Wednesday, May 04, 2005
Let us preserve the "Slave" legacy
In my quest for finding video and film that captures the "Indian Diaspora", I found a documentary "Pure Chutney". Pure Chutney is an exploration of the delicious - and even difficult - mix of Trinidadian-Indian culture.
Another film The Gravel Road (Chemman chaalai)tells the story of an Indian girl stifled on a Malay rubber plantation.
Why is it that we give so much prominence to the newer diaspora, the old indentured slaves are often not talked about. India had her fair share of the boat people in the late 18th and early 19th century. Their lives are now buried in few academic journals and other political NRI lobbies. Their grand/great grand children still carry the brown genes of 'Indianness'. Some of them are making films on their histories.
As a nation, I think we must be proud of our "slave legacy". Proud not that we sent out slaves, but proud of who they became. Slaves were sent in all false hope and ignorance to work in the Sugar Cane fields in the Carribbean and Africa, build the rail-road of California, slog on Teak plantations in Malaysia, Burma etc. But three or four generations later, most of them hold positions of power and intellect. They have always looked back at India, all the time for their tradition, culture and feeling of home.
As Indian, I am proud of the non-violence, Gandhi, the developing country status, t- but most of all I am proud of those "Indentured Labourers" that left India, ignorant and lonely, but genrations later they still balance the love for their past homeland and committment to their personal betterment, such as the young film-maker Deepak Kumar Menon.
We need to document these legacies more on film and art. Literature has been doing it so far.
If you dear reader knows of films/documentaries on the Diaspora, please let me know.
Another film The Gravel Road (Chemman chaalai)tells the story of an Indian girl stifled on a Malay rubber plantation.
This film is a striking work within Malaysian cinema. Alongside Malaysia's native population, the country has two large ethnic groups: the Chinese and the Indians. The latter are almost completely absent from the film scene, because only films spoken in Malay are entitled to any financial support. That did not stop Menon from making the first Tamil-spoken film in Malaysia.
Why is it that we give so much prominence to the newer diaspora, the old indentured slaves are often not talked about. India had her fair share of the boat people in the late 18th and early 19th century. Their lives are now buried in few academic journals and other political NRI lobbies. Their grand/great grand children still carry the brown genes of 'Indianness'. Some of them are making films on their histories.
As a nation, I think we must be proud of our "slave legacy". Proud not that we sent out slaves, but proud of who they became. Slaves were sent in all false hope and ignorance to work in the Sugar Cane fields in the Carribbean and Africa, build the rail-road of California, slog on Teak plantations in Malaysia, Burma etc. But three or four generations later, most of them hold positions of power and intellect. They have always looked back at India, all the time for their tradition, culture and feeling of home.
As Indian, I am proud of the non-violence, Gandhi, the developing country status, t- but most of all I am proud of those "Indentured Labourers" that left India, ignorant and lonely, but genrations later they still balance the love for their past homeland and committment to their personal betterment, such as the young film-maker Deepak Kumar Menon.
We need to document these legacies more on film and art. Literature has been doing it so far.
If you dear reader knows of films/documentaries on the Diaspora, please let me know.
Comments
Hello again, Cecilia.
Thanks so much for visiting. It is so wonderful to have a friend in India.
I've linked to your site, and I wrote about it a bit today on my weblog. Hope you like it.
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