categorically rejects Assee’s claim that Hinduism and Islam sanction “cruelties”, and the characterization that Hindus and Muslims “choose to believe.”
While Christians, Hindus and Muslims may be tempted to respond with the long list of cruelties perpetrated in the name of religion throughout the past two millenniums, we caution against descending to such low levels of behavior; instead, we urge everyone in our multi-religious rainbow nation to practise tolerance of all religious communities, acceptance of every citizen, and inclusion of all, as we seek to develop a peaceful and harmonious society.

GOPIO notes that this is not the first time a letter writer with the name “Kenneth Assee” has attempted to cast aspersions on Hinduism and Islam.
In the Guardian on Friday July 29th, 2005, a column titled “Towards a True Emancipation,” by “Kenneth Assee, a Reader from Port of Spain”, included the following”
“Our aspirations for the future must recognise that Hindutva and Islamic fundamentalism will present themselves in beguiling guises with seductive arguments. But their overall objective, explicit or implicit, is the same, to derail our society.”
http://library2.nalis.gov.tt/infofiles/collect/news3/index/assoc/HASH011a/8b62dcfb.dir/5662.jpg

GOPIO cautions against dangerous and harmful generalizations that may portray Hindus, Muslims, and Christians as extremists and enemies of our nation who seek to destroy our society.

In the Guardian on Sunday 12th October, 2008, one “Kenneth Assee“ writes as follows:
“Would Balkissoon consider paying some form of compensation to the victim’s relatives as an appropriate moral act for his crime? Or is this kind of morality beyond the doctrinal tenets of his Hinduism? ….The victim is now but a bunch of bones in his grave, but Balkissoon, his killer, will be able to enjoy the company of his relatives, celebrate and dance at Hindu festivals, and eat his roti and doubles while bemoaning how bad prison life was. Did he expect it to be a Hindu retreat?
Kenneth Assee Port-of-Spain “
http://legacy.guardian.co.tt/archives/2008-10-12/letters.html

GOPIO Trinidad and Tobago exhorts all to heed the advice of Pope Benedict XVI, who during a visit to Nazareth on May 13th, 2009, urged all to “work to build bridges and find the way to a peaceful coexistence. Let everyone reject the destructive power of hatred and prejudice, which kills men's souls before it kills their bodies!"

In addition, GOPIO Trinidad & Tobago exhorts all to heed the advice of President Obama, contained in his National Day of Prayer proclamation, on May 7, 2009:
”Let us also use this day to come together in a moment of peace and goodwill. Our world grows smaller by the day, and our varied beliefs can bring us together to feed the hungry and comfort the afflicted; to make peace where there is strife; and to lift up those who have fallen on hard times. As we observe this day of prayer, we remember the one law that binds all great religions together: the Golden Rule, and its call to love one another; to understand one another; and to treat with dignity and respect those with whom we share a brief moment on this Earth.”

GOPIO Trinidad & Tobago reminds all that bigotry, intolerance, sectarianism, and fanaticism have resulted in nothing but violence, death, despair, and destruction. GOPIO believes we need to develop a society that moves beyond tolerance, to mutual acceptance, with the core values of community and individual responsibility; equality of opportunity; and respect for freedom of rights, including freedom of speech but refraining from hate speech that discredits and denigrates fellow citizens.

GOPIO Trinidad has, and is requesting the Guardian to publish this response. They haven’t done so as yet, we hope they will do so as soon as possible.

5. HCU – CLASS DISCRIMINATION FLOURISHES IN T&T

GOPIO has been inundated with pleas for help from the long-suffering members of the HCU, now under Government control during the past nine months. HCU members are poor, not powerful, disadvantaged, mostly living outside of the urban regions, many are senior citizens and retirees, and the collapse of the HCU, we are told, does not constitute a risk or threat to the financial system. CLICO, on the other hand does, and CLICO customers and depositors are richer and more powerful; many belong to the Upper Class of the society, in government, politics, the business and professional class, and they are bailed out – costing us $10 billion, and counting. The fat cats take care of themselves and recover their CLICO funds; HCU members can drop dead.

HCU has hundreds of millions in asset yet the recovery proposals that require 200 or 300 million are rejected; the OECS countries are bailed out to the tune of $300 million and counting, yet HCU members who are citizens of T&T, are refused help. HCU members are blamed for the demise of the credit union while the Ministry of Labour and Office of the Commissioner of Cooperatives are not held responsible; CLICO management collected bonuses and severance pay while CLICO depositors and consumers are reassured of full recovery of their funds – we, including HCU members are paying for that. Every creed and place finds an equal place?
GOPIO calls on the Government to bail out the HCU, now. Just as they have done for CLICO, the Government should assist HCU members. We want to form a political union with the OECS while here in our own country, we cannot and do not want to help our citizens who are suffering.

6. CULTURAL GRANTS

In a letter to the Honourable Minister of Ministry of Community Development, Culture and Gender Affairs, faxed on May 22nd and May 25th, GOPIO Trinidad & Tobago expressed disappointment with the Indian Arrival Day grant to GOPIO, and the total amount to all groups celebrating the 164th Anniversary of the Arrival of Indian indentured immigrants in our country. We requested an additional sum of $20,000.
Earlier this week, Aleem Khan informed us that the Ministry had nothing more to add or say; we were also told that the Honourable Minister is out of the country. It was reported that Mr. Khan also said “While the Ministry is always thankful for feedback, it must be understood that Government cannot fund every activity 100 per cent."
This is an astonishingly insensitive and uninformed statement and we are calling upon Mr. Khan and the Ministry to show us where anyone has asked for 100% of the funding for Indian Arrival Day funding. Mr. Khan and officers from that Ministry should go out to the people and try to be informed about Indian Arrival Day activities. They would realize that there are over 250 groups celebrating Indian Arrival Day during Indian Arrival month at total cost of approximately $10 million. The Ministry has provided less than one-tenth of this amount, to approximately 20% of all groups celebrating Indian Arrival day.
It seems that Mr. Khan and the Ministry are suffering from delusions and misinformation about the celebrations of Indian Arrival Day. Indo-Trinidadians do not depend on Government to fund the Indian Day, and fortunately so, because the mere pittance and token amount of $760,000 would hardly suffice for the totality of Indian Arrival Day activities. Mr. Khan and the Ministry should be reminded that the key issues are fairness and equality: give us only what if given to others; we don’t ask for more; give us a fair share. Remember the Anthem – every creed and race finds an equal place.

And, let’s make this quite clear: we are not “begging anyone for a pittance.” We ask for what we are entitled to as citizens of this country. GOPIO rejects the premise that Indo-Trinidadians are begging anyone for anything - the Government provides funding to all, including Indo-Trinidadians; thus we should ask for what is due to us.

Some have tried to create divisions amongst us Afro- and Indo-Trinidadians, and they will continue to do so. Do not heed them; do not allow them to sow the seeds of dissension amongst the two major races in our nation. We must unite and work together to seek the betterment of all of us, not just any one race. Each of our every struggle belongs to all of us.
In this postracial world where a President Obama is elected because he is the best man for the job, not because of race or religion, we must move beyond race, beyond mere tolerance, and embrace acceptance and inclusion.
Yes, there were and still are problems in our society; there are tons of racial and racist baggage fro decades gone by, but we cannot look back and remain frozen in time; we must adopt enlightened policies and try to get all of the people of this country aboard the train heading for fairness, equality, and the development of a strong and united nation where every creed and race truly finds an equal place.

What do others in our country think about issue?
Paolo Kernahan in Guardian, Thursday May 28th, 2009
“Members of the East Indian community are again advancing the argument of discrimination.

In consideration of the facts, it is easy to see how our Indian brothers and sisters would come away with this impression. Last year the Emancipation Support Committee received an estimated $2 million to stage what was perhaps a month-long emancipation extravaganza, the Prime Minister attending in those noisy African robes. Meanwhile all of the Hindu groups put together received a paltry fraction of that figure and they could not get Mr Manning to even eat a doubles at the Divali Nagar!..... What the Government should do instead is establish an endowment fund which it could kickstart with a symbolic donation of $200,000, and an annual contribution thereafter. This fund would be administered by a committee representing the very plural interests of our society: Hindu groups, Catholic, Muslim, Lebanese/Syrian, calypsonians, artists, you name it…. ”

EXPRESS EDITORIAL MAY 28th 2009
“….it is possible to promote and improve all the cultural activities that have made Trinidad and Tobago what it is, that is, arguably one of the most dynamic and diverse cultures in the whole of the Americas.
To demonstrate that they, in fact, accept as evident this particular mandate, governments have a responsibility to be transparent about their disbursement of funds, not only in disclosing who gets what for what but in detailing the rationale behind these funding decisions, the better to raise the level of discussion from one that is disagreeably communal to one that is agreeably national…”

EXPRESS EDITORIAL MAY 27th 2009
“…one has to understand Indian insistence on the point given the deep-seated feelings of being marginalised, if, indeed, not victimised in a country that for the most part has had an Afro-centred leadership….. consideration has to be given to discrimination as seen through the eyes of the beholder and, in any case, whatever the Prime Minister's private feelings on the matter, publicly he has to be seen to be on the side of all our peoples and not just some….In politics, particularly multi-ethnic politics, symbolism is important and, as such, Mr Manning, as the signal symbol of an all-inclusive Trinidad and Tobago, has either to attend all of the significant national celebrations or none at all. It requires a statesman of exemplary vision to understand this but we fail to see how the Prime Minister could be embarking on a mission to unite the peoples of the Caribbean without doing everything that is humanly possible to do the same with his own….”
GOPIO will be taking up this matter and the allocation of grants in general, with Office of the Prime Minister, and the Equal Opportunity Commission, during the next few weeks. We will not accept the grant of $5,000 and we disagree with the total of $760,000 allocated for Indian Arrival Day. We consider this a mere pittance, it reeks of tokenism, and we will not condone this. Consequently, we are now sending back this cheque to the Ministry, via courier mail.

7. CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY

The MNCs are sucking this country dry, they are now even on State Boards – this could and would never have happened during the era of Makandal Daaga, George Weekes, Butler, and Cola Rienzi. The gains achieve by NJAC are now being frittered away; there was a time when there were very few Afro or Indo Trinidadian faces in banks and companies; thanks to NJAC and others this was hastily removed during the 1970s.

Today, the MNC banks are coming back after they deserted us when things were not so good. Soon, they may take control of the entire indigenous banking system, even First Citizens and Unit Trust, who knows what else will be put for sale?

Support TSTT, they are ours, they help us. Do not support those who take their profits abroad and do not even acknowledge our requests to help the community. We have power – consuming power, let us use to benefit our citizens, not the foreign MNCs.

Their policies in T&T and their home countries are different; when the time comes they will simply pack up and go, leaving us in far worse economic situation with a polluted environment. They boast of how much taxes they have paid as if they are doing us a favor; they sell our oil and gas and pay an unfair rent yet they do not tell us that this rent is a mere fraction of the revenues and they make billions in profits.
The local conglomerates aren’t much better. With regards to these companies helping the poor and the disadvantaged, and NGOs throughout the country: we will be collating the data from MNCs – especially energy companies and local conglomerates, ad releasing the results later this year. They have a corporate social responsibility to help but they do not. There are many later-day arkatyas at these companies – it’s not a race issue, it is more of a class issue. Let us not allow them to divide us as they have been doing for decades.

8. What are we doing about?

Let us heed the words of Mahatma Gandhi: be the change you seek in the world. Let us not only complain about the media – let us have our own media! I have suggested many times that there is a great opportunity for brave and determined entrepreneurs to publish another newspaper in Trinidad & Tobago. How about TV stations with programs targeting the niche markets?

How about community watch groups working in tandem with law enforcement to protect your towns and villages? This is a major crime prevention effort in many first-world countries.

How about a personal Green revolution? Mobilize and energize your communities to go Green – more fuel-efficient vehicles, lower energy-consuming appliances and lighting fixtures, less meat and alcohol consumption, more recycling and efficient garbage disposal techniques.

GOPIO Trinidad & Tobago urges communities to work together to develop our nation; too many of us, including Indo-Trinidadians, are not keen to be involved in social and community groups. We must unite and work together or else our nation will remain mired in mediocrity and underdevelopment while the world moves forward.

I congratulate the citizens of our nation who are being awarded today by GOPIO Trinidad and Tobago for distinguished and meritorious service to our nation. They should be role models for all of us – not just for Indo-Trinidadians. They have rendered valuable service to our country; they have worked long and hard hours, sacrificing themselves for the progress and development of our community. We extend our sincere gratitude to them and their families, and we are extremely pleased and honoured to play our part in recognition of their sterling contribution to our nation.

When our Jahaji ancestors came on the ships, after the long journey across the Kala Pani, they had very few material possessions - nothing except themselves, with their determination to succeed and build a better life for future generations, for us. It is our duty and obligation not to squander the gains they made under the most oppressive conditions, but to add to development, progress, and the rich legacy and culture they bequeathed us.

In closing, GOPIO Trinidad and Tobago, and GOPIO International, extend greetings and felicitations to all on this auspicious occasion of the 164th Anniversary of the Arrival of Indentured Indian Immigrants in Trinidad and Tobago.

Thank You.

==========

India in Queens, With a Caribbean Accent

2009-05-25T07:34:00.003-05:00

Little Guyana
India in Queens, With a Caribbean Accent

By COREY KILGANNON

The A train rumbles to a halt at the Ozone Park/Lefferts Boulevard stop in central Queens. To the east, a dozen blocks of Liberty Avenue unfold in a series of roti, sari and gold shops that make up the fragrant spine of Richmond Hill, a community of immigrants who descend from Indians sent to the Caribbean to work on sugar plantations in the 19th century.

One must first reconcile the sight of saris and turbans with lilting English inflected with Creole. Then there is the juxtaposition of Hindu temples and gritty convenience stores, and thumping West Indian dance-hall music pouring out of religious shops. On weekend mornings, locals bring their black finches to Phil Rizzuto Park, formerly known as Smokey Oval Park, for chirp-off contests.

1 P.M. Eat lunch at Sonny’s Roti Shop, 118-06 Liberty Avenue, (718) 835-7255, right under the train station. Sonny’s may not be as well known as Brown Betty’s, Sybil’s or the Little Guyana Bake Shop, but the owner, Steven Rajkumal, a Trinidadian immigrant known as Sonny, is happy to introduce newcomers to the dishes. Order rotis ($5.50 for chicken, $8.50 for oxtail), or try snacks and desserts with cool-sounding names like jalibee and paymee ($2 each).

2 P.M. Within a block of the subway station, there are more shopping options than in some entire towns. You can buy a washer-dryer set at G&R Electronics, 114-04 Liberty Avenue, then walk next door to the Outlook Fashions gift shop, 119-03 Liberty Avenue, for a sitar, then take a safari through the crystal jungle of chandelier shops like B.Q. Gifts, 124-02 Liberty Avenue. Anjee Sherman, the owner of Anjees, 123-11 Liberty Avenue, (718) 843-6108, enjoys helping hip Western women try on saris, which start at $10 and can top $1,000 for wedding silks; her shop also carries small idols of Hindu gods, known as murties, worship offerings called pooja, and holiday fare like prasad.

3 P.M. Among the halal butchers and open-air markets stocked with South Asian spices are stores specializing in Guyanese gold, which is particularly glittery and is often used in ornate pendants.

4 P.M. At Rishi Video Palace, 103-44 124th Street, the owner, Raj Dutt, will guide you through the Bollywood classics and CDs of chutney and soca (think calypso on steroids, with singing in Hindi or English).

5 P.M. For tropical refreshment, sidewalk vendors on every other block sell sliced mango flavored with hot sauce, lemon and salt. At other stalls, a worker with a machete will chop open a coconut and stick in a straw for $3. Or, have your palm read by any of a half-dozen psychics; Marie Sanchez, between 128th and 129th Streets, is offering a $5 recession special. The sidewalk entertainment includes young men in cars with tinted windows and flashy metal rims creeping along Liberty Avenue, blasting soca, dance-hall or reggaeton music.

6 P.M. Relax at Rani Spa, 126-08 Liberty Avenue, (718) 641-7600, which offers eyebrow threading, mehndi (temporary henna tattoos on the hands) and shirodhara, a massage that includes the pouring of warm oil on the forehead ($50 for a half hour). The manager, Rumi Begum, will put you at ease, and the friendly locals sitting around the salon will make you laugh.

7 P.M. At the Ranch Restaurant and Bar of Guyana, 134-01 Liberty Avenue, (718) 206-2333, drink Red Stripe, Carib and Banks beer, or a Guyanese overproof rum known as High Wine while playing pool and watching cricket. Order fried shark or jerk chicken appetizers at the bar ($8). A short walk east is Club Tobago, 147-02 Liberty Avenue, (718) 658-9600, which on weekend nights is a hot dance hall popping with big crowds and live DJs.

IJJ, 24 May 2009 - They Came in Ships; Death of an Arkatya; Under Attack! The Caribbean Indian; Discrimination in Trinidad; We Have Survived; Voyages

2009-05-24T11:07:00.005-05:00

International Jahajee Journal (IJJ), May 24th, 2009
Voice of the International Indian Diaspora
http://www.jahajeedesi.com/

Home of the International Jahajee Diaspora

Dear Readers:
Since the publication of May's issue of the International Jahajee Journal we have received many mails with essays, poems, and articles. Some are contained in this additional issue of the Journal.

Included in this issue are two wonderful poems - "They came in ships," by the late Mahadai Das, and "We have survived," by Arnold Itwaru. After 164 years, Indians are still discriminated in these parts, as demonstrated by a Trinidad court ruling that two teachers suffered discrimination in the Trinidad Public Service, and the publication of a new book, UNDER ATTACK! CARIBBEAN INDIANS, by Veda Nath Mohabir.

Ashram Maharaj's story 'Kala Pani - The Black Waters' tells the tale of an indentured immigrant who was fooled into crossing the Kala Pani, but returned to India, and then fled back to the Caribbean to escape prosecution in Bihar.
'Voyages into Coolitude' provides a comparative and textual Analysis of Kala Pani Women's Cross-Cultural Creative Memory, while Sasha Kamini Parmasad asks " What does it mean to be an Indian-Caribbean woman, your body full of history, full of memory, a bridge spanning the kala-pani, stretching across time and space, from India to the Caribbean to North America, asserting: These hands have torn down forests, have taught drums how to speak, have built civilizations with cutlass, shovel, belna and pen. What does it mean to be an Indian-Caribbean woman?"
Professor Prakash Persad is concerned about the number of and the rate at which our cultural inheritances are disappearing, and concludes that there must be something seriously askew within the Indo-Trinidadian community. He lists some of the customs that have disappeared and recommends and advises what should be done to reduce these losses.
Two brief articles inform us about out Indian Arrival Day celebrations in Jamaica
and St. Lucia.
Share with others - forward it!

Deosaran Bisnath,
Editor, International Jahajee Journal.
President, GOPIO Trinidad and Tobago
Moderator, Caribbean Hindus Network,
Jahajee Blog
IJJ BLOG
Chaguanas Twitter
JAHAJEEDESI.com

"The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others."
--- Mahatma Gandhiji

THEY CAME IN SHIPS by Mahadai Das
From across the seas, they came.
Britain colonising India, transporting her chains
from Chota Nagpur and the Ganges Plain.

Westwards came the Whitby,
The Hesperus,
the Island-bound Fatel Rozack.

Wooden missions of imperialist design.
Human victims of her Majesty's victory.

They came in fleets.
They came in droves
like cattle
brown like cattle,
eyes limpid, like cattle.

Some came with dreams of milk-and-honey riches,
fleeing famine and death:
dancing girls,
Rajput soldiers, determined, tall,
escaping penalty of pride.
Stolen wives, afraid and despondent,
crossing black waters,
Brahmin, Chammar, alike,
hearts brimful of hope.

I saw them dying at streetcorners, alone, hungry
for a crumb of British bread,
and a healing hand's mighty touch.

I recall my grandfather' s haunting gaze;
my eye sweeps over history
to my children, unborn
I recall the piracy of innocence,
light snuffed like a candle in their eyes.

I alone today am alive.
I remember logies, barrackrooms, ranges,
nigga-yards. My grandmother worked in the field.
Honourable mention.

Creole gang, child labour.
Second prize.
I recall Lallabhagie, Leonora's strong children,
and Enmore, bitter, determined.

Remember one-third quota, coolie woman.
Was your blood spilled so I might reject my history?“
forget tears among the paddy fields.

At the horizon's edge, I hear
voices crying in the wind. Cuffy shouting:
"Remember 1763!" John Smith "If I am
a man of God, let me join with suffering."
Akkarra "I too had a vision."

Des Voeux cried,
"I wrote the queen a letter,
for the whimpering of coolies in logies
would not let me rest."
The cry of coolies echoed round the land.
They came, in droves, at his office door
beseeching him to ease their yoke.

Crosby struck in rage against planters,
in vain. Stripped of rights, he heard
the cry of coolies continue.

Commissioners came,
capital spectacles in British frames
consulting managers about costs of immigration.
The commissioners left, fifty-dollar bounty remained.
Dreams of a cow and endless calves,
and endless reality in chains.

http://jahajeedesi. blogspot. com/2009/ 05/they-came- in-ships- by-mahadai- das.html

Mahadai Das a Guyanese poet and activist died at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Bridgetown, Barbados shortly before midnight on Thursday, April 3, 2003. She had gone into cardiac arrest ten days earlier and, despite a battle to the end, eventually lost her struggle.

"I want to be a poetess, a beautiful, exalted instrument, for my people," Das once wrote.

She was delivered by midwife on October 22nd, 1954 in Eccles Village on the East Bank of the Demerara River. The oldest of ten children from the union of Beatrice Das (nee Matadin) and Tilokee Das, she wrote from the agony and treachery of experience.
A former Ms. Dewali (1971) beauty queen, Ms. Das studied at the University of Guyana and the University of the West Indies. She received a B.A. in Philosophy from Columbia University in New York. Ms. Das earned also an M.A. in Philosophy from the University of Chicago, and was progressing towards a Ph.D. at that school when emergency open-heart surgery truncated her academic career in 1987... CONTINUED AT....
http://www.chutneyi nk.com/essay/ a-poet-for- her-people/

____________ _________ _________ _________ _________ _________ __

"VACATION INDIA", January 2010
GOPIO Trinidad & Tobago invites you to be a part of Vacation India in January 2010,
by the Grace of Bhagavan.
As you may recall from the online updates, we had a fabulous time during
the last trip in September/October 2007. We aim to have even more fun on the
upcoming January 2010 Vacation India. For more info: send mail to
gopiott@gmail. com or deobisnath@yahoo. com

____________ _________ _________ _________ _________ _________ _____

TRINIDAD: Discrimination against teachers Vijesh Mahadeo and Vashti Maharaj

Once again, the courts have had to step in to correct discrimination in the Public Service.

Last Monday, High Court judge Maureen Rajnauth Lee found that the Education Ministry had discriminated against teachers Vijesh Mahadeo and Vashti Maharaj. Both individuals, who applied for teaching posts, were turned down on the basis that they were not suitably qualified. In Mr Mahadeo's case, he later discovered that two persons with his same level of qualifications were hired instead. In Ms Maharaj's case, she failed an assessment for a higher teaching rank but a colleague of hers was successful even though the person was less academically qualified than Ms Maharaj. The Education Ministry did not even come to court to challenge the case against them.

