I can but touch the soil, not own;
Alas! None can see my soul, yet it is all I've sown.
How you hold my arms and break my skin;
The brute runs thick from this man machine.
What are you if not a Tyranny!
Tied to power and comfort, your sins are too many!
I'd rather be me than you, though reduced I am shackled, chained..
My mind remains freer than yours, wonders what you think you gained!
If I can be noble under such pain..
Death will bow before me, time and ’gain!
History rolls out as you look at the shimmering waters of the Hooghly in this part of the city. Somewhere you can hear a poor slave begging his master for mercy. Though the ghat has metamorphosed into a busy dockyard of today, it has failed to erase traces of such times. Times of power and servitude, of bloodshed and exile! Let us go back in time to explore the Suriname Ghat!

A cargo trawler passing by the Suriname Ghat

Route
Starting from Hastings, proceed southward by the Khidirpur Road. Go past Fancy Market and the Nazrul Setu (Folding Bridge). Thereafter continue on Karl Marx Sarani, pass by the ITC Cigarette Factory to proceed towards Garden Reach Ship Builders and Engineers and No. 9 Masjid followed by CESC Southern Generating Station. Take the adjoining narrow alley on the right of the main gate of the CESC Southern Generating Station to arrive at the nondescript blue gate of the Kolkata Port Trust Authority. Park your car here and go on foot. Show permission from the Port Security Organisation (POS) HQ to pass through a weeded ground till you hit the red brick wall of the Garden Reach Dockyard. Turn left and walk down about a hundred metres till you arrive at the Suriname Ghat.

The Mai-Baap Memorial at the Suriname Ghat

The Ghat
As you enter Suriname Ghat, on your right you see an open unkempt ground banked with white balustrade on the riverside. The Mai-Baap Memorial, which is a miniature replica of the original sculpture at Paramaribo, the capital city of Suriname, comprises a sculpture of a man and a woman, each carrying a potli (small cloth baggage). The sculpture was erected at Paramaribo to commemorate the landing of Indian labourers in the city. The memorial stands in the middle of the field. At the right side of the balustrade is a paved opening. From here, a flight of stairs descends  to the river reason enough for it to be named a ghat.
Towards the left of the ghat is the dock from where the ships carrying the contract labourers left the Indian shores for Suriname way back in 1873. The dock is in a dilapidated state, with old broken iron bridges lying unattended. However, the huge iron structures that were once used to tie down the ships for anchoring still stand intact.

The remains of an old bridge lying near the ghat

History
It is said that on February 26, 1873, sail-ship Lalla Rookh set off carrying about 410 passengers from Suriname Ghat. These men and women mostly belonged to the states of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar and had been recruited as indentured labourers by the Dutch who owned sugarcane plantations in Dutch Guyana (presently Suriname) in South America. The ship docked at Paramaribo on June 5 with 279 men, 70 women and 50 children. 11 of them could not survive the voyage. In the years that followed, 63 more ships left Kolkata port for Suriname.
The Indian population of Suriname has crossed 148,443 which is nearly a fifth of the total population, which is 586,632. A big number of them later sailed to Holland. They decided to leave Suriname when the country became independent on 25 November 1975.
According to Times of India reports of Aashna Kanhai, the Surinamese Ambassador to India who visited the ghat in 2015, ‘My ancestors must have stood here on this ghat for the last time before leaving India forever. The men carried two dhotis and two kurtas each. The women carried two saris each. Apart from this, some carried religious books like the Ramayana, Mahabharata or Quran. This image of the men and women is well portrayed in the Mai-Baap Memorial through the sculpture.’
Slavery was abolished by the Dutch in 1863. The Dutch entered into an agreement with the East India Company to recruit labourers from India to work in the sugarcane plantations in Suriname. Men known as Arkatias entered into a five-year contract and came to be known as the Contrakees or Agreemanees. Most of them (about 65%) stayed back. 
Another interesting story often heard about this ghat is that when Mahatma Gandhi had been to Burma from this ghat, he had written to the British Shipping Company about the unavailability of the facilities for the deck passengers in the ships. Surprisingly, during his return journey, he had found the Company had provided all the basic facilities for deck passengers such as water and toilet.

Life at the Ghat
Standing on the ghat, watching the large cargoes anchoring and unloading at the busy docks of Garden Reach and Khidirpur is a one in a lifetime experience. On the other side of the Hooghly, you can see the famous Botanical Gardens. At the far right, you can even see the majestic Vidyasagar Setu. 
And as you watch the movement of the waters under the ships, you know that once it is these very waters that carried the weight of thousands of poor Indian souls being sailed away to a far off land – a land of no return. They had neither food, nor shelter and barely any clothing and yet they set sail. The act was one born out of desperation, a decision taken more out of compulsion than choice to embrace a new life, to a destination where probably a greater evil than their present poverty awaited them. 
At the ghat, I stood oblivious to the immediate surroundings as my heart wept for the distressed 19th century labourers. As I stared at the statues of the couple in their rags, I tasted the salt from a few teardrops that had stolen their way down my cheeks. These tears fell on the holy land which stands as a burial ground for our countrymen, a silent tribute to their sacrifice.
Infobox

Contact for advance permission to enterSuriname Ghat:
Port Security Organisation Headquarters 
Shyama Prasad Mookerjee Port Trust (KoPT)
Superintendent: +91 96747020081
Visiting hours: Daylight working hours