President of the SVG Indian Heritage Foundation, Junior Bacchus, said the arrival of Indians to St. Vincent and the Grenadines was in response to the shortage of labor on the plantations, following the abolition of slavery in 1834.
And, to commemorate the 158th anniversary of the arrival of the first Indian Indentured Labourers here, the foundation is preparing to host a series of activities from this weekend.
Speaking on NBC’s Interface programme this morning, Mr. Bacchus said the Indian Arrival Day activities are intended to celebrate the arrival of the first Indians to this country on June 1st, 1861. Mr. Bacchus said many Indians settled throughout the country following protests about working conditions in 1882.
Indian Arrival Day, declared by an Act of Parliament in 2007, has been celebrated each year since then with a series of events.
