Ukrainians in India join the action “A memorial candle in the window”
NEW DELHI – This year, Ukrainians in India joined the action “Light a memorial candle” (for the first time at the level of diplomatic representation) and honored victims of the Holodomor with a minute of silence.
The Embassy of Ukraine in the Republic of India posted an announcement on their website urging Ukrainians that stay in India temporarily or live there to join millions of countrymen in Ukraine and 32 other countries and honor the memory of victims of this horrible tragedy.
“On November 24, Ukrainians and people of good will all around the world honor the memory of the Holodomors and political repressions victims,” says the message on the website. “Ukraine survived three Holodomors in the 20th century, all of them planned and conducted by the Soviet regime, the most horrible one of them taking place in 1932-33. This grief touched almost every Ukrainian family, it did not omit a single Ukrainian city, town, or village, that was a part of the USSR at that time. During the past few years, the researchers carried out titanic work on recreating the map of the Holodomor in Ukraine. One can see the lists of deceased in the National Book of Memory of the Ukrainian National Memory Institute. According to the Law of Ukraine of November 28, 2006, the Holodomor of 1932-33 is recognized as genocide of the Ukrainian nation,” the Embassy reminds. “On November 24, 2012, we urge you to join the action ‘Light a memorial candle,’ which is starting at 7:30 p.m. Delhi time (4:00 p.m. Kyiv time) with an announcement of the nationwide minute of silence. Every candle in every window is important. We remember.”
Besides, the representatives of the Embassy stated that they had sent messages about the Holodomor and political repression victims’ Remembrance Day to India’s MFA, and also to other embassies and missions of international organizations in New Delhi.
According to official data, about 130 citizens of Ukraine are registered by the Embassy. This number is not as big as that of the United States or Canada, for example, but it is still important in the context of the world recognition of the Holodomor as a crime against the humankind and an act of genocide. At the moment, 23 countries have legally condemned this crime and recognized it as an act of genocide. India is not on the list of these countries.
Roman Pyrih, second secretary for education, science, and technology, was among those who joined the action.
“I still remember the powerful impression left on my mind by Vasyl Barka’s Zhovty kniaz (Yellow Prince) when I was a teen. The truth about the Holodomor has altered my outlook for good. It taught me to value and defend Ukraine’s independence,” explained Pyrih.
Maryna Akram, who has lived in India for 12 years now, also put a lit candle in the window of her home near New Delhi: “Each person who knows and respects their history, their family and parents, their country and people, will certainly remember this tragedy. Here, thousands of kilometers away from Ukraine, this feeling is especially sharp. We must tell our children about the national catastrophes of this scale, so they tell theirs. This memory must be passed on from generation to generation, to avoid anything similar in the future. Personally for me a lit candle in the window is paying homage to the memory of innocent victims, the lives lost not only to Holodomors, but also to all the 20th century repressive campaigns.”
Akram has been living in India for more than 12 years. She says that when she was emigrating, the man-made famines, which decimated Ukrainians in the 20th century, were hardly ever discussed at home, in Ukraine.
“I left Ukraine in 2000. Back then there was no mentioning of such actions on national level. I must admit it was not immediately that I learned of this particular action. We are kind of isolated here. We don’t even have Ukrainian television, and have to watch Russian channels,” states Akram.
And of course, Russian television says nothing about the Holodomor and the fourth Saturday of November in Ukraine. However, the information about the memorial action spread quite fast on Facebook among Ukrainians who live in India. Unfortunately, we do not have the exact data, but we can surely state that this year, there were a few more candles for the Holodomor anniversary.
