Today, Trinidad and Tobago celebrates a very momentous occasion in our history — the 180th anniversary of the arrival of the first group of East Indians to our shores.
May 30, 1845, marks the historic day when 220 men and women came to our shores aboard the Fatel Razack, as indentured labourers or girmityas, under British Colonial rule, bound by contract to toil in the cane fields of the sugar plantations, following the abolition of slavery.
From 1845 – 1917, over 140,000 more Indians braved the very dangerous Transatlantic journey known as the kala pani to seek a new life in Trinidad under the Indentureship system. They came from mainly Northern Indian provinces such as Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, and Bihar, as well as Madras. The majority never saw India again in their lifetimes.
For decades, they endured tremendous hardships, adversity, systemic discrimination, and injustice as they struggled to find a place and space in Colonial Trinidad. Yet, they persevered, relying on hard work, immense sacrifice,and innovative entrepreneurship to survive and progress.
With tremendous fortitude and resolve, in a time of absolute repression and sheer poverty, they worked tirelessly to ensure that their children survived in that brutally harsh Colonial era.
They instilled in them the need to escape poverty through education, a legacy that redounds to this day. Undoubtedly, the arrival of these pioneering jahajees heralded a new era of tremendous economic, social, and cultural development for our nation.
For their indelible role in shaping our unique, beautiful national identity and cherished common values of hard work, productivity, and progress, those pioneering, inspirationalJahajees must never be forgotten. Today, we honour the legacy and achievements of our East Indian foreparents, proud in the knowledge that their contributions, like those of the many other ethnic groups who also call Trinidad and Tobago home, have carved for us a clear path to equality and progress.
I urge all citizens to always remember that, no matter what our backgrounds may be or which motherland ALL our ancestors once called home, we remain the privileged inheritors of this great nation they came to and sacrificed their lives to build for us. Let us never forget, then, our duty to their memory—to continue to build our Trinidad and Tobago into a place of peace, tolerance, happiness, and progress for all of our citizens.
As we celebrate Indian Arrival Day 2025, let us therefore re-dedicate ourselves to the cherished principles of equality, justice, peace, harmony, tolerance, respect, and goodwill for all citizens, in our perpetual quest for a brighter and more prosperous Trinidad and Tobago.
Happy Indian Arrival Day.