In Brief
- 40-year milestone: Writing on the 40th anniversary of Divali Nagar, Ronald Bhola reflects on how its late founder, Hans Hanoomansingh (who died in 2025), created a cultural landmark that awakened Indo-Trinidadian and Hindu consciousness in 1986.
- Founders and legacies: The letter places Divali Nagar and the National Council of Indian Culture (NCIC) alongside other major Hindu, cultural, and trade union institutions in Trinidad and Tobago that remain the enduring legacies of their pioneering founders.
- Political catalyst: Bhola traces how the cultural resurgence sparked by Divali Nagar—and Hanoomansingh’s 1995 invitation to Indian President Shankar Dayal Sharma—helped reshape the political landscape, toppling the PNM and NAR governments and propelling the UNC into power.
Dear Editor,
Exactly 40 years ago, Hans Hanoomansingh created Divali Nagar, a Hindu cultural and religious event that aroused Indian and Hindu consciousness, woke up a meek and desultory community, and emboldened it to break the 30-year rule of the PNM and elect a new government: the NAR.
Five years later, this same community removed the very people it had elected.
When Divali Nagar was first organised, it received no live television coverage, as the PNM had despised Indians and their culture for 30 years. Meanwhile, the new NAR government, not accustomed to governing a country, was riven with conflict.
Gayelle TV had covered the Nagar event and interviewed some of the leading figures at the Mid Centre Mall venue. There was no internet and certainly no mobile phones. To the surprise of the entire country, the Nagar’s success caused many to tremble; and it was the power of that very Hindu and Indian community that, five years later, wiped the NAR off the Trinidad landscape.
In years to come, other cultural organisations would also be formed to become the legacies of their founders, just as trustees Chankar Maharaj, Ramoutar Sawh, Charles H. Boodoo and Jang Bahadoorsingh have the Sanatan Dharma Maha Sabha as their legacy. So too the Hindu Prachar Kendra is the legacy of Shri Ravi Ji, the Divine Life Society is the legacy of Swami Satchidananda, and the Chinmaya Ashram is the legacy of Swami Prakashananda. The Hindu Women’s Organisation is likewise the legacy of pioneering figures such as Pandita Indrani Rampersad, Amrika Tewarie, Brenda Gopeesingh and a few others.
In like manner, the All Trinidad Sugar Estates and Factory Workers Trade Union is the legacy of Adrian Cola Rienzi, and not of his successors: Lionel Frank Seukeran (1946–1955), McDonald Moses (1955–1957), Bhadase Sagan Maraj (1957–1971), Krishna Gowandan (1971–1973), Basdeo Panday (1973–1995), Boysie Moore-Jones (1995–1999), Rudranath Indarsingh (1999–2012) and Nirvan Maharaj (2012–present).
So too is the OWTU a legacy of Rienzi, although many have tried to downplay and even rewrite this part of our history.
The National Council of Indian Culture (NCIC) and its progeny, Divali Nagar, are older than the political party, the United National Congress (UNC). And Divali Nagar is the legacy of Hans Hanoomansingh. The NCIC and the UNC are now the legacies of men who have departed to the great beyond.
The NCIC, formerly known as the National Council of Arts and Drama, was an organisation of men like Bisram Gopee, Ramdhanie Sharma, Jagroo Kawal, Hans Hanoomansingh and Deokinanan Sharma. Indian classical singing was a dominant cultural feature throughout the 1960s into the 1980s, and these men, together with the likes of Isaac Yankarran, Haniff Mohammed, Yusuf Khan and others, entertained the Indian community through the singing that they organised in villages mainly in central and south Trinidad, with an occasional show at the Rienzi Complex, Himalaya Club and the Astor Cinema. At one time, Kelvin Ramnath was the head of the Indian classical singers’ group.
This National Council of Arts and Drama later became known as the National Council of Indian Culture, and Hans Hanoomansingh was elected as its first president.
After more than two decades as president, Hanoomansingh conceived the idea of a Divali Nagar, and people like Narsaloo Ramaya and Pundit Dr Rampersad Parasram were affiliated with him for that first celebration.
Hanoomansingh died in 2025, leaving Divali Nagar as his legacy, but his stamp on the Indian and national community is not well known. Hanoomansingh was an opposition Member of Parliament for Caroni East (1966–1971) under Dr Capildeo, but his idea in late 1994 to invite India’s President Shankar Dayal Sharma for the celebration of the 150th anniversary of the arrival of Indians in Trinidad in 1995 was a silent masterstroke done without fanfare—and this from a man without political office. That event, along with India’s President addressing a special sitting of Parliament on a Saturday, awakened Indian consciousness and helped catapult the UNC and Basdeo Panday into power mere months later—something many thought was an impossibility.
A decade before, Divali Nagar had emerged in a gloomy atmosphere. With the grip the PNM had on the country, there was the real prospect that it could never lose political power, though there had been political ferment in the country for three years, with the previous local government elections lost to an accommodation. Still, the PNM was the only party in government that the population knew.
The country was now on the cusp of Divali 1986, and Hari Om Sharan was flown in from India to participate in the inaugural Divali Nagar. The country was riveted by what was taking place. The Sanatan Dharma Maha Sabha, the largest Hindu body in the country, felt threatened that the event would overshadow village celebrations and draw people away. However, no one knew of this sentiment until the second Nagar celebrations, when Deokinanan Sharma, who chaired the opening night, made the revelation and appealed to the pundits not to dissuade their followers from attending.
Divali Nagar has been a success story for the past 40 years. When this took place, some current government ministers were toddlers and others were not yet born, and they are thus unaware of these antecedents. For this reason alone, they should be paragons of circumspection and show maturity and modesty—the qualities of the heroes of Divali.
Shortly after, the PNM lost power and a new party, the NAR, formed the government with ANR Robinson as Prime Minister.
Within one year, there was disagreement between Robinson and Basdeo Panday. Panday wanted an Indian Cultural Centre (the Mahatma Gandhi Cultural Institute) built in Caroni. Prime Minister Robinson was against the idea.
After firing Panday and company from the NAR government, it was felt that by granting land to the NCIC in Chaguanas for a home, the NAR would wrest the Indian voter base from Panday. It backfired. The NAR lost every seat in Trinidad, even though that land was granted to the NCIC weeks before the 1991 general election. It was Panday’s moral victory and the death of the NAR.
Every year, defeated candidates of 40 years ago go to the opening night of Divali Nagar to sit in the front row.
Since Caroni (1975) Limited was closed down in 2003, the Indian voter base has appeared to be fissiparous, but Divali Nagar has remained a lightning rod, magnet and hunting ground for politicians. No politician will ignore the legacy of Hans Hanoomansingh and the potency of Divali Nagar.
Ronald Bhola
Caroni
