Speaking as chief guest at a seminar on the Indian Diaspora in the Caribbean at the Learning Resource Centre, Dr Lenny Saith noted that "Trinidad and Tobago will continue to be a supporter of India, but the Caribbean is home to the Indian diaspora."
Dr Saith further noted that there remain challenges for Indians seeking to integrate in Caribbean society while maintaining their culture. The two statements were appropriately mild and suitably political in nature, but they reference much deeper issues that have become increasingly relevant to the descendants of those who crossed the Kala Pani from their motherland. India celebrated its 62nd anniversary of independence last weekend and in an interview with the Guardian, new Indian High Commissioner Malay Mishra found much to salute in the strides that T&T has made since its own independence.
"Once, India imported food back in the early 1960s," Mr Mishra noted. "That is no longer so, as today we grow more rice, lentils etc, and have become self-sustainable. I can see that happening here because Trinidad has the water, land and labour, we could do something here that is similar to what we had in India, our Green Revolution."
While T&T's agricultural efforts are still in their earliest stages of revival, the nation's capacity for appreciation of the culture that India has bequeathed us continues to soar, particularly in comparison to the experience of the Indian diaspora throughout the Caribbean region. At the Indian Diaspora seminar, Wilber Adams, president of the Indo-Grenada Heritage Foundation, was so overcome by emotion recalling his experiences in that country that he broke down and could not continue with his contribution. According to Mr Adams, the 3,200 Indian immigrants who arrived in Grenada between 1857 and 1890 were immediately Christianised. Through intermarriage and name changes, the Indian presence in Grenada, subject to insults and ridicule, was assimilated. Prof Ajai Mansingh spoke of the dearth of knowledge of Indian culture among the current generation of Indo-Jamaicans, despite the fundamental changes to the diet that the Indian presence made on Jamaican culture.
Patrick Dial, a professor from Guyana, noted that for two centuries the Indians of Guyana had fought off efforts to ridicule their culture. But the persistent influence of the Indian presence and culture throughout the Caribbean region has steadily won its place and respect in even the most difficult circumstances. "Time," an old T&T saying goes, "is longer than twine." Over time, the threads of the Indo-Caribbean presence have become inextricably woven into the fabric of the nations of the region. In Barbados, the national fast food chain Chefette includes roti on its menu. It isn't an offering that would be immediately recognisable to the finest purveyors of this tasty meal in the heartlands of Caroni or Penal, but its listing alongside fried chicken and hamburgers acknowledges the undeniable strength of the Indian presence in the region. These acknowledgements of Indian culture pale when compared to the experience of the diaspora in Suriname, where Indian culture was actively encouraged and to this day Hindi and Urdu remain a common, if endangered, language among the descendants of the indentured labourers who landed there.
Such indicators should not suggest that the Indian diaspora has fully arrived in the Caribbean, as Dr Saith suggests. A residence is not a home until the warmth of ownership can be felt by all. In T&T, where it is likely that the next census will confirm what is already commonly known, that Indo-Trinidadians are the dominant race in our twin-island state, even-handed treatment of all citizens must sometimes be prompted by aggressive displays of dissatisfaction by Indo-centric organisations. Still, the success of trade fairs from India, which are heavily patronised by all our people, suggest that time and mutual respect will continue to weave the strands of all the cultures that have chosen T&T as their home into an admirable fabric that the world will continue to envy.