The steelpan, as a musical instrument, was created in Trinidad; the tassa drum came as a musical instrument from India... there is no comparison whatever!
Now take a look at the following statement from TATT:
"If you look at slavery days, the drum was there from the beginning," Eversley said.
"The drum did not come here as the pan came. (The material used to make the pan) was not made in Trinidad. But when you look at the tassa, it is something that is a product of Trinidad. The goat (skins) from here, the stick, which is made from cane, is from Trinidad. That is why we are calling on the authorities of the day to make this instrument the second national instrument of Trinidad and Tobago.
"Every function you attend there is a tassa band. All Prime Ministers used the tassa, from Eric Williams to present, at their functions.
"The pan was imported. Although the pan music was created here, the actual pan was imported. We don't make the steelpan here. We created the steelpan music. But the drum was here from the beginning.
"The first steelpan came here with oil or gas and we take that and make the pan out of it. Long time we have been calling for a pan factory. If you go and check with Pan Trinbago, they have been calling for a pan industry."
Now if we use Mr. Eversley's logic then the next National instrument should be the African drums... they were here before the East Indians arrived and literally drove massa crazy (African drumming). If they want the Tassa drums as a National instrument... no problem, but the Africans drums must be honored before the Tassa drums!
If the government listens to people like Mr. Eversley and agrees to do this, it will further alienate the people of African decent. As a matter of fact, people already believe that this government is trying to Indianize the country... do we really need to go down this road?
The original article that led to this post can be read from the Trinidad Express news paper at the following link:'Honour tassa just like pan'