Letter to Editor
I write in response to Professor Selwyn Cudjoe’s ‘The Lie’ in your Sunday Express (May 10, 2020). Cujoe wrote: “It was the continuation of an irrational Indian fear/hatred of blacks…”. This is an insult to Indians. He drew selective quotes from the writing of Albert Gomes and H.P Singh. He went on to distort the accuracy of Dr. Eric Williams’ speech on the Federal Elections on April 01, 1958 at Woodford Square, Port of Spain.
Eric Williams’ speech was a direct attack against Indians and not “a radical within the DLP” that Cudjoe wants to make his readers believe. Williams, in his address “Dangers facing Trinidad and Tobago and the West Indian Nation” identified three (3) “Indian”:
- Williams identified three “Indian” in his address: “The Indian nation is in India. It is a respectable, reputable nation, respected the world over.” Prime Minister Narendra Modi now heads the Indian government.
- The “West Indian Nation” was used by Williams several times in his address. This is not an entity; there is not a country named “West Indian Nation.” There was a short-lived Federation from 1958-62. Eric Williams was instrumental in destroying the Federation- “one from 10 leaves naught.”
- The “Indian” as an ethnic group in Trinidad and Tobago was the topic by Williams- “the recalcitrant and hostile minority of the West Indian Nation…offensive, derogatory, an insult of the West Indian Nation.” All because the DLP won the Federation Elections against the PNM!
Michael Eysenck “Psychology” (1998) wrote that “prejudice implies a negative evaluation of another person, at the basis of some general attribute.” And “racial prejudice means a negative evaluation of someone as a consequence of them being in a certain racial or ethnic group.”
Dr. Eric Williams and the PNM was guilty of prejudice and racism against Indians, the Whites and Tobagonians who also supported the DLP in the 1958 Federation Elections.
The “Massa Day Done” attack on Whites and Indians in 1961 was a continuation of Dr. William’s paranoia. Fortunately, his racist diatribe was checked in 1970 in the revolt of black urban youths who once saw him as a Moses (black nationalist) to lead them out of white bondage to the Promised Land.
Unfortunately, Williams’ racist diatribe was checked by NUFF and Jamaat al Muslimmeen (Black Jihadists). Cudjoe wants to label Indians as communal and anti-national, when in fact, the black nationalists headed by Williams and the PNM, the Black Power (1970), NUFF and the black Jihadists are in fact the true anti-national forces and threat to the stability and free institutions of the country.
With so much talk among Blacks for reparation for the hardships suffered under slavery, Indians now have all reasons to claim reparation from the PNM for historical sins committed against them since 1956.
Kamal Persad
Indian Review Committee
Carapichaima
Professor Selwyn Cudjoe knows exactly of what he is speaking. He has over the years taken a lot of flak because of his friendship with Sat Maharaj. But he has always, as far as I am aware, been quite fair in his observations of T&T Indo citizens.
The truth hurts. Political truth is even more painful.