Dear Editor,

THE unthinkable expropriation of the Indian Immigration Fund (INIMF) by the government in 1971 has incurred the resentment of Indo-Guyanese leaders, who described that callous act against Indian immigrants and their descendants as unconscionable and insensitive.|
The Indian Immigration Fund was established by Labour Ordinance, Chapter 104 in 1864. The purpose of the INIMF was to facilitate the recruitment of Indian immigrants to work on sugar plantations and to provide for their repatriation at the end of indenture.
Notwithstanding the clear objectives of the INIMF as well as the fact that the Special Immigration Fund Committee (SIFC) set up by the government in 1965, had unanimously agreed that the fund be dedicated to the Indian community for educational and cultural projects, the government rejected the SIFC’s recommendation and unilaterally diverted the funds towards the building of the National Cultural Centre in preparation for CARIFESTA 1972.
At the outset, it is vital that a few conceptual issues be clarified. While 238,909 Indian immigrants landed in Guyana between 1838 and 1917, fewer than 1/3 (N=75,898 or 31.8%) of them returned to India. Most immigrants (68.2%) chose to make Guyana their home.
Contrary to the view expressed by critics, Professor Lomarsh Roopnarine states that only 3.2% of Indian immigrants received land in lieu of return passages. And Indo-Guyanese have not been opposed to CARIFESTA nor the building of a National Cultural Centre (NCC), but they insisted that funds for the NCC must come from general revenues and not from the INMIF.
While Indo-Guyanese have been demanding restorative justice to atone for a grievous historical wrong perpetrated against their fore-parents and their descendants, not many Guyanese are aware of this struggle.
A major reason is that most Guyanese (at least eight in every 10) who reside in Guyana, are not aware of the seizure of the dedicated INIMF because they were not yet born. Given this reality, it has become crucial therefore that the INMIF story be narrated within the appropriate historical context in the public domain.
The 1970s was a dark period (characterised by political and social upheavals) in Guyana’s history. The PNC government decided to seize property (with or without compensation). The Indian Immigration Fund was one example of the casualty.
In the process of expropriation, they altered the country’s legal and constitutional architecture. At the political level, it declared Guyana a Cooperative Republic in 1970 abolished appeals to the Privy Council in 1971 and replaced it with the Guyana Court of Appeal.
With the full control of the executive and the judiciary, they needed to control the legislative body, Parliament, and this they secured by rigging the 1973 elections and allocating onto themselves a super majority of seats (69% or 34 of 53).
These measures allowed them absolute dominance and control over every aspect of people’s lives. They proceeded to militarise the society, expanded the Guyana Defence Force and the Guyana Police Force and established National Service in 1974 and the People’s Militia in 1976.
The PNC’s economic philosophy was captured in its Socialist Manifesto (Sophia Declaration) of 1974 that set out, among other things, the doctrine of party paramountcy and policies to transform the economy into cooperative socialism. The PNC’s dominance and control of society was complete and absolute (1968-1992).
Having received a sharp increase in real GDP growth from 1.2% in 1973 to 7.7% in 1974 and 8.48% in 1975, due to the windfall from the sugar levy (G$355 million) in 1974 and 1975, the PNC’s grip on the economy began to falter. GDP growth plummetted from 1.54% in 1976 to –1.84% in 1979 because of bad policies.
Seeking to arrest the decline, the PNC launched several investment projects (1978-1980) for which they sought funding of US$474 million (88.5% from external and 11.5% from local sources).
However, those projects that included the MMA project, bauxite, Tapacuma, Black Bush Polder Irrigation, Upper Demerara Forestry, and Guysuco, failed to stop the haemorrhage in GDP growth. Notes Dr Ramesh Gampat: “Burnham’s Little Red Book (Sophia Declaration) triggered the economic tsunami that plunged the economy into the Great Downswing from 1977 to 1990.”
Thus, the prevailing environment during the 1970s and even beyond was hostile in a context where confrontation overpowered rapprochement. But the authorities’ failure to render restorative justice and to suppress the INIMIF story would not obliterate the truth.
Indo-Guyanese leaders rightly seek the correction of a grave historical wrong perpetrated against immigrants and their descendants, that is, the seizure of the unused G$825,000 (equivalent to US$3,141,072 today) of the Indian Immigration Fund. While Mr. Burnham seized the Indian Immigration Fund, he graciously received US$5,000 per month from the CIA during 1969 to 1971. He had asked for US$10,000 but that amount was rejected.
The current administration must address this burning issue; bring it to closure; and thus end this unhappy chapter of Indian immigration and indentureship.
Yours sincerely,
Dr Tara Singh