Indian High Commissioner to T&T: Kamla Reflects Indian Values
In this interview with Malay Mishra, Indian High Commissioner to T&T, Ira Mathur gets India's perspective on this 165th anniversary of Indian Arrival Day which commemorates the arrival of the first Indian Indentured labourers from India to Trinidad, in May 1845, on the ship Fatel Razack.
Q: One-hundred and sixty-five years is a long time since Indians left India...arrived here. How have the cultures diverged and how have they remained the same?
A: When I came to Trinidad a year ago I knew that Indian culture here was a part of Trinidad's multi cultural background. The Indian culture you see in India today is not the same as the Indian culture of T&T. It can't be. This Indian culture is evolving in a foreign space, physically separated by thousands of miles in a different time zone. There are bound to be differences but the core aspects of Indian culture–religion, rituals festivals, ways of life, food, dress, behavioural patterns–have remained the same, but become a part of a different canvas having interacted with other cultures in this space. The African culture also had a distinct Western Christian input from the dominant colonial culture.
There was pressure for those who arrived here to conform to the dominant culture by getting into Christian run missionary schools to get a Christian influence. The culture that was imported from India UP and Bihar integrated yet initially remained distinct as it was marginalised, perceived as inferior in the eyes of the dominant christian colonial led culture. That has changed. Today Indian culture has integrated into this multi cultural plural society through Indian food, philosophy, academia, artefacts, entertainment, business, and values. I see an element of Indian cultures in all ethnic groups living here. Similarly, Indians here absorb other cultures and that's apparent. This lends beauty to this society.
Unlike Suriname or Fiji, Trinidad Indians have lost the language of their origins. What impact has this had, positively or negatively, on this society?
Language is integral to societies. Indian culture has retained its values, but the language, the Avadhi Bhojpuri dialect from the Northern Bihar and Eastern UP has disappeared over a period of time. By contrast in Suriname or Fiji the culture and language has evolved simultaneously.
There should have been, by now, a Trini Bhojpuri or Hindi. Indo Trini entertainers are mixing English lyrics to old Hindi film songs. But knowledge of Hindi could only enhance their craft. Hindi was lost due to the influence of Presbyterians who determined that in order for Indians to get education for children in their schools, and later to get mainstream jobs they had to forgo their ancestral language and learn English. This was done at the cost of their ancestral language.
India also had Christian missionaries. And colonialisation. We didn't lose it because language remained part of our family and community ethos which was not surrendered.
To what extent has the East Indian population of the Caribbean affected Indo/Trinidad relations?
The Indian government categorises two types of Diaspora. The first is the Person of Indian Origen who is absorbed into other societies which the majority of Trinidad Indians fall into, and the other is the Non Resident Indian who is a recent �migr�. The Diaspora can connect with contemporary India, an upcoming power, a 1.3 trillion dollar economy, enjoying eight per cent growth even in tough economic times. There can be a transfer of technology in every possible area. For instance, take your flooding problem. The Caroni River is below sea level. There is no system of flushing out waters; critical base where food can be grown is lost.
Our engineers can work with yours to build embankments, dams, and harvest rainwater as we do in India for six months. Similarly, in Information and Communication technology, India is a leader with nearly 500 million users. Your phones are expensive and you need to develop more broadband capacity to be competitive if you are to be the hub of business in the Caribbean. Indian companies can help Trinidad get there.
Indian Arrival Day had big importance such as parades in 1995 when we got the holiday. This enthusiasm seems to have dwindled somewhat.
I see this as a national holiday which all sections of society enjoy. Not meant for Indians as such. People of Indian origin here are integrated into this plural society. There is no longer marginalisation. By virtue of their hard work, Indo Trinidadians have played a role in projecting themselves as patriotic, qualified, open minded, modern, citizens with a global outlook. This upwardly mobile status gives them a certain clout, makes them less reticent and allows them to be contribute to this society while retaining their ancestral values.
What do you make of a woman of Indian descent becoming Prime Minister and taking the oath of office with a Bhagvat Gita?
It was a sublime moment to watch Kamla Persad-Bissessar to become part of history not just as the first woman prime minister of this country but the only woman of Indian origin outside India to achieve this distinction. I don't think of the Bhagvat Gita as a religious text, limited as the copyright of Hindus but a universal text, a philosophy, a universally applicable way of life. Simply put, it is a question and answer session over several sittings between a teacher and student out of which a whole system of philosophy evolves.
It was a noble moment. Not because the new Prime Minister of T&T is of Indian origin but because she has broken so many taboos of society, of hierarchical male dominated systems. It is a historic, evolutionary, and revolutionary moment. In her victory speech Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar was saying that the universe belongs to all of us, and is not broken into races, allegiances and classes. This is a philosophy that India has given the world for millennia and reflects the Indian values in her.