Reflecting on evolution of term ‘Guyanese diaspora’

Oct 08, 2020 Letters

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Dear Editor,

The usage of the term Guyanese, Caribbean, Indian diaspora was initiated in the late 1970s and early 1980s by a group of us who were involved in academic studies at City College and the laborious struggle for restoration of democracy in Guyana. We worked closely with nationals from India and initially coined the term overseas Guyanese and overseas Indians. And later on we coined the term Indian diaspora and Guyanese diaspora.
The overseas struggle for free and fair elections in Guyana, whether in UK, North America, Trinidad, Surinam, and elsewhere was carried out primarily, though not exclusively by Indo-Guyanese. Afro-Guyanese and other overseas based ethnic groups were not keen in supporting a movement for restoration of democracy in Guyana for obvious reasons. In a democratic election, the party the Afros and Mixed supported would lose power. There were a handful of Africans and Mixed in the overseas WPA support groups that championed democracy for Guyana. However, all of the other support groups were almost exclusively Indian based. In protests and rallies I organized and attended relating to the struggle for free and fair elections (FFE), 99% or 100% were Indian attendees. It was natural, therefore, for them to gravitate towards Indian nationals who had close connection with officials in Washington. The Indian nationals opened doors in US government circles for Guyanese to seek assistance in the struggle for FFE.
The concept of a Guyanese diaspora and the coinage of that term emerged out of that liberation movement in America to free Guyana from the throes of the dictatorship. Baytoram Ramharack, Vassan Ramracha, and myself were initiators in the late 1970s of the concept of linking the overseas Guyanese groups that was labelled the diaspora. We pursued unity among overseas Guyanese and were early pioneers of the overseas movement for the liberation of Guyana. Later, we were joined by Ravi Dev and for a very brief period by Randy Depoo, and other rights activists. Some in the movement were more interested in working with the Indian diaspora because of our association with Indian Americans desiring to deepen connection with Mother India while individuals like Chuck Mohan, Arjune Karshan, and Mel Carpen were more attracted to the concept of a West Indian or Caribbean diaspora. At any rate, Indo-Guyanese belonged to all four diasporas and can claim credit for initiating usage of that term that would be popularly used post 2000 long after it was introduced in the 1980s in the lexicon and vocabulary of government officials and people of the Caribbean (Anglophone West Indies and Guyana) and India. By this time, my voluminous writings had transitioned from using the term overseas Guyanese and overseas Indians to Guyanese diaspora and Indian diaspora.
In February 1987, Ravi Dev and myself were in a meeting at CUNY Grad Center to establish an organizing committee to plan organizing the Fourth Conference of Indians in the Caribbean. Using term “Indian diaspora” was formally introduced by Dev and I, rather than the term “Indians in the Caribbean”. The title of the committee was “Fourth Conference of Indians in the Diaspora” and the conference was held in 1988 at Columbia University. And the term took on a life of its own with the concept of Indo-Caribbean diaspora and Indo-Guyanese diaspora also becoming in vogue. There also emerged the usage of the terms Guyanese diaspora, Indo-Trini diaspora, Trini diaspora, Indo-Jamaican diaspora, Jamaican diaspora etc. Dev and I also played a leading role in the founding of the Global Organization of People of Indian Origin (GOPIO) in 1989, an Indian diaspora organization that comprised of several Guyanese including Yesu Persaud and later Ashook Ramsaran.
In 1999, I was involved in an organized conference to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the founding of GOPIO. An initial meeting was held at the home of Prof. Jagat Motwani on Long Island. Ramsaran and former UG Economics lecturer Prakash Singh were there as part of the discussion. The conference focused on varied issues pertaining to the Indian diaspora including Guyanese and Trinis. At my advice, it was agreed to invite President Jagdeo as the keynote speaker. Yesu was instrumental in getting Jagdeo to deliver the feature address at the September diaspora conference. By this time, the usage of the term diaspora was increasingly being used in the Indian Guyanese media.
Ramsaran would later become head of GOPIO, and he and I would engage in almost daily conversation over a long period of time on the Indian, Trini, and Guyanese diasporas. We suggested and planned diaspora activities in the US, Trinidad, Guyana, and India and worked closely with the Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs in India. We conceived the idea of monuments pertaining to indentureship in India, Guyana, and Trinidad that were later effected. Because of our experience and expertise in diaspora, we were occasionally invited for discussions in Delhi on how to take tap into the resources of the diaspora for India’s development. Later, a group in El Salvador solicited the expertise of Ramsaran on developing a framework on how that country can tap into the resources of her diaspora.
Guyana has diaspora specialists who can help the government develop a framework on linkage with the diaspora that has so much resources to contribute to Guyana’s development. I penned countless articles about the critical role the diaspora can play in Guyana’s development. All were ignored. Leyland Roopnarine told me he used the term Guyanese diaspora in conversation with a Minister. She wanted to know what was that, exposing the limitation in knowledge of that Minister. President Ramotar had initiated with much fanfare in a Manhattan hotel some kind of infrastructure linkage with the diaspora in 2013, but it came to nought as there was no department in the foreign affairs ministry to follow up on utilizing the talent and resources of the diaspora. The coalition also ignored the expertise of diaspora despite promises by both AFC and APNU to work collaboratively with it for advice and input in national development. President Ali should break tradition and tap into the expertise and capital of the diaspora.

Yours truly,
Dr. Vishnu Bisram

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