Vi­jay Ma­haraj

Di­vali, or “The Fes­ti­val of Lights,” is a ma­jor fes­ti­val in the cul­tur­al land­scape of Trinidad and To­ba­go. It is a time when Hin­dus in T&T and across the Hin­du world wor­ship the fe­male as­pect of God, in the form of Moth­er Lak­sh­mi—the God­dess of wealth and pros­per­i­ty.

This cel­e­bra­tion, like the oth­er “Ut­savas” or re­li­gious ob­ser­vances, takes place on a grand scale and has be­come a part of the tra­di­tions of our mul­ti­cul­tur­al so­ci­ety.

Many non-Hin­dus al­so par­tic­i­pate in these cel­e­bra­tions. In the work­place, in­di­vid­u­als, Hin­dus and non-Hin­dus can be seen wear­ing In­di­an tra­di­tion­al cloth­ing, while gov­ern­ment min­istries and de­part­ments, state agen­cies/cor­po­ra­tions and ma­jor mul­ti-na­tion­al cor­po­ra­tions al­so have an­nu­al Di­vali cel­e­bra­tions. The Hin­du fes­ti­val of Di­vali has now be­come em­bed­ded in the cul­tur­al fab­ric of T&T.

Di­vali is cel­e­brat­ed in the Hin­du month of Kar­tik (Oc­to­ber-No­vem­ber) on the dark­est night of the year. The word Di­vali means a row of lights and the ori­gin can be found in the var­i­ous leg­ends and mytholo­gies of Hin­du scrip­tures.

For many, the cel­e­bra­tion sur­rounds the re­turn of Shree Ra­ma, moth­er Si­ta and broth­er Lak­sh­mana, from ex­ile in the for­est lands af­ter 14 years.

Cit­i­zens of Ay­o­d­ha, where Lord Ra­ma was born, lit these earth­en lamps (deeyas) along the path­way and out­side their homes to wel­come the fam­i­ly. The oc­ca­sion was a grand one, as it sig­ni­fied the de­struc­tion of the de­mon king, Raa­van.

Many oth­ers cel­e­brate Di­vali to recog­nise the de­struc­tion of the evil Naraka­sura by Lord Kr­ish­na. The de­mon king Naraka­sura gained tremen­dous pow­er and was un­matched in his prowess. He was able to con­quer both the heav­en­ly re­gion and earth. Lord Kr­ish­na killed this tyran­ni­cal king on the day pre­ced­ing Di­vali.

In both in­stances, the un­der­ly­ing phi­los­o­phy re­mains the same—the tri­umph of good over evil, light over­com­ing dark­ness and en­light­en­ment over ig­no­rance!

This fes­ti­val was brought here 179 years ago by the East In­di­an in­den­tured labour­ers. The com­ing of the 225 In­di­ans in 1845 at a time fol­low­ing the abo­li­tion of slav­ery, led to these in­den­tured im­mi­grants be­ing held at the bot­tom end of so­ci­ety. Over a pe­ri­od of 70 years, ap­prox­i­mate­ly 147,000 East In­di­ans came to Trinidad.

To­day, the de­scen­dants of these in­den­tured labour­ers make up near­ly 40 per cent of the pop­u­la­tion. The in­den­tured labour­ers, com­pris­ing Hin­dus and Mus­lims, re­tained their val­ues and prin­ci­ples, which have sus­tained them and their de­scen­dants till the present. To­day’s gen­er­a­tion still ad­heres to many of the age-old cus­toms, tra­di­tions and re­li­gious prac­tices brought here from In­dia.

Di­vali is cel­e­brat­ed in much the same way as in the old­er days. How­ev­er, cer­tain as­pects have evolved. Years ago, Hin­dus would pick the cot­ton pods and keep them un­til Di­vali. They would peel off the cot­ton and make their own ‘wicks.’ The oil was made at home from dried co­conuts. To­day, these items are bought in stores but the light­ing of the ‘deeyas’ re­mains the same. “Poo­jas” (spe­cial prayers) are con­duct­ed at homes across the land, as Hin­dus pay obei­sance to the Hin­du God­dess, Moth­er Lak­sh­mi.

While Di­vali is wide­ly and pub­licly cel­e­brat­ed world­wide, for the Hin­du pop­u­la­tion here at home, it is a re­mark­able ac­com­plish­ment. In 1966, some 121 years af­ter the East In­di­ans first stepped on this is­land, Dr Er­ic Williams, the first prime min­is­ter of T&T, de­clared Di­vali a pub­lic hol­i­day.

In the words of the late Dr Williams, “What­ev­er the ori­gin of Di­vali, it has over the cen­turies of its cel­e­bra­tions, gath­ered on­to it­self a pletho­ra of as­so­ci­a­tion of the great­est val­ue and sig­nif­i­cance to Trinidad and To­ba­go.”

He fur­ther not­ed, “Let the lights of Di­vali burn bright­ly through­out Trinidad and To­ba­go as a sym­bol of peace and har­mo­ny in our mul­ti-racial and mul­ti-re­li­gious com­mu­ni­ty; let them al­so be a sym­bol of our na­tion­al de­ter­mi­na­tion to align our­selves with the Forces of Light against the Forces of Dark­ness, and may their il­lu­mi­na­tion, over the length and breadth of this land of ours, be an oc­ca­sion of na­tion­al re­joic­ing and na­tion­al re-ded­i­ca­tion to the pur­suit of peace, knowl­edge, wis­dom and virtue.”

In a cos­mopoli­tan coun­try of great di­ver­si­ties, it is im­per­a­tive every group widens its ac­cep­tance, un­der­stand­ing and ap­pre­ci­a­tion of oth­er groups in the so­ci­ety. This will fos­ter a more har­mo­nious and co­he­sive so­ci­ety, and will fa­cil­i­tate greater sta­bil­i­ty, peace and progress in every sphere of na­tion­al life.

Light it­self is a very pow­er­ful sym­bol. The pow­er of light tran­scends every lim­i­ta­tion and brings il­lu­mi­na­tion. Prob­lems in the world are large­ly gen­er­at­ed through men­tal and spir­i­tu­al dark­ness or ig­no­rance, and the sa­cred fes­ti­val of Di­vali is a po­tent tool in dis­pelling the var­i­ous forms of ig­no­rance that per­vade so­ci­ety.