No one Culture must dominate in multi-cultural Guyana  

Feb 28, 2022 Letters

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Dear Editor,   
Reference is made to Mr. Kit Nascimento’s “Bisram prefers to attack the messenger rather than the message” (Feb 26). Nascimento utilises irrelevancies, non-facts, and a false narrative in his latest response to my position on culture. One culture must never dominate.
I don’t attack messengers and I did not attack Mr. Nascimento. I responded to his mis-statements on my position on various issues, likening them to his propagandistic work for Burnham and the PNC. He said he was not Minister of Information but he served the PNC. It was under his and the PNC tenure that freedom of speech was abolished. The Mirror and Catholic Standard and independent press were denied newsprint.
Nascimento continues his mis-statements on my position on culture, making conclusions that cannot be inferred from my writings.  He also holds an unjust view that a Guyanese living abroad cannot make suggestions about Guyanese culture. Nascimento writes as though he is not familiar with my activism that goes back to 1968 in combating electoral fraud and in my countless articles in the press. I am no political grasshopper or opportunist or a gun for hire. I am very consistent in my political and cultural positions. Indian and Amerindian culture were marginalised during the period Nascimento served in government. Indians, Amerindians and others have a right to reassert, defend, and propagate their culture.
No government and no person, not me or Nascimento, must determine a group’s culture or foist an alien culture on any group as Nascimento and his Burnham government did during their 28 years in power. I was raised and ‘cultured’ in Indian culture and I propagated it accordingly. I resisted and combated cultural aggression of others. Contrary to what he pens, “Indian culture (his definition of Indianism) is not an imperative for Guyana”. I never sought to impose my culture on non-Indians and I never made or condone such advocacy. No group must impose its culture on another group. That is different from cultural diffusion— sharing each other’s cultures which I endorse and which he claims were presented at a February 23 programme. For his edification, each ethnic group sharing aspects of its culture on a national platform is not cultural genocide. Eliminating a group’s culture or marginalizing it as happened during Burnhamism is genocide.
Contrary to what he feels, Indianness and embracing Indian culture does not make me or an Indo Guyanese, less of a Guyanese than him. Culture does define one as a Guyanese. Guyana is a multi-cultural nation and each group has its own autonomous culture. Do Africans embracing African or Creole or Portuguese or White culture make them less of a Guyanese? Does African Americans embracing African culture, or pan-Africanist values make them less of an American? Then why should Indianness or Indian culture make Indo Guyanese less of a Guyanese? Why not tell Africans that their embracing Pan Africanist culture make them less of a Guyanese. Indian and African Guyanese have their own distinct culture in America.
On being abroad, the politics of the regime that Nascimento served drove me and some 500K Indians out of our homeland during those 28 years. During my exile, I was actively involved in the struggle for the restoration of democracy. In addition, for several decades during my school holidays — Christmas, Easter, summer — as a student and later as an educator, I spent considerable amount of time in Guyana in the struggle against the dictatorship and in engaging in work beneficial to the country. In recent years, I spent months in Guyana including for the 2020 election and in combating fraud. And from August 2020, I have spent a lot of time in Guyana. It would be unfair, therefore, to describe me as living abroad and seeking to pontificate culture for Guyana. I fought for democracy in Guyana. That gives me a right to speak on socio-cultural and political affairs. I would like to think, and many prominent Guyanese have also stated, that my contributions to Guyana is far more meaningful and constructive than Nascimento and others who served the dictatorship and who lecture Indians what should be culture.
I should note that the PPP since 1966 and every government since 1992 has courted the diaspora for finances, professionalism, academics, technology, capital, etc. for development. So why belittle my role and that of the diaspora (as an outsider)?
Guyana is a multi-cultural nation. We must respect and treat all equally. Having many groups does not mean we don’t have one Guyana. We have shared values but not one culture. ‘One Guyana’ is not the equivalent of equated to one race, not different from say America which is also one nation but has many races and cultures.
Contrary to what Nascimento believes, Guyana’s government has not equated one Guyana with one culture or creating a Guyana of only one race. President Ali said every one of our six races has an equal place and all the races would benefit from development policies.
On his association with PNC, Nascimento said he joined Burnham and supported authoritarian rule to combat communism. I too combated communism. I didn’t join or defend Burnham and Hoyte to achieve my goal.
I didn’t rig election and condone electoral fraud in order to fight communism. I subscribed to long held democratic and cultural principles of my ancestors.
Yours truly,  
Vishnu Bisram  

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