By Prior Beharry
THE community of East Indian Indentured servants who arrived in Trinidad and Tobago 178 years ago has contributed to the creation of a modern T&T.
This according to Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley on the occasion of Indian Arrival Day 2023 being celebrated on Tuesday.
He said, “The community’s contributions to the creation of modern Trinidad and Tobago could be identified visibly in medicine, law, the sciences, engineering, literature, arts, manufacturing, in the successful family businesses in the services sector, and in the highest levels of public service.
“I maintain that there is no contradiction, between a person recognizing his or her ancestral heritage, on one hand, and pledging unwavering support to the nation-state of Trinidad and Tobago, on the other.”
Dr Rowley said all citizens need to mobilise and focus on collective efforts and hopes for a better T&T.
He said, “Although there was the option of returning to India, after five years on the sugar plantation, they endured the prolonged experience of suffering and sacrifice.
“They were managed under a system of criminal laws, designed to keep them under control.
“They, however, responded with strategies of solidarity and maintained their connection to their religion and their ancestral culture.
“Today, this community can boast of its contribution to our nation-state. The peasant, agricultural skills of the early immigrants were passed on to succeeding generations.”
Dr Rowley recognised Professor of History Dr Brinsley Samaroo whom, he said, documented the abhorrence of both the Indian and African experiences, under British colonial rule.
He said, “It must be acknowledged that the thousands of immigrants, leaving their homes in India, for various reasons, would have held varying degrees of fear, yet there was the anticipation of a better life, only to be confronted with many tricks and trials.”
Dr Rowley said, “Fellow Citizens, let us all recognise that we are all first and foremost Trinidadians and Tobagonians, a melting pot of varying characteristics, attitudes and mannerisms – with a mentality and temperament that are all, in the main, cheerful, fun-loving and positive, which make us a mighty people of unlimited talents and endless potential.
“Our identity may have been fashioned by two distinct elements of history but today we strive together, day by day, towards a brighter future — a people reaching for their national watch-words of Discipline, Production and Tolerance.”
