The Ch­agua­nas Bor­ough Cor­po­ra­tion cel­e­brat­ed the 177th An­niver­sary of East In­di­an Ar­rival Day with a live­ly and colour­ful pa­rade yes­ter­day.

The pa­rade was one of sev­er­al ac­tiv­i­ties be­ing held across the coun­try this week­end ahead of In­di­an Ar­rival Day, which will be cel­e­brat­ed to­mor­row as a pub­lic hol­i­day. The day com­mem­o­rates the ar­rival of the first in­den­tured labour­ers from In­dia in May 1845, on the ship Fa­tel Raza­ck.

Dur­ing the pe­ri­od of In­di­an im­mi­gra­tion to T&T, from 1845 to 1917, more than 140,000 labour­ers were brought in­to the coun­try, bring­ing with them cul­tur­al and re­li­gious prac­tices that are now sig­nif­i­cant as­pects of this so­ci­ety.

For yes­ter­day’s pa­rade, the west­ern side of the Ch­agua­nas Main Road from Tri­al Street was cor­doned off and traf­fic was di­vert­ed as May­or Faaiq Mo­hammed and Deputy May­or Maris­sa Ram­lo­gan led the pro­ces­sion through the bor­ough’s main shop­ping area.