In GOPIO lecture…
HEAD of the Press and Publicity Unit at Office of the President, Dr. Prem Misir has said society needs to understand the precedents which pre-empted the coming of the Portuguese, Chinese and East Indians to Guyana. He was delivering, last week Thursday evening, the second lecture, hosted by the Global Organisation of People of Indian Origin (GOPIO) and the Indian Commemoration Trust, at Pegasus Hotel, Kingston, Georgetown, to commemorate the 172nd anniversary of the arrival of East Indians in Guyana.
The talk, which focused on the roles of East Indians living in Fiji and Guyana, was chaired by Dr. Yesu Persaud.
Welcoming the audience, he introduced Misir as a “man of many parts.”
Misir, who is also Pro-Chancellor of University of Guyana, was Executive Director of the Government Information Agency; Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Information and Chairman of the Guyana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC) Board, Persaud disclosed.
Misir said: “You cannot do well unless you are in an interactive relationship with those around you.”
He used Professor Chandra Jayawardena’s work as the basis for reviewing indentureship in both Fiji and Guyana and said one of the differences between the Fijian Indians and the Guyanese Indians is that, when they disembarked in the two countries, both groups had emigration passes and, while the Fijian Government maintained a good archival system for these documents the Guyana government did not.
Misir said, in Fiji, there was a greater preservation of ancestral traditions and Fijian Indians have a direct link to India, resulting in India being real for them, which is not the case with Guyanese Indians.
He said the Fijians were able to sustain their language and beliefs through their frequent travels back to India after indentureship, unlike those Indians in Guyana who opted to stay and were susceptible to interpretations of their culture both correct and incorrect, which was not a disadvantage because it worked well for them at the time.
Misir highlighted other differences in the religious practices in the two countries. He said Fijians were more private in their celebrations in contrast to the more lavish representations of those living in Guyana. Whether this was due to different beliefs or not, he pointed out that “no aspect of human behaviour can be explained by one factor.”
He said Indian culture was looked down upon as being ancient but, paradoxically, the same culture was looked upon for strength.

CASTE SYSTEM
According to him, the caste system played a very important role in the Fijian society as East Indians were not allowed to settle in the villages and were isolated by the locals who collaborated with the ‘whites’ at the time.
However, in Guyana, it was not as prominent because labourers remained on the plantations after 1916 to till the land, becoming proletariats on the estates. Those who did leave the sugar plantation cultivated rice on a large scale and enhanced their economic status while forging better alliances which contributed to inter-ethnic solidarity.
Today, though, there is more interaction between East Indians and the locals in Fiji, Misir said, noting that another significant detail about the Fijian indentured labourers was the large part that the women played, especially in the movement to abolish the indenture system.  Indentured women were subjected to abuse and molestation on the plantations and the campaigns, in India, to stop the degradation of Indian women in the colonies received wider public support than any other in Indian history.
In closing, he expressed concern over the religious conversion and the loss of language that is occurring in East Indian society in Guyana today.
Misir said it is happening because of insufficient work to exalt religion to the nation and knowledge of religion is important to what you are doing and why you are doing it.
The third lecture to be hosted by GOPIO will be delivered by Mr. Tota Mangar, Deputy Vice-Chancellor of UG, on May 20, at Hotel Tower and will review the indentureship system and the resistance in colonial British Guiana.
Formed in 1989, GOPIO is a non-partisan organisation engaged in promoting the well-being of people of Indian origin and enhancing cooperation and communication between Indians living in different countries.