Dear Editor,

I read with curiosity Mr. Eusi Kwayana's letter suggesting that a knowledgeable Hindu educates the Guyanese populace on the Hindu caste system. What purpose would that serve? Mr. Kwayana might have observed that Hindus, as a whole chose to ignore the book (the organisation which lodged a complaint was an Indian Organisation and not a Hindu one). Hindus in Guyana have long ago placed the caste system behind their backs. If some misguided non-Hindu chooses to dig it up to suit his/her own agenda, Hindus will not add dignity to such mischief.

So Mr. Kwayana, instead of reverting to the irrelevant, I invite you to read Chapter 6, verse 30 of the Bhagwat Geeta (just two lines). That summarises Hinduism.

As a child growing up in Guyana, my father was a very learned Pandit. His closest friend was an Afro-Guyanese Adventist Minister. Many nights these two gentlemen used to sit in front of the flambeau and chat for hours. We were made to show our greatest respect to this gentleman and his family. All other Afro-Guyanese in our village, we had to address as "neighbour." Did my father not know the teachings of Hinduism?

In later life, I became a senior officer of the N.O.C. Some of my dearest friends there were Afro-Guyanese. Did my father not properly educate me on my Dharm? When I reached retirement age, an Indo-Guyanese public servant was tardy and lackadaisical in preparing my retirement documents. Two Afro-Guyanese sisters took my file and did what had to be done.

All of these people knew that I was an ardent Hindu. None of them saw hatred or race in me.

Dr Kean Gibson missed some salient points:

(a)The PPP is not a Hindu party. One cannot be a Hindu and a Marxist at the same time. There never was a political party in Guyana that looked after the interest of Hindus.

It never bothered them. They found solace in their faith; and that is what made some people suspicious of Hinduism.

(b) Racial suspicion in Guyana is between Afro and Indo Guyanese. In Guyana, there are Indo-Guyanese who are Hindus, Muslims, Christians, Marxists, Bahais, etc. Are all of these people influenced by the precepts of Hinduism?

(c) Race hate in Guyana commenced with the Burnham/Jagan split. Hindu-ism had nothing to do with that. Jagan was never a Hindu.

I am glad that the ERC did not ban the book, because in this world, there are all kinds of people and each has its role to play in God's scheme of things.

When Pontius Pilate and his clique were about to crucify Jesus, God did not ban them, because they had a job to do. So, patriotic Guyanese must do like Jesus: Pray "Forgive them Lord, for they know not what they do."

Yours faithfully,

Pandit Harry Nauth

 

Dear Editor,

Roger Williams is absolutely correct when he asserts that caste is not irrelevant to any examination of the racial ills that has historically been a source of division between the peoples of Guyana.

I am truly amazed at the level of denial that pervades this discourse in the drive to vilify Dr Kean Gibson, and cast the Afro-Guyanese community as the main repository for racial prejudice.

Guyana has always been a nation where its inhabitants are graded on a continuum of colour and hair texture. From very early in our nurturing we are indoctrinated into the concept of "good complexion" and "good hair." Light skin and straight hair have always been seen as preferential attributes as opposed to dark skin and nappy hair.

Where I might differ from Roger Williams and Dr Kean Gibson would be in the view that this way of looking at and grading ourselves is a direct construct of Hinduism or any other religion. I happen to believe that the genesis of this kind of ignorance that is resident in all distinct communities in Guyana including the Afro-Guyanese community, is actually a residue of trans-Atlantic slavery. Europeans in order to rationalize their enslavement of African Peoples promoted the concept that the closer humans were to Africans in terms of their physical appearance, the less they had in terms of human content. And they invested more than three hundred years in this kind of stereotyping, advancing myths and ill-conceived notions throughout that period to make their case.

It is disingenuous to claim that Indians and other non African Guyanese do not harbour anti-black prejudices. We are a nation nurtured in petty prejudices that to varying degrees victimize others who do not look like us. We are nurtured to consider ourselves better than those we identify as "black", "coolie" and "buck", and feel inverse proportionally grateful that as bad as things might be for us, at least we are not like "them." We are nurtured to seek a position on that end of the continuum of colour closest to our common oppressors. The main obstacle to resolving the racial or ethnic divide in our nation is our predisposition to point to the culpability of the other group while ignoring the culpability in ours. We feel our own pain, and discount the pain of others. This inability to feel empathy for others has us behaving like the biblical climbers of the Tower of Babel, each speaking in a tongue incomprehensible to his fellow climbers. We have to come to a point where we say enough of this. We have to come to that place where we recognize that although we might have landed at different times under different circumstances, we are in the same boat now. When and if we do this, we will discover that cultural universality does not necessarily have to mean abandoning our unique and distinctive cultural heritages. We should strive to become as a nation a gorgeous mosaic of human kind, akin to a basket of fruits comprising oranges, mangoes, bananas etc, each offering a delectable and satisfying flavour to the taste.

