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Inaugural address by Dr. Karan Singh

Dr. Karan Singh in his inaugural address said, “there had been four streams of Indian immigration. The first was several centuries ago when the Indian culture, philosophy and art spread out. There was no conquest in the western sense of the term. The Indians went out and built it temples and monuments- Angkor vat, the largest place of worship in the world in a proof of this. The Gypsies represent the second immigration. They still retain the dress and jewel, which are identical to the Banjaras. Then came the indentured labour. Within a century or 150 years these labourers have risen to top positions in their countries. After the Second World War and around India’s independence low-tech immigration took place and finally now the high-tech immigration of scientists, skilled people and professionals was taking place. What the Greeks in the Romans have done for the West India has done for the East.”

Address by Shri Krishen Bajnath, Ambassador of Suriname 

Shri Krishen Bajnath, Suriname Ambassador to India in his address said, the Indian Diaspora is alive in Surinam. “We speak Bhojpuri and all the Indian festivals like Diwali, Dussehra, Id-ul-Fitr are celebrated. Suriname hosted the 7th Hindi World Conference in 2003 which was inaugurated by Suriname President.” 

Address by Dr. Paul Polanski
Dr. Paul Polanski is a Gypsologist, who has lived with the European Gypsies for several years and struggled for their rights. Even after thousand years of existence many countries in Europe are yet to recognize the fundamental rights of Gypsies as human beings. Most of them are still living in most regretful conditions. He said “India has not recognized Gypsies as people of Indian origin and there are 20 million gypsies around the world.” 

Address by Shri Ruud Chandra, Director OHM (Organization of Hindu Movement)
Shri Ruud Chandra, Director OHM (Organisation of Hindu Movement) said his forefathers migrated to Surinam in 1912 and the name Suriname comes from Shri Ram. Presently, he lives in Holland and is heading Europe’s largest Hindu Media Network, OHM. For the past few years OHM has produced a number of films on Cultural lives of Indian migrant communities in South Africa, Jamaica, Malaysia , Fiji, Suriname, Trinidad, Guyana , Guadeloupe, Martinique. OHM has also produced a number of feature films based of Indian Diaspora as well as Hindu religious and cultural issues. He said he is proud of getting associated with IGNCA’s Diaspora Cultural resource Center.

Address by Shri Sat Balkaran Singh, Trinidad
Shri Sat Balkaran said he was a third generation Indian from Trinidad. His ancestors migrated to Caribbean island as indentured labourers under the British scheme of indenturedship. They were recruited to meet the labour demands of the 19th century European sugar planters in the aftermath of abolition of abolition of slavery. From almost a semi slave like existence the Indians in Trinidad grew phenomenally. Trinidad’s Indian population, part of the Indo Caribbean diaspora has formidable presence in all walks of life. 

Address by Dr. Lotika Vardarajan
Dr. Lotika Vardarajan, a scholar participating in the discussion said that the Indian Diaspora should be looked at from the textile angle. She also suggested that the a map should be created along the lines of the spread and prevalence of the gypsy language and its interaction with different communities.


Screening of Film: Upanishad
OHM Productions, Netherlands

www.ohmnet.nl

1. Most Gypsies were easily scared away. A knock on their door in the middle of the night by three or four men holding guns or pitchforks and threatening to come back the next day to kill them if they were still there, caused many to leave immediately in their pajamas. Others took a few hours to pack their suitcases before high tailing it. Others took enough time to fill up a car or tractor and wagon to haul away what they could in addition to their families. Those who were not visited by threatening Albanians, still joined the exodus because they did not want to be left alone.
2. No one protected the Gypsies. Despite the arrival of NATO forces that supposedly came to Kosovo to protect a multi-ethnic society, no one wanted the Gypsies to stay although they had lived in Kosovo for more than 700 years. Since NATO troops and the UN refused to protect their property, and in many cases their lives, there was a constant exodus of Gypsies from Kosovo over the next three months. In fact, seven years later, Gypsies are still leaving Kosovo although Kosovo is still governed by a UN administration.
3. The Gypsies did not leave en mass. Except for 700 Gypsies that I led on a march to Macedonia, each family found their own way to leave. Those who could afford it paid a smuggler either made their own way by foot or by family car. The poorest of the poor who did not have enough money stayed, usually taking refuge in an abandoned building such as an empty schoolhouse. Other poor Gypsies joined them until there was safety in numbers.
4. Most of the fleeing Gypsies did not head for the nearest safe heaven, but leapfrogged over several countries (usually with the help of a hired smuggler) to join relatives in either Italy or Germany. Later some would make it to cousins in Switzerland, France, Belgium, Holland and the Scandinavian countries.
5. This Diaspora broke up forever extended family clans. But wherever they ended up these refugees were quick to put down new root in new communities.
6. Those who made it to another country were quick to forget their traditions and professions. Instead of being a traditional blacksmith, for example, the son of a blacksmith became a pizza delivery boy. But for those who had to stay because of their own poverty, they fell back on their traditions as if they were the only things they had been left with. For example, Gypsy girls who by tradition were usually sold in marriage at the age of 16 and 17 were now sold at 12 and 13. Most Gypsy boys were taken out of school by their fathers to hoe fields and tend sheep or cattle herds for gadjo neighbours.
7. Despite the break up of extended clans, the Gypsies in their Diaspora still maintained their caste. Very few original Indian traditions have survived among the Gypsies in Europe, but the caste system based on the profession of their ancestors has survived despite the fact that at least in the Balkans almost all Gypsies are today Muslim.
   

