165 Years onward: have we arrived?

This year we will witness celebrations that mark 165 years of East Indian presence in Trinidad. The Indian community has indeed made significant strides since making their inaugural trip aboard the Fatel Razack; a journey that required immense fortitude and willpower. As a people, we have since demonstrated our endurance and resolution by carving a niche for ourselves in this very small, but very progressive island-country. On Indian Arrival Day, May 30th 2010, Trinidad and Tobago can boast of the first female East Indian Prime Minister in the country’s history. Saying that we have come a long way is certainly an understatement.

Our ancestors have toiled and laboured to mark a name for the East Indian population in Trinidad and Tobago: East Indian dress and food are now integrated into the local landscape; major strides have been made in the recognition of local Indian classical music. Furthermore, there has been a resurgence of the pure classical artform with the presence of the Mahatma Ghandhi Institute and the inclusion of Indian classical music in the curriculum at the University of Trinidad and Tobago. Swaha is doing its part to promote the classical form of Hindustani music by staging performances in its temples to showcase this artform. Recently, the Minocha Brothers performed at the Gyaan Deepak Kirtan Mandali, demonstrating to the youth that musical and academic study can be successfully integrated.

We have defintiely come a very long way from our days of indentured labour and cane farming. The now generation does not face the challenge of highlighting the contributions of the Indian community; these are well-known and well-documented. Our struggle is distinct, and has assumed a different nature. We are now faced with asserting, reviving and upholding the very philosophies and ideals that our forefathers brought with them. Trinidad society has undergone a widespread degeneration in the most basic and fundamental values of humankind: infidelity, lies, and a general dismissal of duty currently reign supreme. Above all, one of the core ideals by which our ancestors stood is being eroded: the place and position of women. Hinduism has always placed the female on a pedestal; she is the keeper of dharma, and should therefore be treated as such. Of course, she should also display attitudes and behaviours that become her high standing in society.

Hinduism is one of the only religions that portray the concept of God as being both male-female. The theological basis of Ardhanaarishwar not only encompasses equality of the sexes (a concept that is du jour but has been integrated into Hindu ideology since the beginning), but the idea that the woman is central to maintaining balance in the family, community, state, universe and life itself. As such, mothers, daughters, sisters and wives are all extremely pivotal to upholding life’s equilibrium. In Hindu tradition, the mother of the home is seen as its Lakshmi; its light and source of energy. Without the Lakshmi, a home cannot be complete – like an ocean without its waves. The women are custodians of life and, by extension, dharma. When they are happy, we are happy. One’s mother/ wife/ sister/ daughter should be treated with high esteem and respect, for without them, nothing will happen. In addition, in the Hindu concept of God being energy, whilst man is represented as potential energy, the female aspect is the personification of kinetic energy, the very source of the changes in the universe.

As Mother’s Day is celebrated two weeks before Indian Arrival Day, this axiomatic ideology should be revisited. Have we abandoned the philosophies that our forefathers have cherished? Do we still treat the women in our society like embodiment of goddesses? We should see divine energy in each woman. In a world where abuse of women appears to be the norm, much is still left to be desired. Of course, to whom much is given, much is expected. Our women need to recognise their elevated status and act accordingly. They determine the future – dharmic or adharmic. They hold the power to change men, children, families and by extension, the world.

On Indian Arrival Day 2010, let us dig deeper. Let us revisit such ideologies that have stood the test of time. Amidst the pomp and fanfare, we must reflect as a people and determine where we are going wrong. It is only then can we truly say with pride that ‘we have arrived’.