In­di­an Ar­rival Day, cel­e­brat­ed on May 30, com­mem­o­rates the ar­rival of In­di­an In­den­tured labour­ers who ar­rived in Trinidad in 1845 on the Fa­tel Raza­ck. Their sole pur­pose was to pro­vide a labour force on the sug­ar and co­coa es­tates af­ter African slaves were eman­ci­pat­ed.

WE spoke to two women to find out what this day means to them.

Ria Boodoo:

“My fore­fa­thers would have known the con­se­quences of their ac­tions to bold­ly move across the At­lantic. Leav­ing their place of abode was not go­ing to af­ford them the op­por­tu­ni­ty to re­turn to the place they once called home. For many, it meant that they would have been stripped of their caste and deemed for­bid­den af­ter cross­ing this large mass of wa­ter to re­lo­cate to a land far away from home. The strength in their ac­tions, to this day, con­tin­ues to in­spire courage and re­mind my gen­er­a­tion of the grit and re­silience in­built with­in our DNA.

In­di­an Ar­rival Day, for me, is an op­por­tu­ni­ty to learn how to con­quer fear, just as my an­ces­tors would have done hun­dreds of years be­fore me while pay­ing at­ten­tion to how they suc­cess­ful­ly over­came the bound­aries of un­fa­mil­iar faces, un­known cul­tures, and sur­round­ings. It is a cel­e­bra­tion of mak­ing life-chang­ing tough de­ci­sions and ob­serv­ing how these self­less acts of love and com­mit­ment had evolved in­to a pin­na­cle for my gen­er­a­tion and fu­ture gen­er­a­tions.

The im­por­tance of this day to me is more than be­ing iden­ti­fied with a mass of land or a boat, but more so, when faced with the un­known I al­ways find my­self be­ing en­er­gised by the strength of my deep an­ces­tral lega­cy. It is be­ing able to walk in their foot­steps, share their en­durance for bold life-chang­ing de­ci­sions, and pay trib­ute to them for their ab­solute brav­ery in seek­ing a sus­tain­able fu­ture for my­self and my fu­ture gen­er­a­tion.

Hap­py In­di­an Ar­rival Day from the grand­daugh­ter of an In­den­tured labour­er.”

Ria Boodoo is the man­ag­ing di­rec­tor of SRG Con­sul­tan­cy Ser­vices and a mem­ber of the Hin­du Women’s Or­gan­i­sa­tion of T&T.

Wa­hee­da Shahid:

“Child­hood sto­ries from my grand­par­ents about the sac­ri­fices their par­ents made as In­den­tured labour­ers al­ways res­onate with me. They came to Trinidad on con­tract to im­prove them­selves fi­nan­cial­ly be­cause of the pover­ty they ex­pe­ri­enced in their home­land, In­dia. Un­for­tu­nate­ly in Trinidad, they were la­belled as il­le­git­i­mate, did not have ac­cess to ed­u­ca­tion and pres­ti­gious pro­fes­sions. How­ev­er, they were able to re­tain their cul­ture with re­spect to food, dress, mu­sic, song, dance, fam­i­ly ties, rites and rit­u­als with re­spect to wed­dings and fu­ner­als, re­li­gious prac­tices and lan­guage. They were in­dus­tri­ous peo­ple known for fi­nan­cial thrifti­ness.

As a fourth gen­er­a­tion In­di­an de­scen­dant, In­di­an Ar­rival Day rep­re­sents a day of pride. I am proud to be an In­do-Trinida­di­an. I am free to prac­tice Is­lam, wear In­di­an at­tire, par­tic­i­pate in mu­sic, song and dance in Hin­di and Ara­bic, and wor­ship at the mosque with­out dis­crim­i­na­tion and prej­u­dice. I am free to ac­cess ed­u­ca­tion at all lev­els as well as oc­cu­py any pro­fes­sion where I am suit­ably qual­i­fied. My birth, mar­riage and death are record­ed as le­git­i­mate. I am free to vote in the po­lit­i­cal are­na as well as make fi­nan­cial in­vest­ments.

As with all rights, comes re­spon­si­bil­i­ties. I feel priv­i­leged to be in­volved in ar­eas of ser­vice to man and coun­try. In my ca­pac­i­ty as a So­cial Stud­ies teacher, I get the op­por­tu­ni­ty to de­liv­er my cur­ricu­lum from an In­di­an, Mus­lim, fe­male per­spec­tive. As a mem­ber of staff at Siparia West Sec­ondary School, I get to show­case to my stu­dents and col­leagues Eid-Fitr and Eid-Ad­ha as well as ex­pose them to my in­fa­mous saw­ine dish.

As a mem­ber of the San Fer­nan­do Mus­lim Women’s As­so­ci­a­tion and the Na­tion­al Mus­lim Women’s Or­gan­i­sa­tion of Trinidad and To­ba­go, I get the op­por­tu­ni­ty to prop­a­gate my re­li­gion, cul­ture and of­fer ser­vice to man and coun­try. As a moth­er, I have the re­spon­si­bil­i­ty and priv­i­lege to teach my daugh­ter all that was in­stilled in me, to be proud of our her­itage.

I recog­nise my re­spon­si­bil­i­ties to con­tin­ue the lega­cy of strong fam­i­ly bonds, morals and val­ues, re­li­gion and cul­ture that were re­tained from In­dia and passed on from my fore­par­ents.”

Wa­hee­da Shahid is a teacher, Head of Mod­ern Stud­ies

De­part­ment at Siparia West Sec­ondary School. She is al­so a mem­ber of the Na­tion­al Mus­lim Women’s Or­gan­i­sa­tion of T&T.

Hap­py In­di­an Ar­rival Day to all who have toiled, sac­ri­ficed

and left an in­valu­able lega­cy for gen­er­a­tions to fol­low.