Shortly after NATO troops arrived in Kosovo in June 1999 the UN was swamped with Gypsy refugees fleeing from their homes and communities. Trying to understand what was happening, the UN looked for an expert to come to Kosovo to advise them on their Gypsy problem. I was asked to volunteer for three months. In July 1999 I moved into the largest Gypsy refugee camp in Kosovo. At night I was the only non-Gypsy living in the camp.


Shri Shyam Parande, in his paper ‘Russian Romany life- a brief interaction’ traced the history of the Romas. Following are excerpt from his paper: 
“I think this is the first time that a government body is looking at the Romany migration from Bharat. I heartily appreciate these efforts to look at the earlier migrations.

Why are Romany people attracted to India and why does this issue appeal to our mind?

I had been to Russia last June for attending a conference on Charity organized by an institute that is part of the St. Petersburg University. During the visit, I contacted the NRIs and the Russian Romany. I started contacting them and talking to them through e-mails. However, most of the people who contacted me were in need of some personal help. They were either in search of job, or homeless people or were suppressed by the local groups. I got to talk to a young lady who was studying International Law at the St. Petersburg University called Tatyana Timchencova. She hailed from a place that was some 1600 km off Petersburg and belonged to an agrarian family. On meeting her, I got the answer to the question that I posed couple of minutes earlier.
Tatyana dreams of visiting India and the Indian students in the university are surprised when she tells them that she loves Indian cuisine. Tatyana tries to befriend Indian students over there who do not understand the phenomenon. On the other hand, she is surprised that these students do not know why she loves India, being unaware of the Romany connection and that the tribes in India still exist and are developing.

In Moscow I could meet Vice President of International Roma Union, Dr. Nadezda Dimiter, a working Professor in the Moscow University. She heads the Anthropology department in the university. Our meeting was fixed at her home. The walls of her home adored some excellent paintings on Russian Romany life. During the initial pleasantries, she informed that her husband would be back from the University and we would understand the Indian connection when you look at him. On arrival, I could see the Indian features including the complexion that he resembles a common Indian face. We discussed the Russian Roma life for almost two hours and I could understand the state of Romany life in Russia. I received a copy of a book that Dr. Nadezda has co-authored on the subject of Romas.

Ms. Miradija Gidzic, a Gypsy from Kosova read a paper ‘My work, My story’ narrating the plight of the Gypsies. Following are exceprts: 

“My name is Miradija Gidsizic. I am a Gypsy from Kosovo, Serbia. My ancestors were blacksmiths. They probably left India about 700 years ago.

In Kosovo there are eight different castes or clans of Gypsies. Some of us call ourselves Roma, but are known to other Gypsies by our caste or clan name. My caste or clan is called Kovachi, which is the Serbian name for blacksmith. All Gypsy clans have different traditions and usually don’t intermarry.

In 1990 my family had to flee their house because extremist Albanians who were once our neighbors chased away all minorities in our village while UN and NATO forces just stood by the watched. We had lived there for more than 20 years. 

My parents had regular jobs but after the 1999 war they lost their jobs when the Albanians destroyed their company. My sisters and I could not return to our school in Pristina because the city was now 100% Albanian. Before the war it had been a Serbian city.

My father had a job on a cooperative pig farm working as a veterinarian assistant for 25 years. My mother as well worked for the same company. We had good neighbours and a good relationship with them.

Before the war all three communities lived and worked together: Serbs, Roma and Albanians. Roma always lived in the Serbian communities and after the war between the Serbs and Albanians the Roma people were accused by the Albanians of collaborating with the Serbs. That’s why the Albanians burned down our houses.

When the Albanians chased my family out of our home we escaped to my grandparents house, which was 7 km away. My father rushed to get one old Serb with his tractor to take us to my grandparent’s house. We arrived with nothing. Everything we owned we had to leave behind. My parents had some money that they were saving and with this money we bought food while we lived in my grandparent’s house for about two weeks. After this the Albanians came to that village so my father hired a truck to take us to Serbia where we lived with my aunt for three months.

