Latest update September 5th, 2024 12:59 AM
Sep 06, 2015 Letters
Dear Editor,
Please permit me a space in your paper to express my experience of the East Indians in Guyana in regards to the much talk of Slavery, Emancipation and Reparation in Guyana and the World.
East Indians in India were always servants, and never being slaves until the invasions of European and Western Invaders, about 3,500 years ago.
In ancient time, they were not sold nor bought, they were servants.
It has to be stated at the very outset that the Eastern conception of slavery is quite different from that of the West. Before the European Expansion , there is no evidence the word “Slaves” was ever used in the Vedic time in the Indian subcontinent.
The Südras were servants and labors of the ancient Indian Caste system which maintained that the cast-distinctions arose in society, with the inevitable division of labor natural to social evolution, within the four orders of society, Sudra, Vaisyas, Ksthattria and Brahamana, that governed the Hindu Religious Society and the way of a Hindu life.
They were not “slaves in the real sense of the term as understood, for example, in the West. It is clearly stated in Hindu Scripture, the Bhagwatgita, ( B.g: 4.13) Sri Krihsna said ; “The four order of Society, the Sudra, the Vaisya, the Ksthattria and the Brahman were created by Me, classifying them according to their prenatal qualities and apportioning corresponding duties to them; through the author of this creation, know Me the immortal Lord, to be a non-doer.
We are all born equal and we have to work our way up the ladder, from a Sudra to a Brahman. East Indians are born servants ( Shudras) and labors, according to the ancient cultural philosophy, the Vedic System.
The term dasa and dasyu in the Vedic and other ancient Indian literatures have been translated as servants, religious devotees, and abstract concept depending on the context, but daysu was also interpreted by modern scholars as ‘slaves’.
There is no evidence of Slavery in India in ‘ancient time’ but as servants and service to their masters and kings without fuss, quibbling or refusing to work. They were not held in servitude.
East Indians in Guyana, and in other parts of the world, do not have to celebrate Emancipation because they have never considered themselves slaves but servants, then farmers, then defending the people and become a spiritualist. This is the ‘Cultural Order” of the East India society.
REPARATION: In regards to Reparation in Guyana, reparation “must be given” to the East Indians of Guyana. Since 1839, 177 years ago, East Indians and the Ameri- Indians are the people who worked the lands and carry the burden to build Guyana. East Indians cultivated the Sugar and Rice Industries, whilst Ameri-Indians and East Indians were cultivating the Cash crops.
SUGAR has historically formed the mainstay of Guyana’s economy. Sugar and Rice were the main source of revenue for up-keeping Guyana’s economy, and the story of sugar in Guyana interweaves this nation’s past, present and, indisputably, its future.
The arrival of most races of the Guyanese nationhood is only because of the sugar industry of Guyana, but they all run away from the Sugar Industry, leaving only the East Indians of India to be leached on.
East Indians, the Indenture Workers, were promised a lot by the British that brought them to Guyana and so far they were not the recipient of anything, given what was promised to them. East Indians are always servants of the world and easy are going, people, they have no reason for Emancipation but must be given Reparation, because they were enslave at first.
S.N. Singh
Mineral and oil rich country borrowing to feed, clothe and house its citizens.
Sep 05, 2024
– International football returns to Edinburgh By Rawle Toney Kaieteur Sports – Dubbed the beginning of an important journey in Guyana’s football history, Golden Jaguars head coach...Kaieteur News – In Guyana, one finds a curious paradox that might amuse, bemuse, or even confound the casual observer:... more
By Sir Ronald Sanders Kaieteur News – There is an alarming surge in gun-related violence, particularly among younger... more
Freedom of speech is our core value at Kaieteur News. If the letter/e-mail you sent was not published, and you believe that its contents were not libellous, let us know, please contact us by phone or email.
Feel free to send us your comments and/or criticisms.
Contact: 624-6456; 225-8452; 225-8458; 225-8463; 225-8465; 225-8473 or 225-8491.
Or by Email: [email protected] / [email protected]