In his “Re-Examining Indian Arrival Day,” Dr. Jerome Teelucksingh analyzes the common misconceptions attributed to Indian Arrival Day that are carried over and repeated at annual observances, which need to be re-examined in Trinidad. “Every year,” he says, “there is mention of the arrival of the first batch of immigrants from the Asian continent to Trinidad. The Fatel Rozack departed the Calcutta harbour, in India, on 16th February 1845 with 231 Indians. The correct name of this ship is Fath Al Razak (Victory of Allah the Provider) [. . .]. After 103 days on the seas, the ship arrived in Trinidad on 30th May 1845.” He stresses that people should know that the entire Indo-Trinidadian population did not “arrive” on that historic trip in 1845 and that many did not stay. During 1845-1917, there were many other ships transporting Indians to Trinidad— Alwrick Castle, Allanshaw, Grecian, Brenda, Avoca, Clyde, Mutla, Chenab, Rhone, Hereford, Jarawar, and the Wiltshire, among others—and between 670 to 827 Indians returned to India after completing their term of indentureship.
Teelucksingh clarifies fallacies about the homogeneity of the Indian diaspora, emphasizing that Indians transported to Trinidad originated from many different provinces in India and were dissimilar in terms of caste, religion (Hindus and Muslims), sects, age, gender, occupations, and levels of adaptation and assimilation. Although many believe that most Indians worked on the sugar plantations, many were employed on the cocoa, coffee, and coconut estates, and “a considerable number of East Indians sought employment as shop owners, petty traders and as primary school teachers in the Canadian Missionary Indian (CMI) schools (established by the Presbyterian missionaries from Nova Scotia).” He also makes an important distinction about the heterogeneity of origin— some Indians came from the neighboring colonies of Grenada, British Guiana, and Martinique, or even re-indentured from South Africa after serving their contracts their.
One of Teelucksingh’s most interesting observations is how these “arrivals” changed the parameters of what constitutes the Caribbean: “The trip across the kala pani was not merely a trade in human cargo but also had a wider, more pronounced environmental impact. Products from India which were included on the ships, heading for the West Indies, were cloves, ginger, saffron, dhall, peppers, mustard, spices, ghee, and the now infamous marijuana. Our landscape provides visible evidence of the items brought by the indentured labourers. Fruits, originally from India, such as mangoes, guava, tamarind, ochro and seime thrived in the tropical conditions of the Caribbean.” The most important environmental impact, of course, was that of human ecology: “third and fourth generation East Indians need to ask themselves, ‘What does Indian Arrival Day mean to me in a society as diverse as Trinidad and Tobago and the Caribbean?’”
For full article, see http://saghs.edu.tt/sample/Staff/Teachers/Jerome%20Teelucksingh/Re-Examining%20Indian%20Arrival%20Day.html
Image from http://www.smallislandread.com/the_slavery_legacy.htm
