Modi praises leadership of Indian-origin people in Guyana during his Mann Ki Baat address

PM Narendra Modi said a ‘Mini India’ resides in Guyana and the Indian-origin people are leading in every sector in the country.

Modi recently visited Guyana as a part of his three-nation tour.

Addressing India in his monthly radio address named Mann Ki Baat, Modi said: “Thousands of kilometres away from India, a ‘Mini India’ dwells in Guyana too.”

“Around 180 years ago, people from India were taken to Guyana to work in the fields and for other tasks,” the Indian PM said on Sunday during the monthly address.

Modi said: “Today, people of Indian origin in Guyana are leading the country in every field… be it politics, business, education or culture.”

He said Guyanese President Irfan Ali is proud of his Indian heritage.

Speaking on the project in Oman, Modi said: “You will also find an extraordinary project going on in Oman very interesting. Numerous Indian families have been living in Oman for many centuries. Most of them who have settled there are from Kutch in Gujarat. These people had created important trade links.”

“Even today they have Omani citizenship, but Indianness is ingrained in their personae. With the support of the Indian Embassy in Oman and the National Archives of India, a team has started the work of preserving the history of these families. Thousands of documents have been collected under this campaign so far,” he said.

Modi said: “These include diaries, account books, ledgers, letters and telegrams. Some of these documents even date back to the year 1838. These documents are full of sentiments. When they reached Oman years ago, what kind of life they lived, what kind of joys and sorrows they faced, and how their relations with the people of Oman progressed.”

He said: “All of this is a part of these documents. The ‘Oral History Project’ is also an important basis of this mission.”

Guyana recently conferred upon Indian PM Narendra Modi the country’s highest civilian honour, the ‘Order of Excellence’.

Modi became the first Indian PM to visit Guyana in 56 years.
He visited the nation from November 20 to 22.