TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO - THE WEST INDIAN COUNTRY WHERE PEOPLE OF INDIAN ORIGIN MAKE UP A SIGNIFICANT PERCANTAGE OF THE TOTAL POPULATION. THEY WERE TAKEN TO WORK AS INDENTURED LABOURERS ON SUGAR PLANTATIONS

MAP OF TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO

TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO VETERAN JOURNALIST - PARAS RAMOUTAR BY SUBRY GOVENDER

(PARAS RAMOUTAR (EXTREME LEFT) WITH JOURNALISTS FROM OTHER PARTS OF THE WORLD IN FRONT OF THE TAJ MAHAL IN JANUARY 2009) During the recent visit of South Africa’s national cricket team to the West Indies – one would have noticed the number of Indian-origin spectators watching the matches along with their fellow black, white and mixed-race colleagues. The Indian-origin people are descendants of indentured labourers who were taken from various parts of India in the early 1800s to former colonies controlled by Britain, Holland and France. Some of the islands where Indian immigrants settled in large numbers are Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago and Suriname. In 2009 I had the opportunity of talking to journalists from these countries and Mauritius, Malaysia and Fiji about the lives of Indian-origin people. I was part of a group of 19 Indian-origin journalists who attended a Pravasi Bharati Divas conference in Chennai in 2009. I have already done radio documentaries on Guyana, Fiji and Malaysia, and Suriname and in this episode, I have a prepared a radio documentary on the island of Trinidad and Tobago, which is a former British colony. I spoke to Paras(Parasram)Ramoutar, an international journalist who writes and broadcasts extensively for radio, newspapers and television, in his home country, the Caribbean and worldwide. Mr Ramoutar is the Caribbean correspondent for the Indo Asian News Service(IANS), the Indiandiaspora.com, and India Empire.

(PARAS RAMOUTAR (BACK) WITH JOURNALISTS ANAND MALOO OF MAURITIUS AND SUBRY GOVENDER IN NEW DELHI IN 2009)

(PARAS RAMOUTAR AND OTHER JOURNALISTS FROM THE INDIAN DIASPORA IN 2009)