We hope, however, that Education Minister Esther Le Gendre will not let this matter rest there. These two cases only reached the High Court because the individuals found out that less-qualified people had been accepted for the same posts, and because Mr Mahadeo and Ms Maharaj were strong-willed enough to pursue the matter. But how many other such cases of discrimination have gone undetected? And, if there is discrimination where the best-qualified teachers are not being given their proper due, how is this impacting on the children of the nation?

That discrimination exists in the Public Service is not a new revelation. Over a decade ago, the now-defunct Centre for Ethnic Studies produced a research report which stated that "One of the major findings of the investigation was the tendency for Indians to be heavily under-represented at the higher reaches of the Public Sector." The Centre also found that government scholarships given to persons to pursue further training were heavily biased toward Afro-Trinidadians. How can such unfair practices be corrected?

Three things are needed: transparency, accountability, and objectivity. In respect to the first, persons who are interviewed for jobs or promotions must, if they request it, be given a written response if their application is not accepted. Not only will this ensure that officials are more careful in how they process applications, but it will enable the persons applying to better themselves for the job. In respect to accountability, every Ministry or State body should ensure it has an oversight committee whose function will be to examine reports from interview panels to ensure that there is no discrimination taking place. This is important not only because discrimination is wrong in itself, but also because interviewers can actually be unaware of their biases. But statistical analysis of successful applicants effectively uncover prejudices. Thirdly, there is the issue of objectivity. Among the 16 recommendations made in the Centre report was that there should be a racial balance in interview panels and in the appointment of members of the PSC; and that there should be a clear statement by all civil service agencies on the weights given to criteria for promotion, such as merit, seniority, and staff reports.

In the final analysis, though, what is desired is not racial balance, but the best candidates. In this regard, psychologists have done many studies on the relationship between hiring practices and job performance, and found that the interview process is the least reliable method for predicting good performance. Aptitude tests are a much better approach.

If the government, and private sector organisations as well, start applying such modern techniques in their hiring, we may soon begin to see developed-country standards in all parts of the society.

http://www.newsday. co.tt/editorial/ 0,99405.html

------------ --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --

Episodes of Indian Experience
by Professor Kenneth Ramchand

Professor Kenneth Ramchand is Professor Emeritus of West Indian Literature,
University of the West Indies (UWI), Professor Emeritus of English (Colgate
University), and currently, Associate Provost, The Academy at the University of
Trinidad and Tobago for Arts, Letters, Culture and Public Affairs.
http://deosaranbisn ath.blogspot. com/2008_ 05_01_archive. html
____________ _________ _________ _________ _________ _________ __

Book Released this week:

UNDER ATTACK!
THE CARIBBEAN INDIAN
Rebutting & Educating UWI's Dr. Kean Gibson for Vilifying Hindus
by Veda Nath Mohabir

169 pages.
ISBN 978-0-9812873- 0-0

Introductory price for T&T and Guyana residents is $20.00 US plus postage.
For other areas of the Caribbean, USA, Britain etc. the Price is $25.00 + postage.
Contact vedamohabir@ gmail.com

The Carter Centre for Peace Studies in Atlanta which has been monitoring over one hundred conflicts around the world found that most of them were based on conflicting ethnic claims which were the result of the "bitter harvest of the distortions of religious teachings."

Dr. Kean Gibson has derived a thesis that there is dehumanization and genocide of Africans in Guyana because of Hinduism ideals. Her case is premised on egregiously false research and understanding of complex metaphysical concepts in Hinduism. This is especially deplorable coming from a university teacher who ought to convey the standards of rigor, balance and reason in scholarship. '

For example, Dr. Gibson claims that according to Hinduism's most popular scriptural text,
the Bhagavad Gita, "Violence is sacred" and "Violence, therefore, is the heart and soul of Hinduism." Dr. Gibson also declares: "Lord Krishna is bloodthirsty" and that observing "dharma" leads to inequality.

This book sets out to show that Gibson's thesis is badly flawed. The author has systematically analysed over twenty of Gibson's assertions and found them woefully deficient in adequate research, understanding of Hinduism and logic. As well, she quoted "guesstimates" in lieu of Census statistics.

Veda Nath Mohabir is clearly well versed in Hindu philosophy as is evident in the arguments made in his rebuttals on topics such as Dharma and the caste system, but especially in Chapter 2 - Overview of Hinduism: Tolerance, the Godhead, Cosmology and Contending Salvation Ideologies.

Because the author has lived in multi-racial and multi-cultural societies all his life, but especially because his family is multi-racial, he has a preferred perch to infuse credibility in his arguments, which he conclusively does. He draws from research by notable Black academics, educators, and the clergy to show that Gibson's arguments are based on a pattern of scapegoating others for shortcomings, such as "absentee fathers", in the Black community. This deficit in fulfilling family responsibilities as highlighted in a February 2009 report on Guyana by the United Nations Independent Expert on Minority Issues.

Thus, the author challenges the Black community to eschew the scapegoating of Hindus in Guyana and the Caribbean for their failure to take responsibility for shortcomings in their community, and to look for creative solutions for the problems plaguing their community. He is particularly concerned that failure to take ownership of these shortcomings which are leading to deviant behaviour of some youths in the Black community, underpinned by Gibson's indictment of East Indians for the Black condition, can result in reprisal attacks on Indians in Guyana and further escalate to deep inter-ethnic conflicts.

9 780981 287300
ISBN 978-0-9812873- 0-0
VEDA NATH MOHABIR

Under Attack! The Caribbean Indian Veda Nath Mohabir

____________ _________ _________ _________ _________ _________ _________ ___

KALA PAANI - THE BLACK WATERS, by Ashram B. Maharaj
KALA PAANIâ€”THE BLACK WATERS

by

Ashram B. Maharaj

Death of an Arkatya

http://jahajeedesi. blogspot. com/2009/ 05/kala-paani- black-waters- by-ashram- b.html

"When you reach to Chinidad (Trinidad), all you have to do is sift sugar. I tell you that the place is like Vaikunth (Heaven) and anyway, is the same Dharti Maataa (Mother Earth) everywhere. After three years, you will be coming back with plenty jewels and gold," the arkatiya (recruiter) assured the gathering.

Dookhee was absorbed with the arkatiya's promises. He had always considered his future to be in Bharat. But if he stayed in India, he would have to continue paying rent to his landlord, Lallaji, for the plot of land he was cultivating. Paying rent seemed futile since the land was not yielding as bountifully as before. Besides, his bullock that he used to till the soil had recently died. He could not ask his brothers for assistance since they were also struggling to survive.

"Are there any questions?" the arkatiya was enquiring.

"In three years I could come back?" Dookhee asked.

"Yes. You coming back rich like Lallaji," the arkatiya promised. "And if you don't want to stay when you reach Chinidad, you could come back at once. I guarantee that." Dookhee thought about leaving his doolahin (bride), his brothers, and the rest of his family for three years. He felt sad, but he knew that he would not have enough rice to pay Lallaji. From the look of the field, clearing his debts seemed impossible without a miracle.

Dookhee believed God came in many forms, and that in the arkatiya's offer, God was speaking to him. Besides, the arkatiya had given his word, and he was an Indian like himself, so chances were that he would not deceive him. Still, Dookhee churned the idea in his mind. In three years I could be rich like Lallaji. I could even help my brothers with the wealth I earn in Chinidad, and is only three years. Dookhee knew that he only had a short time to decide. Finally he took a coin from his vest pocket. "This coin will decide my karma (fate). Let me see what saguna (omen) I go get," he said aloud. "If I get head, I heading for Chinidad. If I get tail, I staying here and catch me tail." Dookhee tossed the coin, caught it and slapped it on his wrist. It was settled. The head was on top. His destiny had been determined by the flip of a coin.

Dookhee knew that his dharma patni (wife) and brothers would discourage him from taking the trip. That night he pondered whether he should tell them about his decision. His dharma patni would want to accompany him. He remembered his vow to her when they married and wrenched at the thought of breaking it, but what choice did he have? If he took her on this unknown journey and she met hunger, sickness or even sexual abuse, he would break his vow to protect her. If he left her, she would be emotionally crushed and, as a single woman, subjected to village cruelty. She would have some protection from his brothers who had regarded her as a mother since their mother passed away, following the tradition that the daughter-in- law assume the role of mother in her absence. Dookhee's dharma patni had accepted this role unhesitatingly and ensured that his brothers always had meals, clean clothes and neat surroundings, and she even gently scolded them whe n they had a few drinks and were loud or unruly. Taking her from them would be devastating. He could not cause them the pain of losing two loved ones at the same time. The more he thought about it, the only solution was to tell no one. He would leave alone and in three years return a wealthy man.

Next morning, before daybreak, Dookhee silently packed his clothes and those belongings which he thought would be useful on his journey including his Ramayana (holy text) which he carefully wrapped in a piece of red cloth. Finally Dookhee tiptoed to their bed to gaze at his wife who was still asleep. He whispered, "Forgive me, doolahin. I must do this." Softly he stole from his dwelling to search for the arkatiya.

Finding the arkatiya was easy as he was still searching the village for volunteers. He was under the peepal tree trying to convince other villagers to make the trip. The arkatiya was a short, stocky man with a large moustache. Though Indian he dressed as an Englishman. Around his neck he carried a piece of cloth which he used as a towel to mop his brow. As Dookhee approached, the arkatiya's two escorts, who served as guards, stepped forward.

"I am willing to make the trip," Dhookee said.
"Congratulations! " the arkatiya exclaimed loudly as the guards retreated. "You have made a wise decision." Others appeared tempted but did not budge. "You will have to be examined by a doctor," the arkatiya said, unrolling a scroll. "But first, place your thumbprint here on this document."

"What document is this?" Dookhee asked doubtfully, scanning the paper the arkatiya had produced.

"It's merely a formality," the arkatiya said hastily. "All it says is that you have not been forced," he explained, "that you choose to make the trip of your own free will." Dookhee hesitated, then remembering the coin, head on top, pressed his thumb to the blend of soot and walnut oil and then to the document. Immediately he was taken to the doctor's where he was examined and certified to be in good health. Then he was carried by an ox-drawn cart to the train that would transport him from his village of Janpur to teeming Calcutta where the ship would set sail for Chinidad.

Some days later, Dookhee was wandering about the port in Calcutta, scanning the many strange faces of countrymen also bound for Trinidad. He tried to converse with them, but it was difficult because they spoke different dialects. Because of the chandan (forehead mark), he recognized that other passengers came from different castes. Dookhee even identified some of the passengers as Brahmins. Brahmins were normally responsible for teaching and spiritual guidance. He knew it was extraordinary to recruit persons of the priestly Brahmin caste for menial or laborious work. They had to be running away from something or someone.

Now Dookhee was frightened. What lay ahead? First, a long and dangerous trip across a huge ocean with people from different castes who spoke in dialects he could not understand.

And then what? Dookhee desperately wanted to return to Janpur and his doolahin, but he had placed his thumbprint. Besides, he was not alone, and that was some consolation. About five hundred others were making the trip, including a few women. If these women could do it, so could he.

Finally the day to set sail arrived. Dookhee and the others were herded to the port and led along the dock to the ship. The leader stopped. Dookhee stared. Before him loomed the Akbar, the ship that would take them to Trinidad. Ironically he noted that the ship did not look "greatest" as its name implied, but rather appeared to have gone through the ravages of time. Still the Akbar looked sturdy. He also noticed there were many gorawalas (whitemen) aboard. They spoke strangely and behaved oddly with each other. Dookhee sighed. He boarded, found space in a corner of the Akbar, and prayed for a safe journey.

Aboard ship, the strange faces that Dookhee had seen in Calcutta began to single themselves out. The emigrants were assigned various tasks such as cleaning, washing and waiting tables. Dookhee was assigned the task of preparing food since he was an accomplished cook. It was in the kitchen that he met Rahaman and Sharma who were also cooks. They became good friends and often consoled one another in times of depression. So, too, many other friendships were formed and bonding took place. Names were not important. Everyone referred to each other as jahaji, fellow voyager.

The crossing aboard the Akbar was rough. The first week was the worst. Dookhee was unable to keep food down and wished he would die. Lurching from side to side as the ship tossed, he would stagger to the vomit bucket. Vomiting was the predominant illness among the indentured immigrants. Scurvy was next. Those who did die on the trip were simply thrown overboard.

In the evenings after dinner, the three cooks shared stories. "There's a price on my head," Rahaman confided. "I was in the British army. I fled after the 1857 mutiny, and so I had to leave behind my wife and three children. I had no choice," he added sadly. "If I had stayed in Bharat, I would have been prosecuted." Dookhee and Sharma nodded. They knew the loneliness of missing loved ones. "If life is good in Chinidad," Rahaman brightened, "I will try to get my family to indenture themselves so that they we can all be together."

"The arkatiya tricked me into making the trip," Sharma said bitterly. "He assured me that he would take me to Benares. I am a Brahmin," he explained, "and I wanted to go to Benares to study for the purohita karma (priesthood) . It was only after I had placed my thumbprint that I realised I had been tricked." Dookhee, too, shared his misfortunes with Sharma and Rahaman.

Despite these hardships, the indentured immigrants still found time to make merry. Dookhee was a good singer, and he knew many folksongs. Along with his other jahajis, he sang and danced and played music. This revelry temporarily distracted them from their burdens. The entire journey took approximately eight months, including a stop at Madagascar, where other emigrants were loaded.

Finally, the island of Trinidad was sighted. Dookhee gazed at the dark blot on the horizon. As the Akbar sailed closer, he could make out the three peaks for which Trinidad was named. Despite his tiredness and sadness, he was able to smile - a smile that reflected a million dreams. It was just a matter of time before he would finish his contract and return to his dharma patni and brothers a wealthy man, assuming his rightful place as head and provider for them. That feeling of belonging and worth warmed his heart, dissipating the chill and depression of the entire grueling trip. Soon the Akbar landed off Trinidad's west coast in the Gulf of Paria. On arrival, all immigrants were quarantined at Nelson Island for three weeks.

Before being assigned to the various estates, the immigrants were briefed by the Protector of Immigrants who had been appointed by the British government to see that the terms and conditions of the contracts were adhered to, at least in theory.

"You will be given a three week rest period in which to acclimatise, " he announced.
"I will now read your names and postings." Dookhee was assigned to the Petit Morne Estate. He listened for Rahaman's and Sharma's names. Unfortunately they were being sent to different estates, so the three jahajis would be separated.

The Protector of Immigrants finished reading the postings and shouted for their attention. "From now on all indentured immigrants will be called bound coolies. Assemble in your new groups!" The bound coolies sorted themselves into clusters. "You coolies assigned to the Petit Morne Estate in the southern part of the island will work for a period of five years," the Protector of Immigrants barked. "Then and only then will you be free." Five years? But the arkatiya had said three. There must be some mistake. Dookhee made his way through the crowd to the front. He tried unsuccessfully to explain to the Protector of Immigrants what the arkatiya had promised. The Protector of Immigrants just laughed.

Dookhee realised that he had been deceived. The arkatiya had lied. Dookhee could not return to India immediately or even after three years. Soon he was on his way to the Petit Morne Estate where, along with the other coolies, he was placed in the barracks.

Inside the barracks was a chulha (fireside) for cooking and pals (jute bags) for sleeping. Dookhee removed his Ramayana from its red cloth, and placing it to his head and heart whispered, "Bhagwan Ram. I done come here. Please help me make through this five years so I could return to Bharat and be reunited with my family." The Ramayana text seemed to give Dookhee strength. He saw himself as Rama in the forest, and saw the five years as his exile period to be served before returning to his ayodhya (homeland). He still believed that ultimately he would be greatly rewarded.

Work on the estate was tough, but Dookhee managed. It was true that his work involved sugar, but producing sugar was very different from sifting sugar. Daily he labored from dawn til dusk tending the fields and sugar cane to ensure a bountiful harvest....CONTINUED... .
http://jahajeedesi. blogspot. com/2009/ 05/kala-paani- black-waters- by-ashram- b.html

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"Tracing the Roots" Tracks Down Family Tree in India
Indian Americans (and Indians throughout the world) now have the chance to track down the details of their origins in India, thanks to a new program introduced by the Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs. For more information on the Tracing the Roots program or to download an application, visit the Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs' Web site at http://www.moia. gov.in or e-mail indiroots@yahoo. com.
http://indiawest. com/readmore. aspx?id=746&Sid=1
http://www.indiroot s.com/
http://www.cousinco nnect.com/ d/a/192237

Editor's Note: Dr. Chandra Tiwary from INDIROOTS.COM is now in Trinidad; if anyone wants to meet him, send mail to gopiott@gmail. com or deobisnath@yahoo. com

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The latest issue of the Indo-Caribbean Times can be
accessed online at
http://www.esnips.com/ web/Indo- CaribbeanTimes

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On arrival and disappearance
By Professor Prakash Persad, director of Swaha Inc

Tradition by its very definition suggests continuity and therefore embedded in it must be mechanisms to ensure the propagation of the practices. This being the case and judging from the number of and the rate at which our cultural inheritances are disappearing, there must be something seriously askew within the Indo-Trinidadian community. It is not the intention to list all the customs that have disappeared but rather to give a snapshot of the many areas in which we have suffered loss.

The community would be well advised to take heed for our culture and traditions define who and what we are. It provides a bulwark against cultural hegemony and provides a sanctuary in times of uncertainty and change. These days, it is difficult to find Ramayan groups. In the past, every village had at least one. They would be present at the various satsanghs (pray meetings) and times of bereavement.

The Ramayan holds a special place in the hearts and lives of Hindus worldwide. Here in Trinidad, it holds an even more special value as it is the very scripture that was the catalyst for the meeting of the indentured labourers where they prayed, reminisced, socialised and were given the succour, strength and courage to succeed in a harsh foreign land.

Indeed, without the Ramayan it is very likely that the denuding of our cultural foliage, as was the intent, would have been fully accomplished. The beleaguered committed preserved the tradition. Let their effort not be in vain. The "classical singing" (folk songs and bhajans) era has effectively ended despite the brave efforts of some to keep it alive. It was an art form that entertained and maintained a link with the ancestral homeland. The drumming and singing styles associated with this have not been fully preserved and indeed this is a huge loss as it had evolved to very proficient level.

So too the itinerant troupes who performed the Harischand and Prahalad dances on the cooking nights at Hindu weddings. These extraordinarily talented musicians and dancers would perform for the entire night. This art form has apparently entirely disappeared. What makes the disappearance of the above-mentioned art forms even more tragic is that the "classical singers" initiated the chutney movement which has now descended into self-destructive vulgarity. Some disgracefully argue that chutney was always a part of the culture. They are nothing more than charlatan apologists enamoured with vulgarity....CONTINUED AT:
http://jahajeedesi. blogspot. com/2009/ 05/on-arrival- and-disappearanc e.html

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Indian Indentured Immigration to Trinidad
By Deosaran Bisnath.
President, GOPIO Trinidad and Tobago.
Moderator, Caribbean Hindus Network,
Jahajee Blog
IJJ BLOG
Part 1 :
Origin of The Coolie Slave Trade

Sookra Khadoo Male 15, Panchoo Darhoo Male 16, Dabee Sing Sobrun Sing Male 16, Hullodhur Gobardhun Male 18, and Chowdory Aukalee Male 18, were amongst the youngest in the human cargo aboard the FATH AL RAZACK when it departed the Port of Calcutta on 16th February 1845. One hundred and three days later - on May 30th - the first immigrant ship from India to Trinidad arrived off Nelson Island. Deepa, Mungree, Ancklee, Jhalowa, and Somoreeya were among the 225 who survived the perilous journey across the Kala Pani; the unfortunate six who died were dumped unceremoniously, without rituals or rites.

Between 1845 and April 1917 when the SS GANGES docked for the last time, there was continuous annual importation of labour from India, totaling 145000 to Trinidad, 239000 to Guyana, 50000 to Jamaica, 40000 to Surinam, and smaller numbers to the other Caribbean Islands.... READ MORE...

Indentured Indian Immigration to the Caribbean, Part 2 of 3
Journey of the Jahajees:From Calcutta to Caribbean
An Arkatya came and told me
To come to "Chinidad" (Trinidad)
All the people here were told
That the streets were filled with gold
And once we reach over there
Our problems would disappear.
Now that all of us on this ship
And we are sailing out to sea
The Arkatya comes and tell me
We are all bound kulis
by Mukesh Babooram

Bengal, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, and the Madras Presidency - the most devastated parts of India, ruled the longest by the British Raj - provided most of the immigrants to the West Indies. Approximately 80% originated from the Gangetic plains of North India, specifically from the Eastern Uttar Pradesh and Western Bihar districts, from the culturally and linguistically contiguous Bhojpur and Awadh region.... READ MORE....

Indentured Indian Immigration to the Caribbean, Part 3 of 3
Life on the Plantation, and Beyond.
Some push us around, some curse us
Where is your splendor and prestige today?
The whole world calls us black thieves.
The whole world calls us 'coolie.'
Why doesn't our flag fly anywhere?
Why do we feel low and humiliated?
Why is there no respect for us in the whole world?
-- An early Indian immigrant protest song

If the Indians were to survive as human beings their survival depended largely on their own powers of resilience. They devised their own past-times, recreating some semblance of the lost India in their festivals. But it wasn't much, and often their attempts to forget the cane fields ended only in drunken oblivion. When goaded beyond their apparently infinite endurance and patience, they would try to rebel; but the protest almost always ended in repression (Hugh Tinker).

On arrival in the colonies, the coolies were marched to the sugar estates and housed in the former slave barracks. The expatriate managers, described as the "czar, prosecutor, king and judge all in one", lived in massive mansions while...READ MORE....

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SURINAME ARCHIVES:
http://www.nationaa larchief. nl/suriname/ base_hindo/ database/ engine/zoeke\ n.asp?4=On&39=On

INDO-CARIBBEAN GENEALOGY WEBSITE
http://groups. yahoo.com/ group/Bhatchaman /

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Obama Must Stop Neglecting India
Tunku Varadarajan, 05.18.09

The president should reach out quickly to the government in New Delhi.

While it's possible to be critical--scathing, even--of Barack Obama's handling of the financial crisis, his stewardship of America's foreign and security policy has been surprisingly deft. He's played a cautious, humble hand on Iraq, taken bold steps on Afghanistan, striven manfully to help Pakistan put out the flames that are threatening to burn that place down, and, most recently, made a seemingly inspired choice in his ambassador to China. In all these theaters, he's shown an ability to see the big picture while keeping a close eye on those pesky little pixels.

But the one part of America's foreign policy that Obama can be argued to have flubbed so far is its relations with India. Since taking office in January, he has paid India scant attention. India--which for the first time in its history is in a position to regard the U.S. as its closest big-power ally, thanks to the evangelical efforts of George W. Bush--has noted Obama's froideur. It noted, too, that the one time the American president made an India-related public pronouncement, it was a critical (and fatuous) reference to India's role in the outsourcing of employment. (On May 4, he criticized the U.S. tax code for--in his view--saying that "you should pay lower taxes if you create a job in Bangalore, India, than if you create one in Buffalo, N.Y.")

