Category Archives: India

General T&T, Hindu, India, Race and Identity

The Cowshed Fable

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By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
May 30, 2012

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeI want to congratulate my East Indian compatriots for the achievements they have made over the 167 years they have spent in Trinidad and Tobago and the enormous efforts they have made to carve out a space in these two beautiful islands in the West Indies. I also wish to congratulate Sat Maharaj for the herculean efforts he has made to improve the educational standards of his people and his determination to ensure that his people receive their rightful share of the national pie. When the history of the second half of the twentieth century is written I am certain he will take his place as one of the more outstanding Trinbagonians of the era.
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Culture, General T&T, Hindu, India, Race and Identity, Religion

167 Years of Indian “Arrival”: Are Indians Still Arriving?

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By Alana Lalman
May 30, 2012

lettersI was well poised to begin writing for an article on Indian Arrival Day in Trinidad and Tobago when I coincidentally stumbled over Satnarayan Maharaj’s commentary about Indian Arrival in the Guardian newspaper that day. Sat Maharaj is the secretary general of the Sanatan Dharma Maha Sabha (SDMS) organization which is the major Hindu organization in Trinidad and Tobago. It operates 150 mandirs and over 60 schools. It was formed in 1952 when Bhadase Sagan Maharaj merged the Satanan Dharma Association and the Sanatan Dharma Board of Control.
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General T&T, Hindu, India, Race and Identity, Religion

Emergence of Indian Arrival as a Vehicle for Mobilisation and Cultural Assertiveness

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By Stephen Kangal
(Address delivered at the MTS Indian Arrival Day Function
on Monday 28th May 2012)

Mr. Chairman, The PS/PM and Head of the Public Service, Mr. Reynold Cooper,
Mr. Dhaniram Ramkissoon, Vice- Chairman of MTS,
Members of Board of MTS,
Mr. Lennox Rattansingh, CEO of MTS
Divisional Managers and Members of the Staff of MTS
Ladies and Gentlemen- Namastay, Assalam Alaikum, Good Evening

Stephen KangalI thank the management of MTS for inviting me to speak at this IAD function and congratulate the Staff for the effectiveness of the décor that emphasizes the theme of Indian Arrival.

IAD is a celebration of the cultural impact of the distinct Indo-T&T personality during 50 years of Nationhood and One Hundred and Sixty-Seven Years of contributing to T&T.
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Africa, General T&T, India, Race and Identity

Indian Arrival Day — Afri-centric Analysis

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By Dr. Kwame Nantambu
May 20, 2012

Dr. Kwame NantambuThe historical truism is that Indian “indentured servants” came from India to Trinidad on 30 May 1845. They did not come from Indo. Ergo, the descendants of these original Indians are Indian-Trinbagonians. They are not Indo-Trinbagonians. This label is totally Euro-centric, ahistorical and must not only be relegated to the ash heap of T&T’s cultural/ethnic history but must also be expunged from T&T’s societal lexicon.
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General T&T, Hindu, India, International, People's Partnership, Politics, Race and Identity

Nature and Nurturing of a Prime Minister

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By Stephen Kangal
April 24, 2012

Stephen KangalDuring the recent visit made to her ancestral homeland, Bihari village of Bhelupur PM Persad-Bissessar issued a most profound, conclusive, unnoticed and defining statement on her nature and nurturing en route to becoming Prime Minister. She confessed quite categorically to the Bhelupuris gathered that “…whatever I am today is because Bihar is in my DNA and whatever my ancestors taught me…”.
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General T&T, India, Opposition Party, People's Partnership, PNM, Politics, UNC

The Fat Ass Brigade

By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
April 03, 2012

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeNow that Jack Warner has won PP’s chairmanship, there is a rumor that Winston Dookeran may be leaving the legislature to join the IDB in Barbados and Marlene Coudray is preparing to fight San Fernando East, it is time to ask whether the PNM is organized is to face the challenges that lie ahead in the short-term (such as a Tunapuna and San Fernando bye-elections) and in the long-term such as the general election of 2015.
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General T&T, Hindu, India, Opposition Party, People's Partnership, PNM, Politics, Race and Identity, Religion

Rowley Went To India Looking for Jhandis?

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By Stephen Kangal
March 29, 2012

Stephen KangalYears ago T&T’s former HC to India, Mr. Reginald Dumas went visiting the rural villages of the Indian state of Bihar assiduously looking for “jhandis” and found them. Last week another Afro-Tobagonian, Opposition Leader the Hon. Keith Rowley used the occasion of the CPA meeting being held in India to search for the elusive “jhandis” and according to him found none. And this after the PM Kamla Persad-Bissessar just returned from her Indian safari when the question of the rurally remote, sometimes inaccessible villages (pur) of the States of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar from which the “girmitiyas” came to T&T bearing their ‘Jahajee bundles” was well-documented.
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General T&T, India, Media, People's Partnership, Politics, Race and Identity, UNC

Jack Crossing: from Corridor to Caroni

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By Tony Fraser
March 28, 2012 – guardian.co.tt

Jack WarnerAustin “Jack” Warner has made the crossing over the political, ethnic, racial and geographic Rubicon—from the east-west corridor to Caroni—and has done so in spectacular fashion. Without the endorsement of the hierarchy of the United National Congress, indeed, against its wishes, Warner sauntered into the heartland of the UNC to capture the chairmanship of the party and by an extraordinarily wide margin—12,695 to 656 votes.
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General T&T, India, People's Partnership, Politics, UNC

Results of UNC Internal Elections

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United National CongressCOUDRAY COPS IT
San Fernando Mayor Marlene Coudray has copped a deputy leader position in the United National Congress (UNC) internal elections.

…SHE came, she saw and she conquered!

King Jack
WORKS and Infrastructure Minister Jack Warner’s popularity continues to grow by leaps and bounds within the United National Congress (UNC) as he convincingly beat his closest rival for chairmanship in the party’s internal elections in Saturday, by a whopping 12,000 votes.
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COP, General T&T, India, People's Partnership, Politics, UNC

UNC internals: theatre of the absurd

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By Raffique Shah
March 25, 2012

Raffique ShahI LEARNED a lesson in political morality — surely an oxymoron — at the politically tender age of 35. It came from the Machiavellian master himself, Basdeo Panday. Panday and I, along with George Weekes, Joe Young and others, had founded the United Labour Front back in 1976, when I was 30 years old. Within two years, Bas would “mash up” the organically integrated dream party when a number of us took what we thought were principled positions on fundamental issues, details of which are well documented.
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