A Hindu Leader

Apr 14, 2013 Features / Columnists, Ravi Dev

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Reepu Daman Persaud was the preeminent Hindu leader of 20th century Guyana, along with Jang Bahadur Singh, who had founded and been chairman of the BG Sanaatan Dharma Maha Sabha (SDMS) between 1935 and 1955. By 1967, when I had become president of my village mandir, Pandit Reepu, as he was known by one and all, was the driving force in the organization as its Secretary.
Reflecting on his career, one has to be astounded at his activism at such an early age. His own father, who had been a pandit at Plantation Diamond, passed away when he was just a child. He then had to have imbibed the rudiments of being a purohit or Hindu priest under much more difficult circumstances than the then usual route of accompanying one’s father on his ‘rounds’ of pujas and sacraments. He was a pandit by his teens and an active member of the SDMS. Most non-Indians do not appreciate the pivotal role played by the national religious organizations through the mandirs and masjids in channeling the energies of Indian youths in a positive, structured manner. The organizations became our doors into, and a ladder up, the ‘outside’ world.
Interviewing him once about Jang Bahadur Singh, he told me he knew the old man well and visited his home regularly as a friend of a younger son, ‘Tappi’. Pandit Reep had a tremendous institutional memory of the Maha Sabha which, when combined with his role as a pandit, made him a formidable force in the organisation that his colleagues – even more ‘professionally’ qualified ones, could never match. While Jang Bahadur Singh had been a very conscientious Hindu leader, on the finer points of Hindu Dharma, he had to rely on his trusted co-founder of the SDMS, Pandit  Lalman Sukul. Pandit Reepu combined in his own person, both roles.
Pandit Reep’s seminal contribution to Hinduism in Guyana was his popularisation of the Ramcharitmanas (the exploits of Sri Ram) as the text for explication and exegesis at the mass gatherings called ‘yagyas’. Before him, the major text had been the Bhagwat Puran, based on the story of Sri Krishna. The Hindus had just moved out of the logees and the text’s strong focus on values hit a chord as they reconstituted their way of life.
He also followed Jang Bahadur in another role – that of a politician. Jang Bahadur had acted as a political representative and trade unionist for sugar workers for many years after he had been elected to the Legislature in elections from 1928 to 1947. In 1953, he was defeated by the PPP’s candidate. By the time Pandit Reep campaigned for the PPP in 1957, Jang Bahadur had passed away the previous year. When I first met Pandit Reep in 1967, he was already a PPP parliamentarian, since 1964.
Hari Persaud (who was to later become my first father in law) was the SDMS West Demerara Praant’s president. A full decade older than Pandit Reep, he was a fervent supporter. When Hari Persaud spearheaded efforts to establish an SDMS high school in the district in 1968 (where I became a teacher) I had the opportunity to observe Pandit Reep’s ‘can do’ attitude up close. The school at Leonora was completed and running in a matter of months. I also saw up close the rigging of the 1969 elections in the SDMS. Scheduled to be held in Essequibo, by the time Pandit Reep, Hari Persaud and others reached the stelling, they were told the elections were already over. Sase Narine, who I was told had been passed over by Dr Jagan to be a PPP candidate in favour of Pandit Reep, had taken over the SDMS and pledged fealty to the PNC.
Pandit Reep has been trenchantly criticized by many, including myself, for making the Dharmic Sabha, which he founded in 1974, from what should have been a specifically Hindu organisation into a de facto Hindu arm of the PPP. His riposte to me was that this was a development forced by the PNC’s hijacking of the SDMS. He argued that while all sorts of political ‘tendencies’ had been present in the SDMS, this was impossible in Dharmic Sabha when the SDMS appropriated the pro-PNC space. Guyana had become a place where you were with the PNC or, by the latter’s definition, against the PNC.
I was to meet Pandit Reep next when I came with a delegation to invite leaders to the 1st Global Convention of People of Indian Origin in 1989. At his mandir in Campbellville I was to encounter his strong stance on a nationalistic Guyanese Hinduism. He made it very clear that in its sojourn in Guyana, Hinduism had evolved to deal with its environment and this had made it immeasurably richer. One of these adaptations was on the question of caste: he was willing to train anyone who wanted to be a pandit.
When I organized a yagya at De Willem on behalf of Hari Persaud in 1991 the Vyaas, of course, was Pandit Reepu, and we had many long conversations. He was confident of an upcoming PPP victory and was positive that Hinduism would find a much more hospitable milieu under the new dispensation. Even as a Minister of government, he continued with his role as a pandit and, of course, as guru to his thousands of chelas.
My sincerest condolences to the family of this maha Hindu leader.

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