There are two ways to read Barack Obama's neglect of India. The first reading....CONTINUED AT.....
http://jahajeedesi. blogspot. com/2009/ 05/obama- must-stop- neglecting- india.html

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GOPIO Trinidad & Tobago
a chapter of GOPIO International.
P.O. BOX 2286, Chaguanas. TRINIDAD.
BECOME A GOPIO member: write to -
GopioTT@gmail. com

GOPIO on the NET:
http://groups. yahoo.com/ group/GopioTT/
http://gopiott. blogspot. com/
http://www.gopio. net
http://gopio. com

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Indian Indentureship, a clever euphemism for slavery
Dear Editor,
The responses have been fast and furious: Bisram's missive (SN 11/05/09) alleging similarities between indentureship and slavery were "nefarious" and "insultingly facetious" thundered Robin Williams (SN - 12/05/09). Not to be outdone, Eric Phillips (SN 12/05/09; KN 13/05/09) posits that the letter's purpose was to push Indian nationalism; he proposes that Bisram publicly apologise.
The finishing touch was added by Juliet Holder-Allen (SN 12/05/09) who makes the claim that only an "insider," that is, a "well informed and cultured African man or woman can tell Africans about their history; no one else."

That there are critical differences between slavery and indentureship, there is little doubt, the former occurring for over four centuries and encompassing horrors of unimaginable proportions.
In addition, indentureship and slavery do not share the same historical circumstances.
The Atlantic Slave Trade and slavery have been rightfully classified as crimes against humanity.
That being said, the emerging scholarship that argues that indentureship was a form of slavery does not in any way diminish the heinous crime of slavery and it should not be viewed as such. I am hesitant to enter the discussion based on the negative and abusive comments that the topic has elicited in the newspapers.

However, it is important that the readers be exposed to the available scholarship on this subject, in addition to the origin of the original premise under scrutiny.
Robin Williams hits the nail on the head when he claims that Bisram's letter "is one of the most shallow and sophomoric examinations and comparisons of two horrible historical happenings." /span>
This adequately summarises the comparison that Bisram attempted to make in a rather awkward and gauche manner.

However, Williams lost control of the narrative by the second paragraph of his letter by descending into a political rant. I cannot claim to know what Bisram's intent in penning this letter was.
Messrs. Phillips and Williams allege ulterior motives; this I will not comment upon but I would confine my contribution to the topic of indentureship and slavery.

The idea of indentureship as a form of slavery is not new. It occupies a central place in indentureship research. The British academic and historian Hugh Tinker postulated this notion in his 1974 book, A New System of Slavery. The book opened with a quote by Lord Russell (1840) where Russell expressed his "unwillingness to approve any measure to transfer labour from British India which may lead to a new form of slavery."....CONTINUED AT.....
http://jahajeedesi. blogspot. com/2009/ 05/indian- indentureship- clever-euphemism .html

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MERE DESH Indian Arrival Day Events
E-mail: poojabhavan3001@ yahoo.com

Community Announcement
Mere Desh 3-Projects

Junior Tassa Rama Competition
On Saturday 30th May, 2009 at the Mid Centre Mall Car-park Chaguanas Time-5.00pm
Registration 672-4423 Big Cash prizes to be won!

Also the public is invited to attend Free Classes
@ 1.00pm also the same day and venue mid centre mall
(1) The Applying of Mehendi- Teaching various artistic designs on both hands and feet
(2) The Cutting of Kite paper for Decorations
(3) The Making of Stuff Toys e.g. Teddy Bear
(4) Garment Construction, Curtain and Draperies designs

Sports - Wind ball Cricket Match
10-Over One Day Cricket wind-ball Tournament
Venue- Knowles Recreation Ground, Curepe
Time- 10.00am Date- 30th May (Indian Arrival Day)
Contact- Joe Dwarika, Anand Balram, Premchan Roopia or Praimsingh-672- 4423
Big Cash Prizes to be won!

This project is in celebration of 164th Anniversary Indian Arrival

Slogan/Theme for this project-
"The greatest gift one can give to someone is to pass down to others what one has learnt for oneself"

Entertainment Galore- Brantec Orchestra, Dances by top Artistes .D J Alma Sound
5- Sons & Daughters will be honoured * Guest Speakers by prominent citizens
Venue Mid Centre Mall, Chaguanas, Saturday May 30th 1.00pm - 9.00pm

Cricket-Lovers
Wind-ball Cricket Match- Knowles Street Recreation Ground 10.00am
No Entrance or Registration fee!. It's Free to the Public
Bring the entire Family!
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GOPIO CALLS ON GOVERNMENT TO INCREASE INDIAN ARRIVAL GRANTS

GOPIO Trinidad & Tobago wishes to express our disappointment with the grants allocated by the Ministry of Community Development, Culture and Gender Affairs, earlier today (May 22nd, 2009), for the observance and celebration of Indian Arrival Day, 2009..

GOPIO Trinidad and Tobago, a national organization, was allocated a mere $5,000 to defray expenses for activities to mark the 164th Anniversary of the Arrival of East Indians in Trinidad and Tobago. This sum can't even cover the cost of a PA system and venue preparation; surely, the Ministry is aware that this is a mere token amount compared with the expenses incurred in staging events in this country. GOPIO Trinidad & Tobago has requested an additional grant or else we shall return the $5,000 cheque to the Ministry.

At the cheque distribution event this morning, GOPIO Trinidad and Trinidad and others were informed that a TOTAL amount of approximately $750,000 was distributed to 56 organizations throughout Trinidad and Tobago. GOPIO contends that a total grant of 3/4 million dollars of Indian Arrival Day events is grossly inadequate, as well as embarrassingly unrealistic and unfair.... CLICK TO READ MORE.....

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ST. LUCIA INDIAN ARRIVAL DAY

On May 6, St. Lucia celebrated Indian Arrival Day.

Indians came to the Caribbean as indentured laborers throughout the nineteenth century to work in colonial territories such as Guyana (1838), Jamaica (1845), Trinidad (1845), Martinique (1853), French Guiana (1854) Guadeloupe (1854), Grenada (1857), St. Lucia (1859 ), St. Vincent (1861), St. Kitts (1861), St. Croix (1863), Suriname (1873), and Nevis (1874).
Saint Lucia has a sizeable population who are descendants of these indentured laborers that were brought to save the cultivation and processing of sugar cane. Claiming an "unreliable" local labor force, St. Lucian planters first imported Indian workers in 1859. The Palmyra brought the first of thirteen shiploads on May 6, 1859. As Richard B. Cheddie emphasizes, "the last ship to bring Indian laborers from Calcutta to St. Lucia was the Volga, which sank off the coast of Vigie Point, near Castries, on the night of Dec 10, 1893. It was carrying 156 Indians for St. Lucia and 487 for Jamaica." ... READ MORE....

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Immigrants to Citizens: the Indian Community
in Grenada, 1857 to the Present
by RON SOOKRAM
http://74.125. 95.132/search? q=cache:r3R12HK_ 5oEJ:arts. brunel.ac. uk/gate/entertex t/6_3/ET63Sookra mRevsED.doc+ coolie+return+ India&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=455&gl=ca&client=firefox- a

EAST INDIANS IN BELIZE
http://www.amandala .com.bz/index. php?id=5336

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JAMAICA : INDIAN HERITAGE DAY IS MAY 10
http://www.indocari bbeanheritage. com/content/ view/43/64/

Jamaica, in recognition of the history of the Indians who came has declared May 10 as "Indian Heritage Day".

Migration of Indians to Jamaica " Integration and Contribution to Development
People from the Indian sub-continent were first introduced to Jamaica as 'indentured labourers' on a contractual basis to work on sugar and banana estates and livestock holdings, following the abolition of slavery. The first group arrived on May 10,1845, on the S.S. Blundell with a total of over 36,000 arriving between then and sometime around 1917. ( A plaque in commemoration of the first landing was mounted in Old Harbour in 1983.)

These persons were allocated to estates in Clarendon, St. Mary, Portland, St. Thomas, St. Catherine and Westmoreland, initially. The terms of indentureship provided for their return to India on completion of five years' service. Overall just over one-third returned to India, a small number of whom rejoined the programme. Some of the benefits promised were not delivered hence some of the migrants were unable to pay for return passages. Some remained as they saw the opportunity for a better life, while others had formed alliances and remained for that reason.

When the indentureship programme came to an end roundabout the 1930's, many then left the estates and sought employment in other parishes. Some journeyed to neighbouring countries, Cuba in particular, where they worked mainly on sugar estates, with some returning to Jamaica, while others remained.

The Indians brought with them their cultural patterns, customs, and practices - language, cuisine, religion, music, dance, craftsmanship (many were jewellers), family systems, dress, discipline and reputation for hard work.

They faced many difficulties due to the cultural differences and no doubt this led to their 'holding on' to aspects of their cultural heritage.

One major challenge was the legality of marriages performed under Hindu and or Moslem rites - this meant the children were 'bastards' and could not inherit the property of parents readily, among other things. At the representations of the then active East Indian Progressive Society the relevant Law was passed by the Government in the early 1960's.

The Indians engaged themselves mainly in agricultural pursuits, e.g. rice growing, vegetable farming and floriculture. Significant contribution was made in the growing of rice in the parishes of St. Catherine and Westmoreland during World War II, thereby alleviating some of the difficulties for the Island brought about by the restrictions on overseas importation of food.

Some of the ex-indentured labourers displayed greater initiative than others and eventually became landowners and businessmen which not only improved their standard of living, but enabled them to provide better educational opportunities for their children thereby accessing greater social mobility. .... MORE AT:
http://www.indocari bbeanheritage. com/content/ view/43/64/

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HINDU WISDOM

I (God) am easily attained by the person who always remembers me and is attached to nothing else.
-Bhagavad Gita 8:14

The Self is the hub of the wheel of life,
And the sixteen forms are only the spokes.
The Self is the paramount goal of life.
Attain this goal and go beyond death!
-Prashna Upanishad

The Lord is the operator; we are
But his innumerable instruments.
May we, in our consciousness, realize
The bliss he alone can give us.
-Shvetashvatara Upanishad

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We Have Survived
Posted by Editor of Chutney Ink in Poetry on May 5, 2009

fresh water pain
whose illusion i am
an indentured present i want
and do not want
and have become
and have not

a delirium of remembered branches
across the woodsmoke dreaming dusk
across flights by air and land and water
dark voice in the labourings
of the morning's fall into night

middle-passaged
passing
beneath the colouring of desire
in the enemy's eye
a scatter of worlds and broken wishes
in Shiva's unending dance

uprooted
we have survived
the piercing morning
we have survived
death in the backdams and hovels of hope
we have survived
we are the surviving
we who know the snake's fangs
the tides and seasons' treachery
the boot the fist the spit of the British Empire

we have survived the breakage of speech
language which formulates us
in its curse

our men are proud: they bear handsomely
the garments of their imprisonment

our women awaken desire
cosmeticized and clothed in the imaginings
of their exploiter

a parade of painted voices
in the lachrymatories of mirrors and silences
in the Other's echo and call
the forgotten dead struck down in life
the lamentations in the villages and firesides
the weed-grown places of burial and hope
we have survived

indenture lives in dates and distances
not in the antic dance we dance
speech which speaks our death
in postures of greed and denial,
pain which strikes in the striking of each stricken hour

where is he, the gentle one
taken to the fields
who never returned?
where is she, milk on my tongue
who wept and toiled
and is no more?

and this child this youth
whose gleaming eyes i adore
whose speech i dread,
how will you fare in the labyrinths
which lengthen and lengthen in their unopening?

Arnold Itwaru
Printed in India in the Caribbean, edited by David Dabydeen & Brinsley Samaroo
First published in 1987 by Hansib Publications

http://www.chutneyi nk.com/poetry/ we-have-survived /

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Indian civilisation - Worthy of emulation
by Robert Buddan

THE MONTH of May is significant for Indians in the Caribbean. It is the month in which Indians first arrived (in different years) in Guyana, Trinidad and Jamaica. CARICOM is, in reality, a largely Afro-Asian region. Indians are the largest ethnic groups in Guyana, Trinidad and Suriname and a smaller proportion in Belize. Their arrival constituted the most significant cultural redefinition of the Caribbean after European and African arrivals. Their cultural impact is now well known. Indians arrived as labourers, and it is significant that in this month Jamaica also celebrates Labour Day.

The occasion of Indian arrival gives cause each year to reassess Indian civilisation in its many homes and diasporas. Home and diaspora can engage in a new Caribbean arrival sharing advances in their civilisations. ......READ MORE....
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WRITING THE LINES OF OUR HANDS BLOG--Featured Poet: Sasha Parmasad

Sasha Kamini Parmasad was born and raised in Trinidad and Tobago, began writing poetry as a child, and was actively involved in the performing arts on a national scale from the age of six. She lived with her family in New Delhi, India, between 1988-1992. She received her B.A. in English Literature and Studio Art at Williams College, Massachusetts, in 2002, and her M.F.A. in Creative Writing at Columbia University, New York, in 2008.

Q: Name one collection of poetry that you wish you had written and why.

Somewhere in Caroni, Central Trinidad: an overgrown hunk of land on which, at one time, stood a wooden shed that concealed a crude underground room. Secreted in this room, the story goes, a manual printing press used to publish clandestine papers distributed among workers and farmers engaged in struggle throughout Trinidad. The world as text, and action as writing, this is the book I would have liked to have written.
But the boundaries of this plot of land are no longer clear; the underground room has, perhaps, long filled with water and caved in.

Q: Describe the place/physical location where you write most regularly.

A room in our apartment. My husband, Mandip, moved in when I was in Trinidad, set up my desk here because I like to write in spaces that crow with direct morning light. Paradoxically, I keep the curtains and shades mostly drawn so that grey days don't dampen, or bright days blot out the world at my fingertips. I face my desk away from the windows for the same reason. But I like to know, especially in winter, that there is light at my back; to watch it brush my computer screen, smear the wall in front me.

On that wall, a picture of my parents, sister, myself taken in 1988, as we prepared to leave Trinidad for India my father was on his way to study cultural history at Jawaharlal Nehru University and we would live on that campus for four years. It was a staggering journey back to the land from which our ancestors had been taken one hundred and forty-three years before, which generations before us had never seen. Beside this picture, a copy of The 23rd Psalm gifted me by my maternal grandmother, Soobratan, who in part raised me; observing her I learnt, to my especial delight as a child, Spanish, patois and Bhojpuri swear words, how to kill and clean a chicken, eat rice and dal with my fingers. Descending from a long Muslim line, she declares herself a Khan, is a member of the choir of the Presbyterian Church she has belonged to for more than three decades, and prays to Shiva alongside her Hindu grandchildren. Beside this, the fragment of an Indian-Trinidadian Bhojpuri song written and performed by my paternal grandfather, Ramsaran, in the 1930s, in honor of Uriah Butler, a labour leader of that time: Uriah Butler garibo ke khaatir, apne praan ko khelgayaa.

.......... CONTINUED AT:
http://jahajeesiste rs.weebly. com/1/post/ 2009/02/writing- the-lands- of-our-hands- blogfeatured- poet-sasha- parmasad. html

Towards Empowerment

What does it mean to be an Indian-Caribbean woman, your body full of history, full of memory, a bridge spanning the kala-pani, stretching across time and space, from India to the Caribbean to North America, asserting: These hands have torn down forests, have taught drums how to speak, have built civilizations with cutlass, shovel, belna and pen. What does it mean to be an Indian-Caribbean woman?
On the 26th of April, 2008 the second annual Indo-Caribbean Women's Empowerment Summit, co-sponsored by Sakhi and the Indo-Caribbean Women's Empowerment Group, was held at the Richmond Hill Library. The event, spearheaded by Taij Kumarie Moteelall, Shivana Jorawar and Simone Jhingoor, opened with a moment of silence in remembrance of Natasha Ramen and Guiatree Hardat: young Indo-Caribbean women, victims of abuse, who were brutally killed last year. At this year's summit four generations of Indo-Caribbean women from Guyana, Suriname, Jamaica and Trinidad came together to share their stories of resilience, engage in dialogue about the issues most affecting them, and determine what steps could be taken to break the silence surrounding destructive cycles of domestic violence. Through the vibrant, inter-generational dialogue that characterized the day, it became evident to participants that being an Indo-Caribbean woman meant embracing the legacy of strength and resistance bequeathed to them by their indentured grandmothers, their mothers, their women sugar-workers, home-makers, activists, artists, writers - Mahadai Das, Lady Naidoo, Rajkumari Singh (to name a few). Last year's summit honored the sugarcane worker and political organizer, Kowsilla (aka Alice), who fought to uplift the condition of the poor and oppressed in Guyana. She became a martyr in 1964 when an estate scab drove a tractor through her, severing her body in two..... CONTINUED AT....
http://www.chutneyi nk.com/essay/ towards-empowerm ent/

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Yesu Persaud: All Guyanese should be proud to celebrate Indian Arrival

The Indian Commemoration Trust (ICT) is happy to celebrate this historic day not only with Indians but with all Guyanese because this is a part of our history as the indentured Indians made tremendous contributions in helping to build the nation, ICT Honorary President, Dr Yesu Persaud said in a statement on the commemoration of Indian Arrival.
.... READ MORE....

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Voyages into Coolitude:
A Comparative and Textual Analysis of Kala Pani
Women's Cross-Cultural Creative Memory

Introduction
Since the time of the Great Discoveries, the globalization of our planet, such
revolutionary inventions as the airplane and the Internet, images, populations but also
identities are more than ever flying, shifting, changing places and forms, moving
around numerous locations. Although many displacements are nowadays free, though
often imposed by economic or political conditions, other migrational movements were
forced by colonial circumstances. Indeed, from 1838 onwards, the English needed
more labor to keep their trade going on colonial plantations and reassert their
authority. After the official abolition of slavery, hundreds of thousands of Indian men
and women were persuaded to leave or bluntly kidnapped from their mother country
to become slaves known by another name: indentured laborers, later called coolies.
This historical "Coolie odyssey," which is the subject of my prologue, has further
complicated racial, socio-political and cultural relations and constitutes an
indisputable turning point in the development of the countries involved. Although at
first different from the Black slaves' lives and diaspora, the experience of descendants
of indentured laborers from India testify to a similar limbo consciousness as they are
no longer Indian and they have to construct for themselves new identities. This limboconsciousness,
a phrase used by Jeremy Poynting,2 refers to a state of uncertainty, to
the idea of "in-betweenness" but also to the distancing of coolies from "authentic"br> India as a result of their displacement. Their transoceanic crossing of the Kala Pani
(impure/dark waters), their adaptation, cultural exchanges, the re-creation of their
religious rituals e.g. have reshaped their Indianness in what I chose to call Cooliness,
which is the subject of the second part of this prologue.
One of the objectives of the present work is to give an account of all the
contemporary women writers from the coolie diaspora who are often minorized in
male anthologies, as well as to provide one with textual analysis of those often
neglected works. Indeed, most of the works studied have not yet been the subject of
in-depth critical analysis. But what do they, after several generations and diasporic
experiences, still share? My corpus consists of works.... CONTINUED AT...

http://edoc. bib.ucl.ac. be:81/ETD- db/collection/ available/ BelnUcetd- 05142003- 074243/unrestric ted/VoyagesCooli tudeShort. pdf

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From Bengal to Bushlot to Belize -
THE INDENTURED IMMIGRANTS
by Karan Chand
Karan Chand is a Guyanese living and teaching for the past 19 years in Belize City, Belize. This book is on the list for Literature at two high schools in Belize and others are now considering it to be included as an additional text.
From Bengal to Bushlot to Belize - THE INDENTURED IMMIGRANTS is available from the author - E-mail kchand16@hotmail. com

Inspiration
http://www.jahajeed esi.com/forums/ index.php? showforum= 10

GOD IS INFINITE

God is infinite. He is the indwelling presence. He has no limit. He dispels the fear of the devotees. He is an ocean of mercy and bliss. He is an ocean of limitless love. God is immutable. He is the giver of all happiness. God fulfils the desires of his devotees. He is the only shelter in danger.

God is the supreme resort of those who aspire for the highest bliss or final beatitude. He is mother, father, real friend, true preceptor and the supreme deity.

God is a mystery. His grace and ways are a greater mystery. God is the unchanging, unfading, eternal, almighty, all-wise, all-loving one - our refuge and our solace. God is our blissful, immortal abode where no danger can touch us, where no calamity can overwhelm us and where no thieves can attack us.

Know that everything but God is vanity. Love none but God. Hear none but God. Think of none but God. See none but God. To be in tune with God is to be like God. The first approach to God is sincerity and earnest love for him.

http://groups. yahoo.com/ group/CaribbeanH indus/
http://www.jahajeed esi.com/forums/ index.php? showforum= 10

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Kahe Gaile Bidesiya 05 - Trinidad
Desecrating Nelson Island
Published in Bhatchaman@yahoogro ups.com
by "Lloyd Harradan"

PEOPLE WHO cause harm to Nelson Island or its environs will be fined $5000, an advertisement in the August 14th 2007 issue of Newsday stated. The foliage, fauna and any monuments should not be interfered with, the Government ad stated.

In which case the National Trust of Trinidad and Tobago should be fined for causing harm to the Island.

Pictures available here
http://www.indocari bbeanheritage. com/component/ option,com_ zoom/Itemid, 76/catid, 6/

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Contribution by People of Indian Origin to Jamaica
by Pandit Lochan Nathan Sharma
http://pandit-jamaica.com/ index_files/ Documentation. htm

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WORD PLAY
coolie /kuli/ Spelled Pronunciation [koo-lee]
â€“noun Offensive.
1. an unskilled laborer, esp. formerly in China and India.
2. an unskilled laborer employed cheaply, esp. one brought from Asia.
adjective
3. Informal. characteristic of or suitable for a coolie: working for coolie wages.

Also, cooly.

Origin:
1545-55; < Urdu kÅ«lÄ« < Tamil kÅ«li hire, hireling

coolie
1598, "name given by Europeans to hired laborers in India and China," from Hindi quli "hired servant," probably from kuli, name of an aboriginal tribe or caste in Gujarat. The name was picked up by the Portuguese, who used it in southern India (where by coincidence kuli in Tamil meant "hire") and in China.

coolie
(from Hindi Kuli, an aboriginal tribal name, or from Tamil kuli, "wages"), in usually pejorative European usage, an unskilled labourer or porter usually in or from the Far East hired for low or subsistence wages

http://dictionary. reference. com/browse/ coolie

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Contextualizing the Roots of Chutney Music
by
Dr. Ashford Maharaj
Finance Professor, Berkeley College, White Plains, NY

The birth of Chutney as an art form must be broadened to include a greater contextual comprehension of a more encompassing antecedent that has allowed chutney to become popular Trinidad and Caribbean art form. Writers of this newest Caribbean genre of music and lyrical content usually starts with the Ramdeo Chaitoe break-away melody followed by the Drupati's dancehall music utilizing a blending of the dholak and dhantall percussion instruments backed by the ever popular harmonium, at the all-night wedding farewell celebration. But in retrospect, these two Surinamese artists may have created an avalanche for the acceptance for Indo-Caribbean genre of music into the dancehalls and mainstream Caribbean cultural milieu and had set the tone of music that would challenge the hegemonic creolized music art form represented by rhythms of calypso. But a deeper understanding and a wider focus are necessary to add to the Chutney narrative which for so long has
missed some essential ingredients for a more profound and complete understanding of the seeds of Chutney music and the accompanying lyrical contents... READ MORE....

