MILAAP - DISCOVER YOUR INDIAN ROOTS PROJECT
Text supplied by By Satish C. Rai
The concept of Discover Your Indian
Roots was first developed in 1994 by Satish Rai after
his return to his then home in London from India. In
this trip Satish Rai hoped to locate the roots of his
paternal grand parents in the district of Balrampur in
Uttar Pradesh (UP). Satish had gone to UP armed with
some information which he had managed to obtain from
his uncle (father's elder brother).
His trip took him up to Lucknow and
Basti. But as a first time visitor to India, he came
up with a number of difficulties, mainly due to
unfamiliarity with the area, lack of knowledge of
assistance and services available, and companionship
of a familiar person. After several days he returned
to Delhi, without even getting close to his ancestral
village.
Upon his returned to London his
failure in Uttar Pradesh prompted him to write a paper
'Discover Your Indian Roots' in which he outlined the
benefits India , specially Uttar Pradesh, could get if
the central government of India and the State
government of Uttar Pradesh (as well as Tamil Nadu,
Andhra Pradesh), could get if they assisted the
descendents of indentured Indians, (some 1 million of
them were taken to European plantations from
1838-1916), to trace their roots and visit their
ancestral roots in India. Today some 10 million
descendants of Indentured Indian labourers live
outside India.
In 1995 Satish Rai made another visit to India but was
unsuccessful in getting near to his ancestral village
once again. After posting this paper to the central
Indian government and the State government of Uttar
Pradesh in 1995, Satish Rai migrated form UK to live
in Sydney Australia. While living in Sydney he
promoted Discover Your Indian Roots via local Indian
media.
In 1999 while planning his third
visit to India he searched the net to get further
information about Uttar Pradesh. During this search he
came across Uttar Pradesh Tourist web site, which
advertised Discover Your Roots Project. A great
coincidence, he thought and sent e-mail to the
project. Contact was eventually made and Satish Rai
went to India to shoot footage for his documentary,
which he named 'Milaap-Discover Your Indian Roots'.
This documentary follows visit of former Fijian
senator Asha Singh to her maternal and paternal
grandparents homes in Uttar Pradesh. It also features
interviews with officers of UP government's Discover
Your Project and visits to several villages in Rae
Bariely, Gorakhpur and Basti from where people had
migrated to Fiji, Guyana and Surinam during the
indenture period. The final part of the documentary
takes Satish to Balrampur, where he documents his
interview with local press regarding his search for
grand parent's village. Subsequently he learned from
contacts in Balrampur that his grand mother's village
has been traced.
The documentary was shown in Sydney
and in 2003 it was shown in Fiji during the India
Week, which was held in August in Suva. During the
India Week Satish Rai provided information on Milaap-Discover
Your Indian Roots-sharing booth with the India
Tourism-Sydney-its staff providing valuable
assistance. The eight day information sessions
provided information on tracing Indian roots to over
800 people and was able to trace roots of over 80
people. The support provided officers of India
Tourism-Sydney, the local media, the organisers of
India Week and the national Achieves Fiji was great
and contributed enormously to the success of Milaap
information project.
Encouraged by the success Milaap
hopes to return to Fiji later in the year to assist
thousands of others who wish to trace their ancestral
villages in India. Milaap also plans to hold
information days in Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne and
Auckland.
However the next project of Milaap
is another documentary film shoot in India. The
project will start on 11th September and finish on
29th September 2003. The documentary shoot will
consist of documentation of visits of several
Indo-Fijians to their ancestral villages in Rajasthan,
Basti, Balrampur and Jabalpur. It will also document
interviews with UP government officers, service
providers and opinion makers. The team will also try
to trace villages of some 80 indentured Indians whose
immigration passes were extracted during Milaap week
in Fiji. Visits to villages found will also be
documented. This documentary will feature Fiji's
popular opinion maker Thakur Ranjit Singh, who is a
great supporter of Milaap project. The documentary
will be ready for launch in Fiji during the next
Milaap sessions in Fiji.
From its small start in London in 1994-Discover Your
Indian Roots is becoming a popular project. So far it
has managed to provide information to some 1000 people
about tracing the roots of their forefathers in India
and assist some 100 people to extract immigration
passes of their ancestors which will certainly help
them to locate their ancestral homes in India.
However the work ahead is enormous
but with gigantic potentials for the descendents of
the brave indentured Indian labourers and for India
itself. In Fiji alone some 30,000 immigration passes
for those labourers needs to be found and matched with
the descendent who now exceed half million. Similarly
world wide excess of half million such passes need to
found and matched with their descendents who now
number excess of 10 million.
A process has been started, which is
slowly but surely spreading to the Descendents of
Indentured Indians Diaspora. The Diaspora started in
countries such as Mauritius, South Africa, Trinidad
& Tobago, Guyana, Surinam and Fiji but now has
spread around the globe. Slowly the descendents of the
brave Indians who left India to make some money, but
were not able to return to their families, are
completing the journeys on their behalf, by returning
to their villages after 100 odd long years. It offers
great emotional satisfaction for millions of people
and hope for many more.
If you need more information about
Milaap-Discover Your Roots Project or the documentary
film contact Satish Rai via email: rai2@iprimus.com.au.
By Satish Rai
BA (Hons)-London, MA- London-Sydney
|