Indo-Trinidadian legacies
I've been deep in the process of drafting Wikipedia articles. I have a vast backlog of articles that I've started, but never quite got around to finishing and publishing to mainspace, so I've finally decided to do something about that. Clear some space. But even as I moved one draft to mainspace, I can't help but start more.
Crafting an article takes research, and research brings you to other people you should have created articles about too. To flesh out my two-sentence draft about FEM Hosein I went digging. And found so much more than I thought I expected to.
Looking for sources about him brought me to Mitra Sinanan, who unlike his brother lacks a Wikipedia bio. To George Fitzpatrick, who does have a biography (in fact, I think I first learned about him from that biography) but it's short and talks as much about his son as about him. And to Brinsley Samaroo.
It's shameful, really, that Brinsley Samaroo doesn't have a biography. Apparently I started one in 2020, but never took it past a single sentence. Now, as I looked at what I'd written, I was reminded that he passed away in 2023.
One source in particular has caught my attention — a PhD thesis from 2014 called The Creole Indian. In it I found not only a length discussion about the history of Naparima College that I'd never heard before, but also an account of my great uncle, P.M.H. Allahar, who was apparently labelled a seditionist by the British Government in WWI.
Stumbled upon mention of my great-uncle (P.M.H. Allahar) in a list of "Indian seditionists" who were distributing materials from the Ghadar Party in Trinidad during WWI. The Ghadar Party was intent on overthrowing British rule in India, so I imagine this was worrying to the authorities in TT.
— Ian Ramjohn (@iramjohn.bsky.social) 2025-12-03T13:49:51.941Z
I also found a brief mention of my grandfather's brother, who was awarded a scholarship to study medicine in Canada.
Finally, I discovered the Journal of Indentureship and its Legacies, a fascinating new(ish) journal sponsored by the Ameena Gafoor Institute for the Study of Indentureship and its Legacies.
Times like this I dream of being a historian who could dig into these kinds of things. There's so much of the legacy of indentureship that I know nothing about.