By Vishnu Bisram
A memorial plaque will be inaugurated in Kolkata (Calcutta), India, tomorrow in tribute to the hundreds of thousands of Indians who left India under the indentured scheme between 1834 and 1917 in that perilous journey to save the sugar plantations of the colonial empire.
The plaque is just a part of the honour being given to the late indentured servants. The Indian government plans to construct a full-fledged Indian Diaspora Museum in Kolkata to reflect the psychological, sociological, economical and historical environments of the Indian Diaspora, which settled principally in Fiji, Mauritius, Suriname, South Africa, Guyana, T&T, Jamaica and other Caribbean countries. Some 238,000 came to then British Guiana and 148,000 to Trinidad.
The Kolkota memorial was the idea of Berbicians Ashok Ramsaran and Vishnu Bisram but it was Ramsaran, executive vice-president of the Global Organisation of People of Indian Origin (GOPIO), who has become the main advocate of the entire project negotiating with the Indian government.
Ramsaran said many challenging hurdles were overcome for the project and MOIA has been very supportive of it. He said he sent out invitations to several world leaders including President Bharrat Jagdeo and Prime Minister Kamla Persad Bissessar. Ministers of several governments from around the globe would attend the inauguration ceremony.
The memorial plaque will placed at the Kidderpore Demerara Clock Tower, at the base of the Demerara Depot, next to the Suriname depot on the Hooghly River where the Indians boarded the ship for their indentureship overseas.
Ramsaran said the Demerara Clock Tower is intact and in fairly good condition to hold the plaque and it would be an emotionally moving ceremony.
Commenting on the memorial, Minister of Overseas Indian Affairs (MOIA), Vayalar Ravi, said the government fully backs the project which he expects to be started in midyear and completed in a few years. “Too much focus has been paid to the second wave of the Indian Diaspora to the United States, Canada, United Kingdom and Australia since the 1950s and 1960s, while ignoring the original countries which gave meaning to the Indian Diaspora during the 1800s”.
He and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh again met with Ramsaran on Saturday to recommit the government’s support for the museum.
Additionally, Secretary of the MOIA, G Gurucharan, with whom this writer met, said the memorial and the museum would certainly be the first in India and probably the first in Asia.
The launching of the Kolkota Indian Diaspora Memorial follows the annual Pravasi Bharatiya Divas (Indian Diaspora Conference), held from Friday to Sunday, in New Delhi. It was opened by the Governor General of New Zealand Sir Satyanand and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. A few Guyanese were delegates at the conference. Ramsaran is on a short list of prospective honorees for this year’s prestigious PBD award for his work on the Caribbean Indian diaspora.
Ramsaran said he has confirmation from 300 international delegates and government officials for the Kolkota inauguration ceremonies which will include a luncheon jointly hosted by GOPIO and the State Government of Bengal which is providing state land for the museum. Ramsaran said people from around the globe are very excited “to join in this very emotional and historical moment”.
Ramsaran and Minister Ravi will officiate at the inauguration ceremonies.
