Tain campus hosting East Indian Immigration Day celebration today
Stabroek News
May 5, 2002
University of Guyana students doing the Public Management programme at the Berbice Campus are sponsoring a commemoration celebration of East Indian Immigration Day today.
With the assistance of the campus library, the students have mounted a display of books, articles, and journals highlighting various aspects of the Indo-Caribbean experience, a press release said.
A number of local residents also provided the students with old household artefacts for the display, some of which are no longer in use like the lota and thari, chowki and belna, sill and lorha, the release stated. Other commemoration activities last week included a call-in television programme hosted by the students on Channel 10 LRTV and a formal commemoration celebration of East Indian Immigration Day at the Tain Campus featuring contemporary and traditional Indian music and dance, a display of traditional East Indian wear, and readings from texts on the Indo-Caribbean experience.
Meanwhile, the executive of the Global Organisation of Peoples of Indian Origin (GOPIO) has extended greetings of "happiness, success and security" to the Guyanese people of Indian origin on the 164th anniversary of the arrival of East Indians in Guyana.
According to a release from the organisation, GOPIO executives wish to encourage all Indians to continue to work for the development of the nation and to work with all other Guyanese who shared a similar past and in some cases even worse than Indian ancestors.
"All Guyanese have a right to this land, but at the same time Indians cannot allow themselves to be emasculated by any other people of Guyana and must be prepared to defend themselves when attacked. We must strive to be excellent defenders, but never the aggressors," the release added.
And the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport has stated that today on the 164th anniversary of the arrival of Indians, "all Guyana can be justly proud of the Indo-Guyanese heritage and contribution to our society. Over the years they have brought about enduring economic, demographic and cultural changes in this country."
A release from the ministry noted that they, like their African brothers before them, made the supreme sacrifice and laid the foundation for the nation's development.
"They have over the years made and continue to make invaluable contributions to every sphere of activity, including the social, economic, cultural and political fields," the release said.
Further, it observed that some of the country's leading professionals, medical practitioners, lawyers, agriculturalists, industrialists, businessmen, politicians, poets, novelists and sportsmen are the descendants of the first batch of Indian immigrants.
The ministry said that it acknowledged with pride this rich cultural diversity and heritage that existed in Guyana and called on the Guyanese youth in particular to speak to their elders about this rich heritage of the arrivals and to commence their own search for their roots.
"Our ancestors," the release added, "provided Guyana with the opportunities to build a united, diverse multi-cultural nation. The task of this generation is to find creative ways to do so, allowing each to have their own identity whilst being an integral component of our society."
Also extending warmest felicitations for Indian Arrival Day and Heritage Month was Ravi Dev, leader of ROAR.
Dev said in a release that "to the extent that Indians begin to shape their own destiny by becoming subjects rather than objects of political mobilization campaigns, they will finally accrete their equitable share of power in the societies to which they have contributed so much and become the subjects of history."