Karan Singh pays tribute to creative energies of Indian Diaspora

New Delhi, Jan 5 (UNI) Saluting the creative energies of the Indian Diaspora that have taken them to the pinnacle of success in various fields, ICCR President Karan Singh today said it would be erroneous to trace the country's diasporic traditions only in terms of indentured labourers.

''In fact, long before the colonial British rulers took people from eastern Uttar Pradesh and Bihar as 'Girmityas' (indentured labourers) to work in plantation industries in alien lands, Indians had migrated to South East Asian countries as a powerful cultural force,'' Dr Singh said.

Dr Singh, who is Trustee of Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA), was inagurating a five-day mega event -- Origins: Creative Tracks of the Indian Diaspora -- organised by the IGNCA.

The basic objective of the event, which coincides with the January 7-9 Prabasi Bharatiya Divas (PBD) conference, is to establish a cultural network and resource centre on Indian Diaspora at IGNCA, an autonomous cultural body under the Culture Ministry.

Dr Singh, a Rajya Sabha member, said there were different strands of Indian Diaspora, and the trends began with Indians going to South East Asian countries with their culture and philosophy with peaceful purposes, not as conquerors like the British.

In this connection, he referred to the Angkor Vat temple in Cambodia, which he described as the ''largest place of worship in the world'' that celebrates Vaishnavism, Shaivism and Buddhism in their resplendent forms.

''This is the classical stream of diaspora,'' he said.

The other streams are Tamils settling in Sri Lanka and the Gypsies whose songs, dances and jewellery starkly resemble those witnessed in Gujarat and Rajasthan.

''The latest wave of migration is that of high-tech specialists and managers who have made it to the top in the US, North America and Western Europe in a highly competitive environment,'' he pointed out.

Dr Singh said the creative forces, inherent in Indians, had made the diasporic community become Prime Ministers, Presidents and Nobel laureates in their adopted countries.

Dr Krishna Baijnath, High Commissioner of Surinam and a fourth generation of the Indian Diaspora, said one-third of the country's population consisted of Indian origin.

''Bhojpuri is spoken by a large number of people, and Hinduism and Islam are predominant belief systems. We celebrate Holi, Deepavali, Navratri and Muslim festivals. In Fact, Holi and Id-ul-Fitr are national holidays in Surinam,'' he said.

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