Encased in a time warp

Think of India and a myriad of visions flash across one’s mind ­ Taj Mahal, the immortal love story etched in marble, the vibrant colours, the ‘curry’ and, of course, Bollywood (the choreographed song-and-dance sequences replete with gyrating actresses in their finery).

Take a time travel to 1845. On May 12, a group of East Indian indentured labourers ­ laden with frugal belongings ­ in awe and dazed by their journey across time zones to a land tucked in the turquoise waters of the Caribbean Sea, landed at Old Harbour Bay, St Catherine.
 

With them, the Indians brought their traditions and way of life, which, 167 years down the line, are standing still in a time warp and possibly restricted to a generation.

“Unfortunately,” said David Stimpson, curator, Museums of History and Ethnography, Institute of Jamaica (IOJ), “the Jamaican art consists of a wide spectrum of practices and specialisation and we have limited information on the Indian influence (in the arts).”

GLIMPSE INTO THE PAST
The pieces on show at the IOJ reflect the frugality of the first Indians to land here, striking among them jewellery making tools a pot, shear and heart-shaped cast and punch ­ a ‘sarangi’ (a bowed, short-necked, stringed instrument), and a pair of wooden slippers or ‘powla’.

These artefacts reflect an era of Indian history which is restricted to meandering alleys of small towns. Jewellers sitting on sprawling cushions spread on the floors of their shops fanning themselves with handheld fans, with the workers meticulously smelting, hammering and carving out jewellery the old-school way, compared to the showrooms of sprawling, squeaky, swanky malls in the urban centres.

At the entrance of IOJ, a replica of the tazia sits in a corner, the float symbolising the tomb of Hussein, the martyred son of Prophet Muhammad, which is carried in processions during the Shi’ite festival of Muharram. The Indian influence is prominent with a paper peacock, which is the national bird of India, adorning the crest.

EVOLUTION
In Jamaica, with the confluence of ethnic and cultural groups, the festival has evolved to Hosei. “It is the celebration that epitomises Indo-Jamaican heritage,” Stimpson informed. 

“Initially, an all-Indian affair, African-Creole members of the community were soon included.

“Today, the inclusion of Africans has become an integral part of the Jamaican performance of Hosei.”

Some items of daily use ­ a pair of powla slippers, carved out of wood, with a strip of leather stretched across the toe, simple and rustic in design, reminiscent of footwear worn by village folk and holy men in India back in the days ­ even they have evolved to sneakers and running shoes in the 21st century. An orange rinder, straight out of the pages of Rudyard Kipling’s India, a bed of nails hammered in a metal plate, turned upside down looks like a seat of a holy man in meditation ­ the parallel is pretty distinct.

The Indian music, to an extent, managed to maintain the originality of the beats permeating from rural India, the tassa drum and the sarangi resonate the bygone era that is nestled somewhere in the land of wood and water.

“We (at IOJ) would like more to be showcased about Indian art, which we are trying our best to do with the available resources,” said Stimpson.

“Clouds come floating into my life, no longer to carry rain or usher storm, but to add colour to my sunset sky,” said Rabindranath Tagore, Indian poet, novelist, playwright, painter and Nobel laureate. The sprinkling of Indian culture in Jamaica, like speckles of raindrops, adds streaks of colour to the rainbow of the country’s diverse culture and encapsulates the motto, Out of Many, One People.