Tassa in Felicity, Trinidad
http://www.youtube. com/watch? v=YgWmdx8E8oY

Berbice Dance
http://www.youtube. com/watch? v=xiiG0HYaMy4

Channel Icon
Petrotrin Boodoosingh Tassa Group in Queens, New York
http://www.youtube. com/watch? v=rSjZEwKhU0A

Channel Icon
Tassa Trini Style in Sunrise, Florida
http://www.youtube. com/watch? v=AS5cVbyG4JA

Ladies Only, at Indian Wedding, Trinidad
http://www.youtube. com/watch? v=Ba_l2xwNzUk

Sylvan Bharat Tassa in Toronto, Canada
http://www.youtube. com/watch? v=l9azGoTmQWA

Maticore in Aranguez, Trinidad: Dancing to Tassa
http://www.youtube. com/watch? v=oKu5WIvPT1o

Tassa Wine at Hibiscus, NY
http://www.youtube. com/watch? v=fYT-dGb1ccE

Tassa crew from NY Duck Curry Competition 08
http://www.youtube. com/watch? v=egms1gITJtI

Dancing Tassa - Maticoor Night, El Dorado, Trinidad
http://www.youtube. com/watch? v=B9r2I-3Dvog

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President Jagdeo lauds inner strength of indentured Indians
HEAD of State President Bharrat Jagdeo has noted that it is important to know the history of the struggles of our ancestors and has urged Guyanese to work together to help build the country. ... READ MORE....

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Indian Diaspora manifests multiculturalism in T&T

By PARAS RAMOUTAR

Whether we like it or not, T&T is a multicultural and
multi-religious society.
And this must become the cornerstone for the full flowering
of serious nationhood.
The Indian Diaspora continues to engender spiritual
reconstruction aimed at making reverence for life
meaningful.
Spiritual reconstruction and a new attitude for the
reverence for life must become the cornerstone on which to
build a new society.
We in Trinidad and Tobago must continue to celebrate in our
multi-religious and multi-cultural society Eid, Divali,
Christmas, Baptists, Easter and the other religious
festivals and occasions at all times. We have to share and
respect each other's cultural strains. Likewise, we seek
similar or reciprocal courtesies.
Indian Arrival Day must not be viewed upon with scorn as a
people whose
socio-economic and cultural and
religious backgrounds do not have origins from some
celestial source. We are not a tribal people. It is an
opportunity to encourage the participation of shared values.
We must not be seen as turning our backs on the other
segments of the nation, but rather we must converse with
others to listen, to learn, to understand and to respect
their experiences.
We must work towards the adoption of a new citizenship, and
we must take a very serious and positive role in this
initiative.
Despite the ethnic strains displayed in electoral
campaigns, it is heart-warming to see the population of
Trinidad and Tobago joining, participating, supporting or
celebrating the many religious and cultural presentations
like Carnival and Panorama.
This demonstrates that the philsophy of multiculturalism is
evident in our nation, and it must be enhanced and supported
at the highest levels to ensure racial harmony, peace and
concord among the respective ethnic groups in
the national citizenry. State subventions must be equally
shared across the societal spectrum, rather than favouring
one ethnic group over the other.
Trinidad and Tobago's first Prime Minister Dr Eric
Williams that there no Mother India or no Mother Africa, or
no Mother Lebanon, there is only one Mother, and that Mother
Trinidad and Tobago. With this statement on
Independnce Day, August 31,1962 he set the tone and created
the environment for the adoption of a multicultural state.
How far, have we progressed in this matter is open for
critical discussion and analysis.
The Universal Message of Truth, Spirituality, Divinity and
Self-Realisation are what the Indian Diaspora are proud
about. We are fully proud of similar occasions observed by
the other segments of the national populace.
The celebration of Divali is a Life Pilgrimage as it is an
integral aspect of our lives. It is incumbent upon all
parents , teachers and religious leaders to
inculcate in our minds the virtues of peace, truth,
honesty, love and concern. This is one of the major
contributions we advance towards a multicultural society.
Our civilisation is undergoing a severe crisis that
requires the attention of all of us. We must take steps to
overturn this trend. The Indian Diaspora will always answer
to this notion of working towards national peace...something
our politicians fail to procure or to empower themselves,
moreso, the population.
This year, 2009 marks 164th Indian Arrival Day in T&T
when East Indians from India from 1845 to 1917 to work on
the sugar, cocoa and coconut plantations.
Let us say a prayer or exude a positive thought with the
hope that the human condition will be improved. Let us move
forward with strength and commitment, being assured that our
prayers, wishes and supplications would receive Divine
Response.
We have to build a new consciousness, a new aura of
confidence so that a new
humanity will emerge. The Indian Diaspora must endure this
portfolio not only for itself, but must set the pace and
ignite another serious paradigm, and work assiduously
towards a new humanity which will uphold and maintain
ethical, spiritual and moral values.
Let Indian Arrival Day become just not another day in our
calendar. It has deep significance in world history
and world thought. There should be syllabi in all academic
institutions from primary and tertiary levels about the
arrival of East Indians, Africans, Chinese, French Creoles,
Portuguese in our land. Lack of such an undertaking will set
each group apart, instead of knitting them towards the
evolution of a T&T society. We have founded a nation,
but we are yet to construct a society where everyone would
feel loved, respected, and become major functionaries in all
aspects of corporate, and in the process of governance and
service.
We have much to celebrate about. But, we have
much more to do to ensure that the genre of our cultural
strengths are not wished away by the stroke of one
man's penmanship.
HAPPY INDIAN ARRIVAL DAY 2009.

____________ _________ _________ _________ _________ _________ _
"jahaj" = ship; "desi" = Indian
"JahajeeDesi" = The Indians who crossed the Kala Pani by ship,
the Indentured Indian Immigrants, and their descendants.
http://www.JahajeeD esi.com
For Free Subscription to this Newsletter, or to Join the JahajeeDesi
YAHOO Group, or to contribute News, Letters, Essays, Reviews,
Send Mail to: CCDSJ@yahoo. com

Indian Indentureship, a clever euphemism for slavery

2009-05-19T13:52:00.002-05:00

Indentureship was a clever euphemism for slavery

May 19, 2009 | By knews

Dear Editor,
The responses have been fast and furious: Bisram’s missive (SN – 11/05/09) alleging similarities between indentureship and slavery were “nefarious” and “insultingly facetious” thundered Robin Williams (SN - 12/05/09). Not to be outdone, Eric Phillips (SN – 12/05/09; KN – 13/05/09) posits that the letter’s purpose was to push Indian nationalism; he proposes that Bisram publicly apologise.
The finishing touch was added by Juliet Holder-Allen (SN – 12/05/09) who makes the claim that only an “insider,” that is, a “well informed and cultured African man or woman can tell Africans about their history; no one else.”

That there are critical differences between slavery and indentureship, there is little doubt, the former occurring for over four centuries and encompassing horrors of unimaginable proportions.
In addition, indentureship and slavery do not share the same historical circumstances.
The Atlantic Slave Trade and slavery have been rightfully classified as crimes against humanity.
That being said, the emerging scholarship that argues that indentureship was a form of slavery does not in any way diminish the heinous crime of slavery and it should not be viewed as such. I am hesitant to enter the discussion based on the negative and abusive comments that the topic has elicited in the newspapers.

However, it is important that the readers be exposed to the available scholarship on this subject, in addition to the origin of the original premise under scrutiny.
Robin Williams hits the nail on the head when he claims that Bisram’s letter “is one of the most shallow and sophomoric examinations and comparisons of two horrible historical happenings.”
This adequately summarises the comparison that Bisram attempted to make in a rather awkward and gauche manner.

However, Williams lost control of the narrative by the second paragraph of his letter by descending into a political rant. I cannot claim to know what Bisram’s intent in penning this letter was.
Messrs. Phillips and Williams allege ulterior motives; this I will not comment upon but I would confine my contribution to the topic of indentureship and slavery.

The idea of indentureship as a form of slavery is not new. It occupies a central place in indentureship research. The British academic and historian Hugh Tinker postulated this notion in his 1974 book, A New System of Slavery. The book opened with a quote by Lord Russell (1840) where Russell expressed his “unwillingness to approve any measure to transfer labour from British India which may lead to a new form of slavery.”

Tinker’s position re-enforced the abolitionists’ views that deception, kidnapping and coercion were the hallmarks of indenturship; the exploitation and oppression to which the servants were subjected made them victims of a new form of slavery.
Indeed, indentureship was the new avatar of slavery; as A.E Smith (Colonists in Bondage) wrote, “indentureship was the most convenient system next to slavery.”
Indentureship as a form of slavery does not make the claim that it was identical to slavery; the sheer magnitude and scale of slavery defies any such comparison.

What it implies is that indentureship shared some features that came to characterize slavery and it evinced many of the same reactions in the indentured servants as slavery did in slaves. Tinker notes that “indentureship incorporated many of the repressive features of the slave system and induced in Indians, many of the responses of the African brothers in bondage.”

Frank Birbalsingh (Indo-Caribbean Resistance, 1993) argues that the “conditions under which indentured Indian immigrants existed suggested that they were slaves in every other respect other than name.
Indentured labourers on arrival in the colonies were housed in the same living space vacated by the freed slaves and performed their exact tasks,” he wrote.
For all intents and purposes, indentureship was a clever euphemism for slavery since labour became a commodity to be bought and sold.

The individual personification of the labour was of little relevance to the plantocracy and the merchants, in very much the same way in which the individual personification of slaves was immaterial to the masters.
Historian Brinsley Samaroo (Culture and Behaviour Symposium, T&T, 2007) had this to say: “The British attitude to Indians was they were seen only as bodies…as labouring bodies (sic).

Hard hands and corny palms were the qualifications…just like it was with the Africans before them.” As Benedict pointed out (Indians in a Plural Society: Report on Mauritius), the indentured labourers were subjected to draconian penal clauses and restrictive labour regimes which made them little more than controlled entities. Floggings, fines, imprisonments, and inhumane treatment was commonplace; these were invoked for crimes such as “willful indolence,” “feigned illness,” and “impertinence.”

The BBC Four documentary, How Britain Reinvented Slavery, takes a similar position, drawing parallels between the practice of slavery and indentureship.
The introduction to the documentary reads as follows: “The slave trade was officially abolished throughout the British Empire in 1807. This documentary reveals one of Britain’s darkest secrets: a form of slavery that continued well into the 20th century - the story of Indian indentured labour.” (This documentary can be readily access through You Tube).

Similar views are echoed by Dabydeen and Samaroo in Across the Dark Water; they argued that indentureship did indeed turnout to be a new form of slavery.
In making this argument, scholars are not attempting to minimize slavery and their scholarship should not be construed in this way.

It must be underscored, however, that significant distinctions between indentureship and slavery do exist. Williams elaborated on some of these differences: “the snatching of children from their mother’s arms at birth; selling individuals as chattels; the destruction and dispossession of their cultural and religious roots; mind condition measures.”

Another distinction that must be emphasised is the total annihilation of the all important social and cultural fabric that is so important in family and community.
The centuries during which Africans were subjected to the heinous crime of slavery facilitated this destruction. On the other hand, indentureship lasted less than a century; the indentured servants were allowed limited space for religious expression (even though they were heavily preyed upon) and were paid a paltry wage. In the context of slavery, these are significant differences.

However, in the context of the actual experiences, parallels can be drawn. In France and the American Tropics to 1700 (Boucher, Philip: 2008), Boucher opined that indentureship and slavery were similar, while acknowledging that the condition of slavery was permanent.
Dabydeen and Samaroo presented anecdotal evidence that referred to the preparation of the labourers for prospective buyers.

As a matter of fact, the BBC website for the documentary, How Britain Reinvented Slavery, carries an interesting photograph of three indentured servants.
The picture is a vivid representation of what might have very well been an auction of indentured labourers. Further, in Indians in a Plural Society: Report on Mauritius, Benedict notes that the “Indian labourers were herded together with little regard to their regional origin, religion, or linguistic group.” In all respects, they represented little more than a commodity for trade.

The introduction of such capitalist considerations rendered them into things! It is important to note that Mauritius was the test region for the use of indentured labour following the emancipation of the slaves.
It was the very experience of the first indentured labourers in this island that gave credence to the notion that indentureship represented little more than slavery in sophisticated parlance.
Much has been made about the notion of choice and free agency that was exercised within the indentureship system. Williams and Holder-Allen both characterised it as being “voluntary” as opposed to slavery which was “involuntary.”

While their statement on slavery is quite factual, their assumption on indentureship is not wholly true.
There is no disputing that free agency played a part in the indentureship system but this does not capture the entire picture.
A pivotal question in academic research into indentureship centres on the concept of “free”; how much control did these labourers have in the decisions that affected their lives?
Evidence suggests that many of these people did not exercise agency on their own behalf. A large percentage were duped, kidnapped, coerced and exploited into indentureship.

The majority were illiterate and could not comprehend nor understand their contracts; the fact that they signed it by affixing a thumb print speaks volumes. Most were lied to about their final destination; protestations for release fell on deaf ears.
Information available suggests that the pre-existing slave trade in the British India formed the foundation upon which indentureship was developed (Campbell, Gwyn, ed., The Structure of Slavery in Indian Ocean, Africa and Asia, 2004).

Many masters had a free hand in dispensing with their servants; they could be sold with the land or they could be sold independent of the land.
This was very much a source of the many indentured servants taken to the far reaches of the British Empire. The power dynamics of the society was not conducive to freedom of choice.
In writing this letter, I hoped to present a balanced dimension to the debate. I presented evidentiary materials that drew parallels between indentureship and slavery, while reiterating the significant distinctions that exist between these two historical atrocities.

I have also argued that indentureship as a form of slavery does not in any way diminish slavery nor does it attempt to trivialise and minimize the crime against humanity that slavery was.
It would be absurd to equate slavery with indentureship; at the same time, it is equally prejudicial to dismiss the parallels that do exist.
Kowlasar Misir

THEY CAME IN SHIPS by Mahadai Das

2009-05-19T11:10:00.001-05:00

THEY CAME IN SHIPS
by Mahadai Das

From across the seas, they came.
Britain colonising India, transporting her chains
from Chota Nagpur and the Ganges Plain.

Westwards came the Whitby,
The Hesperus,
the Island-bound Fatel Rozack.

Wooden missions of imperialist design.
Human victims of her Majesty’s victory.

They came in fleets.
They came in droves
like cattle
brown like cattle,
eyes limpid, like cattle.

Some came with dreams of milk-and-honey riches,
fleeing famine and death:
dancing girls,
Rajput soldiers, determined, tall,
escaping penalty of pride.
Stolen wives, afraid and despondent,
crossing black waters,
Brahmin, Chammar, alike,
hearts brimful of hope.

I saw them dying at streetcorners, alone, hungry
for a crumb of British bread,
and a healing hand’s mighty touch.

I recall my grandfather’s haunting gaze;
my eye sweeps over history
to my children, unborn
I recall the piracy of innocence,
light snuffed like a candle in their eyes.

I alone today am alive.
I remember logies, barrackrooms, ranges,
nigga-yards. My grandmother worked in the field.
Honourable mention.

Creole gang, child labour.
Second prize.
I recall Lallabhagie, Leonora’s strong children,
and Enmore, bitter, determined.

Remember one-third quota, coolie woman.
Was your blood spilled so I might reject my history –
forget tears among the paddy fields.

At the horizon’s edge, I hear
voices crying in the wind. Cuffy shouting:
‘Remember 1763!’ – John Smith – ‘If I am
a man of God, let me join with suffering.’
Akkarra – ‘I too had a vision.’

Des Voeux cried,
‘I wrote the queen a letter,
for the whimpering of coolies in logies
would not let me rest.’
The cry of coolies echoed round the land.
They came, in droves, at his office door
beseeching him to ease their yoke.

Crosby struck in rage against planters,
in vain. Stripped of rights, he heard
the cry of coolies continue.

Commissioners came,
capital spectacles in British frames
consulting managers about costs of immigration.
The commissioners left, fifty-dollar bounty remained.
Dreams of a cow and endless calves,
and endless reality in chains.

On arrival and disappearance

2009-05-18T19:34:00.001-05:00

On arrival and disappearance

By Professor Prakash Persad

Published: May 18, 2009

Tradition by its very definition suggests continuity and therefore embedded in it must be mechanisms to ensure the propagation of the practices. This being the case and judging from the number of and the rate at which our cultural inheritances are disappearing, there must be something seriously askew within the Indo-Trinidadian community. It is not the intention to list all the customs that have disappeared but rather to give a snapshot of the many areas in which we have suffered loss.

The community would be well advised to take heed for our culture and traditions define who and what we are. It provides a bulwark against cultural hegemony and provides a sanctuary in times of uncertainty and change. These days, it is difficult to find Ramayan groups. In the past, every village had at least one. They would be present at the various satsanghs (pray meetings) and times of bereavement.

The Ramayan holds a special place in the hearts and lives of Hindus worldwide. Here in Trinidad, it holds an even more special value as it is the very scripture that was the catalyst for the meeting of the indentured labourers where they prayed, reminisced, socialised and were given the succour, strength and courage to succeed in a harsh foreign land.

Indeed, without the Ramayan it is very likely that the denuding of our cultural foliage, as was the intent, would have been fully accomplished. The beleaguered committed preserved the tradition. Let their effort not be in vain. The “classical singing” (folk songs and bhajans) era has effectively ended despite the brave efforts of some to keep it alive. It was an art form that entertained and maintained a link with the ancestral homeland. The drumming and singing styles associated with this have not been fully preserved and indeed this is a huge loss as it had evolved to very proficient level.

So too the itinerant troupes who performed the Harischand and Prahalad dances on the cooking nights at Hindu weddings. These extraordinarily talented musicians and dancers would perform for the entire night. This art form has apparently entirely disappeared. What makes the disappearance of the above-mentioned art forms even more tragic is that the “classical singers” initiated the chutney movement which has now descended into self-destructive vulgarity. Some disgracefully argue that chutney was always a part of the culture. They are nothing more than charlatan apologists enamoured with vulgarity.

The custom was for the women folk at the groom’s residence, after the wedding party had departed to the bride’s home, to dance to their heart’s content in an unrestrained manner. The centre of attraction was a couple of women, with one dressed as a man, engaged in suggestive dancing. As mainly the men folk would form the wedding party, it was the task of some of the family boys to stay at home for security reasons.

It was not unusual for them to sneak peeps at the dancing, which the womenfolk generally keep in jealously guarded quarters.
This dancing was thus done in solely female company away from prying eyes as was the case in the Hardi ceremony etc. The unrestrained, suggestive and many times lewd dancing done at chutney shows is a public vulgarisation of a tradition rooted in modesty and which had specific cultural intents and outcomes.

The drinking, nonsensical, unimaginative, suggestive lyrics and vulgar dancing on display at chutney shows have nothing to do with our tradition. Call it chutnival but do not call it traditional culture for it is not. The close neighbourly and community relations that existed with our forebears have all but disappeared. Most villages would have a monthly full moon katha (prayer meeting). As most Hindu and Indian occasions have a strong social component, it was a meeting place for families, an opportunity to bond and to strengthen relations. These too have waned significantly with the resultant disintegration of the communities.

Interestingly, the Bhaagwat yagyas (a seven-days prayer meeting with three prayer sessions a day) provided not only spiritual inspiration and solace but also a two-week or so opportunity for team building and bonding among the young and old alike, which formed and strengthened friendships and family bonds while providing, like the wedding ceremonies, opportunities for meeting prospective brides and grooms. As religious ceremonies provided the main platform for social interaction in the Hindu community, the reduction of their frequency and size have not only resulted in the reduction of their social scope but also in the losing of other associated art forms, skills and personnel.

The peripatetic sadhus have disappeared, the skills in event organisation and management have been dissipated and diluted, as have the skills in chulha (earthen fireside) making and a reduction in the transmission of the bhandara cooking (largescale cooking) expertise. The list of vanishing customs, skills, practices and traditions is, tragically, too long.

What may be fatal however is the comatose-like reaction of the community to these losses and the inability to proactively respond to the challenges posed to the survival of our cultural inheritances. The tools provided to us by our forebears to succeed and flourish in a new situation while keeping one’s identity are being discarded and lost. Becoming culturally poor is the first stage in the process of losing our identity and therefore our value.

• Prof Prakash Persad is the director of Swaha Inc

http://guardian.co.tt/commentary/columnist/2009/05/18/arrival-and-disappearance

Obama Must Stop Neglecting India

2009-05-18T16:51:00.002-05:00

Obama Must Stop Neglecting India
Tunku Varadarajan, 05.18.09

The president should reach out quickly to the government in New Delhi.

While it's possible to be critical--scathing, even--of Barack Obama's handling of the financial crisis, his stewardship of America's foreign and security policy has been surprisingly deft. He's played a cautious, humble hand on Iraq, taken bold steps on Afghanistan, striven manfully to help Pakistan put out the flames that are threatening to burn that place down, and, most recently, made a seemingly inspired choice in his ambassador to China. In all these theaters, he's shown an ability to see the big picture while keeping a close eye on those pesky little pixels.

But the one part of America's foreign policy that Obama can be argued to have flubbed so far is its relations with India. Since taking office in January, he has paid India scant attention. India--which for the first time in its history is in a position to regard the U.S. as its closest big-power ally, thanks to the evangelical efforts of George W. Bush--has noted Obama's froideur. It noted, too, that the one time the American president made an India-related public pronouncement, it was a critical (and fatuous) reference to India's role in the outsourcing of employment. (On May 4, he criticized the U.S. tax code for--in his view--saying that "you should pay lower taxes if you create a job in Bangalore, India, than if you create one in Buffalo, N.Y.")

There are two ways to read Barack Obama's neglect of India. The first reading--one that gives him the benefit of the doubt that he's not keen, by disposition, on India--is that he was maintaining a prudent distance from New Delhi as India went to the polls. The country has been in election mode ever since Obama took office, and it may have been the case that Obama was waiting until mid-May to see which Indian government he'd have to deal with. After all, what would be the point in investing diplomatic energy in ties with Manmohan Singh (the prime minister at the time of Obama's inauguration) if the elections were to bring a different Indian prime minister to power--L.K. Advani, say.

Well, India has now completed its elections, and the results indicate that Manmohan Singh will, once more, be prime minister. The alliance headed by his Congress Party has swept to a stunning victory, and Obama should take note that much of the criticism handed out to the Congress Party by the opposition during the election campaign centered on Singh's--and his party's--closeness to America.

In so far as foreign policy matters to voters in Indian elections--and there are indications that it did matter this time, unlike in past elections--the results suggest that India's alliance with the U.S. is viewed by Indian voters as a broadly good thing. This would confirm the truth of an observation made in an excellent Task Force Report, Advancing U.S. Relations With India--published by the Asia Society in January 2009 and directed by Alyssa Ayres--that "we have at last reached a place where Indians and Americans can see our shared future together."

The second, darker reading of Obama's coolness toward India rests on a sense that the president is punishing the Indian political establishment for its closeness to George W. Bush. Given the excellence of India's relations with the Bush White House--and clear indications from John McCain that India could expect no change in relations if he were to win--it was hardly surprising that New Delhi viewed candidate Obama as the less attractive.

