ABSTRACT

The Tassa drumming was not mentioned in that news report even though it was an indispensible feature of the widespread Muharram rituals of Mughal India prior to the 1850s (Sharar, 1975: 140-52). This was more so in the province of Avadh (which the British wrote and pronounced as Oudh or Oude), especially in Lucknow, the capital city. A large number of East Indians came from this region of India. The Tassa drumming within the San Fernando procession would have resulted in the reported 'dancing' in the streets. This public procession, replicated in parts from India, had travelled through the streets of San Fernando to commemorate the Muharram, as the ancestors of the immigrants had done for centuries in the various cities of their homeland of India (Sharar, 1975).