Shas­tri Boodan

Free­lance Con­trib­u­tor

The Na­tion­al Coun­cil of In­di­an Cul­ture (NCIC) has paid trib­ute to one of its longest-serv­ing and most in­flu­en­tial lead­ers, Dr De­ok­i­nanan Shar­ma, by of­fi­cial­ly ded­i­cat­ing its Her­itage Cen­tre in his ho­n­our.

The fa­cil­i­ty will now be known as the Dr De­ok­i­nanan Shar­ma Vi­rasaat Kendra, a move the or­gan­i­sa­tion said is in­tend­ed to pre­serve the mem­o­ry and lega­cy of a man who de­vot­ed more than two decades to ad­vanc­ing In­di­an cul­ture in Trinidad and To­ba­go.

Shar­ma, who was born in 1937 and died in 2024, served as pres­i­dent of the NCIC for more than 20 years and was wide­ly recog­nised for his role in strength­en­ing and pro­mot­ing In­di­an cul­tur­al tra­di­tions across the coun­try.

Speak­ing at Thurs­day’s ded­i­ca­tion cer­e­mo­ny, NCIC pres­i­dent Dr Su­ru­jdeo Man­ga­roo de­scribed the oc­ca­sion as far more than the re­nam­ing of a build­ing.

“To­day, we gath­er not mere­ly to name a build­ing, but to con­se­crate a lega­cy,” Man­ga­roo said be­fore an au­di­ence that in­clud­ed mem­bers of the Shar­ma fam­i­ly, spe­cial­ly in­vit­ed guests, me­dia rep­re­sen­ta­tives and view­ers tun­ing in via so­cial me­dia plat­forms.

He ex­plained that the word “Vi­rasaat” means her­itage, in­her­i­tance and lega­cy, adding that nam­ing the cen­tre was a way of en­sur­ing Shar­ma’s con­tri­bu­tion re­mained per­ma­nent­ly wo­ven in­to the life of the or­gan­i­sa­tion.

Man­ga­roo de­scribed Shar­ma as a “found­ing pil­lar, a vi­sion­ary, a cul­tur­al ser­vant, and a leader whose con­tri­bu­tion helped to shape the very foun­da­tion up­on which the NCIC stands to­day.”

Re­flect­ing on Shar­ma’s years of lead­er­ship, Man­ga­roo said his pre­de­ces­sor un­der­stood cul­ture as some­thing far deep­er than en­ter­tain­ment.

“Cul­ture was iden­ti­ty. Cul­ture was mem­o­ry. Cul­ture was re­sis­tance. Cul­ture was ed­u­ca­tion. Cul­ture was faith,” he said.

Ac­cord­ing to Man­ga­roo, Shar­ma ded­i­cat­ed his life to pre­serv­ing the tra­di­tions, lan­guage, mu­sic, fes­ti­vals, wor­ship and val­ues brought to Trinidad and To­ba­go by In­di­an in­den­tured labour­ers and their de­scen­dants.

He said Shar­ma be­lieved these tra­di­tions rep­re­sent­ed a sa­cred in­her­i­tance that had to be pro­tect­ed and passed on to fu­ture gen­er­a­tions.

Man­ga­roo, who said he had the priv­i­lege of work­ing along­side Shar­ma dur­ing his pres­i­den­cy, re­called him as a dis­ci­plined and com­mit­ted leader who served with­out seek­ing recog­ni­tion.

“He did not serve for recog­ni­tion. He served be­cause he be­lieved that the preser­va­tion of our her­itage was a sa­cred du­ty,” Man­ga­roo said.

The NCIC pres­i­dent cred­it­ed Shar­ma with help­ing to build con­fi­dence with­in the In­do-Trinida­di­an com­mu­ni­ty and cre­at­ing spaces where younger gen­er­a­tions could con­nect with their cul­tur­al iden­ti­ty.

“He helped to build more than pro­grammes. He helped to build con­fi­dence in a com­mu­ni­ty,” Man­ga­roo stat­ed.

Man­ga­roo al­so called on younger gen­er­a­tions to val­ue and pro­tect the lega­cy left be­hind by cul­tur­al pi­o­neers such as Shar­ma.

“When you en­ter this Cen­tre, know that you are walk­ing in­to a space built by sac­ri­fice,” he said, adding that every class, lec­ture, per­for­mance and cul­tur­al ac­tiv­i­ty host­ed there would form part of a much larg­er sto­ry of re­silience and her­itage.

Ad­dress­ing Shar­ma’s fam­i­ly di­rect­ly, Man­ga­roo thanked them for shar­ing his time and ser­vice with the or­gan­i­sa­tion and the wider na­tion­al com­mu­ni­ty.

“His name will now live not on­ly in mem­o­ry, but in stone, in pur­pose, and in the dai­ly work of this Cen­tre,” he said.

Man­ga­roo con­clud­ed by ex­press­ing hope that the Dr De­ok­i­nanan Shar­ma Vi­rasaat Kendra would be­come a bea­con of cul­tur­al pride, artis­tic ex­cel­lence, ed­u­ca­tion and uni­ty for gen­er­a­tions to come.

“To­day, we ho­n­our Dr Shar­ma not on­ly with a name, but with a promise -that his work will con­tin­ue, his vi­sion will en­dure, and his lega­cy will re­main alive in the heart of the Na­tion­al Coun­cil of In­di­an Cul­ture,” he said.

Trib­utes al­so came from sev­er­al in­di­vid­u­als, in­clud­ing Kuldeep Gan­daper­sad, Sa­hadeo Par­tap and Jus­tice Devin­dra Per­sad. Cul­tur­al per­for­mances fea­tured dances by Su­san Mo­hip and Group and Nikiesha Shah, as well as vo­cal per­for­mances by Vee­jai Ramkissoon.