TODAY is Indian Arrival Day, and although the official holiday is titled Arrival Day, today’s date is the day when the indentured labourers were shipped from India to Guyana. It is the appropriate day to reflect on the East Indian race in Guyana. A few notes follow.
I had functioned very closely with the Deputy Vice-Chancellor of UG, Dr Melissa Ifill, in a grassroot movement named “The People’s Parliament” where we camped out 24 hours outside Parliament. The now famous Leonard Craig was one of us. I had very conscientised moments with Dr Ifill. Then there came a revelation that was beyond belief.
Dr Ifill wrote that she goes through human existence as a Black woman and sees life through the prism of a Black woman. I did not know Dr Ifill felt that way because during our sojourn in The People’s Parliament, I felt we were all activists looking at life through the eyes of conscious humans that want to do good for the poor and powerless.
I firmly believe that we should respect the culture we were born into and that respect must be expressed in permanent appreciation for the people who practised that culture and their way of life.
I do not think it ever crossed my mind to give my daughter a first name other than a Hindu appellation. I could not betray the culture I was born into by assigning her a name from another culture except Islam because her mother is Muslim.
Once we respect our culture and those who keep it alive, we have to go beyond culture and enter the realm of philosophy. This is where Dr Ifill disappointed me. To base your existence essentially on your racial inherency can lead to worrying features in your day-to-day life. I am genetically East Indian.
I was born into Hindu culture and I appreciate almost everything about Hindu culture but I do not go through life as a Hindu man. I perambulate the corridors of ontology as a philosophically grounded human.
The problem with the Indian race in Guyana is that the ubiquitous domination of Anglo-Saxon culture in the colonies controlled by Great Britain has created an Indian typology called the Indo-Saxon mind.
Within that species lies a mentality that is contemptuous of Hindu culture and Muslim culture and is driven by colour obsession. The colour obsession thing among Christian East Indians is not confined to Guyana but was practised in India long before the Indentured workers came to this country.
The danger with the Indo-Saxon mind is the enduring contempt it has for Hindu and Muslim Indians and dark-skinned Indians. But it is not only cultural snobbery but a class thing as well. Christian Guyanese Indians do not display their shameless class snobbery towards rich Hindus and wealthy Muslims.
Although the Christian Indian sees the wealthy Hindu and Muslim as being anthropologically inferior to them, they would tolerate them and socialise with them to a certain extent because the wealth of this cultural stratum makes them people of substance in Guyana. But overall, Indo-Saxons in Guyana do not seek close relationship with Guyanese Hindu and Muslims.
The research question in Guyana’s sociology that has not been investigated as yet despite 60 years of Independence is which of the two cultural strata have more contempt for the average Indian – the Afro-Saxon middle class or the Indo-Saxon folks? My experience in living in Guyana my entire life has taught me that the Afro-Saxon middle class is more tolerant of Indian people than the Indo-Saxon mind.
An old psychological theory explains this. And it is seen in everyday politics around the world. If a dark-skinned person is accepted in a white elitist political party, that dark-complexion person is going to be more emotionally charged against the non-White world because they are under two kinds of pressure.
One is to make sure their sycophancy is very visible so that acceptance comes quickly. The other is that given the insecurity they live with they have to constantly prove themselves to the White elitist folks they socialise with.
The identical psychology is embedded in the Indo-Saxon Guyanese. The Indo-Saxon is not African or European. They are Indian and do not want to be Indian.
So, they go out of their way to avoid socialisation with Indians and they go out of their way to prove to the Afro-Saxon class and the European stratum in Guyana that they practise Anglo-Saxon values and should be accepted. The Afro-Saxon does live with that mental burden, so they have no problem opening up more to Indians. This article here is based on my experience.
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.
