Dear Editor,
Reading this horrible experience of Ramratti Prashad in Wsmar as related by researcher Baytoram Ramharack has decided me to put down some equally horrible observations sure to cause consternation among many readers. They relate primarily to Guyana, but the general principles also relate to Trinidad and Suriname.
That crowd of several hundred people attacking Indians in Wismar and gang raping people like Ramratti was all black people. Was there ever a parallel example in Guyana where a crowd of Indians were violently attacking and raping black women on the public road? Can anybody conceive of Indians behaving in such a manner?
There were undoubtedly black women in that crowd cheering and publicly supporting the public gang rape of Indian women. There were other documented similar incidents of black women urging their black men to rape Indian women. Where in the world have you heard of women cheering the public rape of other women? Can anybody in their wildest nightmares conceive of Indian women in Guyana or anywhere else supporting the rape of black women, or women of other races?
If you ask the bare truth how black people think of us Indians in Guyana, Trinidad and Suriname, one answer comes back. They hate and despise us, and they want us dead or gone from these lands. They refuse and have always refused to accept our presence as Indians, politically, economically, culturally. We Indians hate and despise the black people in return, but we accept their presence and do not want them gone from these lands.
The first two points require no explanation, but number three may require a brief clarification.
Black people have always hated us since we arrived in these lands from the 1930’s and 1840’s, as historians relate. Black sailors on the jahaji boats would join the while sailors in molesting helpless Indian women. Blacks on the sugar estates would take advantage of Indian women any chance they got. From the very start black people would insult, abuse and attack Indians any chance they got. Our ancestors on the estates and free after indenture could not understand why people they had never heard of before coming to the west would feel such violent hostility towards them. Yes we hated and despised them in return but only because of the way they treated us.
These feelings were muted during the indentureship and colonial periods when both parties were exploited by the Europeans, but they exploded in the self government and independence eras. When we Indos formed political parties and sought the power to run our countries as allowed by the rules, the black people went crazy in all three countries and decided that we Indos the majority group in all three countries would not be allowed to rule even if we won free and fair elections. They declared that we Indos were the enemy and took steps by violence or fraud to deny Indians a legitimate chance to run the governments or run the administrative and protective services. In addition to old hatred, Indians now face envy from the blacks as we appear to be doing better in the economy in the same environment despite being politically powerless.
The result of this was that by violence and fraud the blacks drove out the majority of the Indians from Guyana and Suriname and one third of the Indians from Trinidad. They retain administrative control and military control in all three countries, so that even if Indian based political parties win elections they cannot change the system. One million, half of the Caribbean Indos, have departed these lands and one million remain prisoners and hostages to the blacks.
The reasons for such insane and destructive behaviour are simple and well known. Black people believe their ancestors suffered more under slavery than our Indian ancestors under indentureship and they have the Right to Rule once the white man departed, regardless of elections, constitution or law. They will do anything to that end, anything at all to get and retain political power. Administrative and military control they see as their right. And it has worked. In all three countraies Indians are the victims of the blacks politically, economically, culturally and they we no hope of changing this situation.
So the question is, how do these black people view us Indians? Simple answer: they hate and despise and envy us their mortal enemies. They do not see us as their fellow citizens of fellow natives of these lands of our birth. They do not want us to remain as Indians because that would mean us forming Indian political parties and threatening their rule. They do not want us as Indians in the economy because that would mean continued showing up their failures and our success in the economy. They do not want us as cultural Indians for the same reason. They welcome it when we leave these lands of our birth, which they see as lands created by their slave ancestors labour, their inheritance, not to be ruled by Indians under any conditions. This is the future of Indians in these three countries, like it or not.
There you have it, folks. Feel free to disagree, with reasons preferably.
Yours truly,
By Ramdath Jagessar