Pushpanjali continues Indo-Guyanese cultural traditions

May 07, 2009 News

Indian Kathak dancer Mahua Shankar performs at Pushpanjali.

A flurry of intricate Indian dances, plus soothing, and other times energizing music, dominated Pushpanjali, the annual programme of the Indian Commemoration Trust (ICT) to observe the anniversary of the arrival of the first East Indians to Guyana.
The programme featured performances from Indian Kathak dancer, Mahua Shankar, the Nrityageet dancers and ace dancer Kiran Mattai. Pushpanjali was held at the Indian Monument Gardens, Camp and Church streets, Georgetown on Monday last.
In a message, Chairman of the Trust, Dr Yesu Persaud said that the indentured Indians have made a tremendous contribution in building this nation.
He noted that on board the ships that the first Indians here, the indentured workers, formed a bond which brought about the concept of Jahagiship.

On May 5, 1838, the ships, Whitby and Hesperus arrived in what was then British Guiana. Of the 438 workers who left Calcutta, 18 died due to a cholera outbreak on the ships and their bodies were unceremoniously dumped overboard. As a result of the hardships of the voyage itself, Persaud said the Indians learnt that they had to work together irrespective of class or caste.
On arrival in Demerara and Berbice, he said that the immigrants were allocated to work in the sugar estates and commenced work on the second day of their arrival. Their dwellings were the same logies the freed African slaves occupied.
He said that while the indentured Indian labourers were a little better off than the slaves, they could not leave the plantations without a pass. Anyone found off the plantation without a pass was arrested, jailed or fined.

The Indians were not allowed to mix with the slaves since the British masters feared the slaves would try to sow discord against their masters and those who challenged the masters were tied to a post, beaten with a cat-o-nine tail and salt was rubbed in their wounds.
Further, reflecting on the way Indians were treated on the estates by the plantocracy, he said the general idea was that the people had no culture and were referred to as idol worshippers.
During the period 1838-1917, some 240,000 indentured workers came here, of whom 70 percent stayed to build their homes. Despite all the hardships, those who stayed made great contributions in every facet of life, Persaud stated.

He said that the colonial masters did not realize that the Indian ancestors were the ones who had written the Hindu holy writings such as the Mahabharata and the Ramayana, which are known as two of the greatest epics of the world.
Persaud quoted Sanskrit scholar, Professor Max Muellar, who praised the great works of the Indian scriptures which had so much to teach the world. He also noted the fact that the numeration systems were discovered by the Indians, “while the West was living in darkness.”
Persaud also quoted Dr Ian McDonald who asked where Guyana would be without the thousands of Indians who played outstanding roles in politics, the unions, the professions, the public service, business, the arts and culture.

“In politics, in law, in medicine, in the arts, in education, in business, in religion, in every walk of life, there have been more than one equivalent to what Rohan Kanhai is to cricket.”
According to Persaud, it is the rich Indian culture that has helped to form the fabric of the nation and enhanced “all our lives, whether we are Indian or not.”
“What would Guyana be without Indian customs, Indian religion and its age-old practices and philosophy, Indian festivals and Holy days, Indian clothes and jewellery, Indian foods and spices, Indian dance, song and music, Indian architecture, Indian learning, Indian attitudes to life and death inherited from centuries ago?
“Without this myriad of legacies, contributed out of a great culture, it would simply not be Guyana at all.”