DR SU­RU­JRAT­TAN RAM­BACHAN

Guest Con­trib­u­tor

A jour­nal­ist who kept Hin­duism in the na­tion­al space…

In homes across Trinidad and be­yond, her voice and writ­ings have long been a fa­mil­iar pres­ence—in the­atre halls, on vil­lage stages, and in the qui­et spaces where cul­ture is re­mem­bered, re­vived and reimag­ined.

See­ta Per­sad is not mere­ly a chron­i­cler of cul­ture; she is one of its most de­vot­ed ar­chi­tects, shap­ing how a peo­ple see them­selves and how they are seen by the na­tion. This is es­pe­cial­ly true for the East In­di­an com­mu­ni­ty, where her plays of­ten hold up a mir­ror, pro­vok­ing se­ri­ous thought and deep re­flec­tion.

Born in­to a deep love for sto­ry­telling, See­ta Per­sad has spent more than 30 years in the me­dia as a jour­nal­ist, drama­tist, play­wright and chore­o­g­ra­ph­er in Trinidad and To­ba­go. Now re­tired from for­mal me­dia work, she con­tin­ues her life­long mis­sion as a the­atre pro­duc­er, en­sur­ing that the stage re­mains a liv­ing class­room of her­itage, iden­ti­ty and faith.

A the­atre of mem­o­ry, faith and iden­ti­ty

Her jour­ney is one of ex­tra­or­di­nary cre­ative range. Through her ac­claimed the­atri­cal pro­duc­tions, she has giv­en voice and form to the lived ex­pe­ri­ences, spir­i­tu­al tra­di­tions and emo­tion­al land­scapes of a peo­ple. Works such as Kalyani—In a Woman’s World, Paisa—It’s All About the Mon­ey, Khamoshi—Calm Af­ter the Storm, Mala—A Gar­land of Flow­ers, Vi­vah San­skar—Hin­du Wed­ding, Kan­gana—Lost Wrist­band, Ka­mala—Lo­tus Flower, Ek Tara—Sound of the Drum, Bole Ba­suriya—Kr­ish­na’s Singing Ba­suri, Rad­ha and Ra­ja, Dekh Tamasha—Amidst the Con­fu­sion, Tul­si’s Jour­ney, Midlife Cri­sis, Curse of Khakayi, Je­sus His Cru­ci­fix­ion, Jy­oti, Zinda­gi Sa­far, Parosin—La­dy Next Door, Chaliya—Mis­chief Mak­er, Niyantran—Se­cret Con­troller, De­ceit—Ne­makaram, The Price of Jus­tice, Ze­ro to Hero, Par­dasiya—Ravi’s Re­turn, and War­rioress Dur­ga stand as tes­ti­mo­ny to her fear­less imag­i­na­tion and cul­tur­al depth.

In each pro­duc­tion, See­ta Per­sad has done more than tell a sto­ry—she has pre­served mem­o­ry. She has tak­en the sa­cred, the so­cial, the emo­tion­al and the his­tor­i­cal and wo­ven them in­to per­for­mances that ed­u­cate as much as they en­ter­tain. Her the­atre is not pas­sive ob­ser­va­tion; it is lived ex­pe­ri­ence, where cul­ture breathes, speaks and en­dures.

As an au­thor, she has ex­tend­ed this mis­sion in­to lit­er­a­ture. Her books Hath To Se Hath, Mere Pyar, and Love is Beau­ti­ful: Tamasha and Saiya re­flect her sen­si­tiv­i­ty to hu­man re­la­tion­ships, emo­tion and cul­tur­al iden­ti­ty. Her un­pub­lished nov­el Parosin fur­ther re­veals her depth as a sto­ry­teller com­mit­ted to cap­tur­ing the nu­ances of every­day life with­in our so­ci­ety.

Nur­tur­ing tal­ent be­yond the stage

Her in­flu­ence has al­so been deeply felt in the world of per­for­mance and cul­tur­al ad­ju­di­ca­tion. See­ta Per­sad has served as a judge on the icon­ic tele­vi­sion se­ries Mas­tana Ba­har, and lat­er as head judge of the Co­ca-Co­la Teen Tal­ent com­pe­ti­tion un­der the Na­tion­al Coun­cil of In­di­an Cul­ture, as well as the Prime Min­is­ter’s Best Vil­lage Tro­phy Com­pe­ti­tion.

In these roles, she has not on­ly eval­u­at­ed tal­ent but nur­tured it—en­cour­ag­ing young per­form­ers to see cul­ture not as an oblig­a­tion, but as a source of pride and pos­si­bil­i­ty.

Her artis­tic reach ex­tends be­yond Trinidad and To­ba­go. As a tu­tor and chore­o­g­ra­ph­er of the Ra­mayan Bal­let along­side In­dia’s award-win­ning pro­duc­er Goswa­mi Sushi­ji Ma­haraj, she has helped bring sa­cred nar­ra­tive dance to life on in­ter­na­tion­al stages in both In­dia and Trinidad and To­ba­go, bridg­ing con­ti­nents through de­vo­tion, dis­ci­pline and art.

