A large number of Indians migrated to various Commonwealth Countries like South Africa, West Indies, Mauritus, Fiji etc. in the last decade of 19th and in the first decade of 20th century as indentured labours. Majority of them are immigrants from Uttar Pradesh, especially from eastern Uttar Pradesh. The descendants of these families have a deep attachment to Indian culture and tradition. Similarly a good number of Indians migrated to England, America and to some other European countries and obtained citizenship there.
They always cherish a desire to visit the motherland of their ancestors, acquaint themselves with their heritage and the present day living conditions of India. They also crave to see those particular places where their forefathers lived before they migrated.
The Department of Tourism, Uttar Pradesh, INDIA has embarked upon a novel scheme, aptly named as “Discover Your Roots” in which Department, on receiving inquiries from NRI’s, and others whose ancestors had once lived/worked in Uttar Pradesh, will make every effort to locate their roots. About 10 million people of Indian origin live in Mauritius, Fiji, Trinidad and in other commonwealth countries to which their ancestors had migrated during 19th and 20th centuries. Majority of them are migrants from Uttar Pradesh especially eastern Uttar Pradesh.
Ballia District was selected as Pilot Project by the Govt. Of India. An office for pilot project in Ballia was set up. Field supervisors were posted there. They visited village to Village and collected informations regarding the NRIs and interacted with the important persons of village such as Lekhpal, Gram Pradhan, Old persons in this connection. The information about 56 residents of Distt.- Ballia who had left for Trinidad has been collected by the Department and their cast, religion, village and year of departure of ships have been traced. The revenue records pertaining to 56 persons of District Ballia who left as indentured labour (GIRMITIA) have also been scrutinized. With concerted efforts till date the roots of 17 persons have been finally traced. They are as follows
Rules and Regulations
- For registration under this scheme no fee is required, however search for tracing the root of the migrants will proceed after receipt of search fee US$ 150 by us through bank draft in favour of "U.P.S.T.D.C.Ltd." payable at Lucknow.
- A minimum of 3 month time is needed to conduct the required search.
- In case we fail to find the roots, 50% of the charged fees i.e. US$ 75 would be refunded along with the details of the investigation done by us.
- We can only help you, if the place from where your forefather migrated falls within the geographical boundary of State of Uttar Pradesh.
Write to us
Director General UP Tourism,
Rajarshi Purshottam Das Tandon Paryatan Bhawan, C-13 Vipin Khand,
Gomtinagar, Lucknow-226010 Uttar Pradesh, India.
Fax: 91-522-2308937
E-mail: upstdc@bsnl.in, upstdc@up-tourism.com, yatrup@bsnl.in