Kolkata: The Minister for Overseas Indian affairs, Vyalar Ravi, unveiled a memorial plaque in memory of the Indian Indentured workers at Kidderpore dock in Kolkata on January 11.
The memorial is a project jointly sponsored by the Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs, the Kolkata Port Trust, and the government of the state of West Bengal.
It will perpetuate the memory of the over one million men, women and children that left Indian shores under contracts with mainly British but also Dutch and French colonial powers to work in agricultural projects --chiefly sugarcane plantations-- in their respective colonies around the world.
Indentured migration mainly took place between 1834 to 1920.
Considerable numbers of persons of Indian origin trace their ancestry to indentured workers brought in by the colonial powers. These are scattered around the world from Fiji in the Pacific to Surinam in Central America with several South East Asian and other countries in betwee.
Many leaders from the diaspora have been lamenting the absence of any enduring symbol of their old links to India establishing their connection to their ancestors and their cultural heritage.
This memorial will go some way in addressing that.
Kolkata was the departure point for a fair number of indentured workers and its selection as a site for the memorial is apt.
The plaque's inscription reads: 'In honoured tribute to Indian indentured labourers - with due recognition and lasting remembrance of Indian indentured labourers who left these shores during 19th and 20th centuries, seeking better livelihoods in far away lands...
'For their pioneering spirit, determination, resilience, endurance, perseverance and sacrifices amidst extremely harsh conditions...
'For their invaluable contributions to lands they adopted, and for the triumph of the spirit of Indianness they maintained and passed on to their descendants.'
The occasion was also graced by the Minister for Railways, Mamata Banerjee and MoS for Shipping, Mukul Roy.