Dear friends past and present persons of Indian origin in Liberia,
Ladies & Gentlemen,
The existance of Indian Community in Liberia dates back to the year 1934 when an Indian enraprenuer Mr. Gulab Rai Harjani sailed on a passanger ship from spain with his wares to Liberia to establish his business. Earlier an Indian national Mr. Bannerji who later served as Liberia's Honorary Consul General In Calcutta lived in Liberia for few years. Later on, few other Indians came in subsequent years and started their trading ventures. during the same period, a number of professionals, particularly in the field of education came to Liberia to work for various institutions. By the year 1960-65 the population of Indian residents numbered about 300. There was increase in Indian populations and by the year 1989 it was 6500. At this point there were 271 Indian owned registered businesses in trading, industry and real estate with total investment of 200 million U. S. Dollars. This number also includes professionals, like university professors, school teachers, accountants, engineers, medical doctors and personal working in international organizations. An other Indian pioneer was Mr.. Rattan Singh Dhillon who came from Japan and established his business in real estate and trading.
The Indian community in Liberia has played a very constructive role in economic development of Liberia and participated in social and cultural activities. The establishment of Indian Community school, Gurdwara sahib, Geeta Ashram, recreation club, crematorium, yoga center, besides strong organizations like Indian Association and Indian Woman in Liberia association are living testimony to the involvement of Indian residents in social activities.
For the benefit of younger generations and for revival of the memories for old timers, I will be writing this in detail and sending e. mail starting from ist week of June. During the year 1990, which is a sad period in the history of Liberia, while Indian community was evacuated, I was keeping daily dairy and I would like to share that with all of you. I hope that you will find interesting.
I will wel-come your suggestions and if any body has more information about Indian settlement in Liberia, please send it to me and it will be included in the circulation papers. I will appreciate if I am supplied with e-mail addresses of past and present PIO in Liberia to be included in the mailing list.
The greatest achievement of the Indian community is the establishment of the Indian community school in Monrovia and it was built with dedication, commitment, and generous donations of all the Indians residing in Liberia. I will write you in detail that how the school was built, the list of the donors and others who contributed their time and professional services and what is the present status of the school. I invite your suggestions.
This is public service presentation and is based on my re-collections and in keeping with happy memories in Liberia for a period of 30 years.
There is new web site on Liberia http://www.emansion.gov.lr which you will find very informative.
Kind Regards,
Gurcharan S. Gill
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
Introduction
The following is a set of email postings by someone who is special to me. He is not a blogger himself, but the content seemed worthy of setting up a blog for these posts, so here it is. If any comments are posted, I will forward them on to him.
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