“The most effective way to destroy people is to deny and obliterate their own understanding of their history.” George Orwell.
With us now in the second half of April, we offer a prelude to observing May as “Indian Heritage Month”, within which the centerpiece is May 5th – “Indian Arrival Day”. Some still question, “Why the commemoration?”.
Maybe we should begin with the word “commemorate”, which, by most dictionaries, means a way to mark out something extraordinary from the ordinary, so that it is remembered by society. While commemorations refer to historical events, more important is the meaning we give to events or persons remembered for their impact on society.
The Irish, in the midst of commemorating their Great Famine of the mid-19th century, advise that we should 1: Start from the historical facts, 2: Recognise the implications and consequences of what happened. And 3: Understand that different perceptions and interpretations exist and show how events and activities can deepen understanding of the period.
Recently, from a political platform, we had one “perception and interpretation” of Indian Arrival, and the consequences illustrate the need for more education about this event.
In a nutshell, Indian Heritage Month should be an occasion for nation-building by providing information based on the commemorated event for inclusion in a unified national narrative.
The historical facts are stark: between 1838 and 1917, 239,909 Indian immigrants were brought to British Guiana after the abolition of slavery, and more than three-quarters chose to remain. By 1908, more than three times the acreage was being cultivated, and more than three times the quantity of sugar was being exported than during slavery.
By commemorating “Arrival”, the gaze is shifted away from India as the sole focal point to the new land in which the decision was made to remain. Indian Arrival Day, then, confirms the decision of the vast majority of the Indian indentureds to establish roots in this new land…roots that originated in India, but would be adapted to their new circumstances. It would not be a single tap root, but rhizomatic and multitudinous in its sources of nourishment.
Indian Arrival Day emphasises a new nationalism: “We have arrived in our country to build and enjoy its bounty.” To a large extent, Indian Arrival Day observance was a reaction to the refusal by some to concede to the Indian Indentured descendants what Trinidad’s National Motto promises: “Where every creed and race MUST HAVE an equal place.” They were brought to labour on the plantations, but remained as citizens, prepared to build their new country in which they had ARRIVED.
So, from a commemorative standpoint, Indian Arrival is certainly an inaugural historical event. While some may differ on specifics, all can agree that it has had a most extraordinary impact on Guyanese society. In terms of remembrance, I was raised by my Nana, who was born in 1896 and whose father arrived in 1888. He recounted that in 1938, at the cusp of WWII, the BGEIA had initiated the first commemoration of the event on its CENTENARY, which he’d attended. We should note that at that time, during the Great Depression, the Indian presence and ambitions were being questioned by others in the society.
In the commemoration, the BGEIA Chairman, Charles Ramkissoon Jacob, had offered six reasons for what they’d unabashedly declared a “celebration”. They,
1 saved the sugar industry from ruin,
2 established a rice industry,
3 “contributed very largely to every phase of industrial activity”,
4 “are found in every walk of life,”
5 the community had “made good progress”, and finally and quite pertinently, he concluded,
6 “have held our own against all sections of the community.”
In Guyana, the first post-WWII public calls for recognition of Indian Arrival Day were made in the 1960s, when Dr Balwant Singh, an Indian rights activist who was a leader in the Gandhi Youth Organization, called for “Rama Khan Day” to be commemorated during the rising ethnic tensions. From the arrival records of the ship Whitby, that landed the first Indentured Indians at Highbury in Berbice on May 5th 1838, he insisted the first persons to step onto Guyanese soil were Rama and Khan. While he may have been romanticising the event to emphasise that both Hindus and Muslims had arrived as brothers, more germanely, he was attempting to rectify our erasure from the historiography of the Caribbean to deny us legitimacy for equal rights.