Yet if there is any pique at all in Obama's approach to India, he needs to get over it fast. The alliance is too valuable to jeopardize. In Hillary Clinton, the president has a secretary of state with a real feel for India. And in James Steinberg, deputy secretary of state, he has a man brimming with ability to handle India policy. (See his speech on U.S.-India relations, made at the Brookings Institution on March 23.) Above all, in himself, Barack Obama has the panache and personality--and, let's face it, the subaltern appeal of being a non-white president--to reach out to India more effectively than any American president before him.

As Pakistan tears itself apart, America needs India more than ever. The moment, therefore, is Obama's to seize. As the Asia Society report (above) emphasizes, "India matters to virtually every major foreign policy issue that will confront the United States in the years ahead." What is significant is that the convergence of India and America rests just as much on shared principles as it does on shared interests, suggesting that if the Indian alliance is nurtured wisely by Washington, the U.S. could find itself with an ally of rare and enduring caliber, one that could come to fall into the category of alliance to which Britain, Japan and Israel belong.

As an Indian who has made his home in the U.S., I say to Barack Obama: Don't neglect India. Go to India, and go there soon. Or if you can't leave town, invite Manmohan Singh to stop by. This is an investment of your time that will pay very rich--and very reliable--dividends.

Tunku Varadarajan, a professor at NYU's Stern Business School and a fellow at Stanford's Hoover Institution, is executive editor for opinions at Forbes. He writes a weekly column for Forbes.

KALA PAANI — THE BLACK WATERS, by Ashram B. Maharaj

2009-05-17T16:18:00.003-05:00

KALA PAANI—THE BLACK WATERS

by

Ashram B. Maharaj

‘When you reach to Chinidad (Trinidad), all you have to do is sift sugar. I tell you that the place is like Vaikunth (Heaven) and anyway, is the same Dharti Maataa (Mother Earth) everywhere. After three years, you will be coming back with plenty jewels and gold,’ the arkatiya (recruiter) assured the gathering.

Dookhee was absorbed with the arkatiya’s promises. He had always considered his future to be in Bharat. But if he stayed in India, he would have to continue paying rent to his landlord, Lallaji, for the plot of land he was cultivating. Paying rent seemed futile since the land was not yielding as bountifully as before. Besides, his bullock that he used to till the soil had recently died. He could not ask his brothers for assistance since they were also struggling to survive.

‘Are there any questions?’ the arkatiya was enquiring.

‘In three years I could come back?’ Dookhee asked.

‘Yes. You coming back rich like Lallaji,’ the arkatiya promised. ‘And if you don't want to stay when you reach Chinidad, you could come back at once. I guarantee that.’ Dookhee thought about leaving his doolahin (bride), his brothers, and the rest of his family for three years. He felt sad, but he knew that he would not have enough rice to pay Lallaji. From the look of the field, clearing his debts seemed impossible without a miracle.

Dookhee believed God came in many forms, and that in the arkatiya’s offer, God was speaking to him. Besides, the arkatiya had given his word, and he was an Indian like himself, so chances were that he would not deceive him. Still, Dookhee churned the idea in his mind. In three years I could be rich like Lallaji. I could even help my brothers with the wealth I earn in Chinidad, and is only three years. Dookhee knew that he only had a short time to decide. Finally he took a coin from his vest pocket. ‘This coin will decide my karma (fate). Let me see what saguna (omen) I go get,’ he said aloud. ‘If I get head, I heading for Chinidad. If I get tail, I staying here and catch me tail.’ Dookhee tossed the coin, caught it and slapped it on his wrist. It was settled. The head was on top. His destiny had been determined by the flip of a coin.

Dookhee knew that his dharma patni (wife) and brothers would discourage him from taking the trip. That night he pondered whether he should tell them about his decision. His dharma patni would want to accompany him. He remembered his vow to her when they married and wrenched at the thought of breaking it, but what choice did he have? If he took her on this unknown journey and she met hunger, sickness or even sexual abuse, he would break his vow to protect her. If he left her, she would be emotionally crushed and, as a single woman, subjected to village cruelty. She would have some protection from his brothers who had regarded her as a mother since their mother passed away, following the tradition that the daughter-in-law assume the role of mother in her absence. Dookhee’s dharma patni had accepted this role unhesitatingly and ensured that his brothers always had meals, clean clothes and neat surroundings, and she even gently scolded them whe n they had a few drinks and were loud or unruly. Taking her from them would be devastating. He could not cause them the pain of losing two loved ones at the same time. The more he thought about it, the only solution was to tell no one. He would leave alone and in three years return a wealthy man.

Next morning, before daybreak, Dookhee silently packed his clothes and those belongings which he thought would be useful on his journey including his Ramayana (holy text) which he carefully wrapped in a piece of red cloth. Finally Dookhee tiptoed to their bed to gaze at his wife who was still asleep. He whispered, ‘Forgive me, doolahin. I must do this.’ Softly he stole from his dwelling to search for the arkatiya.

Finding the arkatiya was easy as he was still searching the village for volunteers. He was under the peepal tree trying to convince other villagers to make the trip. The arkatiya was a short, stocky man with a large moustache. Though Indian he dressed as an Englishman. Around his neck he carried a piece of cloth which he used as a towel to mop his brow. As Dookhee approached, the arkatiya’s two escorts, who served as guards, stepped forward.

‘I am willing to make the trip,’ Dhookee said.
‘Congratulations!’ the arkatiya exclaimed loudly as the guards retreated. ‘You have made a wise decision.’ Others appeared tempted but did not budge. ‘You will have to be examined by a doctor,’ the arkatiya said, unrolling a scroll. ‘But first, place your thumbprint here on this document.’

‘What document is this?’ Dookhee asked doubtfully, scanning the paper the arkatiya had produced.

‘It’s merely a formality,’ the arkatiya said hastily. ‘All it says is that you have not been forced,’ he explained, ‘that you choose to make the trip of your own free will.’ Dookhee hesitated, then remembering the coin, head on top, pressed his thumb to the blend of soot and walnut oil and then to the document. Immediately he was taken to the doctor’s where he was examined and certified to be in good health. Then he was carried by an ox-drawn cart to the train that would transport him from his village of Janpur to teeming Calcutta where the ship would set sail for Chinidad.

Some days later, Dookhee was wandering about the port in Calcutta, scanning the many strange faces of countrymen also bound for Trinidad. He tried to converse with them, but it was difficult because they spoke different dialects. Because of the chandan (forehead mark), he recognized that other passengers came from different castes. Dookhee even identified some of the passengers as Brahmins. Brahmins were normally responsible for teaching and spiritual guidance. He knew it was extraordinary to recruit persons of the priestly Brahmin caste for menial or laborious work. They had to be running away from something or someone.

Now Dookhee was frightened. What lay ahead? First, a long and dangerous trip across a huge ocean with people from different castes who spoke in dialects he could not understand.

And then what? Dookhee desperately wanted to return to Janpur and his doolahin, but he had placed his thumbprint. Besides, he was not alone, and that was some consolation. About five hundred others were making the trip, including a few women. If these women could do it, so could he.

Finally the day to set sail arrived. Dookhee and the others were herded to the port and led along the dock to the ship. The leader stopped. Dookhee stared. Before him loomed the Akbar, the ship that would take them to Trinidad. Ironically he noted that the ship did not look “greatest” as its name implied, but rather appeared to have gone through the ravages of time. Still the Akbar looked sturdy. He also noticed there were many gorawalas (whitemen) aboard. They spoke strangely and behaved oddly with each other. Dookhee sighed. He boarded, found space in a corner of the Akbar, and prayed for a safe journey.

Aboard ship, the strange faces that Dookhee had seen in Calcutta began to single themselves out. The emigrants were assigned various tasks such as cleaning, washing and waiting tables. Dookhee was assigned the task of preparing food since he was an accomplished cook. It was in the kitchen that he met Rahaman and Sharma who were also cooks. They became good friends and often consoled one another in times of depression. So, too, many other friendships were formed and bonding took place. Names were not important. Everyone referred to each other as jahaji, fellow voyager.

The crossing aboard the Akbar was rough. The first week was the worst. Dookhee was unable to keep food down and wished he would die. Lurching from side to side as the ship tossed, he would stagger to the vomit bucket. Vomiting was the predominant illness among the indentured immigrants. Scurvy was next. Those who did die on the trip were simply thrown overboard.

In the evenings after dinner, the three cooks shared stories. ‘There’s a price on my head,’ Rahaman confided. ‘I was in the British army. I fled after the 1857 mutiny, and so I had to leave behind my wife and three children. I had no choice,’ he added sadly. ‘If I had stayed in Bharat, I would have been prosecuted.’ Dookhee and Sharma nodded. They knew the loneliness of missing loved ones. ‘If life is good in Chinidad,’ Rahaman brightened, ‘I will try to get my family to indenture themselves so that they we can all be together.’

‘The arkatiya tricked me into making the trip,’ Sharma said bitterly. ‘He assured me that he would take me to Benares. I am a Brahmin,’ he explained, ‘and I wanted to go to Benares to study for the purohita karma (priesthood). It was only after I had placed my thumbprint that I realised I had been tricked.’ Dookhee, too, shared his misfortunes with Sharma and Rahaman.

Despite these hardships, the indentured immigrants still found time to make merry. Dookhee was a good singer, and he knew many folksongs. Along with his other jahajis, he sang and danced and played music. This revelry temporarily distracted them from their burdens. The entire journey took approximately eight months, including a stop at Madagascar, where other emigrants were loaded.

Finally, the island of Trinidad was sighted. Dookhee gazed at the dark blot on the horizon. As the Akbar sailed closer, he could make out the three peaks for which Trinidad was named. Despite his tiredness and sadness, he was able to smile—a smile that reflected a million dreams. It was just a matter of time before he would finish his contract and return to his dharma patni and brothers a wealthy man, assuming his rightful place as head and provider for them. That feeling of belonging and worth warmed his heart, dissipating the chill and depression of the entire grueling trip. Soon the Akbar landed off Trinidad’s west coast in the Gulf of Paria. On arrival, all immigrants were quarantined at Nelson Island for three weeks.

Before being assigned to the various estates, the immigrants were briefed by the Protector of Immigrants who had been appointed by the British government to see that the terms and conditions of the contracts were adhered to—at least in theory.

‘You will be given a three week rest period in which to acclimatise,’ he announced.
‘I will now read your names and postings.’ Dookhee was assigned to the Petit Morne Estate. He listened for Rahaman’s and Sharma’s names. Unfortunately they were being sent to different estates, so the three jahajis would be separated.

The Protector of Immigrants finished reading the postings and shouted for their attention. ‘From now on all indentured immigrants will be called bound coolies. Assemble in your new groups!’ The bound coolies sorted themselves into clusters. ‘You coolies assigned to the Petit Morne Estate in the southern part of the island will work for a period of five years,’ the Protector of Immigrants barked. ‘Then and only then will you be free.’ Five years? But the arkatiya had said three. There must be some mistake. Dookhee made his way through the crowd to the front. He tried unsuccessfully to explain to the Protector of Immigrants what the arkatiya had promised. The Protector of Immigrants just laughed.

Dookhee realised that he had been deceived. The arkatiya had lied. Dookhee could not return to India immediately or even after three years. Soon he was on his way to the Petit Morne Estate where, along with the other coolies, he was placed in the barracks.

Inside the barracks was a chulha (fireside) for cooking and pals (jute bags) for sleeping. Dookhee removed his Ramayana from its red cloth, and placing it to his head and heart whispered, ‘Bhagwan Ram. I done come here. Please help me make through this five years so I could return to Bharat and be reunited with my family.’ The Ramayana text seemed to give Dookhee strength. He saw himself as Rama in the forest, and saw the five years as his exile period to be served before returning to his ayodhya (homeland). He still believed that ultimately he would be greatly rewarded.

Work on the estate was tough, but Dookhee managed. It was true that his work involved sugar, but producing sugar was very different from sifting sugar. Daily he labored from dawn til dusk tending the fields and sugar cane to ensure a bountiful harvest. This work was definitely harder his work in Bharat. He was constantly supervised, and there were few rest periods.

The bound coolies were provided with scant rations. If they rebelled they were whipped and jailed. Often Dookhee felt the walls of his stomach caving in, grating from lack of food. He felt like vomiting when this happened, but only sour, frothy mucus came up, its acid leaving his throat sore.

One afternoon, weak and shaking in the hot sun, Dookhee pleaded with the overseer. “I beg you, please give me some more food, or even a sip of water—” Before he could finish, he fainted. The overseer regarded Dookhee scornfully. The other indentured immigrants watched helplessly.

“Get back to work!” the overseer shouted. He strode to Dookhee. Dookhee felt the force of the whip on his back and heard the sickening sound of its leather scraping the flesh from his shoulders. The overseer left him wrenching in pain, the welts across his back too numerous to count and too painful to touch. He would have to rest on his belly until his bruises healed.

On more than one occasion, Dookhee was beaten so badly that he had to be taken to the infirmary. This gave him time to reflect. Reliving the whippings, he would involuntarily twist on the bed, feeling the pain all over again. The situation was hopeless. The Protector of Immigrants, himself a British Colonial, fraternized with the plantation owners and was unconcerned about the bound coolies. Dookhee wondered what bad karma he had done to have brought such undignified and inhumane treatment upon himself. He could only think it was punishment for hurting his wife and neglecting his family.

In the beginning, Dookhee counted the days he served on the estate, but each day of torture seemed like an eternity, and he ceased counting. It did not make sense to subject himself to this seemingly eternal disappointment of another day in Trinidad. Since he hardly ever slept, Dookhee resigned himself to being awakened from his daze by the bell, to bathing with a half bucket of brown water collected from an almost dry spring, to ingesting food then shuffling to the field for another day of back-breaking labour. He would stop only for lunch, after which he continued fertilizing, trashing or cutting sugarcane, this routine unchanged unless he was sent to dig drains which left him so tired at the end of the day, that he could hardly stagger to his barracks where he regularly fell asleep under the tree without bathing or eating. This ritual repeated itself interminably. It was only each Divali that Dookhee was able to calculate how much time had elap sed on his contract. What kept Dookhee from despairing was his dream of the day he would return to Bharat, the day he would see his wife again and be reunited with his family. This hope kept him alive throughout the endless scorching days, weeks, and months that he slaved and saved.

When his indentureship contract finally terminated, Dookhee prepared to return home to India. From his earnings, he purchased a pair of gold earrings for his doolahin which he carefully secured with his gold to take back with him. He gave his Ramayana to one of his friends on the estate. Then it was time to leave. The Protector of Immigrants asked Dookhee whether he would like to re-indenture himself.

‘No, Sahib (master),’ Dookhee replied. ‘I am going back to India and to my village.’

Carrying fewer passengers than the Akbar had brought to Trinidad, the Koomar set sail from Port-of-Spain, and Dookhee did not look back. He was on his way to India! He imagined how happy his wife and brothers would be to see him again. He was sure they thought he was dead. When he presented his accumulated wealth, they would be amazed and happy to see how much he had earned. The joy Dookhee felt at the prospect of returning to Janpur was overwhelming, and the journey seemed never-ending.

After several months the Koomar finally docked in Calcutta. Upon arrival, Dookhee knelt, kissed the earth and thanked God for his safe return. He noticed that his countrymen seemed to regard him suspiciously. Somehow there was venom in their eyes. He thought perhaps it was envy since he had returned aboard a ship after having been to a foreign land. He decided to ignore their apparent hostility.

From Calcutta he found his way back to his native village retracing almost the same roads as when he had left. Little had changed. The land was still barren, parched for water. The villages were unaltered. Finally he approached Janpur. The excitement at being back in his village was almost too much to bear. There was the oxcart that had carried him to the train station, an ox nearby grazing on dried bits of vegetation. Dookhee’s heart pounded and he had to pinch himself to realize he was actually in Janpur and not dreaming. Even after six years the village looked exactly the same, untouched by time. Eagerly he went in search of his wife and brothers.

As Dookhee passed a familiar cow that belonged to Lallaji, he suddenly stopped. Ahead, its light grey bark peeling in patches was the peepal tree where he had made his commitment to the arkatiya to go to Trinidad. As he stared at the tree, its heart-shaped leaves rustling in the breeze, images of his hardships in Chinidad flashed through his mind. He was thankful to be home, thankful that his village looked the same after more than six years.

He walked on until ahead was his house. He surveyed its surroundings. Everything was as he had left it. He could not recognise any changes except that the once colourful rangoli (decoration), adorning the doorway was now faded. Trembling, Dookhee called out to his wife.

‘Aai, doolahin! Aai, doolahin!’ he called. Most of the elders in the village also called her doolahin, this was a sign of love and respect. A frail -looking woman holding a clay pot emerged, dressed in the white sari worn by widows. She stared at Dookhee. The pot fell from her hands.

‘Arey Bhagwan! (Oh, God!)’ she gasped.

‘That is really you?’ whispered. Dookhee noticed that she had lost a lot of weight ‘Yes, doolahin,’ Dookhee and looked a lot older than she was, it pricked at his conscience because he knew it was all because of him she was in this condition. He silently swore to take care of her and bring her back to her radiant look. ‘Come and see what I bring for you.’ Doolahin continued to stare at him.

‘I thought you was killed in the mutiny.’

Dookhee did not answer. With tear-filled eyes, Doolahin hurriedly prepared the thali (brass plate) and deya (earthen vessel) to perform aarti (adulation) for Dookhee. By this time, word had spread and Dookhee's brothers arrived. Dookhee ran quickly to embrace them, but to his surprise they turned their backs. The eldest spoke.

‘After all these years, you return from crossing the Kala Paani (Black Water), but you are no longer wanted in this gaon (village).’ He added sadly, ‘The Panchayat say so.’ Dookhee was stunned.

‘The Panchayat say so?’ he repeated dumbly.

‘Yes.’ From outside Dookhee recognized the loud and authoritative voice of the pahalwan (village chief). Dookhee opened the door.

‘You are to leave ek dam se (immediately),’ the pahalwan ordered. According to tradition he was considered contaminated having deserted the village and gone to a foreign land. Dookhee looked at his wife and brothers. Miserably they nodded in approval at the pahalwan’s command. Dookhee realized that his wife and brothers were devastated, but they were helpless. When the panchayat made a decision, it was irrevocable. Dookhee had been declared a kujat (outcast). He could no longer remain. It was futile to resist. His life in Janpur had come to an end.

Dookhee threw his gold and jewels on the ground. He took a final glance at his wife, brothers and fellow villagers, and his eyes brimmed with tears. Then he took water in his hands and threw it over his head saying, ‘Ram naam satya hain (Only God knows the truth).’ His wife shrieked, the pain of this act seem to resonate throughout the village, she fully understood the meaning of this action. Even though she live like a widow before his return this was just an exterior show, somewhere deep in her soul she never lost that unexplained bond of attachment that can only be experienced between a husband and wife. She felt like a corpse herself, she thought to herself at this time that she should perform the suti ritual of jumping into the pyre with her husband’s body but there was no body or pyre. She now felt like a light -headed with this confusion He had severed his familial connections in the presence of all. For him they no longer existed. Choking on his sadness, he turned and staggered away.

It was the arkatiya who had brought this misery on me, he thought. If only I had never met him. If only the arkatiya had not tempted me, lied to me. Dookhee walked aimlessly until he reached the peepal tree. He wondered what he should do now. If I ever see that arkatiya again, I will strangle him with my own hands, he vowed. Exhausted, his dreams and hopes shattered, he fell asleep under the peepal tree.

‘Get out from here at once! Kujat!’ a voice screamed. Startled Dookhee awakened to behold an angry villager. Then he remembered. He was outcast. With a heavy heart he arose and left Janpur.

After a few hours, tired and hungry, he arrived at another basti (village). He sat resting in the shade of a tree when he heard voices approaching. ‘After just three years, you will be coming back with plenty jewels and gold,’ the voice was saying. To his amazement it was the arkatiya, still recruiting volunteers to make the trip to Trinidad.

Dookhee was tempted to jump up and attack him, but his inner mind told him there were too many witnesses. He decided to trail the arkatiya instead, waiting for the opportune moment to kill him. Maintaining a discreet distance, Dookhee followed the arkatiya.

The moment he awaited did not take long. While the arkatiya rested under a Neem tree, his escorts abandoned him to use the outhouse. Swiftly and silently Dookhee approached the dozing arkatiya. He placed his hands strong from squeezing cane stalks around the arkatiya’s neck. ‘Sala (bastard), you remember me,’ he said softly, choking the arkatiya. ‘Only now I am kujat. The life I had is dead, and you are the cause of my misfortune.’ The arkatiya’s eyes bulged, then he stopped resisting.

‘You dead now, Sala,’ Dookhee whispered. Then he ran away.

Matters were complicated for Dookhee. Not only was Janpur no longer his home, but now he was a murderer. He had to flee, to get far away. Dookhee remembered his jahaji, Rahaman, who fled Bharat to escape prosecution. Some months later, at Calcutta, Dookhee boarded the Sevilla bound for Trinidad.

IJJ, May 2009: The First Crossing; Indian civilisation - Worthy of emulation; Caribbean-Flavoured Presbyterianism; Desecrating Nelson Island

2009-05-16T23:29:00.001-05:00

International Jahajee Journal (IJJ), May 2009
Voice of the International Indian Diaspora
http://www.jahajeedesi.com/

Home of the International Jahajee Diaspora

Editor: Deosaran Bisnath,
President, GOPIO Trinidad and Tobago.
Moderator, Caribbean Hindus Network,
Jahajee Blog
IJJ BLOG
Chaguanas Twitter
JAHAJEEDESI.com

THE FIRST CROSSING
Being the Diary of Theophilus Richmond,
Ship's Surgeon aboard the Hesperus, 1837-8
Edited by David Dabydeen, Jonathan Morley, Brinsley Samaroo, Amar Wahab & Brigid Wells
Derek Walcott Press Books
978-1-906038-01-4

Even babies crossed the Kala Pani!
"Besides the regular crew there are now 170 Coolies including 7 women and 11 children, one of the latter tribe being a forthnight old...."

