ARRIVAL Day has now become a calendar event and a national holiday in Guyana. It is celebrated annually on May 5 to commemorate the arrival of indentured immigrants of all races in the country.

This day was initially observed as Indian Arrival Day by the Indo-Guyanese community in commemoration of the first Indian emigrants who landed in the then British Guiana aboard the “Whitby” and the “Hesperus” on May 5, 1838.

The Indians kept their culture alive through oral and artistic forms of story-telling; thus their history and religious philosophies were kept alive and vibrant from generation to generation by elders and religious heads on the various plantations to which they were assigned.

However, despite the fact that they were displaced from their homeland in India and forced to work as labourers in the sugar cane fields of the British colonizers, various researchers and historians believe that many of the Indian immigrants had been professionals in various fields in India.

Writer Harry Hergash notes in a study that “Rev. Bronkhurst, in 1883 (The Colony of British Guiana and its Labouring Population), posits: “All the immigrants in the colony are, of course, looked upon as coolies or day labourers, and so they are…

“In their own native land, they were doctors or physicians, clerks, schoolmasters, teachers, sirdhars, shop or bazaar keepers, etc…”

In addition, Jenkins’ book of 1871 (‘The Coolie, His Rights and Wrongs: Notes of a Journey to British Guiana’), and more recent research by Bates and Carter of the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, suggest that ex-sepoys (former Indian soldiers) were among the immigrants.

This article looks at the oral history and documentation surrounding immigrant Surujbali, of whom three of his grandchildren have played important roles in the history of the country.

Surujbali arrived in 1891, and fathered two children in the country: a son, Joseph, and a daughter, Bhagwandai. In the mid-1950s, his grandson Harry Singh, through his daughter, became one of the first two Cadets of the British Guiana Civil Service.

Later, in 1967, Harry became the first Guyanese to be appointed Director of Bookers, the largest and most politically influential business entity in the country at the time; it was said to control the lives of Guyanese from birth to death.

The magnitude of this appointment is reflected in the article announcing his appointment in the then Guyana Graphic. “A young Guyanese who grew up on a sugar plantation has created history by being the first person to be appointed to the top post of an Executive Director of the Bookers complex in Guyana. Mr. Harry Singh, at 36, is the first Guyanese to be a member of what is regarded as the “Cabinet” of this concern.”

Implicit in Hergash’s paper is the suggestion that these academics and professionals were either fooled or forced to journey to colonized lands to work as agricultural labourers under slave-like conditions in mainly sugar plantations, but that their descendants broke the mould and once again rose out of the ranks of the servile and servitude to assume positions of power.

History and time evolved, and the Indian immigrant has come into his own, and today the Indian Diaspora strides the globe, proud and strong in super-achievements in every area of endeavour.

Yet, one cannot escape the fact that all the races that came to Guyana at whatever period, even Guyana’s first peoples, the Amerindians, have all contributed immensely to the growth and development of this country we all call our homeland.

Guyana is a beautiful country of many races and cultures which have evolved through miscegenation and acculturation; and our diversity is our strength. We are all very proud of our ancestors, who came here under very difficult circumstances, and who, through their hard work, helped to pioneer changes in this country and assisted in its development, working side by side. Thus we have to embrace Guyana’s total history.

The changing world needs greater tolerance and respect for diversity. What is needed is a world that understands different civilizations and the way people from different cultures can work across the cultures, across religion, across ethnic differences, to move and create a better life here on earth.

Our ancestors endured all of the difficulties; they persevered because they were strong in spirit and they were strong as a collective; and today we are the beneficiaries of that, so it is imperative that we use that strength to move our country forward.

Former President Bharrat Jagdeo said, “This country belongs to a large number of beautiful people, all of them having equal rights.  No-one is inferior and no-one is superior’ we are all equal in this land.”

As Guyanese celebrate Arrival Day today, let us remember the way our ancestors collectively endured and prevailed to create joint endeavours for enhanced lifestyles and upward mobility, and let us strive to realize our national motto: “One People, One Nation, with One Destiny.”