PM hails milestone in nation’s history

Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar has ex­tend­ed greet­ings to cit­i­zens of Trinidad and To­ba­go on the oc­ca­sion of In­di­an Ar­rival Day, de­scrib­ing it as a defin­ing mile­stone in the na­tion’s his­to­ry.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar said the ar­rival of the Fa­tel Raza­ck 181 years ago marked the be­gin­ning of a jour­ney that would pro­found­ly shape the coun­try’s de­vel­op­ment and iden­ti­ty.

She not­ed that the ja­ha­jees, or boat peo­ple, who ar­rived un­der the In­di­an in­den­ture­ship sys­tem be­tween 1845 and 1917, en­dured se­vere hard­ship and un­cer­tain­ty.

They were re­cruit­ed through ex­ploita­tive arrange­ments that would to­day be recog­nised as a form of hu­man traf­fick­ing, she added.

Many left vil­lages across In­dia, crossed the kala pani un­der harsh con­di­tions, and en­tered a colo­nial so­ci­ety marked by pover­ty, labour ex­ploita­tion and dis­crim­i­na­tion.

De­spite these chal­lenges, they per­se­vered through sac­ri­fice, faith, dis­ci­pline and en­ter­prise, pre­serv­ing cul­tur­al tra­di­tions that re­main cen­tral to Trinidad and To­ba­go’s iden­ti­ty.

They made sig­nif­i­cant con­tri­bu­tions to agri­cul­ture, com­merce, ed­u­ca­tion, med­i­cine, law, re­li­gion, labour, pub­lic ser­vice, pol­i­tics and na­tion­al de­vel­op­ment.

These ef­forts helped shape the mul­ti­cul­tur­al char­ac­ter of Trinidad and To­ba­go, en­rich­ing its so­cial and eco­nom­ic fab­ric.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar said In­di­an Ar­rival Day is not on­ly a trib­ute to one com­mu­ni­ty but al­so a re­flec­tion of a shared na­tion­al sto­ry built by many peo­ples and his­to­ries.

We ho­n­our all com­mu­ni­ties and reaf­firm a com­mit­ment to uni­ty, peace, tol­er­ance, equal­i­ty, mu­tu­al re­spect and na­tion­al progress.

She ex­pressed hope that the lega­cy of the ja­ha­jees will con­tin­ue to in­spire fu­ture gen­er­a­tions, while wish­ing the na­tion con­tin­ued peace and pros­per­i­ty.

In­di­an Ar­rival Day is ob­served an­nu­al­ly in Trinidad and To­ba­go to mark the ar­rival of in­den­tured labour­ers from In­dia aboard the Fa­tel Raza­ck on May 30, 1845.

It is a na­tion­al pub­lic hol­i­day that recog­nis­es the cul­tur­al, eco­nom­ic and so­cial con­tri­bu­tions of the In­do-Trinida­di­an com­mu­ni­ty to na­tion­al de­vel­op­ment over more than a cen­tu­ry and a half.

Gov­ern­ment lead­ers con­tin­ue to use the oc­ca­sion to pro­mote uni­ty and re­flect on the shared her­itage that de­fines Trinidad and To­ba­go’s plur­al so­ci­ety.

The Prime Min­is­ter reaf­firmed the ad­min­is­tra­tion’s com­mit­ment to build­ing an in­clu­sive so­ci­ety that ho­n­ours all cul­tures and sup­ports con­tin­ued na­tion­al de­vel­op­ment through mu­tu­al re­spect and un­der­stand­ing.

She en­cour­aged cit­i­zens to con­tin­ue work­ing to­geth­er to strength­en democ­ra­cy, fos­ter har­mo­ny and en­sure that the sac­ri­fices of in­den­tured labour­ers are re­mem­bered with dig­ni­ty and re­spect across gen­er­a­tions.