City of lights a shining example

COMMERCE and culture do not often sit well together. Our culture is priceless; the things required to sustain it are not. Commerce is often about profit at all cost to the detriment of all else, sometimes fatally so.

Which is why the Divali Nagar, which culminates today, is a rare and shining example of what can happen when these two spheres meet.

Today we take the Nagar for granted. In any given year, it is a huge local tourism event, attracting as many as 150,000 people over nine nights. So successful has this decades-old commemoration become that it has been exported across the globe.

The site on which it takes place – at the Narsaloo Ramaya Marg Road, Chaguanas, just off the Uriah Butler Highway – has been officially added to the Heritage Asset Inventory of the National Trust.

It was not always so.

Just as the Nagar is a sterling example of a project that exposes this country’s East Indian culture to wider and more diverse audiences, so too is it an instance of what is possible when, through commercial support and investment, a social project can have its sense of purpose sharpened.

Part of the reason for the event’s endurance is the fact that it is a commercial showcase alongside a cultural one. Deokinanan Sharma, the former president of the National Council for Indian Culture (NCIC), once noted how much its growth has been fuelled by private funding.

“Participation of business has expanded considerably and rentals from commercial booths are the main source of our income,” he remarked a few years ago. “Hindu religious sects now participate in large numbers, as well as several NGOs.”

The event provides an opportunity for companies to increase sales, generate brand awareness and connect with potential clients. More importantly, it’s a way to do so while simultaneously generating goodwill.

At the same time, the Divali Nagar has never lost sight of its origins. It has kept to its original concept of exposing Indo-TT culture to the wider community. Indeed, at one stage it was criticised by those who felt it was too commercial, too ostentatious.

A balance must always be struck, which is, in fact, a central plank of the very culture the Nagar is meant to commemorate. Light triumphs over darkness, creation over destruction, hope over despair.

This year’s theme, Dharti Mata, or Mother Earth, is a reminder of another balance: the need for sustainability in all activities, commercial and cultural. The Nagar is an effective vehicle for triggering focus and reflection on such issues, which have become even more important in the years since the height of the covid19 pandemic. May it continue to grow.