TODAY is Valentine’s Day. As a colonial subject in a country controlled by an English-speaking, Christian empire, the United Kingdom of Great Britain, we could not escape being imbued with the cultural motifs of the UK. So yes, I did give my girlfriend Valentine gifts and after I married her, I continued to do so.
But at the same time, I recognised the cultural values of the civilisation I came from, Hindu culture and the civilisation my wife was born into – Islam. Today, lovers will celebrate Valentine, which the British handed down to us but which originated from the Roman Empire. In fact, Valentine and Christmas are perhaps the oldest traditions celebrated in Guyana that came from the Roman Empire.
Whenever we celebrate a cultural tradition that colonial empires brought to Guyana, we must reflect on the phenomenal bravery of the indentured East Indians that offered Guyana, a cultural alternative to Anglo-Saxon civilisation. The indentured East Indians and their subsequent generations maintained their Hindu and Islamic cultures.
They brought to Guyanese society, the other worlds that existed outside of the European existence. They maintained their religion and culture. While we could not resist the literature, movies and songs of the British Empire, Guyana also showcased the cultures of other parts of the world through the East Indians here.
It was almost a losing cause trying to have an alternative culture in Guyana, in the 20th century. European culture was ubiquitous, first through colonial domination then through the social hegemony of the Portuguese class. Nowhere was this domination more graphic than in music, religion and literature. The economy was controlled by the Portuguese mercantile class, but the East Indians had their thriving economy in agriculture, particularly rice.
It was in the area of culture that the Indians of Guyana became a historical phenomenon for preserving their rich Indian traditions. Everything was stacked against them culturally. They were taught by Christian teachers in schools, the textbooks were written to glorify European civilisation; the newspapers carried stories of British society, the radio stations played only English-language songs.
In two areas, this cultural hegemony became tragic. Schools taught French instead of Spanish. The University of Guyana emphasised the arts, humanities and social sciences. Forty years after independence, there was not even one course taught at UG on sea defence. Years after its founding, UG initiated a Faculty of Agriculture.
Amidst this tsunamic onslaught by the European empire in Guyana, the sugar workers fought valiantly to preserve the rich heritage of Hindu and Muslim civilisations. The sugar workers in meticulous ways practis ed their culture and religion on the estates, and it followed Indians who left the estates and found employment outside the sugar economy.
A historian though versed in Guyanese historiography and competent in Guyanese Indian history, will find it psychologically impossible to imagine how persevering the sugar workers were in maintaining their non-European culture.
They resisted the Christian indoctrination at schools and still gave their children Indian names. They resisted the saturation of Anglo-Saxon music and played their Eastern music throughout their lives. They also had their Indian movies.
They did not cave in to Christian culture and married in Christian rites. Every month, there was a Hindu or Muslim wedding on the estate. When their children returned from studies abroad, they retained their non-European cultures and married in Hindu and Muslim rites and gave their children Muslim and Hindu names.
Go back to the middle of the 20th century and look at the famous Indians who excelled in medicine and law from studies abroad, their children were given Indian names. When in Guyana we participate in Christian celebrations like Valentine, Christmas, Easter, we must remember alongside these holidays are events devoted to Hindu and Muslim culture that are part of the national mosaic of Guyana.
India features largely in the psyche of Hindus in this country. They may not want to live and work in India for practical, economic reasons, but after their own country and the UK that colonised us and the US that displaced the UK after 1945, India lives in the consciousness of both Muslim and Hindu Guyanese. One of the most desired things in the psychology of a Guyanese Muslim is to make the Haj.
Islam and Hinduism are strong biological organisms in the life of Guyana, and the reason for that is that the indentured workers and their children refused to be proselytised into other religions. Think of one of the rarest talents in movies anywhere in the world at any time in history – it is Amitabh Bachchan. All Guyanese know him as one of history’s greatest film actors — and that is because the Hindus and Muslims of Guyana refused to abandon the culture they came to Guyana with.
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.
