The UN General Assembly declared June 5th as the International Day for the Fight against Illegal, Unreported,
and Unregulated Fishing in December 2017. The date coincides with the entry
into force of the Port State Measures Agreement (PSMA), which is the first
international legally binding treaty specifically addressing IUU fishing. This day is observed annually to raise awareness about IUU
fishing and its impact on sustainable fisheries, livelihoods, and food security.
On June 5, 1873, Lalla Rookh, a ship, landed on the shore of Paramaribo, the capital of Suriname. On board the ship were 400 Indian indentured labourers, who became the first people of Indian origin to arrive in the then Dutch colony; the first of over 34000 that eventually arrived in Suriname between 1873 and 1916. The first 400, like the rest, were mostly poor, rural workers from modern day Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, and parts of Tamil Nadu. These indentured labourers, brought on a contract, found themselves in gruelling conditions on sugarcane plantations thousands of miles away from home.
Descendants
of these Indians now make up the single largest demographic in Suriname,
accounting for 27.4% of the country’s population. These descendants of
indentured labourers are no longer just that, as they now are politicians,
artists, teachers, leaders, entrepreneurs, and more, having shaped Suriname’s
national fabric. And hence, June 5, is etched into the cultural and
emotional memory of the Indo-Surinamese population and is observed as Indian
Arrival Day aka Prawas Din. Apart from Suriname, countries like Fiji (May
14), Grenada (May 1), Guyana (May 5), Jamaica (May 10), Mauritius (November 2),
Saint Lucia (May 6), Saint Vincent and the Grenadines (June 1), South Africa
(November 16), Trinidad and Tobago (May 30), all have their own Indian Arrival
Days.
On June 17, 1917, Mahatma Gandhi relocated the Satyagraha Ashram to a 36-acre site on the banks of the Sabarmati River in Ahmedabad, Gujara...
