Great grandson returns to celebrate 100 years of abolition of indentured servitude
Patna,(BiharTimes): “It is true many of us are emotionally split between their place of birth (janambhoomi), place of work (karambhoomi) and the native place of their ancestors. But I love India. Here is where my heart lies,” said Dr Vishnu Bisram, a fourth generation migrant from Chapra in Bihar, now living in New York. He was taking part in an interactive session jointly organized by Jagjiwan Ram Sansadiya Adhyan Evam Rajnitik Shodh Sansthan and Tata Institute of Social Science, Patna Centre on Friday afternoon.
Dr Vishnu Bisram of Indian Diaspora Council is the main organizer of the centenary celebration of the abolition of indentured servitude on March 20, 1917. He was in Patna as a part of first such function in India.
Born in Guyana in South America and then migrated to the United States at the age of 16, Dr Bisram is from the family of those indentured labours, who, in spite of migrating more than once in the last over a century, still root for India.
Tracing his origin in Chapra in Bihar as well as in Mathura in Uttar Pradesh Dr Bisram, who can hardly speak Hindi or Bhojpuri, promised that he would soon learn them.
However, he somewhat comprehended these languages and fielded questions asked in the mother tongue of his great grandfather. He also announced that he would certainly pay a visit to his forefathers native places. At one point of time he became too emotional and his voice got choked.
A faculty of City University, New York, Dr Bisram, has worked extensively on Indians living abroad. He had worked in the US and Caribbean nations.
He is the organizer of this celebration in Fiji, Mauritius, South Africa, and Caribbean Islands.
Dr Bisram stressed for the need of Bihar Diaspora Institute.
Speaking on the occasion the Speaker of Bihar Assembly Vijay Chaudhary said that the British introduced the concept of indentured servitude in 1834 just a year after the parliament of United Kingdom abolished slavery. It was a design to circumvent the new law, but was more or less a sort of slavery in which labours are apparently hired for a fixed period, say five years.
Energy minister Bijendra Yadav, while addressing the gathering, asked why is it that the people from the Bhojpuri-speaking part of Bihar and adjoining places went to work outside and why not of any other part of the country. They are hard-working and labourious. Great men like Mahavir were born in Bihar and right from the ancient age till date it is the land of struggle.
Renowned Hindi writer Prof Ram Bachan Rai extensively explained what he called 90 years of history of indentured servitude. He said he had spent more than a couple of months in Mauritius for a UGC sponsored study and saw how the people of these places preserved their language and culture.
In this regard they made special reference to the contribution of Munshi Rahman Khan, who is also known as Cyclone Miyan as he was born in the year when the island-nation was hit by a great cyclone.
He said as to how Mahatma Gandhi’s ship developed a snag and had to undergo repair in Port Louis, while he was on way to South Africa in 1901. He got a fortnight time to interact with the people of Indian origin there.
Ram Bachan Rai saidthat first time 500 prisoners were taken to Mauritius in 1816 to build roads. But they can not be categorized as indentured labours as this phenomenon started in 1834. It continued for about 90 years.
It is interesting that both the centenary year of Champaran movement and abolition of indentured servitude would be held in 2017.
Welcoming the guests the director of the Jagjiwan Ram Institute, Srikant, recalled how the British took thousands of labours to various countries to work especially in sugarcane plantation.
He said the world knows much about the sinking of Titanic, but nobody remembers, how a ship named Hydri with 500 Indian indentured labours sank 35 years before Titanic.
The director of TISS, Patna Centre, Pushpendra, while thanking the guests, said that during his study in Gujarat he found that a lot of diasporas are investing in building temples and other related projects related to only some section of a society.
“We expect them to play a much bigger role in India where social evils like caste and communal divides still exist,” he said adding that both Jagjiwan Ram Institute and TISS are working on these issues. There is scope for more such cooperation in the future.