After we ran out of money we went to live in a UN refugee camp in Bosnia for almost a year. We lived with a thousand other Roma from Kosovo who had also escaped because of the war. We were receiving monthly food but it was the peace we enjoyed the most. We didn’t have to fear someone would attack us at night while we slept.

After one year we returned to my grandparent’s in Kosovo. We could not live any longer away from our cousins, aunts and uncles. When we moved in with our grandparents who had a very small pension. It was not enough to feed our family. But I took a three month course in English, which enabled me to get a job to support my family. Then I started to work on the most important project I have ever done.

In summer of 1999 after NATO troops occupied Kosovo, returning Albanians destroyed more than 14,500 Gypsy homes. To date, less than 200 have been rebuilt. In addition to not having housing, there is no freedom of movement for minorities in Kosovo, and no Gypsies have been allowed to return to the jobs they had before the war.

These circumstances make it impossible for Roma to return to their former communities, or to survive there. Every day Roma are continuing to leave kosovo. For those who can afford to pay a smuggler, they join relatives abroad, mainly in Germany, Switzerland and Sweden. For those Roma who are too poor to pay a smuggler, they join relatives in Serbia or Montenegro. More than 100,000 Gypsies have had to flee kosove since the UN took over the running of the province. 
Gypsies.”


500PM FILM SCREENING 
GYPSY BLOOD
Produced by Paul Polanski 

6000 PM CULTURAL PERFORMANCE
Classical dance performance by students of Odissi and Bharatnatyam choreographed by Ms. Vanita Shastri, USA.

J. C.SHARMA, INDIA
Dr. BRIJ LAL, FIJI
Dr. MARINA BUDHOS, USA
Dr. SAT BALKARAN SINGH, TRINIDAD
Dr. NEELKEWAL MANI, INDIA
Ms. YAMINI, GUYANA
Dr. RUUD CHANDER, NETHERLANDS
Dr. L.M.SINGH
Mr. KRISHNADETT BAIJNATH

Prof. Brij Lal 
His grand father went to Fiji in 1908 as a labourer. He classified the movement of Indians into three phases of immigration. First, the age of merchant capital from 13th-15th century. Second, the age of colonial capital 1920-1940. Third, the global migration and cultural capitalism. He spoke on the convergence and divergence of Indian Diaspora and said we should record the history of V.S. Naipaul, Vikram Seth, Salman Rushdie by connecting the Indian Diaspora to the present English writers of India. Everyone in the Diaspora were asking questions about their identities and came to India to research their roots. He concluded by saying that the Indian Diaspora was a mosaic of diversity.

Prof. Mariana Budhos from Guyana read from a book of essays ‘Ask Me No Question’ written by her based on her life in Guyana, which brought out poignantly the trauma of Indians in Guyana and their second relocation in other countries after the anti-Indian riots.

Ms. Yamini, from among the audience also talked about Guyana. She said she had her roots in Allahabad and her family had migrated in the early 1900s. But she did not have the PIO card as the migration was not before the cut off date of 1911.

Dr. Neerkamal Mani presented poems on exile by Rama Bai Meera Alexzander and Agashahede Ali.

Dr. Ruud Chandra said the name Suriname came from Shriram. Dr. Chandra had migrated to the Netherlands from Suriname. He talked about the hardships faced by the Indian Diaspora for 2-3 generations in USA and Canada. He underscored the importance of imparting the values of the Indian epics to the younger generation. 

During a lecture demonstration by Shri Satbalkaran Singh and Mrs. Mandira Balkaran, talked about the Indian festivals, rituals and other Indian heritage. This session was chaired by Krishen Bajnath. On an estimate, there were 147,000, Indians living in Trinidad, 1,42,000 in Gyana, 31,000 in Suriname and 63,000 in Jamaica, and in one million in the West Indies.

Dr. L.M. Singhvi, chairing the afternoon session said the IGNCA has added a new dimension to culture. The Indian Diaspora is India’s Ambassador to various countries. He strongly suggested that there should be a project on ‘Roots.’ He called NRI as a National Preserve of Indian. He also suggested that a cultural foundation for Indian Diaspora should be created. The sun had set on the British empire but not on Indian Diaspora.

Mr. Krishnadett Baijnath, H.E. Ambassador, Suriname who shared the chair with Dr.L.M.Singhvi discussed the possibilities of research on Bhojpuri culture and Saranami language that exist in Suriname and Indo Dutch Diaspora .

