The 30th of May 2015 marks the 170th an­niver­sary of East In­di­an Her­itage in Trinidad and To­ba­go.

In­den­ture is debt bondage. Let us go back in time. It is 1845. African slaves have been eman­ci­pat­ed. Chi­nese and Por­tuguese labour­ers have opt­ed to be shop­keep­ers.

East In­di­ans are a mi­grant peo­ple. Li­censed im­mi­grant re­cruiters in In­dia have hired men known as Arka­tias to look in the vil­lages for mi­grants. Arka­tia means hook, sim­i­lar to the one used to snag fish.

Im­mi­grants were tricked in­to mi­grat­ing. The Arka­tias lied to the vil­lagers and spoke of a won­der­ful place where the em­i­grants were want­ed. It was too good to be true.

The vic­tims were trans­port­ed for very long dis­tances to the li­censed re­cruiter.

The in­tend­ing em­i­grants are then giv­en the ex­act job spec­i­fi­ca­tions. The Arka­tia has con­ve­nient­ly dis­ap­peared, sur­prise, sur­prise.

The po­ten­tial em­i­grants po­lite­ly de­cline the job of­fer that has grown from sift­ing sug­ar to plant­i­ng and har­vest­ing sug­ar cane. The li­censed re­cruiter in­forms the vic­tims be­fore they can re­turn home, they have a small debt to set­tle, their trans­porta­tion bill.

All they would have had was the clothes on their back. The thought of re­turn­ing home naked was not very mo­ti­vat­ing or in­spir­ing. They had to em­i­grate giv­en their present predica­ment.

This was not and nev­er will be vol­un­tary em­i­gra­tion.

This crime was com­mit­ted by In­di­ans on In­di­ans.

Here is where the hat­ing and dis­crim­i­na­tion orig­i­nat­ed. These po­ten­tial sug­ar work­ers could have nev­er been of a high caste. They would have been of a serv­ing or labour­ing class.

Do you think it is pos­si­ble to in­spire and mo­ti­vate a West­moor­ings res­i­dent to go and sell dou­bles on a bike in Guyana to­day? An­swer the ques­tion yes or no.

How­ev­er, the po­ten­tial Tri­nis were re­source­ful, names were changed along the way. It was a case of "Brah­min by boat, and not birth."' Names that would gen­er­ate lit­tle or no man­u­al labour were tak­en.

When you land­ed or ar­rived, you had a clean slate.

The low aca­d­e­m­ic com­pe­tence of the record­ing of­fi­cer as­sist­ed great­ly and he was an­oth­er scape­goat.

Note the mul­ti­ple spellings of some names.

The jour­ney across the sea was dif­fi­cult, many per­ished along the way. Work was ar­du­ous in Trinidad.

At the ter­mi­na­tion of the in­den­ture­ship pe­ri­od shame kept many from re­turn­ing back to In­dia.

Present­ly in the USA and Cana­da, many Tri­nis want to re­turn home but again how will they boast and show of, shame is keep­ing them away.

In­den­ture­ship was an­oth­er form of slav­ery. Plain and sim­ple. In­den­tured labour­ers were robbed of their iden­ti­ties and forced to leave their re­li­gious and cul­tur­al be­liefs be­hind.

They had to change their names.

They had to con­vert to Chris­tian­i­ty. They had to learn Eng­lish.

In­den­ture­ship and slav­ery cre­at­ed a sense of gov­er­nance where there is al­ways con­flict be­tween the two races. It ex­ists even up to to­day.

Al­co­hol was used to en­slave In­di­ans. It still does. On ar­rival In­di­ans were giv­en a ra­tion of al­co­hol and salt­ed beef or pork.

There were more men than women. "Shar­ing'" oc­curred.

There was a high sui­cide rate be­cause of the pres­sures of in­den­ture­ship.

Arka­tias still ex­ist in Trinidad to­day. They lie and cheat their own.

This race is im­pos­si­ble to unite, look around and you will see for your­selves. You will not have to look very far.

The afro equiv­a­lent of the Arka­tia is the house slave. The ones who lived in the boss' house, ate his left­overs and wore his old clothes.

The ones who when en­cour­aged to run away asked why. When the boss was sick they said, "Boss we sick?"

The In­do-Tri­nis can­not be unit­ed, the Afro-Tri­nis same thing. How then can one hope to unite both of them?

That is just will­ful think­ing.

What about an "In­di­an Her­itage Day" in­stead of an "In­di­an Ar­rival Day?" What are your thoughts?

Let us ex­am­ine the pos­i­tives of in­den­ture­ship. In­di­ans were able and forced to de­vel­op at a high­er rate so­cial­ly, aca­d­e­m­i­cal­ly and eco­nom­i­cal­ly com­pared to those in In­dia be­cause there was more em­pha­sis on ed­u­ca­tion in the west.

The pres­sures of in­den­ture­ship al­so made them want to bet­ter them­selves.

Have East In­di­ans re­al­ly ar­rived or are they still ar­riv­ing?

Hap­py In­di­an Ar­rival Day Trinidad and To­ba­go.

AV Ram­per­sad

Princes Town