Trinidad and To­ba­go has the largest group of in­den­tured labour­ers in the re­gion, af­ter Guyana, with over 44 per cent of the In­di­an Di­as­po­ra mak­ing up the na­tion­al pop­u­lace. As we ob­serve the 167th an­niver­sary of the ar­rival of the first East In­di­ans here on May 30, 1845. East In­di­ans came here prin­ci­pal­ly from Ut­tar Pradesh and Bi­har to res­cue the failed agri­cul­tur­al ca­pac­i­ty, no­tably sug­ar cane, co­coa and cof­fee. The first East In­di­an Ar­rival Day took place on May 30, 1945, at Skin­ner Park, San Fer­nan­do, at which mes­sages were read by the then act­ing Gov­er­nor of Trinidad and To­ba­go rep­re­sent­ing the Gov­ern­ment of the Unit­ed King­dom. Mes­sages of good­will came from Ma­hat­ma Gand­hi, who iron­i­cal­ly, had fought hard against the East In­di­an in­den­ture sys­tem. Lo­cal dig­ni­taries in­clud­ed Tim­o­thy Roodal, George Fitz­patrick, Adri­an Rien­zi Co­la and Muri Kir­palani.

To­day, T&T re­mains a na­tion of cul­tur­al di­ver­si­ty, to which East In­di­ans have made sig­nif­i­cant con­tri­bu­tions. It is al­ways heart-warm­ing to see the pop­u­la­tion of T&T join­ing, par­tic­i­pat­ing, sup­port­ing and cel­e­brat­ing the many re­li­gious and cul­tur­al pre­sen­ta­tions, name­ly like Car­ni­val, Panora­ma, Di­vali, Eid-ul-Fitr, Phag­wa and Christ­mas. Trinidad and To­ba­go's first prime min­is­ter, Dr Er­ic Williams, said on Au­gust 31, 1962, that there was no moth­er In­dia, no moth­er Africa, no moth­er Lebanon. There is on­ly one moth­er- moth­er Trinidad and To­ba­go. As T&T cel­e­brates In­di­an Ar­rival Day to­mor­row, we must use it as an op­por­tu­ni­ty to en­cour­age the par­tic­i­pa­tion of shared val­ues. All peo­ples must work to­ward the pro­mo­tion of our cit­i­zen­ship, at all lev­els of the so­ci­ety. Let us pay homage to our East In­di­an an­ces­tors on this day. Have a hap­py and safe East In­di­an Ar­rival Day.