....and they gave the babies RUM!
"...the child who survived and who is not yet four years old, took within the space of 16 hours, the entire contents of a teacup full of strong Rum....."
They ate one meal per day while on the voyage across the Kala Pani:
"... when they all sit in the peculiar manner that I have already described in two long double rows, each with his brass dish and drinking cup before him and busily employed in shovelling an extensive and recherche Olla Podrida of Rice, Saltfish, Peas, Tumeric, Chillis, Tamarinds, etc into their unbelieving stomachs. It is their custom to take only one meal a day, but that one is most voluminious...."
They suffered immensely, some did not survive the journey:
"...I was called out to see one of the Coolies who had been suddenly taken ill....I soon discovered to my horror and consternation that I was looking at a genuine case of Indian Cholera, and cholera in one of its most aggravated shapes... Altho' his body was cold as ice from head to foot, he was continually crying out from the overpowering sensation of internal heat, the intense violence of which was but too clearly indicated by the parched lips and blackened tongue with their miserable concomitant of raging thirst....on Wednesay there were 7 deaths...on Thursday there were 4 seizures and 2 deaths....and 6 more fell victims by the following Sunday..... one untoward event occured a few days since in the suicide of an unfortunate Coolie..who threw himself into the sea...the violence and size of the waves that were rolling around must have destroyed him almost immediately...."
From THE FIRST CROSSING,
Being the Diary of Theophilus Richmond, Ship's surgeon aboard the HESPERUS, 1837-38 (HESPERUS brought the first Indian Immigrants to the Caribbean).
Edited by David Dabydeen, Brinsley Samaroo, Jonathan Morley, Amar Wahab & Brigid Wells.
The newly discovered diary of the first journey in the trade in Indentured Indians, which saw half a million laborers shipped from India to the Caribbean plantations between 1838 and 1917. Hundreds of thousands more Indians were also sent to Mauritius, Fiji, and Africa.
http://jahajeedesi.blogspot.com/2009/05/first-crossing-being-diary-of.html
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The First Crossing, the diary of British surgeon Theophilus Richmond who sailed on the first ship, Hesperus that brought indentured labourers from Calcutta, India to Georgetown was launched at Le Meridien Pegasus.
The book which was published by the Derek Walcott Press is the brainchild of Guyanese writer, Professor David Dabydeen who teamed up with Professor Brinsley Samaroo, Jonathan Morley, Amar Wahab and Brigid Wells to edit the book. Speaking at the launching last evening, Dabydeen said it took them close to three years to complete the book.
He recalled how he was introduced to Richmond's diary, noting that it was very enlightening to see the first written account of Indian existence in Guyana. Professor Dabydeen said they did extensive work in putting the book together, recalling the hours of research and editing that was done.
Former Deputy Vice Chancellor of the University of Guyana Al Creighton who did an analysis of the book last evening said it was profound and timely. Creighton added that the book has made an important contribution to scholarship and he recommended it as a book to be read.
The diary chronicles Dr Richmond's journey from Liverpool, England in June 1837 to Mauritius, to Calcutta, India and from Calcutta on January 29, 1838 to Guyana.
Richmond died two months after arriving in Demerara, Guyana on May 5, 1838 of yellow fever at the age of 23. His presence onboard the Hesperus was as a result of being employed by John Gladstone, father of the then British prime Minister who wanted labour from India to replace the ex-slaves on his sugar plantation on the West Demerara. Over 100 Indians started the journey but not all made it through.
Dabydeen said they have compiled a list of the immigrants on that first voyage, which would be made available for research purposes.

~~~~~~
Not A Happy Homecoming
for Indentured Workers
by Shubha Singh

Review of two books:

The First Crossing
Edited by David Dabydeen, Jonathan Morley, Brinsley Samaroo, Amar Wahab;
Publisher: The Derek Walcott Press.

Finding the West Indies in India
Author: Nalini Mohabir, INGCA Diaspora Cultural Resource Centre.

Over a million Indians went as indentured workers to the British colonies to work on the sugar plantations in the first organized migration from India. There is a popular belief that the Indian workers did not return to India.

But many of them did return, though it was not a happy homecoming for most of them.

Two recent publications - "The First Crossing" and "Finding the West Indies in India" relate the instance of one such group of returnees.

"The First Crossing" is the edited version of the diary of Theophilus Richmond, the surgeon on board the ship Hesperus that carried one of the earliest groups of Indians from Calcutta to Georgetown, Guyana, in 1838.

They are the memoirs of a young man, giving his impressions of the gay life of an unattached young Englishman, hunting, fishing and partying in Calcutta in the early 19th century.

Theophilus Richmond viewed Indians through the imperial prism usual for those times, but he worked with dedication to look after the Indians when cholera raged on board the Hesperus. He saved lives in the days when cholera could decimate more than half the voyagers on board a ship. Richmond died of yellow fever two months after he reached Guyana and was buried there.

The diary came to light after a programme made by noted Guyanese poet and author, David Dabydeen, on the Caribbean indenture period was broadcast by the BBC.

Dabydeen's earlier work, "Slave Song" is a Caribbean classic. He received a letter from Brigid Wells, the great-great-niece of Theopilus Richmond about the existence of the diary.

Dabydeen has written a long introduction to the book, explaining the indenture system - how it began and eventually how the indenture system came to an end. He writes of the lives and travails of the indentured workers and the evolution of an Indo-Caribbean culture.

Leaving India meant cutting off the physical links with the homeland, but the emotional ties remained as strong as ever. Despite having lived in Guyana for long years and losing touch with their relatives at home, many Indians wanted to return to India.

Dabydeen relates the tragic story of the MV Resurgent, the ship chartered in 1955 to take back the last shipload of former indentured workers and their dependants to India.

Nalini Mohabir's monograph, "Finding the West Indies in India", relates her search for the returnees who sailed on the MV Resurgent. It is a search for her own connection to India for her grandfather, Chhablal Ramcharan, was the repatriation officer on the MV Resurgent charged with taking back the former indentured workers to India.

The right to return was part of the indenture contract, and by 1955 pressure had built up on the Guyanese government to make arrangements for the return of former indentured workers. The majority of the returnees were moved by nostalgic pull of the motherland, and as they grew older they wanted to have their ashes immersed in the Ganga.

Efforts made by various authorities to dissuade them did not succeed. A group of 42 repatriates returned to the Resurgent even before it could sail for Guyana, clamouring to be taken back.

Through painstaking research Mohabir was able to locate two returnees who were teenagers when they reached Calcutta.

Dundee was born in Guyana, but his parents who hailed from Andhra Pradesh decided to return to India for sentimental reasons, spurred by a family disagreement.

Dundee's parents tried to return to their village near Visakhapatnam, but their land had been taken over by relatives. The family moved to Chennai where Dundee learnt Tamil and with difficulty managed to find a job.

G.C. Naresh was 12-years-old when his extended family returned to India because of his grandparents' longing for home after 40 years in Guyana. The family sold off its land and cattle and booked a passage on the MV Resurgent.

Arriving in India they realized it was a mistake and about a year later his grandparents and some of his uncles returned to Guyana. His elder brother, Permaloo, saved some money and travelled back to Guyana on a cargo boat, but Naresh went to their native village of Padavedu in Tamil Nadu.

Both Dundee and Naresh held on to their memories of Guyana. They went through difficult times to find a place for themselves in the homeland.

According to Dabydeen, the majority of the repatriates on the MV Resurgent became destitute after reaching India. It was no longer the India of their nostalgic dreams, and many found it difficult to adjust and make a living.

Frantic appeals were made to locate relatives in Guyana and ask them for passage money for returning to Guyana. Only a handful of the repatriates managed to get back to Guyana.

The story of returnees is a poignant one of repeated displacement.

http://www.boloji.com/bookreviews/146.htm

John Gilmore on
The First Crossing, Being the Diary of Theophilus Richmond.

Richmond, Ship's Surgeon Aboard the Hesperus, 1837-388, ed. David Dabydeen, Jonathan Morley, Brinsley Samaroo, Amar Wahab, and Brigid Wells (The Derek Walcott Press, ISBN 10 1-906038-01-5, ISBN 13 978-1-906038-01-4, 175 pp)

As readers of the CRB will know, the system of indentureship which brought several hundred thousand labourers from the Indian subcontinent to the Caribbean between 1838 and 1917 transformed the society, culture, and economy of the region, particularly in Trinidad and what is now Guyana. The first two ships to bring Indians under this system were the Whitby and the Hesperus, which arrived in then-British Guiana in May 1838, with the Whitby reaching Berbice only a few days before the Hesperus came to Demerara. The discovery and publication of a first-hand account of the voyage of the Hesperus from the British port of Liverpool to Calcutta, and thence to Demerara with the 170 Indians it had taken on board, is bound to be of interest... READ MORE....

__________________________________________________________

Episodes of Indian Experience
by Professor Kenneth Ramchand
Professor Kenneth Ramchand is Professor Emeritus of West Indian Literature,
University of the West Indies (UWI), Professor Emeritus of English (Colgate
University), and currently, Associate Provost, The Academy at the University of
Trinidad and Tobago for Arts, Letters, Culture and Public Affairs.
http://deosaranbisnath.blogspot.com/2008_ 05_01_archive. html
___________________________________________________________
"VACATION INDIA", January 2010
GOPIO Trinidad & Tobago invites you to be a part of Vacation India in January 2010, by the Grace of Bhagavan.
As you may recall from the online updates, we had a fabulous time during
the last trip in September/October 2007. We aim to have even more fun on the
upcoming January 2010 Vacation India. For more info: send mail to
gopiott@gmail. com or deobisnath@yahoo. com

______________________________________________________________

Caribbean-Flavoured Presbyterianism: Education as a Prescription for Socio-Political Development, by Dr. Jerome Teelucksingh
Jerome Teelucksingh, Caribbean-Flavoured Presbyterianism: Education as a Prescription for Socio-Political Development, 1868-2008
(St. Augustine: UWI School of Continuing Studies, 2008), 244 pages.

http://jahajeedesi.blogspot.com/2009/05/jerome-teelucksingh-caribbean-flavoured.html

In June of 1923 the recently arrived catechist for the area of Woodbrook and St. James, (on the outskirts of Port of Spain) John Neehall, father of the late well-known Rev. Dr. Roy Neehall penned a plaintive letter to the Secretary of the Canadian Mission Council in Trinidad. Writing from his home at 25 Pole Carew St in Woodbrook, Neehall recounted the good work which he had started among the population which came from barracks in Bombay St, Nipal St, Cawnpore St, Mooneram St, Benares St and many other streets whereto the Indians had brought their ancestral names and fragments of their ancient civilisation. Under Neehall's leadership there had developed a vibrant Sunday school , active Hindi and Bible classes as well as Sunday and mid-week services. The nearby Woodbrook Canadian Mission School was close to overcrowding, having already taken in just over 300 pupils and a complement of teachers. In view of this progress, Neehall saw all the "signs of a bright future." Despite this promise, however, Neehall went on to tell of the tremendous inconvenience which he and his family of ten had to face. This is how he described his catechist's residence:

The house we live in is a small, low roofed house
covered with galvanize, dark and hot like an oven in the day.
When working out I often picture to find on return home, a
baked wife instead of a baked roti. We have no privacy.
No bathing place. The only way for my wife and grown-up
daughters to get a wash, they must get up at 3 or 4 o'clock
in the morning and get under the pipe. We will soon forget
how to bathe.

Demonstrating a good sense of humour despite these appalling conditions Neehall wrote of "having to rough it like steerage passengers on the deck of a miserable ship and of experiencing what life was like in a "perfect narak" (hell). Another catechist in the Sangre Grande area told of his having to carry the Canadian missionaries on his back as they forded the streams of Cunaripo and Fishing Pond. Very few of these early pioneer Presbyterians lived to see any personal rewards in their lifetime but as the products of a high civilization, they had all been intellectually prepared to invest in the present so that future generations could prosper. And how well has that investment paid off!

This in a nutshell, is the story of which Jerome Teelucksingh has attempted to unravel. The book is 244 pages long and it covers wide panoply of the work of the Canadian Missionaries in Trinidad and their further movement from here to British Guiana, Grenada, Jamaica and St. Lucia. In this sense it is the first work to deal with the Presbyterian conversion and education campaign in the circum-Caribbean area. And there are rare pictures of the early churches in Essequibo and Berbice. Let us now look briefly at some of the themes which stand out in the text. Perhaps the most important has been the fact that the Canadian Missionaries provided a bridge between the West and the East, enabling a few hundred thousands to enter the dominant Western culture into which they had come from India. Enabling this process in a relatively short space of time, was the softer Imperialism of the Canadians. Unlike the British or the French imperials, the Canadians did not attempt to wipe out the transported cultures from Asia but sought rather to learn more about these cultures and armed with this knowledge, they sought to use Orientalism as the vehicle for the transference of Western, Christian civilisation which the missionaries genuinely believed to be superior to all other cultures. The missionaries therefore kept close contact with the Scottish Presbyterians in India from whom they received regular supplies of books and less regular supplies of Canadians who had worked in the India missions. The Canadians in Trinidad established their Hindi press at Aram Alya in Tunapuna where they produced Geet Mala (a garland of songs) and Ratna Mala (a garland of jewels). They learnt Hindi so that they could meet the Indians on their own terms and they encouraged the use of Hindi words to express Christian meanings. In this way the communion bread becomes Jewan ki Roti (the bread of life) and the Good News of Christianity became Su Samachar Presbyterian Church. The novelist V.S Naipaul makes great fun of the Presbyterian converts and this text is rich with those excerpts as well as the creative accounts of this process in the novels of Sam Selvon, Ramabai Espinet and Shani Mootoo. In its outreach to the Indo-Caribbean society the Canadian missionaries went into then uncharted territory in far-off rural areas to which the Indians, as rural people themselves, had gone after the end of their indentureship. In this way they opened forest settlements in Biche, Coromandel, Siparia Old Road and Inner Mafeking. In these areas they opened up churches and schools enabling many thousands to rise from the plantations to the professions. For those young Presbyterians who wished to join the teaching service but could not afford the expense of a secondary education, the Canadians offered the Monitor system (first tried in India) whereby young people could ascend the scale through teachers' exams and end up for final qualification at the Naparima Teachers' Training College. In this way a large cadre of very competent teachers were produced by teaching whilst they learnt to be better teachers. Today we call that on-the-job-training. Dr. Teelucksingh spent time in interviewing many such educators in an excellent demonstration of the techniques of oral history!

This book gives constant evidence of the then and present on-going dialectic regarding the purpose of the Canadian mission and later, the Trinidad Presbyterian Church. On the one hand there was the Evangel school led by John Morton, the first missionary, who was of the firm view that the mission's purpose was conversion to Christianity and the destruction of all vestiges of Hinduism and Islam. Equally powerful was the emphasis on education rather than conversion, led by Kenneth Grant, the second missionary, who came in 1870. Whilst Morton subsequently encouraged the recruitment of the preacher types, Grant emphasized the teacher types and there was always conflict between the two schools of thought. The Indians, as eager lookers-on, were staunchly in favour of Grant and his pedagogues, which explains the long tours of very eminent scholars such as Dr. Coffin, Dr. Kemp, Rev. Swann, Rev. Weldon Grant and Dr. Arthur Dayfoot. The predominance of the educational thrust was also evidenced in the founding of carefully constructed institutions like Naparima College, the Teachers' Training College, Hillview College, St. Augustine Girls High School and Iere High School. Iere was the first co-educational high-school in Trinidad (1955) and its success under Weldon Grant provided the model for the establishment of co-educational schools in Trinidad and Tobago.

In similar fashion when the Hindu and Muslim faiths were belatedly allowed to build their own schools from 1948, the majority of the educators there were people who had been trained in the Presbyterian schools. Most of these persons took with them the discipline and the love for learning which their religions enjoin, traits shared in full measure by the Scottish Canadian educators who formed the vanguard of the missionaries' educational thrust. At the same time, the book's author points out there was the presence of the moral education advocated by Morton and his school of thought. This was the logic behind the formation of the Presbyterian Theological College in 1897, now St Andrews Theological College. Through the operation of this dialectic, moral education was made to accompany the academic so that a healthy value system, nurtured through religion, became the hallmark of the graduate of these institutions. As Dr. Teelucksingh clearly demonstrates, this combination of academic and moral education has been exemplified in the rich harvest of academic excellence from the Presbyterian institutions and from other denominational schools which mix moral education with reading, writing ad arithmetic.

But the book is not without its faults. The author is so full of praise for the Canadians and for Presbyterians, that like most Presbyterians, he pays insufficient attention to some other aspects of the Canadian presence. There is only a passing reference to Morton's other work as agent for the Cadbury chain of chocolate producers. We need to know more about "Morton forest" in Balandra where the reverend gentleman had a large cocoa plantation. We need to know more about the manner in which the Grant family became heavily involved in acquiring lands with oil rights in South Trinidad or of the rise of firms like T. Geddes Grant as one of Trinidad's major importers/exporters, insurance brokers and bankers. These were the missionary children who brought us Canadian pianos, Brunswick sardines, smoked herrings and salt-fish. For them God was good but trade was better. Was there any truth to Rev. Scrimgeour's claim that some of the young Canadian men were setting a bad example in their ways with young East Indian women? We have also to consider the disappointment of hundreds of young Hindus or Muslims who despite their show of much academic promise had to revert to the cane-field because they refused to convert to Presbyterianism if they were to gain employment. Presbyterian history is littered with these examples and we must record these too if the story is to be complete. Jerome has done his bit, others must now take up the story. And these other studies should more fully document the work of the Hindu and Muslim organisations.

What then, can be said of this Caribbean-Flavoured Presbyterianism? Here is a good example of identity history, where a person tries to find his own and his community's place in the development of this Caribbean space. One would have expected the author to prepare for publication his Ph.D thesis which traced the development of the trade union movement in Trinbago. That is a thorough piece of work. But this was more urgent; the Presbyterian personality had to be explored firstly and all other things would be added later. The book is also contemporary history, chronicling a Church's past but equally, bringing the story right down to the present. There are educational statistics for as recently as 2005 and charts explain the Church's structure as they currently exist.

Dr. Teelucksingh has garnered information from sages who are still with us: Foster Bissessar, Stephen and Birla Seepersad, Dorinda Sampath, Zalayhar Hassanali and Canadian pioneers such as Dr. Art Dayfoot and Rev. Geraldine Reid to name a few. Others like Ralph Laltoo and Roy Mootoo he caught just in time but their testimonies remain. In the case of those who are alive, it is good that, in the evening of their fruitful service, they be reminded of the crucial roles they played. We must learn to recognise achievers whilst they are still amongst us to respond to this type of scholarship. For those of us who teach and guide research, this book is a god-send on the Presbyterian experience, filled with information culled from a wide variety of sources here and abroad as well as an accurate and exhaustive bibliography. The photographs are a rare mixture of Canadian, Guyanese and Trinidad depictions, giving flesh to the detailed narration. The conclusions to which the author frequently arrives will no doubt give rise to further contention but it is in such contention- the dialectic once again- that new ideas are created for the continuing forward movement of society. The UWI School of Continuing Studies must be congratulated for the high-quality technical production of the work and for their persistence in bringing new work to the fore; it is high time that we learn to paddle our own canoes.

Professor Brinsley Samaroo,
Senior Research Fellow,
University of Trinidad and Tobago.

http://jahajeedesi.blogspot.com/2009/05/jerome-teelucksingh-caribbean-flavoured.html

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"Tracing the Roots" Tracks Down Family Tree in India
Indian Americans (and Indians throughout the world) now have the chance to track down the details of their origins in India, thanks to a new program introduced by the Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs. For more information on the Tracing the Roots program or to download an application, visit the Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs' Web site at http://www.moia.gov.in or e-mail indiroots@yahoo.com.
http://indiawest.com/readmore.aspx?id=746&Sid=1
http://www.indiroots.com/
http://www.cousinconnect.com/d/a/192237

Editor's Note: Dr. Chandra Tiwary from INDIROOTS.COM is now in Trinidad; if anyone wants to meet him, send mail to gopiott@gmail.com or deobisnath@yahoo.com

_______________________________________________________________

The latest issue of the Indo-Caribbean Times can be
accessed online at
http://www.esnips.com/web/Indo-CaribbeanTimes

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Indian Indentured Immigration to Trinidad

By Deosaran Bisnath.
President, GOPIO Trinidad and Tobago.
Moderator, Caribbean Hindus Network,
Jahajee Blog
IJJ BLOG

Part 1 :
Origin of The Coolie Slave Trade

Sookra Khadoo Male 15, Panchoo Darhoo Male 16, Dabee Sing Sobrun Sing Male 16, Hullodhur Gobardhun Male 18, and Chowdory Aukalee Male 18, were amongst the youngest in the human cargo aboard the FATH AL RAZACK when it departed the Port of Calcutta on 16th February 1845. One hundred and three days later - on May 30th - the first immigrant ship from India to Trinidad arrived off Nelson Island. Deepa, Mungree, Ancklee, Jhalowa, and Somoreeya were among the 225 who survived the perilous journey across the Kala Pani; the unfortunate six who died were dumped unceremoniously, without rituals or rites.

Between 1845 and April 1917 when the SS GANGES docked for the last time, there was continuous annual importation of labour from India, totaling 145000 to Trinidad, 239000 to Guyana, 50000 to Jamaica, 40000 to Surinam, and smaller numbers to the other Caribbean Islands.... READ MORE...

Indentured Indian Immigration to the Caribbean, Part 2 of 3
Journey of the Jahajees:From Calcutta to Caribbean
An Arkatya came and told me
To come to "Chinidad" (Trinidad)
All the people here were told
That the streets were filled with gold
And once we reach over there
Our problems would disappear.
Now that all of us on this ship
And we are sailing out to sea
The Arkatya comes and tell me
We are all bound kulis
by Mukesh Babooram

Bengal, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, and the Madras Presidency - the most devastated parts of India, ruled the longest by the British Raj - provided most of the immigrants to the West Indies. Approximately 80% originated from the Gangetic plains of North India, specifically from the Eastern Uttar Pradesh and Western Bihar districts, from the culturally and linguistically contiguous Bhojpur and Awadh region.... READ MORE....

Indentured Indian Immigration to the Caribbean, Part 3 of 3
Life on the Plantation, and Beyond.
Some push us around, some curse us
Where is your splendor and prestige today?
The whole world calls us black thieves.
The whole world calls us 'coolie.'
Why doesn't our flag fly anywhere?
Why do we feel low and humiliated?
Why is there no respect for us in the whole world?
-- An early Indian immigrant protest song

If the Indians were to survive as human beings their survival depended largely on their own powers of resilience. They devised their own past-times, recreating some semblance of the lost India in their festivals. But it wasn't much, and often their attempts to forget the cane fields ended only in drunken oblivion. When goaded beyond their apparently infinite endurance and patience, they would try to rebel; but the protest almost always ended in repression (Hugh Tinker).

On arrival in the colonies, the coolies were marched to the sugar estates and housed in the former slave barracks. The expatriate managers, described as the "czar, prosecutor, king and judge all in one", lived in massive mansions while...READ MORE....

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SURINAME ARCHIVES:
http://www.nationaalarchief.nl/suriname/base_hindo/database/engine/zoeke\n.asp?4=On&39=On

INDO-CARIBBEAN GENEALOGY WEBSITE
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Bhatchaman/

GOPIO Trinidad & Tobago
a chapter of GOPIO International.
P.O. BOX 2286, Chaguanas. TRINIDAD.
BECOME A GOPIO member: write to -
GopioTT@gmail.com

GOPIO on the NET:
http://groups. yahoo.com/ group/GopioTT/
http://gopiott.blogspot.com/
http://www.gopio.net
http://gopio.com

______________________________________________________

MERE DESH Indian Arrival Day Events
E-mail: poojabhavan3001@ yahoo.com

Community Announcement
Mere Desh 3-Projects

Junior Tassa Rama Competition
On Saturday 30th May, 2009 at the Mid Centre Mall Car-park Chaguanas Time-5.00pm
Registration 672-4423 Big Cash prizes to be won!

Also the public is invited to attend Free Classes
@ 1.00pm also the same day and venue mid centre mall
(1) The Applying of Mehendi- Teaching various artistic designs on both hands and feet
(2) The Cutting of Kite paper for Decorations
(3) The Making of Stuff Toys e.g. Teddy Bear
(4) Garment Construction, Curtain and Draperies designs

Sports - Wind ball Cricket Match
10-Over One Day Cricket wind-ball Tournament
Venue- Knowles Recreation Ground, Curepe
Time- 10.00am Date- 30th May (Indian Arrival Day)
Contact- Joe Dwarika, Anand Balram, Premchan Roopia or Praimsingh-672- 4423
Big Cash Prizes to be won!

This project is in celebration of 164th Anniversary Indian Arrival

Slogan/Theme for this project-
"The greatest gift one can give to someone is to pass down to others what one has learnt for oneself"

Entertainment Galore- Brantec Orchestra, Dances by top Artistes .D J Alma Sound
5- Sons & Daughters will be honoured * Guest Speakers by prominent citizens
Venue Mid Centre Mall, Chaguanas, Saturday May 30th 1.00pm - 9.00pm

Cricket-Lovers
Wind-ball Cricket Match- Knowles Street Recreation Ground 10.00am
No Entrance or Registration fee!. It's Free to the Public
Bring the entire Family!
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Immigrants to Citizens: the Indian Community
in Grenada, 1857 to the Present
by RON SOOKRAM
http://74.125. 95.132/search? q=cache:r3R12HK_ 5oEJ:arts. brunel.ac. uk/gate/entertex t/6_3/ET63Sookra mRevsED.doc+ coolie+return+ India&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=455&gl=ca&client=firefox- a

EAST INDIANS IN BELIZE
http://www.amandala .com.bz/index. php?id=5336

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HINDU WISDOM

IMPORTANCE OF GURU BHAKTI
Here is bhakti yoga in a nutshell. Select an ishta devata (a favourite deity) - either Siva, Rama, Krishna, Vishnu, Dattatreya, Gayatri or Sakti - according to the advice of your guru, or your own inclination. Get the proper mantra (a mystic formula). Then keep a picture of that particular deity in front of you in the meditation room. For six months gaze steadily at the picture from fifteen seconds to fifteen minutes. Concentrate on the figure, without winking, until the tears flow profusely... READ MORE....

The greatest single cause for misery in the world today is envy
The greatest single cause for misery in the world today is envy. When one is happy and contented, others envy him and strive to ruin his peace of mind. When anyone is acclaimed as great, malice moves others to invent calumny in order to tarnish his reputation. This is the way of the world. This is the tragedy of ignorance and selfishness - they force men to take the wrong path and suffer calamity. Take the right path; be happy and make others happy. Then your name will last even after the body disintegrates....READ MORE...

The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, 3:54
Knowledge born of the finest discrimination takes us to the farthest shore. It is intuitive, omniscient, and beyond all divisions of time and space.
- The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, 3:54 ...READ MORE.....
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Indian civilisation - Worthy of emulation
by Robert Buddan

THE MONTH of May is significant for Indians in the Caribbean. It is the month in which Indians first arrived (in different years) in Guyana, Trinidad and Jamaica. CARICOM is, in reality, a largely Afro-Asian region. Indians are the largest ethnic groups in Guyana, Trinidad and Suriname and a smaller proportion in Belize. Their arrival constituted the most significant cultural redefinition of the Caribbean after European and African arrivals. Their cultural impact is now well known. Indians arrived as labourers, and it is significant that in this month Jamaica also celebrates Labour Day.

The occasion of Indian arrival gives cause each year to reassess Indian civilisation in its many homes and diasporas. Home and diaspora can engage in a new Caribbean arrival sharing advances in their civilisations. No other westerner has attracted as much controversy over the value of Indian civilisation than Vidia Naipaul, the Caribbean's Nobel laureate and most well known of all Indo-Caribbean persons. Naipaul was a great writer but a poor 'reader'. He misread Indian civilisation because he saw it as a failure much as Victorians saw it. He would have great difficulty explaining India's reputation as a rising power and a reawakened civilisation today.

NAIPAUL AND WOUNDED CIVILISATION
The titles of two of Naipaul's books, An Area of Darkness (1964) and India: A Wounded Civilization (1977), capture his tragic misunderstanding of India. His basic argument was that India's plight stemmed from conquer and Hinduism. Muslim conquest in the 16th century had vandalised Indian culture and Hinduism had acquiesced to it.... READ MORE...

INDIAN REBIRTH
About a quarter of the visas the United States gives out to foreign professionals go to Indian computer scientists. Its age-old philosophical tradition shows its appetite for wisdom, leading in turn to knowledge of grammar, logic, numerals and the decimal system. These are the founding ingredients of the modern digital age and digital economy. It is the basis of the Indian sciences that drive its numerous industries.... READ MORE...

CARIBBEAN INDO-CIVILISATION
Indian philosophy has had a different impact in Jamaica. In Hindu Influences on Rastafarianism (1985), Professor Ajai and Laxmi Mansingh argue that Jamaica's now globally popular Rastafarian culture owes more to Indian cultural and religious influence than to Garveyism, Ethiopianism, or biblical Zionism. The presence of Indians in Jamaica with their own culture and religion, they argue, caused the poor Afro-Jamaicans to wonder why they did not have their own.

Afro-Jamaicans adopted the Indian holy herb (ganja, a Hindi word), the phrase, 'Jah' (a corruption of Jai), long hairstyle with locks (Jatavi, which preceded the Rastafarian practice), vegetarianism, God-incarnates (human-like intermediaries with the spirit world), nature-living, communal living, and certain aspects of male-female relations.

The founder of the movement, Leonard Howell, had even changed his name to Gangunju Mahraj (meaning 'knowledgeable' and 'virtuous')....READ MORE....

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Yesu Persaud: All Guyanese should be proud to celebrate Indian Arrival

The Indian Commemoration Trust (ICT) is happy to celebrate this historic day not only with Indians but with all Guyanese because this is a part of our history as the indentured Indians made tremendous contributions in helping to build the nation, ICT Honorary President, Dr Yesu Persaud said in a statement on the commemoration of Indian Arrival.

He said further that the ICT would also like to express its gratitude at "seeing other organizations joining in to celebrate the arrival of the indentured Indians since this is a day all Guyanese should be proud to celebrate."

Dr Persaud who is also Chairman of Demerara Distillers Limited noted that this is the 21st anniversary of the ICT, which commemorates the day at the Indian Monument Gardens at Church and Camp streets, Georgetown.

And taking a brief historical look at the event, Persaud recalled that on May 5, 1838 the sailing ships Whitby and Hesperus left Calcutta with 437 Indian indentured workers for British Guiana, now called Guyana after Independence in 1966, and 18 persons died during the voyage; 14 from the Hesperus and four from the Whitby. Four of the deaths were from a deadly outbreak of cholera owing to highly unsanitary conditions aboard the ship and the bodies were unceremoniously thrown overboard. However, the ship'surgeon worked tirelessly and was able to bring the dreaded disease under control.
And pointing to an important lesson which the indentured Indians learnt on board the ships, Dr Persaud said that irrespective of class or caste they had to work together as a team on board the ship and form a bond that kept them together and brought about the concept of "Jahagiship".... READ MORE....

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From Bengal to Bushlot to Belize -
THE INDENTURED IMMIGRANTS
by Karan Chand
Karan Chand is a Guyanese living and teaching for the past 19 years in Belize City, Belize. This book is on the list for Literature at two high schools in Belize and others are now considering it to be included as an additional text.
From Bengal to Bushlot to Belize - THE INDENTURED IMMIGRANTS is available from the author - E-mail kchand16@hotmail. com

Inspiration
http://www.jahajeedesi.com/forums/index.php?showforum=10

Question: In relationships, after getting entangled, I realize I made a
mistake. Initially when I got involved, I was unable to take a decision, I did
not realize it then. What should I do?

Swamiji: Pray to God, after making a mistake, feel repentance. There are three
points related to this: 1) after making a mistake either do not recognize or
remember at all that you have made a mistake 2) realize you made a mistake and
repent feeling that after being given this human birth and turning towards
spiritual activities, I have still made a mistake. It is not a good thing, I
truly regret it and 3) I will never make this mistake again for the rest of my
life. From now onwards never again.

Realizing this, all will all be alright. You will not make mistakes in the
future. All mistakes are due to desire for happiness and wealth. All mistakes
are due to these two things. "Bhogaishvarya prasaktaanaam" Mistakes are only due
to desire for enjoyment of pleasures and accumulation of wealth. Anyone who has
these two desires, cannot attain God realization. Such persons cannot even
resolve to turn towards God. They cannot desire to get engaged in worship of
God.... READ MORE....

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CaribbeanHindus/
http://www.jahajeedesi.com/forums/index.php?showforum=10

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Kahe Gaile Bidesiya 05 - Trinidad
Desecrating Nelson Island
Published in Bhatchaman@yahoogroups.com
by "Lloyd Harradan"

PEOPLE WHO cause harm to Nelson Island or its environs will be fined $5000, an advertisement in the August 14th 2007 issue of Newsday stated. The foliage, fauna and any monuments should not be interfered with, the Government ad stated.

In which case the National Trust of Trinidad and Tobago should be fined for causing harm to the Island .

Six days later, on 20th August 2007, a report in the same newspaper by DENISE BALGOBIN informed us that "Restoring Nelson Island as a heritage site is one of the newest projects to be undertaken by the National Trust of Trinidad and Tobago, which is a division of the Ministry of Community Development, Culture and Gender Affairs.

In a grand launch on Friday morning at Nelson Island , details of the project were announced to more than 200 persons including several members of the media, who were transported to the north coast island via Pier I Cruises."

So what does this restoration project involve? The report says:

"At an estimated budget of $12M, the proposed restoration will include an Immigration office, museums, a gift shop, an information booth, support structures (restrooms and a caretaker's house) and public areas, such as a plaza and sculpture gallery.

There will also be historic information, including a focus on the experiences of Tubal Uriah Butler (who was incarcerated there during 1937-39), George Weekes (who was detained in the 1970 Black Power revolution) and others."

And then we are given some history:

" Nelson Island was first used by the Amerindians before discovery by Columbus , then by Spain and Britain in 1802, when the first barracks for soldiers was built by African slaves. In the past 100 years, it became a defence centre during World War II, a youth camp during the 1950s and then a detention area during the 1970s.

I have quoted this article at length, so you can see there is no mention of the real historical significance of Nelson Island - that is, as the landing place of indentured Indians. Nelson Island is the Trinidadian equivalent of Ellis Island. Yet the National Trust cannot conceive of anything Indian as being National. They are going to honour Butler, a National joker; Weekes, a trade union joker; and NJAC, some political jokers.

The fact that Indian immigrants rescued the bankrupt plantation economies in the Caribbean region never gets mentioned. Slavery takes the spotlight, even in Trinidad which had few slaves. African slavery was the most unproductive system of production ever devised, and it virtually bankrupted the planter class in the West Indies .

There are few memorials to the indentured Indian. Surinam is the only country that

erected a monument for its Centenary in 1973. It is a sculpture of the Lalla Rookh, the first "Coolie ship" to arrive in that country. It is located along the Saramacca River in Gronigen, not too ar from Paramaribo . Some twenty years later they erected the Baba en Mai monument.

That monument consists of two statues representing a Hindustani couple. It stands near the old "coolie Depot" where the immigrants landed. One line of text on the inscription reads 'Where I fare well, that's where my fatherland is'.

In Guadeloupe in the French West Indies, 2004 brought a whole year of commemoration of the 150th anniversary of the arrival of the first indentured Indian workers in 1854 to a close with the inauguration of a First Day monument in the business capital, Pointe-a-Pitre, near the sea-side spot where the indentured Indians alighted between 1854 and 1889.

The plaque on the monument reads in part:

"In memory and homage to the contribution of those from India - this First Day monument, [is erected] on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the arrival of the first Indians in Guadeloupe."

The more than 600-kilogram bronze monument by Indrajeet Sahadev, an Indian-born sculptor residing in France, is a combination of symbolic representations of the long Kalapani journey, a boat with Lord Ganesha's figure at the prow, masts with Lord Siva's trident and damaru engraved in gold obliquely sectioned at the top to form a golden OM.

The art piece stands on a circular lotus mandala base, the whole monument resting on a marble yantra. On the four sides of the rectangular base block are figures of a conch, a golden sun with the date 1854 in the middle, and sugar cane shoots - the bitter reason that brought the Indians to the island. The auspicious Indian symbol for water also turns out to be the letter G, representing the Universal Master, the initial of Lord Ganesha, and that of Guadeloupe . Guadeloupe was called Kalaoukera, meaning "island of beautiful waters" by the original, now decimated, Amerindian inhabitants.
The Guyanese Indian Immigration Monument is located in a garden delimited by Camp, North, Alexander and Church Streets in Georgetown . The garden itself is on a piece of land that nobody could use and nobody wanted. We understand the site was recommended by Viola Burnham. It took a lot of earth-fill to bring it up to grade. In a way the garden is more symbolic of the indentureship experience than the monument itself.
The monument, a bronze replica of the vessel Whitby resting on a rectangular base, was unveiled on May 6, 1997 in commemoration of the arrival of the first East Indians in British Guiana . The vessel together with the Hesperus brought the first batch of Indian immigrants to the country on May 5, 1838.
Little has been done about the Highbury site in Berbice, where some of the first immigrants ended their journey. The site has been partially fenced and partially paved, but the docks are in a dilapidated state.
Indo-Grenadians celebrated their arrival centenary in 1957 at the Hermitage Elementary School . No monument was erected and the school has not survived. The site is today marked by a banana patch.
In 1983 Indo-Jamaicans put up a plaque in Old Harbour , where the first batch of Indian indentures landed in 1845.
Trinidad, with the most money, the most Indians and the highest debt of gratitude has only erected one monument in far off Cedros.(see above). Few people know about it and fewer have seen it.
The true historical significance of Nelson Island needs to be recognized in a tangible way and we would suggest the erection of a monument like the Baba en Mai, and a plaque listing the names of the first arrivals.
Pictures available here
http://www.indocaribbeanheritage.com/component/option,com_zoom/Itemid,76/catid,6/

Contribution by People of Indian Origin to Jamaica
by Pandit Lochan Nathan Sharma
http://pandit-jamaica.com/index_files/Documentation.htm

WORD PLAY

nescience \NESH-uhn(t)s; NESH-ee-uhn(t)s\, noun:
Lack of knowledge or awareness; ignorance.
The ancients understood that too much knowledge could actually impede human functioning -- this at a time when the encroachments on global nescience were comparatively few.
-- Cullen Murphy, "DNA Fatigue", The Atlantic, November 1997
He fought on our behalf in the war that finally matters: against nescience, against inadvertence, against the supposition that anything is anything else.
-- Hugh Kenner, "On the Centenary of James Joyce", New York Times, January 31, 1982
The notion has taken hold that every barometric fluctuation must demonstrate climate change. This anecdotal case for global warming is mostly nonsense, driven by nescience of a basic point, from statistics and probability, that the weather is always weird somewhere.
-- Gregg Easterbrook, "Warming Up", The New Republic, November 8, 1999
Nescience is from Latin nescire, "not to know," from ne-, "not" + scire, "to know." It is related to science. Nescient is the adjective form.

_____________________________________________________________________

Contextualizing the Roots of Chutney Music
by
Dr. Ashford Maharaj
Finance Professor, Berkeley College, White Plains, NY

The birth of Chutney as an art form must be broadened to include a greater contextual comprehension of a more encompassing antecedent that has allowed chutney to become popular Trinidad and Caribbean art form. Writers of this newest Caribbean genre of music and lyrical content usually starts with the Ramdeo Chaitoe break-away melody followed by the Drupati's dancehall music utilizing a blending of the dholak and dhantall percussion instruments backed by the ever popular harmonium, at the all-night wedding farewell celebration. But in retrospect, these two Surinamese artists may have created an avalanche for the acceptance for Indo-Caribbean genre of music into the dancehalls and mainstream Caribbean cultural milieu and had set the tone of music that would challenge the hegemonic creolized music art form represented by rhythms of calypso. But a deeper understanding and a wider focus are necessary to add to the Chutney narrative which for so long has
missed some essential ingredients for a more profound and complete understanding of the seeds of Chutney music and the accompanying lyrical contents... READ MORE....

Tassa in Felicity, Trinidad
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YgWmdx8E8oY

Berbice Dance
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xiiG0HYaMy4

Petrotrin Boodoosingh Tassa Group in Queens, New York
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSjZEwKhU0A

Tassa Trini Style in Sunrise, Florida
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AS5cVbyG4JA

Ladies Only, at Indian Wedding, Trinidad
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ba_l2xwNzUk

Sylvan Bharat Tassa in Toronto, Canada
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9azGoTmQWA

Maticore in Aranguez, Trinidad: Dancing to Tassa
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKu5WIvPT1o

Tassa Wine at Hibiscus, NY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fYT-dGb1ccE

Tassa crew from NY Duck Curry Competition 08
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=egms1gITJtI

Dancing Tassa - Maticoor Night, El Dorado, Trinidad
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9r2I-3Dvog

Indian Arrival moves to Tobago
Friday, May 1 2009
TOBAGO seems well poised to become the newest centre of Chutney music in the country with the news just coming to hand that the sister isle is the place to be for Indian Arrival weekend.

Word is that a number of resorts, restaurant and entertainment centres have joined together to ensure that for the first time in its history, the island's upscale tourism-based facilities will be especially geared to cater for the needs of Trinidadian chutney fans.

In the face of this year's cancellation of the Plymouth Jazz Festival, some new entertainment products are being developed. So, in 2009, a programme-set being touted as the biggest chutney event to be staged on the island begins with a series of fringe shows from midweek, mostly at facilities in those areas between the airport at the southwestern end of the island and the seaport in Scarborough. Commemorating 164 years since the arrival of indentured labourers from the Indian subcontinent, the series of celebrations climax with two major shows carded for the Indian Arrival holiday on May 30 and 31.

These are planned for Crown Point, the epicentre of tourism in Tobago and home of what is arguably the safest carnival celebration in the entire country.

As was the case earlier this year, the streets of Crown Point, the nation' tourism capital will once again reverberate with the sound of sweet music, this time bringing the infectious and pulsating sounds of chutney closer to the island's centre stage. In a release to the media, one of the prime movers involved in staging the event - Crown Point-based Culture Brand Promotions touted the event as "the biggest indo-Trinbagonian cultural extravaganza ever held in the country."

According to spokesperson for the group - Junie Beharry, what is on offer is "a multi-faceted, family edu-tainment spectacle." She outlined that an official ceremony begins early on the morning of May 30, with a re-enactment of the 1845 arrival of the Fatel Razack.

"Thereafter, the festivities will swing into high gear with an impressive array of chutney and soca stars and a diverse serving of local culture - dance, food and music featuring the nation's creme de la creme," said Beharry, a former dancer with Michael Salickram's Shiv Shakti Dance Company.

Beharry continued: "What is being presented at this mammoth explosion of visual, performing and culinary arts is a spectacular historical event, the likes of which has never been seen on the island.

It offers patrons great Tobagonian hospitality and food and marries authentic Tobagonian culture such as the tambrin and the speech band with main stream soca, chutney, African drumming, tassa and, limbo performed by some of the nation's leading exponents."

Aptly titled "Hotter Than A Chulha," this is a highly spiced, pot pourri that will cook-up different cultural genres indigenous to both islands, resulting in several firsts. Pulsating tassa rhythms will engage for the first time in artistic marriage with the soul piercing Tambrin drumming with the oral traditions of the Tobago speech bands locking horns with Trinidadian rapso. In addition to an impressive line-up of chutney and soca performers, the programme will feature a tassa carnival, curry duck competition, chutney dance contest, an event queen and all-fours tournament.

"This is a very historic occasion and we are hoping that as many people as possible can be a part of it. We are inviting all of Trinidad and the peoples of the region, to come to Tobago and savour this moment in history," she said.

Groups wanting to take the trip over but who are unable to make their own arrangements for accommodation or in-land transportation, can email cultrabrandpromo@gmail.com, or telephone 868 399 0025 and 774 8895.

http://www.newsday.co.tt/features/0,99437.html

____________________________________________________________

President Jagdeo lauds inner strength of indentured Indians
HEAD of State President Bharrat Jagdeo has noted that it is important to know the history of the struggles of our ancestors and has urged Guyanese to work together to help build the country.

He made this remark yesterday when he joined scores of Guyanese to celebrate the 171st anniversary of the Arrival of East Indians to Guyana at the Joe Vieira Park, West Bank Demerara.

The traditional event hosted by the Indian Religious Cultural and Social Organisation of West Demerara for the 22nd year featured a display of various aspects of Indian culture on stage, including tassa drumming, Indian traditional and film songs and dances, and viewing of floats depicting the rich cultural heritage of East Indians, with booths displaying a variety of Indian dishes and clothing, and other items along with other attractions for the entire family.

The Head of State said, " hope as we get together and enjoy this beautiful culture that was brought from a distant part of the world, from India by our ancestors, that we take time to appreciate this gathering and all that the culture demands of us."

Noting that it is not just about song, dance and music, he stated, "It is also about the inner strength of the people who first came to this country, because they had to have that inner strength to survive the ravages of the difficult path that they undertook.".... READ MORE....

____________ _________ _________ _________ _________ _________ _
"jahaj" = ship; "desi" = Indian
"JahajeeDesi" = The Indians who crossed the Kala Pani by ship,
the Indentured Indian Immigrants, and their descendants.
http://www.JahajeeDesi.com
For Free Subscription to this Newsletter, or to Join the JahajeeDesi
YAHOO Group, or to contribute News, Letters, Essays, Reviews,
Send Mail to: CCDSJ@yahoo. com

Indian civilisation - Worthy of emulation

2009-05-16T21:31:00.002-05:00

Indian civilisation - Worthy of emulation

Robert Buddan

THE MONTH of May is significant for Indians in the Caribbean. It is the month in which Indians first arrived (in different years) in Guyana, Trinidad and Jamaica. CARICOM is, in reality, a largely Afro-Asian region. Indians are the largest ethnic groups in Guyana, Trinidad and Suriname and a smaller proportion in Belize. Their arrival constituted the most significant cultural redefinition of the Caribbean after European and African arrivals. Their cultural impact is now well known. Indians arrived as labourers, and it is significant that in this month Jamaica also celebrates Labour Day.

The occasion of Indian arrival gives cause each year to reassess Indian civilisation in its many homes and diasporas. Home and diaspora can engage in a new Caribbean arrival sharing advances in their civilisations. No other westerner has attracted as much controversy over the value of Indian civilisation than Vidia Naipaul, the Caribbean's Nobel laureate and most well known of all Indo-Caribbean persons. Naipaul was a great writer but a poor 'reader'. He misread Indian civilisation because he saw it as a failure much as Victorians saw it. He would have great difficulty explaining India's reputation as a rising power and a reawakened civilisation today.

NAIPAUL AND WOUNDED CIVILISATION

The titles of two of Naipaul's books, An Area of Darkness (1964) and India: A Wounded Civilization (1977), capture his tragic misunderstanding of India. His basic argument was that India's plight stemmed from conquer and Hinduism. Muslim conquest in the 16th century had vandalised Indian culture and Hinduism had acquiesced to it. Hindu philosophy, he believed, was defeatist because its concept of karma caused its people to accept their fate, including their poverty.

Naipaul thought the karmic principle of living and reliving predestined fate made India's civilisation stagnant. Progress was hopeless. India could only imitate. It could not innovate. Conquest had inflicted such a psychic wound to produce a wounded civilisation lacking the national confidence to fight off invasion and humiliation. Rather than fighting back, it withdrew. Gandhi's philosophy of non-violence was symptomatic of this tendency to retreat and withdraw into inner consciousness.

Naipaul wrote good literature but poor history. Historians now agree on the richness of Indian culture, its multi-religiosity, multi-ethnic democracy, and cross-fertilisation of Hindu, Muslim, and western civilisations into nationalism with a mission. India is now in the throes of one of the contemporary world's great transformations and has been (next to China) the fastest growing economy in the world for the past 15 years.

INDIAN REBIRTH

About a quarter of the visas the United States gives out to foreign professionals go to Indian computer scientists. Its age-old philosophical tradition shows its appetite for wisdom, leading in turn to knowledge of grammar, logic, numerals and the decimal system. These are the founding ingredients of the modern digital age and digital economy. It is the basis of the Indian sciences that drive its numerous industries.

India is known for its poverty but its science and industry are changing that image. Its middle class has doubled to 20 per cent in the last ten years and will reach 50 per cent by 2025. Its poverty level has been cut from 40 per cent a few decades ago to 20 per cent now. Its Human Development Index improved by 23 per cent between 1985 and 2000. Indians now live nine years longer and improvements in child mortality saves 1 million children a year from the death they would have suffered in the 1980s. Naipaul could not have predicted any of this.

CARIBBEAN INDO-CIVILISATION

Indian philosophy has had a different impact in Jamaica. In Hindu Influences on Rastafarianism (1985), Professor Ajai and Laxmi Mansingh argue that Jamaica's now globally popular Rastafarian culture owes more to Indian cultural and religious influence than to Garveyism, Ethiopianism, or biblical Zionism. The presence of Indians in Jamaica with their own culture and religion, they argue, caused the poor Afro-Jamaicans to wonder why they did not have their own.

Afro-Jamaicans adopted the Indian holy herb (ganja, a Hindi word), the phrase, 'Jah' (a corruption of Jai), long hairstyle with locks (Jatavi, which preceded the Rastafarian practice), vegetarianism, God-incarnates (human-like intermediaries with the spirit world), nature-living, communal living, and certain aspects of male-female relations.

The founder of the movement, Leonard Howell, had even changed his name to Gangunju Mahraj (meaning 'knowledgeable' and 'virtuous').

Naipaul thought the Caribbean was a region of 'mimic men' with no culture of its own. But we now have ample evidence of the creative religions, music, language, literature, foods, and the richness of hybridisation. We still do not have the sciences of India, its distinct architecture, ancient nationalism, or human and manufacturing industry but we have great potential for our distinct cultural industries, regional cooperation, sports, democracies, education and productive diaspora.

THE NEXT ARRIVAL

India and China have proven that western culture and democracy do not provide the only routes to development. Investments in human resources and science and technology are critical. The Vice Chancellor of the UWI says that CARICOM spends only 0.08 per cent of its GDP on research and development. India, China, South Africa, Brazil, South Korea, Cuba, and Malaysia are some of the S&T powerhouses of the future.

It is to these countries that we must turn for relevant technology in energy, agriculture, medicine, and education and culture.

It is in these areas that the new India and the new China, and indeed a revitalised Afro-Asian and Latin American-Caribbean partnership, can help to lift many countries in the next wave of development. The philosophy 'we are with the west' is as moribund as Naipaul's limited horizons. Our new globalist philosophy must be 'we are with the world'.

Indians have had two historic arrivals in the Caribbean. The first was the arrival of indentured labourers between 1838 and 1917. The second was the arrival of medical and commercial business interests after 1945.

We must now plan the third arrival. This must be in science and technology, education and culture, trade and investments.

PROGRESSIVE FUTURE

Caribbean immigration brought in pirate adventurers, sugar planters, uneducated labour and small import traders whose culture reflects their suppressed histories. We did not receive scientists, industrialists, scholars, architects, and investors. We need to change this to create a progressive future. In March this year, President Bush visited India and signed a US$30 million agreement to establish a commission on science and technology between the two countries. India is an important player in biotechnology, computer science, synthetic chemicals, and pharmaceuticals, among others.

The Indian government now intends to spend more to fill a hole in western investments in water, biomass, solar energy, and agricultural science in ways that create jobs in rural India. We can benefit from these kinds of technology.

We can attract new generations of young scientists following the U.S. by granting special visas, establishing offshore schools and a commission on science, technology and development. Globalisation cannot simply be the 'McDonalds' form of consumerist globalisation. It must have real meaning to people's lives.

The contradiction of the Caribbean, as Naipaul pointed out, was between the narrowness of island life and the cosmopolitan ambitions and tastes of our people.

We can go abroad to find that cosmopolitanism but we can bring it here as well. We remain incomplete as a region. If we are going to mimic and borrow, let us borrow what is relevant and progressive from people who know science and technology.

Robert Buddan is a lecturer in the Department of Government at the University of the West Indies. Email him at robert.buddan@uwimona.edu.jm

http://www.jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20060521/focus/focus5.html

THE FIRST CROSSING Being the Diary of Theophilus Richmond

2009-05-16T21:03:00.001-05:00

THE FIRST CROSSING
Being the Diary of Theophilus Richmond,
Ship’s Surgeon aboard the Hesperus, 1837-8
Edited by David Dabydeen, Jonathan Morley, Brinsley Samaroo, Amar Wahab & Brigid Wells
Derek Walcott Press Books
978-1-906038-01-4

Even babies crossed the Kala Pani!
"Besides the regular crew there are now 170 Coolies including 7 women and 11 children, one of the lattter tribe being only a forthight old...."

....and they gave the babies RUM!
"...the child who survived and who is not yet four years old, took within the space of 16 hours, the entire contents of a teacup full of strong Rum....."
They ate one meal per day while on the voyage across the Kala Pani:
"... when they all sit in the peculiar manner that I have already described in two long double rows, each with his brass dish and drinking cup before him andbusily employed in shovelling an extensive and recherche Olla Podrida of Rice, Saltfish, Peas, Tumeric, Chillis, Tamarinds, etc into their unbeleiving stomachs. It is their custom to take only one meal a day, but that one is most voluminious...."
They suffered immensely, some did not survive the journey:
"...I was called out to see one of the Coolies who had been suddenly taken ill....I soon discovered to my horror and consternation that I was looking at a genuine case of Indian Cholera, and cholera in one of its most aggravated shapes... Altho' his body was cold as ice from head to foot, he was continually crying out from the overpowering sensation of internal heat, the intense violence of which was but too clearly indicated by the parched lips and blackened tongue with their miserable concomitant of raging thirst....on Wednesay there were 7 deaths...on Thursday there were 4 seizures and 2 deaths....and 6 more fell victims by the following Sunday..... one untoward event occured a few days since in the suicide of an unfortunate Coolie..who threw himseld into the sea...the violence and size of the waves that were rolling around must have destroyed him almost immediately...."
From THE FIRST CROSSING,
Being the Diary of Theophilus Richmond, Ship's surgeon aboard the HESPERUS, 1837-38 (HESPERUS brought the first Indian Immigrants to the Caribbean).
Edited by David Dabydeen, Brinsley Samaroo, Jonathan Morley, Amar Wahab & Brigid Wells.
The newly discovered diary of the first journey in the trade in Indentured Indians, which saw half a million laborers shipped from India to the Caribbean plantations between 1838 and 1917. Hundreds of thousands more Indians were also sent to Mauritius, Fiji, and Africa.
~~~~~~

