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Sunday, February 16, 2025

Centenarian recalls old life at Indian Arrival Day celebrations

by

Kevon Felmine
627 days ago
20230530

KEVON FELMINE

Se­nior Re­porter

kevon.felmine@guardian.co.tt

De­spite per­sis­tent show­ers in Pe­nal yes­ter­day, 104-year-old Ram­ra­jie Ram­sawak pa­rad­ed through the streets ho­n­our­ing her fa­ther, who came to Trinidad with his par­ents un­der the In­di­an in­den­ture­ship sys­tem.

Born in 1919, Ram­sawak re­called the harsh con­di­tions in­den­tured labour­ers and their fam­i­lies en­dured un­der British colo­nial rule.

As Ram­sawak joined the Di­vya Ji­van Hin­du Mandir’s In­di­an Ar­rival Day cel­e­bra­tions, rid­ing in a pirogue de­pict­ing the Fa­tel Raza­ck, she said peo­ple to­day have many ameni­ties.

“You know things were hard. We were drink­ing the riv­er wa­ter, and I was cook­ing and wash­ing. Now you have pipes, you have sinks, now you have com­fort. I plant­ed rice and cane. I cut cane and worked hard,” Ram­sawak said.

The mandir cel­e­brat­ed Ram­sawak dur­ing an­oth­er func­tion.

Pun­dit Ra­jen­dra Ma­haraj said the pro­ces­sion ho­n­oured the ja­ha­jis who ar­rived in T&T 178 years ago. He said de­spite the rain, the tales of their fore­fa­thers in­spired them to con­tin­ue their walk from their mandir in Sou Sou to tra­di­tion­al In­di­an mu­sic and tas­sa drums. He said COVID-19 had re­strict­ed their pro­ces­sion over the past three years.

But with pan­dem­ic re­stric­tions now lift­ed, Ram­sawak, a grand­moth­er who plants bha­gi and sells it in the mar­ket in Debe, was an in­spi­ra­tion to youths who lack en­er­gy and dri­ve.

But as the rains grew heav­ier, a Sanatan Dhar­ma Ma­ha Sab­ha (SDMS) street pro­ces­sion turned in­to a mo­tor­cade to the Kubairs­ingh Pe­nal Rock Road Hin­du School. Chil­dren and par­ents had to run through the rain while some shel­tered un­der um­brel­las.

In an in­ter­view dur­ing the fes­tiv­i­ties, SDMS Sec­re­tary Gen­er­al Shri Vi­jay Ma­haraj said his an­ces­tors plant­ed their roots in Trinidad 178 years ago, and they will main­tain those tra­di­tions for cen­turies to come. Ma­haraj said when his fore­fa­thers came to work on the plan­ta­tions, they got sep­a­rat­ed and were placed on var­i­ous es­tates. There were al­so at­tempts to con­vert them to oth­er re­li­gions.

“If you want­ed ed­u­ca­tion, you had to con­vert to Chris­tian­i­ty. It is some­thing that is re­vers­ing its role at this time at this present junc­ture. What al­so took place with our fore­fa­thers was an at­tempt to west­ern­ise them in­to West­ern cul­ture. It failed mis­er­ably,” Ma­haraj said.

He said he be­lieves that while gun­pow­der in­vad­ed In­dia in the past, cur­ry pow­der and yo­ga are now tak­ing over the world. He said In­dia was stretch­ing its limbs and en­com­pass­ing the world in a friend­ly man­ner as op­posed to the hos­til­i­ty met by its fore­fa­thers.

But as the In­do-Trinida­di­an com­mu­ni­ty de­vel­oped over the cen­tu­ry, Ma­haraj said crime and crim­i­nal­i­ty were the main is­sues af­fect­ing them and every­one else.

“One has to un­der­stand very care­ful­ly that pover­ty breeds crim­i­nal­i­ty. Peo­ple need food. The pover­ty line is ris­ing, and the mid­dle class is dy­ing out. There is no longer a mid­dle class. That is the great­est is­sue we have fail­ing our peo­ple: ed­u­cat­ing our peo­ple.”

Ac­knowl­edg­ing that some peo­ple are now mi­grat­ing due to is­sues en­coun­tered here, Ma­haraj said there is a fear for their chil­dren and great-grand­chil­dren. He said even his chil­dren mi­grat­ed af­ter look­ing for op­por­tu­ni­ties abroad that did not ex­ist in T&T. He said some high­ly ed­u­cat­ed young peo­ple lack op­por­tu­ni­ties to move for­ward.


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