In Trinidad, India reverberates

PORT OF SPAIN (Trinidad): At a small hotel in the Piarco village in Trinidad, strains of a Hindi film melody holds your attention. Waada na tod, waada na tod…. the popular Lata Mangeshkar ditty from the 1987 flick Dil Tujhko Diya makes you nostalgic and you ask the lady at the reception who is playing the song: "Do you like Hindi music?" "Yes," she says. "Do you speak Hindi?" "No," she says, introducing herself as Sushilla Gosain.
Gosain explains that listening to HindI movie songs is her favourite pastime and her not knowing Hindi is no hindrance to that.
Same is the story of Deyal Ramcharan, a cab driver who operates between the Piarco international airport and the city of Port of Spain. The radio in his cab is always playing one Hindi channel or the other, and there are many in Trinidad and Tobago. Deyal also can’t speak Hindi. "Were you born in Trinidad?” Well into his sixties, Deyal informs, “Even my grandfather was born here."
Gosain and Ramcharan highlight the fascinating tale of how the Indo-Trinidadian and Tobagonian community here has managed to keep India alive in their lives while getting well integrated into the local milieu.
After slavery was abolished in 1838 in the British-ruled world, in the Caribbean too, former slaves no longer wanted to work under oppressive conditions. This led to a demand for a servile labour force to work in the vast sugar plantations here in Trinidad and some other Caribbean countries like Guyana. Under colonial rule, India provided the empire with cheap and mobile labour force. It was a poor country with a large labour force desperate for employment and ready to travel to far-off lands to escape poverty.
Between 1845 and 1917 (when indenture was abolished), approximately 1,45,000 Indians came to Trinidad to work as indentured, or bonded, labourers. The majority of these labourers came from the Gangetic planes of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar and that’s why Bhojpuri became the lingua franca of the Indian-origin population here in the early years.
The Indian-origin community here is now about 4.7 lakh strong which is 36 per cent of Trinidad and Tobago's total population.
It's interesting to note how this group has retained its distinctive Indianness while at the same time also getting homogenised with the local culture. Even the fourth or fifth generation Indo-Trinidadian nurtures Indian cultural mores without being at conflict with the Afro-Trinidadian way of life. Of course, the language of their forefathers like Hindi, Urdu and Bhojpuri have been lost but many of the words from these languages have been integrated into the local vernacular.
The most obvious channels through which the Indo-Trinidadians connect to their Indian roots is music, films and food. Hindi music is prominently played around the island and Indian artists regularly come to perform here. Indian cuisine has long entered the mainstream food system. The many popular Roti shops in Port of Spain, selling wraps with potato and meat inside, are a testimony to that.
During a visit to a local radio station, Heritage FM, one sees posters of Indian movies at the reception. Another poster is an advertisement of an upcoming Akla Yagnik show in Port of Spain. The channel's staple is a potpourri of Hindi film songs, bhajan, ghazal and folk.
Chutney music, developed by Indo-Caribbeans, is now a leading form of pop music in Trinidad and elsewhere in the West Indies. It is a mix of Bhojpuri, western and local music and intermingles with Soca and other forms of local music.
A number of temples cater to the religious needs of the Indian-descent people here with the 85-feet Hanuman statue at the Dattatreya temple at Carapichaima – claimed to be the largest Hanuman idol outside India -- being one of the more popular ones.
VS Naipaul, of course, is the towering Indian-origin figure from this country. But there have been scores of others who have distinguished themselves in politics, arts, social work and education, and or course cricket. The likes of Sonny Ramadhin, Denesh Ramdin, Robin Singh, Samuel Badree, Daren Ganga, Sunil Narine, Ravi Rampaul are all Indo-Trinidadians who have entertained cricket fans around the world.
Like all Caribbean nations, Trinidad also celebrates the 'Indian Arrival Day' to commemorate the arrival of Indians on these shores. In Trinidad, this day is celebrated on May 30.