600 PM CULTURAL PERFORMANCE
LECTURE DEMONSTRATION 
Ms. MANDIRA BALKARAN SINGH, TRINIDAD

7.00PM SCREENING OF FILM
ONCE MORE REMOVED 
A film by Ms. Shundell Prasad, USA
www.oncemoreremoved.com

Dr. SALMAN HAIDER, INDIA
Dr. PAUL POLANSKI, KOSOVO
Ms. MIRADIJA GIDZIC, KOSOVO
Dr. SAT BALKARAN SINGH, TRINIDAD
Prof. MARINA BUDHOS, USA
Ms. RANJITHA , MAURITIUS
Prof. CHANDRASHEKHAR BHATT
Prof. SATENDRA NANDAN
Mr. VIRENDRA GUPTA
Prof. LOKESH CHANDRA
Mr.R.L.BHATIA
Ms. KAPILA VATSYAYAN

The afternoon session started with Shri Salman Haider former Foreign Secretary as chairperson. The session was an Open Forum on the cultural perspective of the Diaspora.

Ms Miradija called for research on women related issues in the Indian Diaspora and more contacts between Gypsies world over and Indians and a comparative study on them.

Sat Balkaran Singh said the Indian Diaspora should cover not only the PIO but also those people influenced by the Indian Diaspora and had contributed to the Diaspora.

Prof. Mariana Budhos emphasized on the points of stigma of Diaspora.

Ranjita from Marutius said she worked on Indian Diaspora. She suggested that the role of Indian women labourers should be studies the PIO should be encouraged.

Dr Polanski emphasized on the need to do more research, using the latest technology available to carry out wider DNA tests to establish the clan links. 

Shri Salman Haider, former foreign Secretary was of the view that the IGNCA could act as a base to locate connections through DNA studies. He also stressed on the idea of converting this exhibition into travelling one. Diaspora should be treated as a process to try to develop creative connection with Indian Diaspora.

Valedictory Session

The Chief Guest at the Valedictory session was Honb’ble Governor of Kerala Shri R.L. Bhatia. Dr (Mrs.) Kapila Vatsyayan was the Chairman of the session. 

Prof. Chandershekhar Bhatt, from Hyderabad sought to define the word Indian. After going through many features that qualified for an Indian, he said that Indianness could only be felt and not defined in words or physical terms.

Shri Satender Nandan, recalling the visit of Mrs. Indira Gandhi to Fiji (the only Indian Prime Minister to have done so), he said the visit was embedded in the minds of each Indian Fiji. The first Indian Girmitias went to Fiji in 1933 as slaves, dispossessed and disfranchised. He recited his poem ‘Ghost’ in English and Hindi. The poem touchingly narrated the plight of Indians in a shipwreck off Fiji.

Shri. Virender Gupta, former ambassador to Trinidad and Tobago said the emigrants faced socio economic hardships and they had settled as multi cultural settings as Indo Carrebean Diaspora and Indo American Diaspora. He said that the Indians celebrate the Arrival Day, the day when the first ship of Indians arrived there centuries ago, on May 30. The celebrations involved Hindu rituals. This was one of the reasons why the Muslims, who form 15 per cent of the population kept away from the celebrations, though they were also Indians. Before he left, he said he had persuaded the Muslims to join the festival. 

Dr. Lokesh Chandra , the well-known historian and scholar said, Diaspora is a creative concept and it should not be associated with only sufferings. He said the word Diaspora had both roots and seeds hidden in the etymology of the word Diaspora. India is poly centric and this was what contributed to the Indian Diaspora. He desired that the gypsies world over should be declared as people of Indian origin because there are the only Indian Diaspora who have preserved their language.

Shri R.L. Bhatia, Hon’ble Governor of Kerala, said the Indian Diaspora was the goodwill Ambassadors of India around the world. He complemented the IGNCA on the initiative and appreciated the exhibition. He gave a call to the Indian Diaspora of “Motherland needs you”.

Dr. (Mrs.) Kapila Vatsyayan said “Call it by any name, metaphor or languages, this is a constant play, like tides, waves in the ocean which change every minute but the ocean does not. She said India is the ocean and the Diaspora the waves and tides. The waves and tides can be measured and quantified, but the ocean cannot be, she said. The Indian Diaspora was a relocation unlike the botanical phenomena. This relocation is not a hybrid but the Diaspora has the capacity to hold two seeds together. India is the religious, philosophical spiritual, historical and cultural home to the Indian Diaspora. She said that the global world is pushing human beings to be unicentric what we can do is to retain the integrity and yet to be open to outside i.e. dictated by time and place. This demands an inner confidence and attachment to the umbilical cord.” 

700pm Cultural Performance

Ms. Colette Pounia , Reunion island, France
accompanied by Mr.Mishko M’ba