400 Students to take Part in Indian Celebration

Four hundred students of primary and high schools are expected to participate in the Jamaica National Heritage Trust (JNHT) observance of the 162nd anniversary of the arrival of the East Indians in Jamaica.
The two-day celebration will be held at the Headquarters House of the JNHT at 79 Duke Street in downtown Kingston on May 10 and 11.
Public Education Officer at the JNHT, Junie Bolton told JIS News that the observance, “will seek to educate students on the Indians’ contribution toward the development of the Jamaican cultural heritage.”Activities to mark the celebration will include lectures and presentations, exhibition of artifacts, articles of clothing, dance, food and music, all depicting the Indian culture.
Mrs. Bolton noted that another major highlight of the celebration would be a presentation by Danesh Maragh, a Hindu priest and representative of the National Council on Indian Culture in Jamaica, who would speak on achievements of the Indians and their experience and contribution to the island.
The Public Education Officer noted that through the staging of Indian Arrival Day, the JNHT aims to increase public awareness of the contribution of the Indians to Jamaica, while it continues to maintain, preserve and protect all aspects of Jamaica’s cultural heritage.
In 1845 the first group of more than 200 East Indians landed at Old Harbour Bay in St. Catherine. They came to the island from Northern India to work on the plantations abandoned by the ex-slaves following Emancipation.
Some 36,000 East Indians, mainly of the Hindu faith, were brought to Jamaica from 1845 to 1921.