YOU may not agree with some of the political perspectives of Guyanese professor, Baytoram Ramharack, but he has certainly made his contribution to Guyana’s historiography. His fifth book will be launched this afternoon at Texila University in Providence.
His previous four books are centenary celebration of the Arrival of Indians to British Guiana; Against the Grain: Balram Singh Rai and the Politics of Guyana; Jang Bahadur Singh of Guyana 1886-1956; A Powerful Indian Voice: Alice Bhagwandai Singh.
Ramharack’s current work is about the founder of one of the most known districts in Guyana. Whether you are from Region One or Seven or Nine and not familiar with Georgetown, you will know or have heard about Prashad Nagar. Some of the most famous names in Guyana have lived and are living there.
Ramharack’s next venture is a book on Cheddi Jagan and he told me he is working on a book on the 1964 Wismar massacre. He said he prefers the term, “ethnic cleansing” which he claims may be the first episode of ethnic cleansing in the post-colonial Third World.
I learnt something about the fashion world from the cover of Ramharack’s volume on Hari Prashad, founder of Prashad Nagar. It has a photograph of a handsome Prashad taken some time back in the 1950s. Prashad is wearing rimless glasses.
I did not know rimless spectacles was in fashion in the 1950s around the world after Mahatma Gandhi made them famous earlier on in the 20th century. I thought it was a fashion that came back in the 21st century after John Lennon popularised them in the 1960s. You are not going to believe me but please do. I bought a pair of rimless lenses from Miracle Optical on East Street two weeks ago.
The title of the book is a curious one – “One, one dutty build a village in Guyana: The story of Hari Prashad and Prashad Nagar.” Now interestingly, this is the title of the unpublished auto-biography of Prashad. Ramharack has printed (not reprinted) the autobiography in his volume. This is a must-read book if you are interested in Guyanese who did not rise to ubiquitous fame but are the unsung heroes of Guyana.
If you are interested in rag-to-riches stories as described by Yesu Persaud in volume one of his memoir, then this is a text for you to read. This work is the incredible journey of a self-confident man who refused to stop dreaming until his dreams came through.
Mr. Prashad left the land of his birth in 1952 and took his family of wife and six children to India. It didn’t work out there and he returned the next year to British Guiana. From here, the story of the entrepreneurial resilience of Prashad is worth reading. The book describes moments of intense interaction between a rising Indian middle class and the Portuguese bourgeoisie as related by Prashad himself,
Ramharack has a chapter on the rise of the Indian middle class but that stratum’s interesting relation with the dominant Portuguese bourgeoisie is not given any treatment at all in the book but would be of interest to scholars who are interested in the story of colour and class in the contemporary history of Guyana.
From this book, especially Prashad in his own autobiography, one gets a fantastic picture of Indian unique entrepreneurial relentlessness. Prashad and his biographer, Ramharack do not deal with the Portuguese story in British Guiana but it is for the analyst to sift out some absorbing nuances that are hidden.
It is clear to me from this book that Portuguese property owners were selling off useless properties that fellow Portuguese were not interested in, but Prashad and other Indians bought these useless real estate dumps and turned them into massive successes.
Now ironically, Prashad saw the Portuguese bourgeoisie in a different light. Overjoyed at what the Portuguese sold him, Prashad became smitten by them and joined the party of this class, the United Force, and became a big-wig in that party’s leadership
There is one fascinating paragraph of this book that evokes the tall saga of Forbes Burnham. Prashad, happily married for decades to his wife with “nuff” children admitted that outside of wedlock he fathered a son and daughter.
In the biography of Forbes Burnham by Professor Linden Lewis, Burnham’s eldest daughter Roxanne Van West-Charles admitted to Professor Lewis when he interviewed her for his book on her father that Forbes Burnham confided in her that apart from the five daughters and adopted son Guyana knew, Mr. Burnham had eight outside children. Burnham’s daughter told Professor Lewis that she met all eight of her half-siblings because her father introduced her to them (page 31). It is a loss to Guyana’s history that the country never knew them.
DISCLAIMER: The views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Guyana National Newspapers Limited.
