Religious persons were always welcomed in the PPP

Dec 21, 2021 Letters

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Dear Editor,

Kaieteur News – From its inception, the PPP embraced and encouraged persons of all religious persuasions to support and to join its ranks.
The party never declared itself to be a party of atheists nor a communist party. None of this can be found in constitutions, past nor present of the PPP.

Believers have never been forbidden to join the party. In fact, the party deliberately set out to recruit such persons into its ranks.

In both the pre- and post-independence periods, questions pertaining to religion were never advanced at fora where they did not belong. Neither was the Party’s attitude towards religion an opportunistic tactic so as not to scare away religious people.

In ‘The West on Trial’, Cheddi Jagan pointed out that in the 1953 election, ‘racist emotionalism expressed by Indian racial leaders was used to frighten the Indians away from the PPP.’ He stressed that while the PPP supported the establishment of a West Indian Federation, the Indian
leaders who were peddling race and religion opposed the idea of a Federation and in their election campaign, they propagated the call ‘’Apan Jhaat’’ meaning ‘vote for your own’.

From the very early years, the PPP adopted a clearly defined attitude towards religion; it viewed religion as one of the oldest and most popular forms of social consciousness as well as to believers.

In Guyana, religion for some is regarded as a matter of their personal conscience only or, as a source of their personal morals. Others see religion as the basis of their political views.

Because its struggle for independence was a national one, the membership and leadership of the PPP had to be national in character. Concerted action between believers and non-believers was vital in the struggle for national independence. Guyana’s struggle for national independence was not a struggle for socialism nor communism; it was a separate and distinct struggle to break the bonds of colonialism and colonial domination. Its focus was the realisation of the Guyanese peoples’ right to self-determination.

Yesterday, it was those hopes and aspirations that motivated many religious individuals to embrace, the inclusionary mission of the party. Today, it is the national democratic path that inspires them to get on board. Under colonialism, it was the suffering and oppressive conditions under which people in the villages and wider communities lived that motivated religious practitioners in the temples, mosques and churches to gravitate towards the PPP.

In his book, ‘My Pilgrimage From Jail to Glory,’ Pt. Ramlall referring to Dr. Jagan soon after his return to British Guiana wrote; ‘He was a dedicated member of the Hindu religion and would often come to the temple to worship.’
Pt. Ramlall went on; ‘I knew Dr. Jagan was an active member of the temple. He used to worship and heard me sing many times.’ This description of Dr. Jagan’s religious beliefs and practices is in stark contrast to the manner in which some have painted him in those days as the ‘communist ogre.’

Suffice it to say, there were many challenges along the way especially during the 1947 to 1956 period following the election in 1947 when Dr. Jagan entered the Legislative Assembly for the first time as its youngest member.

Dr. Jagan then joined the Labour Party in which Dr. Jung Bahadur Singh was a leading light. He was at that time, the spokesperson for ‘organised Hinduism’ and President of the Hindu Maha Sabha. Referring to Dr. J.B. Singh, Dr.Jagan wrote; ‘He was a shrewd politician and carefully blended religion with medicine.’

After being unsuccessful in his efforts to reorient the Labour Party to the trade unions and working class issues, Dr. Jagan left the party and was instrumental in establishing the Political Affairs Committee, the harbinger of the PPP, launched in 1950. The general election held in 1953 was characterised by an intense struggle between the working class ideology of the PPP and a small but influential group who propagated a toxic mix or race and religion.

Dr. J.B. Singh was defeated by Fred Bowman, a humble sugar worker and candidate of the PPP.
Bowman won 42.3 percent of the votes against Singh’s 26 percent. It was the first time that working class politics had defeated appeals to crude religious and racial sentiments. In elections that were to follow, it was race not religion that played a central role. In its organisational structure and social composition, both vertically and horizontally, representatives of many religious beliefs were to be found in leading organs of the PPP.

It was against this backdrop that the PPP came to be recognised as a loose mass party providing national leadership to all Guyanese irrespective of religious beliefs. During the pre-and post-independence periods, while the party’s leadership was dominated by persons who held Marxist beliefs, there were others who did not.

In his booklet, ‘Cheddi Jagan (1918-97) Charisma and Guyana’s Challenge to Western Capitalism’ Percy Hintzen wrote; ‘But Jagan’s brand of socialism was infused with those distinctively American values of ‘security, plenty, peace and freedom’ located at the core of America’s national self-concept and at the very heart of American political philosophy.’

What appeared to be contradictory to some, was; how could religious-minded party members of that time hold steadfastly to their religious beliefs and practices, and at the same time, accept the Marxist Jagan as their political Leader?

The answer to the question is to be found in the ideological blend and practical policies of the PPP strongly marked by its fidelity to national, cultural, historical and religious traditions, and by its ability to find in them, a message, which was close to workers and farmers ,and to link their spiritual lives directly with the need for independent national development and the transformation of society.
Amongst the religious leaders at the time who served in the leadership of the party; as candidates on its electoral slate or as Members of Parliament were; Pandit Siridhar Misir, Pandit Chandra Persaud, Pandit Reepu Daman Persaud, Mulvi Yacoob Ally, Pandit Ramlall and Pandit Budram Mahadeo among others. This tradition continues up to this day.
Under present day local conditions, unity of action and solidarity between believers and non-believers on the question of national unity; the right to elect a government through free and fair elections; defense of Guyana’s territorial integrity and national sovereignty and, above all, unity around key problems, such as the impact of climate change, a new oil and gas economy; social and economic progress; against foreign domination and building a democratic state are the broad and key prerequisites that will secure Guyana’s future. And, just as how divisiveness of our people along religious lines have disappeared, in the same way, step by step, division along racial lines will gradually fade with generations to come.

Yours faithfully,
Clement J. Rohee

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