India must seek UNESCO tag for ports to mark oceanic journeys of girmitiyas: Fiji envoy

New Delhi: Fiji's High Commissioner to India Jagnnath Sami on Wednesday urged the Indian government to consider seeking a UNESCO World Heritage tag for Kolkata port and two other ports in south India, to commemorate the historic oceanic journeys of 'girmitiyas'.

Speaking at an international conference on India's civilisational heritage hosted at Vigyan Bhawan here, Sami pitched for cultural institutions of the two countries to join hands to preserve archives and document their shared heritage.

The envoy laid emphasis on the historic ties between the two countries and said the shared historical ties can be translated into meaningful cooperation.


He spoke of the arduous journeys taken by several Indians in the last two centuries, when they were sent out to work in various countries as 'girmitiyas'.

'Girmitiyas' is a folklore term used for Indian people who were taken to work as indentured labourers in plantations of countries such as Fiji, Suriname, Maldives and Mauritius. Their songs still preserve historic accounts of their long, perilous ship journeys.

Describing himself as a girmitiya, the Fiji High Commissioner to India said his ancestor had moved from South India to Fiji in the 1900s.

"Fiji is my janmabhoomi, and India is my matrubhoomi," he said.

He further said, "I request the Ministry of Culture, the Government of India, to consider declaring the ports of Kolkata, Visakhapatnam and Madras as UNESCO heritage sites to commemorate the departure of 'girmitiyas' from these ports (in the past)."

A country must send a nomination for any property or site to UNESCO before it can be evaluated for recognition as a World Heritage Site.

The Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts under the Ministry of Culture is hosting the mega conference from October 14-16 in Delhi, themed on India's cultural legacy and its wider civilisational heritage beyond borders.

The "Brihattar Bharat: International Conference on Bharat's Cultural Connections Across the Globe" brings delegates, ambassadors and scholars from several countries to deliberate on India's historical and contemporary cultural connections with the wider world.