Q: Mr Khan, Your law cham­bers over the years have been cel­e­brat­ing dif­fer­ent eth­nic hol­i­days, like Eman­ci­pa­tion, Di­valiand Eid but I was told that you do not cel­e­brate "In­di­an Ar­rival Day," why this dis­crim­i­na­tion?

A: My fore­fa­thers ar­rived in this coun­try in­to a sit­u­a­tion where they were held in "coolie bondage" in con­di­tions sim­i­lar to the African slaves. Psy­cho­log­i­cal­ly, I and many oth­er In­do-Trinida­di­ans can­not cel­e­brate the atroc­i­ties suf­fered by our fore­fa­thers. What we cel­e­brate is the abo­li­tion of the In­den­ture­ship sys­tem for East In­di­ans in 1917-not their ar­rival in­to slav­ery.

Wait a minute, wait a minute I have heard it said that if the East In­di­ans did not come to Trinidad many of their off-springs who are lawyers, doc­tors, teach­ers and suc­cess­ful busi­ness­men in this coun­try would have re­mained in the same sit­u­a­tion in life in In­dia as their fore­fa­thers.

What I would say, that in spite of the fact that our fore­fa­thers have been ex­ploit­ed, bru­talised, dis­crim­i­nat­ed against and hu­mil­i­at­ed in var­i­ous coun­tries around the world, some of us have done ex­ceed­ing­ly well. But right here in Trinidad, and wher­ev­er the East In­di­an Di­as­po­ra ex­ists, there are oth­ers liv­ing in ab­ject pover­ty and de­prav­i­ty. Yes, we have an EastIn­di­an woman Prime Min­is­ter in T&T but that does not mean that we should be hap­py that our fore­fa­thers came in­to slav­ery in this coun­try. But you know some­thing, we are here and we are here to stay.

You seem to be con­tra­dict­ing your­self on the is­sue of cel­e­bra­tion of In­di­an Ar­rival Day?

As long as In­do-Trinida­di­ans see it nec­es­sary to cel­e­brate "In­di­an Ar­rival Day", it is an open ad­mis­sion that we have not yet ac­cept­ed the fact that we are tru­ly Trinida­di­ans. In oth­er words, metaphor­i­cal­ly speak­ing, we are yet to ar­rive in this coun­try. It is my sin­cere de­sire that all of us-white, black, brown, yel­low and mixed-all eth­nic groups can one day cel­e­brate one "Ar­rival Day".

Mr Khan, your law cham­bers are housed in a very posh build­ing on a high priced piece of re­al es­tate, you can­not de­ny the fact that as an In­do-Trinida­di­an this coun­try has treat­ed you very well.

I have done rea­son­ably well due to my abil­i­ty, mer­it, in­tegri­ty and hard work. Yes, this coun­try has treat­ed me well and I have con­tributed to the de­vel­op­ment of this coun­try.

Oh, so now you are ad­mit­ting, though in­di­rect­ly, that your fore­fa­thers by com­ing to this coun­try caused you and many oth­er In­do-Trinida­di­ans to be in a po­si­tion of wealth and in­flu­ence.

Look up­on me and you would ad­mire my Nehru suit. You know both a mag­is­trate and a high court judge ruled that this so­phis­ti­cat­ed and el­e­gant ap­par­el is not be­fit­ting the dig­ni­ty of the mag­is­trate court. Treat me well? But that is an­oth­er bat­tle.

Q: But why don't you just wear a jack­et and tie in the mag­is­trates' courts and re­serve the Nehru suit for for­mal oc­ca­sions.

My ex­pla­na­tion re­sides in what I am go­ing to read to you. I quote: "....the coolies are filthy in their habits, and have lit­tle care in re­gard to cloth­ing, the men have mere­ly a piece of white cloth passed round their loins and be­tween their legs...the women wear a short pet­ti­coat and a small bodice...they rubbed down their bod­ies and heads pro­fuse­ly with co­conut oil...they gen­er­al­ly go about al­most naked and show no dis­po­si­tion to aban­don this habit... the half-naked, deeply de­grad­ed and herb-eat­ing coolie saves the greater part of his wages and the oth­er labour­ers can­not." [Ori­gins of Racial Ide­ol­o­gy in Trinidad by Den­ni­son Moore Pages 165, 180).

But that was writ­ten over 150 years ago. The East In­di­ans in this coun­try have adopt­ed the Eu­ro­pean wear.

Yes, our prime min­is­ter I dare say is one of the bet­ter dressed women in the en­tire Caribbean. But on ap­pro­pri­ate oc­ca­sions she adorns her­self with beau­ti­ful saris, shal­wars and gha­gras. She is aware of the pow­er and sig­nif­i­cance of mode of dress.

So you can eas­i­ly wear a jack­et and tie to court and on the ap­pro­pri­ate oc­ca­sions wear the Nehru suit?

And that's the prob­lem. Af­ter ar­riv­ing in this coun­try over 166 years ago the sta­tus quo in­sists that an In­do-Trinida­di­an lawyer must wear a jack­et and tie to be ac­cept­ed in the mag­is­trates' courts.

The Nehru suit is a mod­ern ap­par­el and it is su­pe­ri­or to the jack­et and tie.

And it is ap­pro­pri­ate for the mag­is­trates' court.