(Extract of a lecture delivered on Friday May 28, 2010 in the Conference Room of the National Library by yours truly under the auspices of GOPIO [Guyana chapter] to commemorate the arrival of Indians to Guyana.) IN PREPARING for this presentation, I took umbrage at the use of the word ‘lecture’ until a definition of the word (which says that a lecture is an “oral presentation intended to present information about a particular subject”) softened my position.

Yes! I do have something to share about the literature of Guyanese of Indian ancestry, hoping to demystify the aesthetics, remove misconceptions, and, in a way, set the record straight.

The full title of my presentation is ‘An Outline Of The Imaginative Literature Of Guyanese Of Indian Ancestry’; cognisant that we must take pride in our achievements as part of the whole Guyanese identity, and also as Guyanese of Indian ancestry.

But inasmuch as I am dealing with the creative aspect of literature, in so much, I would not diminish other aspects of literature by this community. It must be noted here, at the beginning, that it was difficult to divorce the literature of Guyanese of Indian ancestry from the whole gamut of Guyanese Literature.

Here, we must bear in mind that Guyanese literature is still in its formative years and the contribution of every writer is important to the whole, to the overall development of a Guyanese literature.

It is useful at the onset to paint a background to Guyanese literature so as to juxtaposition the contribution of Guyanese of Indian ancestry. It would be useful also to remember our literature was tied for a long while to the English literary tradition.

The first writings on Guyana were done by European explorers, colonisers, missionaries and administrators. This went on for a protracted period, lasting way into the 20th Century. Even the first novels on the Indian experience were written by non-Indian non-Guyanese namely, Edward Jenkin’s Lutchmee and Dilloo (1877), and A. R. F. Webber’s Those that be in Bondage: A Tale of Indian Indentures and Sunlit Western Waters, (1917).

Other publications on the immigrants experience included Rev. Pearson’s The New Overseer’s Manual (1890), Rev. MacKay’s Under the Southern Cross (1904) and Edward Jenkins’ The Coolie: His Rights and Wrongs (1872).

A point of departure could be detected in the post-war period with the Caribbean states agitating for independence, and the attendant literature of that period and thereafter, a literature that is now grouped in that broad category titled post-colonial literature.

“Until the 1960s, there were no fictional or autobiographical representations of Indo-Guyanese lives written by Indo-Guyanese. Until then, we have little which gives us any insight into the inner feelings, ways of seeing or even the intimate social texture of Indo-Guyanese lives.”

That was a quote from the book, They Came in Ships, compiled by Lloyd Searwar, Laxhmie Kallicharan, Joel Benjamin and Ian McDonald, and published by the Indian Commemoration Trust in 1998.

But by the year 2000, forty years later, Frank Birbalsingh, in his book, Jahaji, had enough evidence to declare as early as 998: “…The very idea of Indo-Caribbean identity appeared suspicious, and the classification of Indo-Caribbean literature seemed superfluous… Yes, 1998 marked one-hundred-and-fifty years since people from India first immigrated to the Caribbean, and one would think that that was long enough for their distinctive, ethnic features as an immigrant community to be accepted in their environment.”

And Shana Yardan could say in one of her better known poems, ‘oh grandfather, my grandfather/Your dhoti is become a shroud/Your straight hair a curse.’

I don’t know if those indictments on our society had anything to do with Clem Seecharan’s findings that the advent of Indians to Guyana as escaping to “an area of possibilities…they became adept at exploiting every niche conductive to gain.” Creative writing was one of those niche areas exploited; this move may appear to have come later rather than sooner.

The first writings by Indian immigrants were the letters sent back home to India, and the replies, none of which have survived. Those letters would have added significantly to the better understanding of our ancestors.

The first examples of writings in English by Indian immigrants were letters to the press, mainly about the deplorable living and working conditions. The most outstanding exponent of this genre was Bechu of Enmore Estate, whose remonstrations surfaced in the late 1800s.

Around that same period, Joseph Ruhomon, who was born in Guyana in 1873, came to prominence as a journalist and lecturer. Ruhomon was a pioneer and pacesetter on many fronts, gaining honours like ‘the first modern Indian intellectual in British Guiana’, ‘a litterateur of outstanding ability’ and ‘thinker’.

In 1894, he delivered a groundbreaking lecture in Georgetown. That lecture, entitled, ‘India; The Progress Of Her People At Home And Abroad And How Those In British Guiana May Improve Themselves’ was published later that year.

The first book-length work by an East Indian was ‘London’s Heart Probe and Britain’s Destiny’ by Ayube Edun, published after his visit to England in 1928.

