The second webinar of the Indentured Labour Route Project (ILRP) Indian Ocean Committee (IOC), organised by the Aapravasi Ghat Trust Fund, kicked off, on Tuesday, on the theme ‘Broadening Horizons: Empowering Young Scholars and Academics, and New Directions of Research on Indentured Labourers’.
Some 30 participants from 10 countries are participating in this initiative which will enable young and older scholars, researchers, academics, and historians to discuss their latest works, as well as exchange notes and views. Academic presentations by local and foreign scholars are scheduled during the four sessions scheduled over two days.
The Minister of Arts and Cultural Heritage, Mr Avinash Teeluck, intervened in the opening session together with the Chairman of the Aapravasi Ghat Trust Fund, Mr Rishiraj Kanhye; the Director of the Trust Fund, Mr Hariduth Chand Ramgoolam; the Surinamese Historian and Researcher in Indentured Labour, Migration, Diaspora, and Ethnic relations in Plural societies, Mr Maurits Hassankhan; and the Adjunct Professor in History of the University of Queensland in Australia, Dr Doug Munro.
In his address, Minister Teeluck recounted the arrival of the more than 452,000 Indian Indentured Labourers and 10,000 non-Indian Indentured workers between 1826 and 1910. He dwelt on their sacrifices and contributions to the socio-economic, cultural, and religious development of the country.
Elaborating on the theme of the webinar, which he deemed important and pertinent, the Minister was of the view that it aimed at attracting and supporting young scholars and researchers, as well as at exploring new themes under the vast and complex subject of Indentured Labour.
As for the Chairman of the Aapravasi Ghat Trust Fund, Mr Rishiraj Kanhye, he underscored that Indentured Labour required new research to enrich the Mauritian Indentured Labour historiography, shed new light on experiences of the first Indian Immigrants in the country and different parts of the world, and bring additional recognition to the key parts played by Indentured workers in the making of modern world history.
For the Aapravasi Ghat Trust Fund Director, the webinar is in line with the objectives of the Indentured Labour Route Project, and the Indian Ocean Committee. These objectives are to link up local scholars, academics, researchers, writers, and other stakeholders who specialise in the history of Indentured Labour in the Indian Ocean Region and other parts of the world; encourage multidisciplinary research, publications and joint projects; and share resources, information and documentation.
For his part, Historian Maurits Hassankhan encouraged all members and participants to submit articles, documentations, and other materials to the website of the Indentured Labour Route Project. He, among others, dwelt on the necessity of mapping the origins of the ancestors in India itself and locating these areas in the present so as to enable descendants to find their roots while at the same time stimulating ‘Roots Tourism’ and connection among the Indian diaspora.
The intervention of Dr Doug Munro purported to the book of K.L. Gillion on Indian Migrants.
