A “Conference on Hindu Issues in the Caribbean and the Diaspora” is scheduled to be held next Saturday at the National Convention Center. The theme of the conference is “Challenges Facing Caribbean Hindus and Proposed Solutions.”
Within the Hindu community – now 28% of the population at the last census, and dwindling unrelentingly to Christian proselytization from its high of 43% – the mood is sombre. Whether it is suicide, alcoholism, domestic violence, or other dysfunctional responses to societal pressures, Hindus are the ones most affected. We cannot pussyfoot around this fact. Their challenges are also national challenges, so Hindus would have to take the lead in dealing with them.
I suggest that, firstly, we would have to engage in a reinterpretation, reformation, reaffirmation and re-grounding of our Dharmic (religious, cultural, educational and social) institutions and traditions in order to deal with the present place (desh), time (kaal), and circumstances (parishtiti) in which we find ourselves.
Brought to these shores as indentured labourers (Girmitiyas) between 1838 and 1917, Hindu Dharma was subverted through the regime of “discipline and punishment” on the sugar plantations. As such, there must be a constant unmasking of the “social maya”, or hegemonic structural forces, that keep us entrapped by their various champions and promulgators.
The “Dharma for the age”, relaunched many times in our long history by applying eternal principles to present challenges, can be summarized in four SUTRAS (maxims): LOK SANGRAHA, LOK SANSKAR, LOK VIYAWASTHA and LOK KALYAAN. When their principles are fully implemented within concrete circumstances, they lead to the Hindu vision of the ideal society – RAM RAJYA.
LOK SANGRAHA: to gather the people together. Hindus have to see themselves as one
family. In the words of Swami Vivekanand: “Then, and then alone, you are a Hindu, when every man who bears the name from any country speaking our language, or any other language, becomes at once the nearest and the dearest to you…when the distress of anyone bearing that name comes to your heart and makes you feel as if your own son were in distress…when you will be ready to bear anything for them”. The Hindu believes that, ultimately, the whole world is one family – VASUDHAIVA KUTUMBAKAM; but understands that love, like all other relationships, must begin at home.
LOK VIYAWASTHA: to organize the people. For us in Guyana, coming overwhelmingly from the Eastern UP-Western Bihar, this was reinforced by Sant Tulsidas in his magnum opus Ramcharitmanas. “SANGHA SHAKTI KAL YUG”: in this age, “organisation is power”.
While there were many negatives, the plantation experience produced an unintended consequence when it united the Girmitiyas against their common oppressor – the colonial power. For Hindus, many of the abuses of the jati system (status by birth, incorrectly dubbed the “caste system”), for instance, were eradicated in Guyana.
LOK KALYAAN: the welfare of the people. Guyanese Hindus have many organizations, but they are ill-equipped with the resources needed – human, material, ideological, et al – to effectively serve the needs of the community. This is one main reason why there is a lethargy in the community’s activities and responses to challenges. The “Purohit”, or ritual expert of the sixteen life sacraments, for instance, has been transformed into the “Pandit”, but has he/she been trained for this role by institutions created for this purpose? Hindu organizations have to become much more activist-oriented and focused. One glaring lacuna to be filled, for instance, is the need for social counselling against alcoholism, wife battering, and suicide attempts.
Hindu organizations and leaders have also to become more outspoken when Hindu interests and rights are threatened. This is their duty: Hinduism does not end in the Mandirs; it does not even begin there.
Our organizations have also to expose others to the Hindu vision; not in an aggressive, offensive, proselytizing manner, but in the Hindu tradition of sharing without asking for conversion. We must teach as well as learn… we who were Jagad Janini (world teachers) cannot be students only.
Hindu organizations must stop blaming, and start helping Hindus to craft their destinies. A great deal of responsibility lies with the sadly still-hegemonized professional class, who are ashamed to even acknowledge their Hindu names. They are respected in our community because that is part of our tradition, but they have a reciprocal duty to share what their common Hindu Dharma has bestowed upon them.