Car­ry­ing In­do-Caribbean her­itage across bor­ders

See­ta Per­sad’s work as a cul­tur­al am­bas­sador has tak­en her across the world. She has rep­re­sent­ed Trinidad and To­ba­go and the wider In­do-Caribbean com­mu­ni­ty at ma­jor in­ter­na­tion­al events, in­clud­ing an in­vi­ta­tion from the Gov­ern­ment of In­dia to the coun­try’s largest craft ex­po in Greater Noi­da in 2008, and par­tic­i­pa­tion in Pravasi Bharatiya Di­vas in 2012 and 2013, as well as a spe­cial in­vi­ta­tion from In­dia’s Prime Min­is­ter in 2017.

Her pres­ence at Im­mi­gra­tion Day cel­e­bra­tions in Suri­name, Ja­maica and Guade­loupe, as well as cul­tur­al and re­li­gious gath­er­ings in the Unit­ed King­dom, Guyana and St Lu­cia, re­flects her role as a bridge be­tween di­as­po­ra com­mu­ni­ties and their an­ces­tral her­itage.

In Guyana, her cul­tur­al con­tri­bu­tion is fur­ther re­flect­ed in the in­stal­la­tion of the Shi­va Lingam by In­dia’s Swa­mi Upadiya (2009, 2011, 2016), a land­mark spir­i­tu­al event that strength­ened de­vo­tion­al ties with­in the Hin­du di­as­po­ra.

In St Lu­cia, her en­gage­ment with the Hin­du In­sti­tu­tion and the St Lu­cia Cul­tur­al Group (2009, 2011, 2015) helped re­in­force cul­tur­al con­ti­nu­ity and or­gan­i­sa­tion­al uni­ty.

In Ja­maica, her par­tic­i­pa­tion in Im­mi­gra­tion Day cel­e­bra­tions (2013, 2016, 2018) high­light­ed the shared In­do-Caribbean ex­pe­ri­ence of mi­gra­tion, mem­o­ry and iden­ti­ty.

Sim­i­lar­ly, her re­peat­ed in­volve­ment in Im­mi­gra­tion Day cel­e­bra­tions in Guade­loupe (2008, 2012, 2014, 2015) un­der­scored her com­mit­ment to pre­serv­ing and ho­n­our­ing the cul­tur­al jour­neys of in­den­tured de­scen­dants across the Caribbean.

Whether at the Miss In­dia Pageant in the UK, the in­stal­la­tion of the Shi­va Lingam by Swa­mi Upadiya in Guyana, or meet­ings with Hin­du cul­tur­al in­sti­tu­tions across the Caribbean, See­ta Per­sad has con­sis­tent­ly car­ried with her the dig­ni­ty of her cul­ture and the voice of her peo­ple.

Build­ing peo­ple, pre­serv­ing a lega­cy

Yet per­haps her most en­dur­ing con­tri­bu­tion lies not on­ly in what she has cre­at­ed, but in whom she has nur­tured.

Across Trinidad and To­ba­go, count­less artists, per­form­ers, writ­ers and cul­tur­al work­ers trace their be­gin­nings to her en­cour­age­ment, guid­ance and be­lief in their po­ten­tial. She has been a qui­et builder of peo­ple—recog­nis­ing tal­ent be­fore it is ful­ly formed and giv­ing it space to grow.

Her life has al­so been deeply root­ed in spir­i­tu­al­i­ty and ser­vice. Through her as­so­ci­a­tion with de­vo­tion­al move­ments and cul­tur­al or­gan­i­sa­tions such as the Saraswati Kir­tan Man­dali, she has con­sis­tent­ly demon­strat­ed that, for her, cul­ture is not sep­a­rate from dhar­ma—it is its ex­pres­sion.

In her world, the­atre be­comes wor­ship, chore­og­ra­phy be­comes prayer, and sto­ry­telling be­comes se­va.

See­ta Per­sad’s lega­cy is not con­fined to stages, scripts or screens. It lives in the con­scious­ness of a peo­ple who have learned to see their tra­di­tions not as relics of the past, but as liv­ing, evolv­ing ex­pres­sions of iden­ti­ty. She has helped en­sure that our her­itage is not on­ly re­mem­bered, but felt, per­formed and passed on.

The mea­sure of her life is found in the cul­tur­al con­fi­dence she has helped to build. In a so­ci­ety where iden­ti­ty has of­ten been con­test­ed, she has of­fered clar­i­ty. Where her­itage has some­times been frag­ile, she has of­fered strength. Where sto­ries risked be­ing for­got­ten, she has of­fered per­ma­nence. See­ta Per­sad is, in every sense, a guardian of our her­itage.