Min­is­ter of Tourism, Cul­ture and the Arts Ran­dall Mitchell says the East In­di­an in­flu­ence is a vi­tal part of T&T’s na­tion­al iden­ti­ty.

He made the com­ment while de­liv­er­ing the fea­ture ad­dress at the Na­tion­al Coun­cil of In­di­an Cul­ture’s (NCIC) In­di­an Ar­rival Day cel­e­bra­tions at the NCIC Na­gar, Ch­agua­nas, on Thurs­day night.

Mitchell said In­di­an cul­ture has in­fused all facets of the na­tion­al com­mu­ni­ty.

He said, “From the nos­tal­gic sounds of In­di­an clas­si­cal mu­sic to the live­ly hands of tas­sa drum­ming, and the in­tri­ca­cies of tra­di­tion­al dances that grace our stages. The cui­sine has be­come a beloved sta­ple in homes all over the coun­try and even abroad. The joy­ful cel­e­bra­tions of Di­vali and Eid, along with deep spir­i­tu­al tra­di­tions have all en­riched the di­verse cul­ture that makes T&T so spe­cial.”

Mitchell said the NCIC’s theme for In­di­an Her­itage Month, “Charai Veti—Keep Mov­ing”, re­minds T&T of the im­por­tance of progress and per­se­ver­ance.

He said, “It en­cour­ages us to re­flect on the jour­ney thus far, to cel­e­brate the im­mea­sur­able achieve­ments, and to con­tin­ue mov­ing for­ward with de­ter­mi­na­tion and uni­ty.”

He said In­di­an Ar­rival Day marks the be­gin­ning of a jour­ney filled with re­silience and de­ter­mi­na­tion.

“This jour­ney be­gan in 1845 when the Fa­tel Raza­ck brought the first in­den­tured labour­ers from In­dia to Trinidad. Over the years, these pi­o­neers have wo­ven an in­tri­cate fab­ric in­to the heart of our na­tion, en­hanc­ing every facet of our so­ci­ety with rich tra­di­tions and cus­toms” he said.

Mitchell al­so com­mend­ed the NCIC for its un­wa­ver­ing ded­i­ca­tion to­ward ed­u­ca­tion, suc­ces­sion plan­ning and up­hold­ing East In­di­an cul­ture in T&T.

Al­so speak­ing, In­de­pen­dent Sen­a­tor De­oroop Teemal, the NCIC Pres­i­dent, said two im­por­tant events in the his­to­ry of the East In­di­an com­mu­ni­ty should be placed on the school cur­ricu­lum. He said these in­clude the Hosay Mas­sacre, al­so known as the Hosay Ri­ots or the Ja­ha­ji Mas­sacre, that took place on Oc­to­ber 30, 1884, in San Fer­nan­do when the British colo­nial au­thor­i­ties fired on par­tic­i­pants in the an­nu­al Hosay pro­ces­sion, and the con­struc­tion of the Tem­ple in the Sea at Wa­ter­loo by Sew­dass Sad­hu be­tween 1947 and 1952. He said these two events rep­re­sent the strug­gle of the East In­di­an com­mu­ni­ty to stay strong to their tra­di­tions re­gard­less of the po­lit­i­cal will of the day.

Greet­ings al­so came from Ch­agua­nas West MP Di­nesh Ram­bal­ly, In­di­an High Com­mis­sion­er Dr Pradeep Singh Ra­jpuro­hit and deputy Ch­agua­nas May­or Melis­sa Jadoo­nanan.

The show fea­tured a packed pro­gramme filled with song and dance that fea­tured young artistes such as Kate­lyn Sul­tan and sea­soned vet­er­ans like Ramesh Bas­deo.