Category Archives: India

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

Exploring Linkages Between Indian Places and Cultural Spaces in T&T

By Stephen Kangal
March 19, 2012

Stephen KangalIt was culturally fulfilling, timely and enlightening to attend the public presentation of a ground-breaking PH.D dissertation produced by renowned cultural activist, Kathak dance exponent par excellence and former distinguished Permanent Secretary, Dr. Sat Balkaransingh held at NAPA on Wednesday last. The work is entitled, “Trinidad Space Speaking through Indo-Trinidadian Rituals and Festivals” will contribute immensely to cross-cultural understanding beyond the confines of the Indian community of the culturally persistent linkages that exist between ancestral India and its culturally-rich, diasporic community in T&T.
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Africa, Crime in T&T, Culture, General T&T, Hindu, India, Politics, Race and Identity, Racism Watch, Religion

Mathur Dealing in Psycho-Cultural Falsities

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By Stephen Kangal
March 07, 2012

Stephen KangalWriting in her Sunday Guardian column of January 22, Ira Mathur a naturalized citizen of T&T but Indian, was born of military middle class parentage completely detached from the reach of the systems of Caribbean indenture-ship and slavery. She has unwittingly and falsely included herself as a victim of that system.
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General T&T, India, Media, People's Partnership, Politics

Time for Change

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By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
February 15, 2012

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeI can still hear Kamla Persad Bissessar’s voice as it caressed the late afternoon air at the UNC’s Final Rally at Aranguez Savannah on May 22, 2010 as she offered the following paean: “Thank you to those who are here-thank you to those watching at home. Two days… We have been counting down together… And now it’s just two days until we together begin to forge a new Trinidad and Tobago…I can sense we are all ready for a change…Are you ready to change our country…?”
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General T&T, Hindu, India, People's Partnership, Politics, Race and Identity

Hindi Is not an Ancestral Language of T&T

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By Stephen Kangal
February 14, 2012

Stephen KangalI am not opposed to the teaching of Hindi. But for the Indian High Commissioner, HE Shri Malay Mishra both to justify its teaching in T&T by criticising the speech delivered by our Prime Minister in English to the Bhelupuris on the false and misleading notion that the girmitiyas brought Hindi to Trinidad in their jahajee bundles “… as part of their ancestral culture” is false, deliberately misleading and must be deprecated as a linguistic Ponzi scheme being foisted on unsuspecting Indo-Trinbagonians.
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Culture, General T&T, Hindu, India, International, People's Partnership, Politics, Race and Identity

Malay Steps out of His Crease

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By Stephen Kangal
February 06, 2012

PM Kamla Persad-Bissessar in IndiaIn the aftermath of the current euphoria and unbridled optimism generated from the highly successful recent State visit conducted by Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissesar to India in connection with the annual Pravasi Bharatiya Divas it is very disconcerting to hear HE The High Commissioner of India to T&T, Malay Mishra using an occasion to promote his mission’s Hindi language program in T&T, to unleash unwarranted and undiplomatic criticisms of her alleged inability to connect with the people of her ancestral village of Bhelupur because she spoke in English- the official language of T&T.
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Culture, General T&T, Hindu, India, People's Partnership, Politics

Impossible dreams

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By Peggy Mohan
February 05, 2012 – trinidadexpress.com

PM Kamla Persad-Bissessar in IndiaThere is nothing strange in a person from India visiting Trinidad and being beset by dreams of connection with Indo-Trinidadians. They look so much like us…if only they could speak Hindi like us too. Once upon a time they must have…
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Culture, General T&T, Hindu, India, People's Partnership, Politics

Alternative to Crossing the Kala Pani

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By Stephen Kangal
January 29, 2011

PM Kamla Persad-Bissessar Meeting with her relatives and receiving a Gift during the visit to her inaccessible ancestral village of Bhelupur in Indian state of Bihar
PM Kamla Persad-Bissessar Meeting with her relatives and receiving a Gift during the visit to her inaccessible ancestral village of Bhelupur in Indian state of Bihar

The official visits undertaken by Prime Ministers Panday (1997) and Bissessar-Persad ( 2012) to their respective ancestral homeland villages located in North India after receiving the Pravasi Samaan Awards bring into sharp focus the truth inherent in the maxim that God works in mysterious ways His wonders to behold.
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General T&T, Hindu, India, People's Partnership, Politics, Race and Identity

Kamla’s Delicate Dance

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By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
January 26, 2012

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeQuestion: If Trinidad and Tobago were one hundred percent Hindus, would our response to Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar kissing President Pratibha Patil’s toes elicit a different response? I suspect it would. But only thirty five percent of Trinidad and Tobago’s population are Hindus and therein lays the conundrum. Such a move calls for a better understanding among the population and a more sensitive response from the PM in terms of her act of piety or respect as she calls it.
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Business, General T&T, India, Media, People's Partnership, Politics

Investment or assets sale?

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By George Alleyne
January 25 2012 – newsday.co.tt

Prime Minister Kamla Persad-BissessarGovernment should state clearly the nature and extent of the planned Indian investment in Trinidad and Tobago, which it is trumpeting, and whether this relates to the setting up of entirely new businesses or whether it will be the acquisition, wholly or largely, of State-owned and other existing companies.
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General T&T, Hindu, India, People's Partnership, Politics, Race and Identity

Kamla Spoils the Bharatiya Party in Jaipur

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By Stephen Kangal
January 22, 2012

Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar

It is patently clear that the staging of the tenth annual Pravasi Bharatiya Divas (PBD) pilgrimage to India by the Indian Ministry of Overseas Indians Affairs is geared and exclusively configured to exploiting and attracting for the benefit of the Indian economy the enormous wealth, political influence and entrepreneurship to be found within the 30 million Indian diaspora. Remittances alone to India amount to over US$50bn annually that is seven times T&T’s budget.
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