Preserving Our Literary Heritage : Men Who Contributed To Our Literary Heritage

Two major events supplied impetus for compiling this article. Those two events are namely the announcement of the Guyana Prize for Literature and the just concluded Pravasi Bharatiya Divas 2015. 

The announcement of the Guyana Prize for Literature brought back fond memories of Victor Ramraj, a colleague and respected academic, who passed away in 2014. Ramraj was involved in The Guyana Prize on many occasions, twice serving as Chief Judge. Over the years, Ramraj had bequeathed me loads of publications in line with my work. (Other writers and academics have also given me books to aid in my work on literature.) Over the years, Ramraj would tug along heavy tomes, some with hard covers, in his suitcase/s, sometimes in his wife, Ruby, suitcase/s for this grateful litterateur.
The Bharatiya Divas starts its celebration on Jan 9, the day Mahatma Gandhi returned to India from South Africa. It is an annual event to celebrate the contribution/achievement of people of Indian origin (PIO). Pravasi Bharatiya Divas is also called the ‘Non-Resident Indian Day.’
One of the publications that Ramraj gave to me is entitled, ‘The man who suffers and the mind which creates: V. S Naipaul on Mahatma Gandhi’ which was the transcript of Ramraj’s lecture at the 2009 Annual Lecture for The Gandhi Society of Calgary, published by the University of Calgary.
The Gandhi Society ‘promotes the values that Mahatma Gandhi focused on such ideas as non-violence, peace and international understanding.’
Naipaul is the most prominent Indian writer in the diaspora to comment extensively on Gandhi. And Naipaul is just as scathing and critical of Gandhi as dealing with other personalities and situations. Naipaul’s thoughts on Gandhi could be found in the following books, ‘An Area of Darkness (1964), ‘India: A wounded civilisation’ (1977) and ‘India a million mutinies now’ (1990). In his latest non-fiction collection, ‘A writer’s people’ (2008), Naipaul focused on Gandhi again in two essays ‘Looking and not seeing – the Indian way’ and ‘India again.’
Naipaul was born in Trinidad to second generation Indians who came from India to Trinidad as indenture workers. Naipaul’s novels like ‘A House for Mr Biswas’ linked short stories like ‘Miguel Street’ and non-fiction writing like ‘The Loss of El Dorado’ have had and continue to make significant impact on the Guyanese imagination.
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi known as the Mahatma (Great Soul) was the most significant voice in India independence movement against British colonial rule. He was nominated five times for the Nobel Prize for Peace.
Victor Ramraj was born in British Guiana where he exhibited a leaning towards literature before migrating to North America. His Indian ancestors were brought to Guyana from India as indentured labourers.
All three men – Gandhi, Naipaul and Ramraj – in various ways contributed to the shaping of Guyanese Literature.
(Responses to this author telephone (592) 226-0065 or email:oraltradition2002@yahoo.com)
Written By Petamber Persaud

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