The first anthology of writings by East Indians was An Anthology Of Local Indian Verse edited by C. E. J. Ramcharitar-Lalla in 1934. However, most of the twenty-one poems in that collection were steeped in Victorian influence as seen in a poem by W. W. Persaud, ‘reluctant be to throw aside the reins of England, as thy guide’. This work also included the poetry of the editor, the Ruhomon brothers (Peter and Joseph), and J. W. Chinapen.

This publication seemed to surface in response to Norman Cameron’s Guianese Poetry 1831-1931, which did not include any work by Guyanese of Indian ancestry who were writing during that period and were actively involved on the literary scene.

For example, Peter Ruhomon was a founder/member of the British Guiana Literary Society, launched by Cameron in 1930, which included the Reverends Dingwall and Pollard. Peter Ruhomon was also part of another literary group of that period which included Ramcharitar-Lalla and which may have fallen under the umbrella of the British Guiana Union of Cultural Clubs.

Further, Peter and Cameron lived within shouting distance of each other in upper Charlotte Street. So it could be deduced that Cameron knowingly omitted the writings of Guyanese of Indian ancestry.

The early 20th Century saw the rise of an Indian intellectualism in Guyana, perhaps influenced by what was happening in India in the late 19th and early 20th Century with formation of the Indian National Movement, Tagore wining the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1913, and the rise to prominence of Nehru and Gandhi.

The rise of the Indian intellectualism gave birth to the formation of social and cultural organisations. Drama played a major role in the development of this new thrust by Indians. During the 1940s, the British Guiana Dramatic Society (BGDS), which was established in 1936, came to prominence, but for most of its existence, it was guilty of producing plays from out of India, as was the case with the other groups mimicking English, Dutch, Portuguese and German plays.

It must be noted that this BGDS was an East Indian organisation promoting such ethnic interest in Georgetown; it was started by the Singh clan, comprising of J. B. Singh and his wife, Alice Bhagwandai, later continued by their daughter, Rajkumari Singh, and grandchildren carrying the torch into present day and into the Diaspora.

This
organisation distinguished itself by publishing a journal, the Dramag, and also establishing cultural ties between this country and Suriname. Dramag was the first journal on drama in this country.

Peter Kempadoo is the first Guyanese of Indian Ancestry to write a novel. That book, Guiana Boy, was self-published in 1960 by a small press, New Literature (Publishing) Limited, founded by Kempadoo. One of the reasons for self-publishing was that major English publishing houses at the time wanted the language of book to be refashioned to suit English readership. But the author of Guiana Boy was not inclined to follow suit, as did most of the other Guyanese and Caribbean writers. (The novel writing tradition of Guyana started with Mittelholzer in 1940s with the publication of Corentyne Thunder, which is also the first novel dealing with the Indian peasant experience and written by a non-Indian.)

The 1960s seemed to be a fertile period for women writing and, on the whole, Guyanese literature. Rajkumari Singh was part of the Guyana Writers’ Group, which was very active, and  established herself as the first recognised East Indian woman writer in Guyana, pioneering and enhancing the slighted ‘coolie art forms’, and becoming the “surrogate cultural and artistic mother to younger writers and artists.”

In 1960, she published A Garland of Stories, exploring various themes like racial prejudice and racial integration. In 1966, she won the prize for the best radio play with Roraima. Her other plays are Hoofbeats at Midnight, The Sound of her Bells, A White Camellia and A Blue Star and Bohemian Interlude. In 1971, she published A Collection of Poems, which tells of her perception and true feeling about issues affecting her.

Other Guyanese women of Indian ancestry writing around this same period included Mahadai Das and Shana Yardan. Das was the more prolific of the two, with three collections of poetry to her name, namely I Want To Be A Poetess Of My People, My Finer Steal Will Grow, and Bones.

In the 1970s, Sheik Sadeek, a poet, novelist, and playwright became a one-man publishing industry. As a publisher, Sadeek holds a record that is unmatched even unto today in a fast-paced electronic world. Many of his publications, including his three novels, totalling some 600 pages, were rolled off of duplicating machines.

With the mention of Sadeek’s name, other names come to mind, like Basil Balgobin, Rooplall Monar, and Churaumanie Bissundyal. Bissundyal is versatile in three genres of writing – poetry, fiction and drama.

Balgobin was known as a playwright in the British Guiana Dramatic Society, but he also published about twelve short stories in the Chronicle Christmas Annual and the Christmas Tide. One of his stories was broadcast on Caribbean Voices.

Monar wrote a number of novels and collections of short fiction and poems; his Backdam People, which is his first major work of fiction, is also a watershed work employing ‘raw-renk’ vernacular to portray the real taste of rural Guyana.

Backdam People was published by Peepal Tree Press, UK, in 1986, and was incidentally the first book to be published by that press. Peepal Tree is responsible in a big way for advancing the career of many Guyanese writers, thereby enhancing Guyanese literature on the whole.

