Dr Kumar Mahabir, who is also an assistant professor at the University of Trinidad and Tobago and author of several books, said his contention about those who celebrated Indian Arrival Day was that it was an historical event or commemoration of it and therefore should not look like a celebration such as Divali. He said, “When I go to events for Indian Arrival Day I would like to see emphasis on history and education.
“I find the holiday should have a wider national appeal than Divali because we are dealing with a part of the history of Trinidad and Tobago. “I want to see more presentations and lectures on indentureship and the Indian cultural heritage.” Mahabir said the re-enactments that took place were few and far between. He said there should be more educational presentations which should be linked to history and indentureship.
“Divali is a cultural event but Indian Arrival Day should be an historical event,” he said.
Culture loss not peculiar to Indians
Mahabir said the majority of the audience who attended shows did not know and could not understand Hindi and almost all the songs were in Hindi. He offered two suggestions to come to terms with the language barrier—let the emcee explain the songs in English or provide a screen with subtitles while the songs were being rendered. “I think this is a practice that should be standardised because you would appreciate the songs that are being rendered and at the same time you are learning Hindi,” he said.
Culture loss is not peculiar to the Indian community. “We are more Americanised than we know,” he said. The growing number of fast-food outlets and constant viewing of cable television contributed to Indians being Americanised, he said. Whether people wanted to accept it or not, Mahabir said American culture had seeped into the culture through the manner of dress, language, food and songs.
“Yes, there is culture loss but it is not peculiar but we have to transcend the imitation of Bollywood film songs and compose more sensible chutney songs. “Chutney provides a forum and has potential for addressing current issues in our society.”
Sat: We are responding to modern times
Maharaj said his organisation’s main concern had always been preservation and continuation. He said, “Whatever we do, we try to preserve the traditions as close as possible to what our ancestors brought here. “In the present world of instant communication it is difficult to maintain that kind of posture without being influenced by other cultural traditions. “So like everybody else, we Hindus and the Indian cultural traditions are also being influenced by other cultural forces.”
Maharaj said for instance, Bollywood was starting to resemble Hollywood. He said the most important message was the scriptural injunction. “We follow that rigorously but the form and format of how you worship, that has been changing. “Sixty years ago, if you went to a temple—what was regarded as a temple—everybody sat on the floor with what was called a paal (rice bag). “Today, that is no longer the case. Many of the temples are air-conditioned and they have carpet and comfortable chairs.”
Maharaj said those adjustments to suit the times were taking place. He said the scriptures were sung in Hindi and Sanskrit in previous times and the interpretations in Hindi. Today, he said, they were done in English since the younger generation knew very little about the Hindi language. “All these various adjustments to modernity...we are responding to the modern times otherwise we will become irrelevant,” he said.
Give credit to Maha Sabha
Hindus were regarded as illiterate around the 1950s. However, with the establishment of the Maha Sabha, Maharaj said “our people now have the highest offices in the land.” “I stand back amazed. In every area of activity we are there because of education. “We cannot be slotted back into anonymity and the credit must go to the Maha Sabha because all this transformation started after 1950.”
On education, Maharaj said Hindus only came into the system in 1952. “At that time, the Hindus were regarded as totally illiterate, as a matter of fact there was a statistical digest in 1950 which said that over 50 per cent of Indians were illiterate. “And if you took away the Christian-Indians it meant that the Hindu-Indians were about 75 per cent. “We had no schools.” Maharaj said now “little Indian girls” are in the engineering and construction professions.
Glass ceiling has been broken
Women have made great strides, said president of the Indian Women’s Group of T&T, Dolores Persaud-Juteram. She said, “Starting from the very top, we have the first female prime minister and that in itself...politically, we have reached. “Definitely in the political arena the glass ceiling has been broken and of course in the economic arena women are managing so many businesses.”
She said most times women have always been self-sufficient and moreso because there were quite a number of single-parent families because the divorce rate was high. “But this is an historical fact because women have always managed,” she said. Persaud-Juteram said women have also shifted from being subservient to becoming independent.
She said, “That is primarily due to the fact that women are being educated. Long ago, especially, Hindus, they preferred to educate boys but now I think there is a more even distribution where they are educating the girls and they are succeeding so well. The trend has really changed.”