The "Kolkotta Memorial & Museum" will be built in honor of our brave Indentured Ancestors who were lured by sugar planters to toil on sugar plantations across the British Colonies between 1834 and 1920 from the Calcutta Port.
Mr. Ashook Ramsaran, Executive Vice President of GOPIO International, Ms. Leela Sarup, popular historian and writer and Mr. Malay Misra, Hon Indian High Commissioner to Trinidad & Tobago, traveled to India in January 2010 to advocate the preservation of the land site.
Gopio is working towards acquiring the land, which is the first step to this project. The purpose of the "Kolkotta Memorial & Museum" is to honor our great ancestors and give their descendents a chance to pay proper homage to them for their pioneering spirits, indomitable courage and resilience, among other great qualities.
The team held meetings with appropriate Indian officials and took steps towards the establishment of the Global Indian Diaspora Heritage Society (GIDHS). Gopio has designated the newly formed GIDHS as a Kolkotta based organization with an internationally represented Kolkotta Memorial Project Committee that will be an international collaboration involving groups and persons where East Indians went as Indentured laborers to toil in the sugar colonies.
As this project progresses, it will be reported on this blog.
Sketches of the Bhowanipore Depot by Ms. Sarup
The team meeting in India in January 2010
