Indian Arrival Day

Indian Arrival Day is a holiday celebrated on various days in the nations of the Caribbean and the island nation of Mauritius, usually commemorating the arrival of people from the Indian subcontinent to that nation as indentured labour brought by British colonial authorities and their agents.

In Guyana the holiday is celebrated on May 5 commemorating the first arrival of indentured labourers from India to the country, on May 8, 1838. On this day, the workers arrived in Guyana to work in sugar plantations. Their descendants today comprise 44 percent of Guyana's population of over 750,000.

In Mauritius, the holiday is celebrated on November 2 to commemorate the arrival of Indian labourers.

In Suriname, Indian Arrival Day is celebrated on June 5.

Indian Arrival Day is a holiday celebrated on May 30 in Trinidad and Tobago each year since the 1990s. It commemorates the first arrivals from the Indian subcontinent to Trinidad, on May 30, 1845, on the ship Fatel Razack (a rendering of the Arabic Fath Al Razak 'Victory to Allah the Sustainer'). The many versions of the spelling for this historic ship reflects the difficulties of pronunciation and transliteration of foreign and East Indian names in Trinidad (as with the street festival of "Muhurram" or "Hosay" and "Hussay").

Indian Arrival Day was first celebrated in Skinner Park, San Fernando, as the East Indian Centenary on May 30, 1945 which marked the hundredth anniversary of the coming of Indians to Trinidad. The Acting Governor representing the Government of the United Kingdom attended indicating the significance of the observance. Other local dignitaries who addressed the large crowd included Timothy Roodal, George Fitzpatrick, Adrian Cola Rienzi, and Murli J. Kirpalani. Greetings were also read from Mahatma Gandhi, Lord Wavell, and Colonel Stanley, the Secretary of State for the Colonies.

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