INDIA has thrown its support behind Guyana in realising the new Administration’s vision of restoring Georgetown as the ‘Garden city’. Speaking yesterday on the occasion of Mahatma Gandhi’s 146 Birth Anniversary, High Commissioner of India to Guyana Mr. V. Mahalingam said his country will be partnering with Guyana Government, particularly the Georgetown Mayor and City Council (M&CC) in its ‘Green City’ initiative and volunteer programme.
“We (India) can be partners in your Mission to return the glory to Georgetown as the famed ‘Garden city’,” the High Commissioner told President David Granger and Mayor Hamilton Green, in the presence of other dignitaries attending yesterday’s annual celebration to mark the birth anniversary of the legendary non-violence activist, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi.
Exactly one year ago, India launched its clean campaign, ‘Swatch Bharat Abihyan’, dedicated to clean the country in time for Gandhi’s 150th Birth Anniversary – four years down the line. High Commissioner Mahalingam said the reason behind this is to stay in-keep with one of Gandhi’s most used philosophy: “Cleanliness is Godliness”.
It is this reason that India has thrown its support behind the Government of Guyana in transitioning Georgetown into a green city, explained the High Commissioner. With much excitement on his part, Mayor Green noted that Government readily accepts India’s participation in the quest to make Guyana a “greener” place.
The “Green City” initiative is funded voluntarily by businesses and other corporate sponsors and will be geared at cleaning up the city through a combined effort by the residents of Georgetown, managed by the Mayor and City Council, and now, backed by India.
Besides the strengthening of diplomatic ties between the two countries, President Granger, during his outpour of tribute to mark the day said Guyana is a beneficiary of many of Gandhi’s efforts, particularly the initiation of his non-cooperation movement in 1920-22.
In furtherance, President Granger recalled that, as a child, just three years of age, in the town of Bartica, a large number of persons of Indian origin took to the streets, their grief and anguish when Gandhi was assassinated in 1948.
“Persons were commemorating the death of this great man,” he said.
Based on statistical evidence, Guyana was the recipient of 238,909 East Indian immigrants up to the termination of the system in 1917. The arrival of East Indians in Guyana from the sub-continent of India was as a result of shortage of labourers on plantations after the abolition of slavery in 1834.
Despite enduring immense hardships under the powerful system of plantocracy, East Indians make up nearly half of the Guyanese population today, not withholding the fact that they have never lost their roots, said Granger, as they came from a land that is strongly associated with Mahatma Gandhi.
“The Mahatma was a pre-eminent, political and spiritual leader in India. He played one of the most important roles in India’s independence movement. The Mahatma developed a technique of non-violent agitation, which he called the Satyagraha. He is known for his non-violence civil disobedience in India and also in South Africa,” said President Granger.
October 2nd also marks the International Day of Non-Violence, which Gandhi profusely fought for during his time. Gandhi’s philosophy of non-violence has influenced many international movements to date.

By Shivanie Sugrim