There was a notable absence of politicians on the podium at the launch of Divali Nagar 2014 on Tuesday night. The star of the function was former head of the Public Service and Police Service Commission, Kenneth Lalla, SC, 88, who was the chief guest.
A number of government ministers were present in the audience, including Works Minister Dr Suruj Rambachan, Planning Minister Dr Bhoe Tewarie, Trade Minister Vasant Bharath, Transport Minister and Chaguanas East MP Stephen Cadiz and Couva South MP Rudranath Indarsingh. But none of them spoke at the event. Last year Rambachan delivered the feature address.
Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar was invited but did not attend, an official at the National Council on Indian Culture (NCIC), which hosts Divali Nagar, confirmed. Lalla, who held many portfolios in public life, disclosed a little known side to him in a stirring address.
He was born in 1926 in Dow Village, California, the son of indentured Indian labourer Rambagoo Lalla, who was attached to the Esperanza estate. His father taught him, in Hindi, many rules of life and this constituted his mantra along his lonely journey, he said. His parents died when he was nine and he became a child labourer, earning his own keep of 25 cents a day and paying his way through school.
A devout Hindu, he disclosed he fought for many years for his religion to be recognised and respected in T&T. This included creating an Indian newspaper, a Hindu parliament and a Hindu school. But Lalla said Indians had little or no interest in reading about their culture in the newspaper, Sandesh, and it folded.
He had proposed the establishment of a Hindu parliament for the different Hindu organisations, in which each Hindu leader could continue to rule over his “kingdom” but meet with the others in parliamentary sessions, he said. This also fell through because of a lack of interest. With the elders on the Esperanza estate, the young Lalla established a Hindu school and offered to teach English and arithmetic free to the labourers’ children but was thrown out of the organisation because of the English.
In 1966, he contested the Couva South seat after people came to him and asked him to do it. “But after one term, I discovered I was in the wrong place,” he said. Lalla commented on the rapid psychological and social changes taking place among Indians in T&T, saying Indians no longer wear Indian clothes or speak Hindi, except on special occasions, and western food, language and culture have made great inroads into Indian culture.
Lalla said Divali has been observed for thousands of years to celebrate light over darkness but darkness still pervades everywhere. He was presented with a number of exquisite gifts from India by the NCIC and likened to a saint. Help needed for Nagar site
NCIC president Deokienanan Sharma is appealing to the Government for money to help finish the main building at the Divali Nagar site.
The incomplete building, where the Divali Nagar launch was held on Tuesday, had reached its present stage largely through the NCIC’s own efforts, he told the audience in an address. However, Sharma said, it had become increasingly difficult to fund the completion of the building. “We are asking for assistance to complete the Heritage Centre,” he said.
He said the NCIC, founded in 1964, was celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. The organisation was born at a time when Indian artistes were at the lowest rung of the ladder, economically and otherwise, he said. But in 1986, Divali Nagar was established and this succeeded in putting Indian culture on the national landscape. “Indian culture could no longer be ignored,” he added.
Sharma said the NCIC was assisting Indians wherever they were settled in the world to establish their own Divali Nagars. The theme of this year’s Divali Nagar, which runs for nine nights, is Shiva, a primary form of god in Hinduism. He has many aspects, including being both benevolent and a great destroyer. The NCIC, for the first time, had its own theme song, created by sitarist and composer Mungal Patassar.