The National Geographic Magazine in a recent issue has hailed the Indian Caribbean Museum in Waterloo, Carapichaima as one of the “500 Sacred Places Of A Lifetime.” Curator Sansbhan Jokhan said it was “a fitting recognition in just seven years of existence,” especially as T&T celebrated the 168th anniversary of Indian Arrival on Thursday (May 30). The museum was officially opened in 2006 by Winsiton Dookeran, now Minister of Foreign Affairs.
Between 1845 and 1917, approximately 148,000 East Indians were brought to this country principally from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh to work on agricultural estates following the abolition of slavery. Secretary General of the Sanatan Dharma Maha Sabha (SDMS) Satnarayan Maharaj saw the need for a museum and used the old Waterloo Hindu School as the base.
Maharaj moved it from a mere dream into reality in a couple months. Minister of Food Production Devant Maharaj also played an integral role in establishing the museum. Since its inception, in excess of 45,000 people from all walks of life, from the four corners of the globe have visited this institution, according to Ann Marie Ramhit, an assistant at the museum. The Indian Caribbean Museum is now a registered member of the Caribbean Museum Association, which comprises 20 institutions spread across the Caribbean.
“The Indian Caribbean Museum holds international prominence and recognition as the only one of its kind in the world. Not even India has one. And at the inauguration of the Kolkata Museum last year, planners from India came to visit our facility,” Jokhan said.
It has also become a Research Centre with the National Archives. Jokhan pointed out that East Indian Indentureship now forms part of the School Base Assessment (SBA) and the museum is the focus of thousands of CXC students who visit to find out more about the Indian Diaspora.
Ramhit said that Dr Dennison Moore who actually wrote the Canadian Government Policy on Multiculturalism recently donated 107 books reflecting different aspects of India and the Diaspora to the library. “This donation has augmented our educational stock for research as well as for leisure reading.”
The opening of the museum is the result of continuous collaboration and co-operation with the people whose history has been preserved within its walls, Jokhan noted. “The Indian Caribbean Museum is a national treasure, a window of the past and an opportunity to see history come alive. To many visitors it evokes memories of the past, a link to the present and a vision for the future. The museum serves as a foundation for collective memory, cultural continuity and national development.”
Jokhan added: “It provides a common experience that families can share across generations and serve as a link between revered ancestors and living people. “This museum provides information on the cultural heritage of East Indians in the Caribbean to themselves, and to people of all ethnic backgrounds.”
More about the museum
The museum is dedicated to the collection, restoration, preservation, arrangement and exhibition of old material objects of the Indian Diaspora for the purposes of study, education and enjoyment, Ramhit said.
Jokhoo said the collection includes items such as rare musical instruments, agricultural objects, cooking utensils, pieces of clothing, ancient photographs and historical books. Also objects of historical and aesthetic value. It includes a sapat (wooden slipper), a jata (grinding stone), boli (gourd bowl), hassawa (grass knife). There is also a huge copper (cuppa) basin that was used for boiling cane syrup in the sugar factories up to the 1930s and a dekha (a wooden contraption used for grinding cocoa, coffee beans, corn and rice).
The museum houses an art gallery, a reference library and a computerised genealogical database. A botanical garden is in the making with some of the rare endangered plants of Indian origin like satputiya (angled loofah), poi bhaji (Indian spinach), urdi (mung bean), khakri (wild cucumber). The Caribbean Indian Museum is a non-profit organisation with affiliation to government agencies like the Tourism Development Corporation (TDC) and the National Museum and Art Gallery.