Let’s look at some enabling factors to the literature of Guyanese of Indian ancestry. Going back to the early 20th Century, we may include organisations that enhanced the development of the Indian’s cause, organisations like the British Guiana East Indian Association, started 1916; The East Indian Young Men’s Society (EIYMS), started 1919; The Corentyne Literary & Debating Society, started 1937; The British Guiana Dramatic Society, started 1936.

Coming out of the British Guiana East Indian Association was the journal, Indian Opinion, which was a platform for the Indian voice. There were other platforms for the Indian voice, like the column called ‘Indian Intelligence’ in the Sunday Chronicle, edited by Peter Ruhomon during the 1930s, and a newspaper called THE PEOPLE, edited Joseph Ruhomon.

The People was a  Berbice newspaper, founded by Rev. H. J. Shirley who was a radical English Congregational Minister. In the later part of the 20th c, we find ‘The Messenger Group’, with Rajkumari Singh, Rooplall Monar and others drawing attention to the slighted ‘coolie art forms’.

This group came out of the Guyana National Service (GNS) and published a few volumes of the journal, Heritage. The publication was important in many ways, but acted mainly as an extension of the voice of that particular group.

Later, Monar was to continue making his contribution to Guyanese literature by teaming up with Randall Butisingh and others to form the ‘Annadale Writers’ Group’ that produced a few issues of the journal, Dawn.

In the new millennium, we find anthologists like Roopnandan Singh and Kampta Karran giving impetus to the writings by Guyanese of Indian ancestry. Both offered literary competitions, and both were involved in publishing; Singh also published works by other Guyanese.  Singh’s Sky dance: An anthology of Poems of Guyanese of Indian Ancestry  and Karran’s An Introduction to the Poetry of the East Indian Diaspora are important additions to our discourse.

We must not diminish the national magazines and journals like Kyk, Kaie, New World and others that published writings by Guyanese of Indian ancestry.

Now, there are many significant writers from the Indian community adding to the potpourri of Guyanese literature, some prolific, others versed in many genres of writing, some internationally recognised, and there are scores of emerging writers still unknown.

A few names to be mentioned in a long and growing list of writers of Indian ancestry include David Dabydeen, winner of the Commonwealth Prize for Poetry and three-time winner of the Guyana Prize for Literature, Sasenarine Persaud, Cyril Dabydeen, Gokarran Sukhdeo, Harischandra Khemraj, Harry Naraine, winner of the Casa de Las Americas literary prize, Janice Lo Shinebourne, Narmala Shewcharran, Oonya Kempadoo, Elly Niland, and Ryhaan Shah.

Most of the writers mentioned, except for Shah, are living abroad. This is interesting in that it is the writers in the Diaspora (more than the local writers who are few in number) who are keeping this thing we call Guyanese literature alive.

‘They came in ships…hearts brimful of hope’ wrote the poet, Mahadai Das, one of the first Guyanese women writers of Indian Ancestry. Some 172 years have elapsed since the first batches of Indian indentured labourers arrived in British Guiana from India.

They came to El Dorado with ‘hearts brimful of hope’. For many, El Dorado is an ongoing journey. That ongoing journey (extending to other lands called the Diaspora) is being captured in the literature produced by this community.

In closing, I’d like to revisit Joseph Ruhomon’s lecture mentioned earlier. Only twenty-one then, Ruhomon was concerned about the intellectual progress and development of East Indians in the colony.

And their ‘slow progress’ he lamented: “…they do not know what it is to cultivate the barren wilderness of their minds and the great good that would accrue… they do not know what it is to acquire knowledge…which would give them power…’

He made a call for the formation of a society with its own library and its own newspaper to deal with those issues, saying: “Books are one of the greatest blessings in life, and the educated mind which dives into literature, enjoys a pleasure which a rude uncultured mind knows nothing…”

To buttress this, we turn to the life of Clem Seecharan where it is said that he came from a ‘bookless world’ to become a writer of books, making a name and fortune in the writing of books.

Guyanese literature is still young, but is gettin
g better each day, thanks to each member of the Guyanese family, especially the writers from the Indian community who are making a significant impact on the literature of this country.

What’s Happening

* The Guyana Annual 2010 issue is now available at Guyenterprise Ltd. on Lance Gibbs and Irving Streets, Queenstown.
* The new closing date for the Ministry of Culture, Youth & Sport literary competition for school is July 9, 2010. Please contact me for more information. This competition includes three follow-up components via a writers’ workshop using entries submitted, performances of shortlisted entries and a publication of the outstanding works.

(To respond to this author, either call him on (592) 226-0065 or send him an email: oraltradition2002@yahoo.com)