Dear Editor,
Reference is made to a controversial commentary of Kean Gibson’s, published in another paper: contending that the PPP is a Hindu party and ran a Hindu Government when it was in charge of the country’s affairs.
The PPP was right not to reply to Gibson because her contention is not worthy of a response. But, for the record, some kind of response is in order to correct her flawed argument.
Gibson apparently drew from her dissertation for the PhD and made the same illogical and unsubstantiated arguments. The arguments in the dissertation comprise countless flaws and inaccuracies about Hinduism. No need to mention them here; there is no logic in her argument about the PPP’s Hinduness. The PPP is no more Hindu than the PNC is Christian or the AFC Islamic. None of Guyana’s political parties defines itself in terms of religion. None ran or runs a religious Government.
Gibson claims that Dr Cheddi Jagan, PPP’s founder, was Hindu, and by some strange logic of “transference”, she concluded that the PPP is a Hindu party because of its leader’s religion. Extending this logic, it would mean that the PNC is a Christian party and has been running a Christian Government. Analogously, the Democratic and Republican parties would be Christian parties because of their leaders’ faiths. And the Trump Administration would be Christian because he is a Christian.
For the record, Dr Jagan was not a Hindu; he rejected Hinduism.
I wish to share some anecdotes on Dr Cheddi Jagan’s non-belief in Hinduism to add to that offered by Dr Ramesh Gampat in another paper. They reinforce the argument that Dr Jagan and the PPP are and were not Hindu-oriented.
At Jagan’s funeral rites in March 1997, Pandit Tiwari (popularly known as Churkiman) of Alness told me at the home of Jagan’s parents in Port Mourant, on record in a taped video, that Dr Jagan was a non-believer. Pt Churkiman said he spent time volunteering to help with the construction of Jagan’s home in Bel Air. After the construction, he approached Jagan to perform a “ jhandi” (puja) to open the home, as is the custom of Hindus who build a new home or complete major repairs to a house. Pt Churkiman said Jagan would have none of it. Pt Churkiman said he even offered to perform the Hindu rites by himself to open (give blessings to the Almighty) the house, and Jagan vehemently objected.
Such an attitude could not be the thoughts or ideologies of a practising Hindu.
It cannot be verified, but I was told that at the funeral rites of both his mother and father in Port Mourant, Dr Jagan did not participate in the rituals that require shaving of head, fasting, and performing aartie, among other activities. Clearly, Dr Jagan was not a practising Hindu. He did not support Hindu religious activities and did not provide assistance to Hindu temples or schools or societies (organisations).
How then can one conclude that Jagan ran a Hindu Government? What specifically did Jagan or the PPP do for Hindus or Hinduism that one can conclude that PPP is a Hindu political outfit or ran a Hindu Government? If you ask Hindus, they will all tell you PPP has no religion. And only a handful of the party’s MPs are Hindus; not dissimilar from the small number of its Ministers who were Hindu when the party ran the country before it was removed from office.
Religion never defined the policies of the PPP Administrations
Yours truly,
Vishnu Bisram (PhD)