The First Crossing, the diary of British surgeon Theophilus Richmond who sailed on the first ship, Hesperus that brought indentured labourers from Calcutta, India to Georgetown was launched at Le Meridien Pegasus.
The book which was published by the Derek Walcott Press is the brainchild of Guyanese writer, Professor David Dabydeen who teamed up with Professor Brinsley Samaroo, Jonathan Morley, Amar Wahab and Brigid Wells to edit the book. Speaking at the launching last evening, Dabydeen said it took them close to three years to complete the book.
He recalled how he was introduced to Richmond’s diary, noting that it was very enlightening to see the first written account of Indian existence in Guyana. Professor Dabydeen said they did extensive work in putting the book together, recalling the hours of research and editing that was done.
Former Deputy Vice Chancellor of the University of Guyana Al Creighton who did an analysis of the book last evening said it was profound and timely. Creighton added that the book has made an important contribution to scholarship and he recommended it as a book to be read.
The diary chronicles Dr Richmond’s journey from Liverpool, England in June 1837 to Mauritius, to Calcutta, India and from Calcutta on January 29, 1838 to Guyana.
Richmond died two months after arriving in Demerara, Guyana on May 5, 1838 of yellow fever at the age of 23. His presence onboard the Hesperus was as a result of being employed by John Gladstone, father of the then British prime Minister who wanted labour from India to replace the ex-slaves on his sugar plantation on the West Demerara. Over 100 Indians started the journey but not all made it through.
Dabydeen said they have compiled a list of the immigrants on that first voyage, which would be made available for research purposes.