Yours faithfully,

Keith R Williams

Dear Editor,

As the debate about Dr Kean Gibson's book rages on, here is my point of view which may bring some lucidity to the insanity that has surrounded this book.

My mother was Hindu and my father Black so I am neutral.

Dr Gibson had no right to liken Hindus to Nazis. She herself said that she was driven to write this book because of racial comments that she heard from an Indian man who happened to be Hindu. Which learned individual will come to such a conclusion because of the utterances of an illiterate?

She writes about the caste system-that is dead and gone for decades now in Guyana. See, my Mother was a Hindu and she married my black father-they were neighbours in Essequibo. My Hindu grandparents didn't approve at first but they accepted all of us -this was in the 1960's too. My parents are dead now and I live in New York. My parents came here after my Nani & Nana sponsored them. My Hindu family all accept me and now I am married to a Hindu man.

The reason I am forced to write all of this is because it grieves my heart to see my Indian brothers and sisters fighting with my Black sisters and brothers. In Guyana many Indian families have black relatives and vice versa so why are they killing each other?

Dr Gibson's book was wrong, she has singled out Hindus as bad people and as such is making them the target of black people's frustration. It's as if she is telling Black youths that when they are frustrated and angry Hindus are the cause of your worries, go take it out on them then.

I ask my brothers Roger Moore, Williams etc, as they go about defending Dr Gibson's book just because she is black, please step out of your skin for a moment. Then see if the book was correct or not? What would be the reaction of all the defenders of Dr Gibson's book if Ryhaan Shah decides to write a book to show that vulgarity is part of the African culture and psyche? Would they not be doing the same thing that the IAC did for Dr Gibson's book? Wouldn't they want the ERC to do the same as they did with Dr. Gibson's book?

Please my Guyanese brothers and sisters, stop thinking race and start thinking about the legacy that you are leaving for your children. You have inherited a legacy of racial intolerance from the PPP & the PNC, let this nonsense stop at once and allow our beloved Guyana to heal.

Yours faithfully,

Patrica Kissoon

Dear Editor,

Dr. David Hinds' statement on Kean Gibson's booklet "...as in the case with all scholarship and political analyse, she was subjective - she writes as a Black woman..." is as astounding as it is inaccurate.

Scholarship requires an objective analyse to substantiate a thesis. It is an unbiased and unprejudiced approach, supported by verifiable data through sound scientific methodology. The findings are undistorted by emotion or personal bias and based on observable (scientific) phenomena. Being subjective, on the other hand, one makes a judgment based on personal opinions or prejudice. It is arising out of or identified by means of one's perception of one's own states and processes and not observable by an examiner. Being subjective goes against the grain of social science research.

Anyone who has read Dr. Gibson's controversial booklet and is familiar with the rigors of scholarship would know that the methodology employed by Dr. Gibson does not pass the social science test. For example, Dr. Gibson supports her arguments by singling out quotations from Letters to the Editor of newspapers, and from the (infamous) television Talk Shows in Guyana!

What has made this funnier is the fact that these (selected) statements had nothing to do with the Hindu caste system, per se.

The scholarship of the booklet is the core issue of the controversy; it is not a secondary argument as Dr. Hinds surmised. In that book, Dr. Gibson was not giving a religious, social or political analysis. The intent of the book was to prove a point (the Cycle of Racial Oppression).

Is Dr. Gibson correct in stating that there is a Cycle of Racial Oppression in Guyana (as a consequence of the caste system endowed in the Hindu leaders)? She may be quite accurate in her opinion. However, she has failed miserably in her attempts to validate such a thesis. She did not prove anything, so one of my heroes of Guyana, Eusi Kwayana, was wrong to expect Hindu leaders to refute Dr. Gibson's "findings". What "findings" did she find, and how did she find them, is the question.

From an intellectual standpoint, the book is best categorized under fiction, or 'Tales', along side "Alice in Wonderland" and "Brer Anancy". Otherwise, it is destined to the Annals of Intellectual Junk.

Yours faithfully,

Devanand Bhagwan