Ridiculing Indian names is no laughing matter

Dear Editor,
In neighbouring Trinidad and Tobago, there is a brouhaha over ethnic name-calling. It is the most-talked-about personality conflict, not only in T&T, but in its diaspora as well, and in other Caribbean territories, including among Guyanese. The ruling PNM Minister Camille Robinson-Regis poked fun at the middle name of Kamla Susheila Persad Bissessar, the former PM, and now Opposition Leader.
Poking fun at Indian names is offensive to all Indians; it embodies racism. In sociology it is called racial micro-aggression, the hurling of negative slights toward people of another group. All must decry such acts of racist behaviour.
Indians have lived with racism in the Caribbean and North America over name and faith. Blacks experienced racism over their race. During slavery, their names and faiths were changed. The White slave owners were wrong to change the names of Africans. Some fittingly have gone back to their original names and faiths that their ancestors brought with them from Africa hundreds of years ago.
There is no doubt that Minister Robinson was/is responsible for initiating this uncalled-for verbal spat. The public feels it was deliberate. What was a Minister, who is also Leader of the House, thinking about when she ridiculed Kamla’s authentic traditional Hindu name? Was it deliberate in order to stir up the ethnic base at a time when supporters are losing confidence in Government? Why haven’t her party and the media condemned her and urged her to apologise? In another country, she would have been forced to resign from office.
I had spoken with many individuals: Indians, Africans, Mixed, Trinis, Tobagonians, Guyanese, on the Kamla-Camille spat. Almost unanimously, they condemned Camille. Kamla, fittingly, did not take it lying down. She ‘giveth’ as she ‘taketh’. She responded, though inappropriately. “You have the name of your slave master”.
Few blamed Kamla for her response to Camille for poking fun at Kamla’s name.
The public viewed Camille’s mis-pronouncement of Kamla’s middle or ‘call name’ as a derogation of not only Kamla’s but Indian people’s name in general. If she could not pronounce that simple name, then she should not have said it. And if she can’t pronounce such a simple Indian name, what does that say about her representation of Indians in her constituency, or in Government, or in her Ministry?
Hindu names are assigned from the scriptures after parental or family consultation with a pandit, although not all Hindus follow the practice. So, Hindus would have a legal name and ‘a call or rassi name’.
One must not poke fun at peoples’ names. Indian names and their faiths (Hinduism and Islam) were historically laughed at ever since they arrived in Trinidad, Guyana, Jamaica, Grenada, and elsewhere. This caused many to change their names as well as their Hindu (and Islamic) faith. That was in a bygone era, and urban Indians, now familiar with their great ancestral civilisation, have expressed regret at laughing at rural Indians over their Hindu or Islamic names, their cuisine and their faiths.
The dominant White Christianised culture shaped peoples’ behaviour, and directed them towards self-hate. It is unfortunate that a Caribbean Minister of Government would mock at people on account of their names. It is regrettable that the Minister should still hold a colonial mindset sixty years after independence, to ridicule Indians. We must eschew such behaviour.
It is no laughing matter to ridicule Indian names, or the names of those Blacks who have African names. I am proud of my ancestral name, and so should everyone else. Blacks have accepted the names assigned to them by the slave owners of their ancestors, Indians and others must not condemn them for it. Indian names, like African (from Africa) and Asian names, are heritage-linked. African names are beautiful — such as Kwame, Oheene, Kwayana, Mbutu, Ogunseye, Apata, Obama, etc. They should return to their ancestral heritage.
Almost everyone I spoke with – from both sides of the political divide in T&T — condemn the Minister. I am most disappointed by Camille’s behaviour; she is among the most liked within her party, and is seen as a potential successor to Dr. Rowley, should he not seek a third term as PM. That she would debase her public standing and roll in the gutter shocks many, including me.
While Kamla is historically accurate to say that Camille has a slave name, it is inappropriate to say someone has retained the name of a slave master.

Yours truly,
Vishnu Bisram (PhD)