On the Nature of Love; One Day in Spring...; My Polar Star; Unending Love

2009-05-15T23:01:00.002-05:00

On the Nature of Love

The night is black and the forest has no end;
a million people thread it in a million ways.
We have trysts to keep in the darkness, but where
or with whom - of that we are unaware.
But we have this faith - that a lifetime's bliss
will appear any minute, with a smile upon its lips.
Scents, touches, sounds, snatches of songs
brush us, pass us, give us delightful shocks.
Then peradventure there's a flash of lightning:
whomever I see that instant I fall in love with.
I call that person and cry: `This life is blest!
for your sake such miles have I traversed!'
All those others who came close and moved off
in the darkness - I don't know if they exist or not.

~Rabindranath Tagore

One Day in Spring...

One day in spring, a woman came
In my lonely woods,
In the lovely form of the Beloved.
Came, to give to my songs, melodies,
To give to my dreams, sweetness.
Suddenly a wild wave
Broke over my heart's shores
And drowned all language.
To my lips no name came,
She stood beneath the tree, turned,
Glanced at my face, made sad with pain,
And with quick steps, came and sat by me.
Taking my hands in hers, she said:
'You do not know me, nor I you--
I wonder how this could be?'
I said:
'We two shall build, a bridge for ever
Between two beings, each to the other unknown,
This eager wonder is at the heart of things.'

The cry that is in my heart is also the cry of her heart;
The thread with which she binds me binds her too.
Her have I sought everywhere,
Her have I worshipped within me,
Hidden in that worship she has sought me too.
Crossing the wide oceans, she came to steal my heart.
She forgot to return, having lost her own.
Her own charms play traitor to her,
She spreads her net, knowing not
Whether she will catch or be caught.

~Rabindranath Tagore

My Polar Star

I have made You the polar star of my
existence; never again can I lose my way in the
voyage of life.

Wherever I go, You are always there to
shower your benefience all around me. Your face
is ever present before my mind's eyes.

If I lose sight of You even for a moment, I
almost lose my mind.

Whenever my heart is about to go astray, just
a glance of You makes it feel ashamed of itself.

~Rabindranath Tagore

Unending Love

I seem to have loved you in numberless forms, numberless times...
In life after life, in age after age, forever.
My spellbound heart has made and remade the necklace of songs,
That you take as a gift, wear round your neck in your many forms,
In life after life, in age after age, forever.

Whenever I hear old chronicles of love, it's age old pain,
It's ancient tale of being apart or together.
As I stare on and on into the past, in the end you emerge,
Clad in the light of a pole-star, piercing the darkness of time.
You become an image of what is remembered forever.

You and I have floated here on the stream that brings from the fount.
At the heart of time, love of one for another.
We have played along side millions of lovers,
Shared in the same shy sweetness of meeting,
the distressful tears of farewell,
Old love but in shapes that renew and renew forever.

~Rabindranath Tagore

...there must be spirit of tolerance in the entire population

2009-05-15T22:21:00.001-05:00

"Laws alone can not secure freedom of expression; in order that every man present his views without penalty there must be spirit of tolerance in the entire population."

* Albert Einstein

Caribbean-Flavoured Presbyterianism: Education as a Prescription for Socio-Political Development, by Dr. Jerome Teelucksingh

2009-05-12T21:05:00.003-05:00

Jerome Teelucksingh, Caribbean-Flavoured Presbyterianism: Education as a Prescription for Socio-Political Development, 1868-2008
(St. Augustine: UWI School of Continuing Studies, 2008), 244 pages.

In June of 1923 the recently arrived catechist for the area of Woodbrook and St. James, (on the outskirts of Port of Spain) John Neehall, father of the late well-known Rev. Dr. Roy Neehall penned a plaintive letter to the Secretary of the Canadian Mission Council in Trinidad. Writing from his home at 25 Pole Carew St in Woodbrook, Neehall recounted the good work which he had started among the population which came from barracks in Bombay St, Nipal St, Cawnpore St, Mooneram St, Benares St and many other streets whereto the Indians had brought their ancestral names and fragments of their ancient civilisation. Under Neehall’s leadership there had developed a vibrant Sunday school , active Hindi and Bible classes as well as Sunday and mid-week services. The nearby Woodbrook Canadian Mission School was close to overcrowding, having already taken in just over 300 pupils and a complement of teachers. In view of this progress, Neehall saw all the “signs of a bright future”. Despite this promise, however, Neehall went on to tell of the tremendous inconvenience which he and his family of ten had to face. This is how he described his catechist’s residence:

The house we live in is a small, low roofed house
covered with galvanize, dark and hot like an oven in the day.
When working out I often picture to find on return home, a
baked wife instead of a baked roti… We have no privacy.
No bathing place. The only way for my wife and grown-up
daughters to get a wash, they must get up at 3 or 4 o’clock
in the morning and get under the pipe. We will soon forget
how to bathe.

Demonstrating a good sense of humour despite these appalling conditions Neehall wrote of “having to rough it like steerage passengers on the deck of a miserable ship” and of experiencing what life was like in a “perfect narak” (hell). Another catechist in the Sangre Grande area told of his having to carry the Canadian missionaries on his back as they forded the streams of Cunaripo and Fishing Pond. Very few of these early pioneer Presbyterians lived to see any personal rewards in their lifetime but as the products of a high civilization, they had all been intellectually prepared to invest in the present so that future generations could prosper. And how well has that investment paid off!

This in a nutshell, is the story of which Jerome Teelucksingh has attempted to unravel. The book is 244 pages long and it covers wide panoply of the work of the Canadian Missionaries in Trinidad and their further movement from here to British Guiana, Grenada, Jamaica and St. Lucia. In this sense it is the first work to deal with the Presbyterian conversion and education campaign in the circum-Caribbean area. And there are rare pictures of the early churches in Essequibo and Berbice. Let us now look briefly at some of the themes which stand out in the text. Perhaps the most important has been the fact that the Canadian Missionaries provided a bridge between the West and the East, enabling a few hundred thousands to enter the dominant Western culture into which they had come from India. Enabling this process in a relatively short space of time, was the softer Imperialism of the Canadians. Unlike the British or the French imperials, the Canadians did not attempt to wipe out the transported cultures from Asia but sought rather to learn more about these cultures and armed with this knowledge, they sought to use Orientalism as the vehicle for the transference of Western, Christian civilisation which the missionaries genuinely believed to be superior to all other cultures. The missionaries therefore kept close contact with the Scottish Presbyterians in India from whom they received regular supplies of books and less regular supplies of Canadians who had worked in the India missions. The Canadians in Trinidad established their Hindi press at Aram Alya in Tunapuna where they produced Geet Mala (a garland of songs) and Ratna Mala (a garland of jewels). They learnt Hindi so that they could meet the Indians on their own terms and they encouraged the use of Hindi words to express Christian meanings. In this way the communion bread becomes Jewan ki Roti (the bread of life) and the Good News of Christianity became Su Samachar Presbyterian Church. The novelist V.S Naipaul makes great fun of the Presbyterian converts and this text is rich with those excerpts as well as the creative accounts of this process in the novels of Sam Selvon, Ramabai Espinet and Shani Mootoo. In its outreach to the Indo-Caribbean society the Canadian missionaries went into then uncharted territory in far-off rural areas to which the Indians, as rural people themselves, had gone after the end of their indentureship. In this way they opened forest settlements in Biche, Coromandel, Siparia Old Road and Inner Mafeking. In these areas they opened up churches and schools enabling many thousands to rise from the plantations to the professions. For those young Presbyterians who wished to join the teaching service but could not afford the expense of a secondary education, the Canadians offered the Monitor system (first tried in India) whereby young people could ascend the scale through teachers’ exams and end up for final qualification at the Naparima Teachers’ Training College. In this way a large cadre of very competent teachers were produced by teaching whilst they learnt to be better teachers. Today we call that on-the-job-training. Dr. Teelucksingh spent time in interviewing many such educators in an excellent demonstration of the techniques of oral history!

This book gives constant evidence of the then and present on-going dialectic regarding the purpose of the Canadian mission and later, the Trinidad Presbyterian Church. On the one hand there was the Evangel school led by John Morton, the first missionary, who was of the firm view that the mission’s purpose was conversion to Christianity and the destruction of all vestiges of Hinduism and Islam. Equally powerful was the emphasis on education rather than conversion, led by Kenneth Grant, the second missionary, who came in 1870. Whilst Morton subsequently encouraged the recruitment of the preacher types, Grant emphasized the teacher types and there was always conflict between the two schools of thought. The Indians, as eager lookers-on, were staunchly in favour of Grant and his pedagogues, which explains the long tours of very eminent scholars such as Dr. Coffin, Dr. Kemp, Rev. Swann, Rev. Weldon Grant and Dr. Arthur Dayfoot. The predominance of the educational thrust was also evidenced in the founding of carefully constructed institutions like Naparima College, the Teachers’ Training College, Hillview College, St. Augustine Girls High School and Iere High School. Iere was the first co-educational high-school in Trinidad (1955) and its success under Weldon Grant provided the model for the establishment of co-educational schools in Trinidad and Tobago.

In similar fashion when the Hindu and Muslim faiths were belatedly allowed to build their own schools from 1948, the majority of the educators there were people who had been trained in the Presbyterian schools. Most of these persons took with them the discipline and the love for learning which their religions enjoin, traits shared in full measure by the Scottish Canadian educators who formed the vanguard of the missionaries’ educational thrust. At the same time, the book’s author points out there was the presence of the moral education advocated by Morton and his school of thought. This was the logic behind the formation of the Presbyterian Theological College in 1897, now St Andrews Theological College. Through the operation of this dialectic, moral education was made to accompany the academic so that a healthy value system, nurtured through religion, became the hallmark of the graduate of these institutions. As Dr. Teelucksingh clearly demonstrates, this combination of academic and moral education has been exemplified in the rich harvest of academic excellence from the Presbyterian institutions and from other denominational schools which mix moral education with reading, writing ad arithmetic.

But the book is not without its faults. The author is so full of praise for the Canadians and for Presbyterians, that like most Presbyterians, he pays insufficient attention to some other aspects of the Canadian presence. There is only a passing reference to Morton’s other work as agent for the Cadbury chain of chocolate producers. We need to know more about “Morton forest” in Balandra where the reverend gentleman had a large cocoa plantation. We need to know more about the manner in which the Grant family became heavily involved in acquiring lands with oil rights in South Trinidad or of the rise of firms like T. Geddes Grant as one of Trinidad’s major importers/exporters, insurance brokers and bankers. These were the missionary children who brought us Canadian pianos, Brunswick sardines, smoked herrings and salt-fish. For them God was good but trade was better. Was there any truth to Rev. Scrimgeour’s claim that some of the young Canadian men were setting a bad example in their ways with young East Indian women? We have also to consider the disappointment of hundreds of young Hindus or Muslims who despite their show of much academic promise had to revert to the cane-field because they refused to convert to Presbyterianism if they were to gain employment. Presbyterian history is littered with these examples and we must record these too if the story is to be complete. Jerome has done his bit, others must now take up the story. And these other studies should more fully document the work of the Hindu and Muslim organisations.

What then, can be said of this Caribbean-Flavoured Presbyterianism? Here is a good example of identity history, where a person tries to find his own and his community’s place in the development of this Caribbean space. One would have expected the author to prepare for publication his Ph.D thesis which traced the development of the trade union movement in Trinbago. That is a thorough piece of work. But this was more urgent; the Presbyterian personality had to be explored firstly and all other things would be added later. The book is also contemporary history, chronicling a Church’s past but equally, bringing the story right down to the present. There are educational statistics for as recently as 2005 and charts explain the Church’s structure as they currently exist.

Dr. Teelucksingh has garnered information from sages who are still with us: Foster Bissessar, Stephen and Birla Seepersad, Dorinda Sampath, Zalayhar Hassanali and Canadian pioneers such as Dr. Art Dayfoot and Rev. Geraldine Reid to name a few. Others like Ralph Laltoo and Roy Mootoo he caught just in time but their testimonies remain. In the case of those who are alive, it is good that, in the evening of their fruitful service, they be reminded of the crucial roles they played. We must learn to recognise achievers whilst they are still amongst us to respond to this type of scholarship. For those of us who teach and guide research, this book is a god-send on the Presbyterian experience, filled with information culled from a wide variety of sources here and abroad as well as an accurate and exhaustive bibliography. The photographs are a rare mixture of Canadian, Guyanese and Trinidad depictions, giving flesh to the detailed narration. The conclusions to which the author frequently arrives will no doubt give rise to further contention but it is in such contention- the dialectic once again- that new ideas are created for the continuing forward movement of society. The UWI School of Continuing Studies must be congratulated for the high-quality technical production of the work and for their persistence in bringing new work to the fore; it is high time that we learn to paddle our own canoes.

Professor Brinsley Samaroo,
Senior Research Fellow,
University of Trinidad and Tobago.

Calcutta ( KOLKATTA) - an aging diva, as parochial as it is modern

2009-05-03T11:06:00.003-05:00

Visiting Kalighat Temple in Kolkatta (Calcutta) was one of the VERY few highlights in this city; otherwise, I found the city to be most depressing - poverty, squalor, Bangladeshis and others in the worst slums I've ever seen; grimy buildings, city looked extremely OLD and rundown; gridlocked traffic in a cab without air-con; I could hardly eat anything in the hotel and outdoors. I left after 3 days - took the express train outa there, on a 12-hour hour journey through Bengal, Jharkand, Bihar, and Uttar Pradesh, where I stayed for a few days in Varanasi. Somini Sengupta's sympathetic description of Calcutta, with the expert eye of one who lived there, is a sad tale of a city bursting at the seams, unable to cater for some of the poorest in the world, but yet there is hope and optimism..............

"FOR the traveler with limited time, the best way to explore Calcutta is roughly to trace the route of the Hooghly, meandering on and off the main thoroughfares by foot, tram and subway, known here as the Metro. This is not a luxury destination. It is more a journey through the grimy layers of time. History is inscribed on every lane, like tattoos on an aging diva. Calcutta was once quite a diva...............................................

South Calcutta has two attractions, and they are worth exploring by Metro. The Kalighat Temple is a tableau of faith, blood and hustle. Devotees prostrate themselves before the dark goddess, goats meet their death and touts, some in holy men’s garb, home in on tourists. The poor squat on the street at lunchtime, for a bowl of rice. It is hard to imagine a worse fate than to be poor in Calcutta. Hunger still stalks the city............................................................

In Calcutta, people get used to deprivation and turn it into a virtue,” he concluded. Then he paused, offering a peephole into the soul of Calcutta. “I’m saying all these dreadful things about my city. But I love living here.”